Milan: Still Refusing to Score at Home
By: Martha | December 3rd, 2007
There was a great article in the International Herald Tribune this weekend about Milan, and their utterly baffling inability to find the back of the net at the San Siro, at least in Serie A. The article offer some thoughts on the reason but, mostly, just expresses wonder at the numbers which, when you look at them, really are shocking: In seven league matches at home this season, Milan — now up to eighth in the table — have drawn twice and lost once, scoring a grand total of three goals. Granted, they’ve only give up five in those matches, but no team has scored fewer goals at home: Even the bottom three have not only each managed to score five times in the home grounds, but all three also have a home win. Playing away, meanwhile, the Rossoneri have score 17 times.
So, what gives? Why can the reigning Champions League winners not score a damn goal at home? If there was an obvious answer, Carlo Ancelotti would be all over it and we’d have nothing to talk about, so there’s nothing to do but speculate. Teams, probably, go into the San Siro more often than not looking for a draw, so it’s hard for Milan to break their opponents down. But, still — with all the ability they have (Perhaps you’ve heard of this guy Kaka? And a sleepy-looking Italian by the name of Pirlo?), there’s really no excuse to go goal-less so often at home.
That said, Claudio Ranieri’s come up with a new possible explanation for Milan’s failings at home: The pitch. After Juve’s scoreless daw at the San Siro on Saturday, the Tinkerman described playing there as “like playing on soap,” and added “Now I understand why Milan can’t play well and win on this pitch.” Could it be? There was a lot of falling down by both sides on Saturday, but it’s not as if Inter play on a different pitch, and they’re doing just fine at home, scoring 14 times in six matches. Curiouser and curiouser.
In good scoring news for Milan, at least Ronaldo is back. Again! (And there was much rejoicing.) He’s going to be part of the team that travels to Tokyo for the Club World Cup and, presumably, will play there. Look out, Pippo and Gila, El Gordo is coming for your jobs!
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Tags: AC Milan, Club World Cup, Gilardino, Inzaghi, Juventus, Ranieri, Ronaldo, Rumors & News, Serie ASubscribe
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Regarding that pitch issue: San Siro has been extensively dubbed as “campo di patate” (potato field) over the past years, the reason being the spectator stands infrastructure. As it turns out, it’s been quite poorly designed in that it doesn’t allow much sunlight to strike the grass, hence making pitch maintenance a nightmare.
However, as you pointed out Martha, this is the same field Inter are playing on, so it’d be a fallacious argument to put all of AC Milan’s mishaps on the back of the San Siro pitch. Clearly, the problem lies elsewhere and I think the more time passes, the more it must be psychological for the Rossoneri. There’s no worse buzz kill as when you start to believe the statistics put in the press.
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keep praying gila. *sighs* sadly, as soon as i heard ranieri’s comments (and there was a lot of slipping indeed- poor pirlo was in the clear to set someone up at one point and totally got denied by the pitch), my first thought went to inter as well, and they seem to be doing just dandy. um. yeah. and pippo/gila, don’t worry…with only 3 strikers IN TOTAL, i kind of doubt you’re gonna face much competition. martha, you don’t suppose we could..temporarily..borrow ibra, could we? just for the club world cup *coughandpossiblyafterwards*he kicked all sorts of ass against the viola. that first assist= sublime.
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