Watching the game a second time this afternoon, my stomach still feels hallow and empty even though I just devoured an entire large pizza of 8 slices by myself. I was disappointed when we went down one, disappointed when we went down two, disappointed when we got back one, and even more disappointed when we drew level and the game had ended. We desperately needed the win and I felt that we created enough first half chances to put Juve six feet under. We created all the chances in the world, man, but the finishing, that last touch, let us down. We dismantled and made a mockery of this so called 'invincible' and 'impregnable' Juve defence yet (as a Juve fanatical friend of mine sitting near me was saying "you've got nothing to show for all that work, though")
Anyway, for once, there isn't a specific player who let the team down, I really can't find much fault with the squad as individuals (maybe VDM's passiveness, but that could be explained because of the defensive duties he was burdened with against two worldclass left-sided players) Mancini wasn't out coached for once also. I thought he equalled wits with Al Franken and really did well. Bringing in Miha was just a shocker to me, man. Those ancient legs coupled with his poor positioning against heroic Zlatan and a great heading specialist in Zalayeta I thought was suicidal, but much to my astonishment, he really defended well, kept Zlatan at bay, and even contributed to the attack with beautiful long balls and that one freekick he took that cuffed Buffon's hands. His best game I've seen in like the last two seasons or so, man. King Cordoba, J. Zanetti, and Ze Maria were all solid aswell. Cambiasso (this dude bleeds blue and black already, and is quickly becoming a favourite of mine) but he's gotta work on his positioning, hopefully that'll improve in training. Davids was solid in the middle and even more useful on the left. He had a great game aswell. Hopefully he'll get more starts in his natural position in the coming games. He and Cambiasso really stifled the Juve counter-attack and broke up a lot of their possession ball play.
Stankovic I thought had his moments of brilliance and his moments of utter mediocrity. The consistency needed from an attacking/creative midfielder like himself was lacking at times. Overall, though, I thought he made some pin-point accurate passes that created goal scoring chances for us. Adriano and Martins worked hard, they didn't combine with one another like I thought they would do, though. Adriano needs to stop forcing it and going for the individual attack and squandering chances. He takes too many long shots like Recoba instead of passing the ball off and playing off his partners. He did this a lot in Parma aswell. I can't really get down on him too much because he gives it his all (sometimes a bit too much) but nonetheless, I thought he was constructive in his decision-making out there for the most part.
The two goals we scored were absolutely fantastic. Wicked-awesome and wicked-nice. They were just ******* brilliant, I mean, what more can I say? Recoba and his geniusness and Martins doing Andy's job better than Andy himself......wow.
From Juve, I was impressed with Zebina and Camoranesi. One was the best defender Juve had (who would've thunk it, Carlos?) and the other was their most active and lively player. He had a lot of possession and ran at our defence with substance...subbing him was just foolish, man.
The counter-attack that led to the penalty was sweet, man. All it took to unravel our defence was a 30yrd clearance by Thurman, pass by heroic Zlatan to Cammo, Cammo to Zalayeta and then Zalayeta falling on Toldo and fouling him but instead getting the call. C'mon, why does all 50/50 calls and luck go to Juve? Toldo didn't obstruct him at all, he played the ball and Zalayeta fell on him.....sheesh. A bit of a heavy touch as he was attempting to go around Toldo then he fell on top of him, man. That's it.
BTW, anyone know where the great Cannavaro was in this game? Cowering behind Thurman and Zebina......hahaha
a beast 