10 reasons to watch Serie A this season

By: Francesco | July 20th, 2010

lega-calcio2-00

So I thought maybe after the World Cup, there might be some new soccer fans that fell in love with the game in these past few weeks and are looking for a league to follow. Now I know many would probably go and choose the English Premier League because it has the most visibility and is English-speaking or they might choose La Liga because of Real Madrid and Barcelona or the Zimbabwe Premier Soccer League (ok maybe not that one), but I decided to make a case for Serie A. Sure if you read everywhere it says Serie A is in a decline, and watching Italy in the World Cup was pretty embarrassing, but the league I have loved all my life has many things to offer. Let’s go through them:

1) Serie A clubs easily have the best kits-
Italian clubs always have the most unique range of kits. From the classic striped shirts of the big three, to the red and blue halved kits of Genoa and Cagliari, to the Parma kits with a big cross on it, to the unique “blucerchiato” kits of Sampdoria, to the purple of Fiorentina and the pink of Palermo. There are great kits all around the peninsula.

2) Serie A clubs have the craziest owners-
It’s true. The prerequisite for owning a team in Italy is that you have to be a complete nutcase. We have Silvio Berlusconi and his underage girlfriends, Claudio Lotito who always quotes latin sayings and bible passages, Maurizio Zamparini and Massimo Cellino who fire managers just for sneezing too loud, and Tommaso Ghirardi and his obvious love of food. And that’s only 5 out of 20.

3) This season, a coach will win his first Scudetto-
For the first time in history, all 20 Serie A coaches at the start of a season have never won the Scudetto. Somebody will win their first. Obviously the big team coaches like Benitez, Allegri, Ranieri, and Delneri have a better chance then let’s say Giampaolo or Ficcadenti. But somebody will win their first at the end of the season and you’ll have to watch to find out.

4) Serie A is always an even playing field-
Sure the usual clubs always dominate, but the midsize clubs like Palermo, Napoli, Sampdoria, Fiorentina, Genoa, etc always surprise and obtain surprising results. Also, the small teams are always competitive in Serie A. When you watch the EPL for example, you’ll see Chelsea or Manchester United put 7 goals past a team. In Serie A a small club would never let in 7 goals (unless Zeman is in charge).

5) Inter seem less evil-
Yes, Mourinho was a great coach and knew how to get the best out of his side. However, almost the whole Italian peninsula despised his arrogant personality and the way he dealt with the media. Calcio didn’t like Mourinho, and Mourinho didn’t like Calcio. He even said it himself. This made Inter seem like this evil empire that everyone hated and wanted to lose. But now with Benitez, it’s different. Benitez is the opposite of Mourinho. He’s very calm, humble, and easy going. He knows how to talk to the press and doesn’t have an arrogant personality. Inter will still be despised by many, but at least they don’t have Mourinho.

6) The best tactics and tacticians are in Serie A-
For those who love tactics, Serie A is the place to be. Italy has always produced the best managers, and that is exactly why 18 out of 20 coaches this season are Italian (Mihajlovic is pretty much Italian after spending his whole career in Italy). Sure you won’t always see the most exciting football, but you’ll see excellent tactically sound sides that know what to do on the pitch.

7) The Fantasista-
Easily my favorite player in all of football. The fantasista is the genius player that can create something out of nothing and change a game on an instant. He is the player worth the ticket price. Italy has always had fantasisti, from Serie A to Serie D, and they have produced some of the most technically gifted players in world football. While people say the modern game is killing the fantasista, they are still around in Italy, and it’s a joy to watch them on the pitch. Antonio Cassano of Sampdoria, Francesco Totti of Roma, Alessandro Del Piero of Juventus, and Antonio Di Natale of Udinese are just a couple of the players that are a joy to watch every week.

8) New starts for all the big clubs-
It will be interesting to see how all the big clubs perform this season, since all of them are starting a new cycle. Inter have just won the treble and have to adjust to a new manager in Rafa Benitez, Juventus are looking to completely rebuild with Gigi Delneri after last season’s nightmare, Roma look to pick up where they left off with Ranieri in his first preseason training, and Milan have appointed the young and promising Max Allegri to bring them to new heights. Not to mention post-Prandelli Fiorentina with Mihajlovic, Mazzarri’s first full year with Napoli, and Delio Rossi’s first full year with Palermo.

9) So major stars don’t play in our league. Big deal! We still got some good players.-
Ok so Serie A was once the place for all the world’s biggest stars to come play and now it definitely isn’t. So we don’t have Leo Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo or Erjon Bogdani. Oh wait, we have Erjon Bogdani. But there are still many very talented players in Serie A and even though they aren’t well known or make 230 million dollars a season they are still a joy to watch.

10) Italians do it better-
But that’s just common knowledge.

Do you have any of your own reasons to watch Serie A this season? Share them in the comments!

2 Reasons to Follow the Italy Offside every day-
Italy Offside Twitter
Italy Offside Facebook Page

Some Related Serie A Posts:

Category: AC Milan, Bari, Bologna, Brescia, Cagliari, Catania, Cesena, Chievo, Fiorentina, Genoa, Inter, Juventus, Lazio, Lecce, Napoli, Palermo, Parma, Roma, Sampdoria, Serie A, Udinese

« What your team will be wearing next season: Serie A 2010/2011 Kits (so far) | Home | Nobody wants Rubinho »

Craig

I have about 140 reasons a month NOT to watch serie-a this year and it has a COX logo on the envelope.

It's just too expensive, does anybody have a cheap way to watch the games????
agiamba

ESPN3 if you live in the states. And/or streaming.
Roberto

Pat, the Comorra is a “knock off” of La Cosa Nostra. The Mafia started in Sicily during the 1950’s in the aftermath of The Second World War. It was started in Montelepre by Totò Giuliano.

Not at all. (not LA cosa nostra, "the our thing?") Cosa Nostra was around way before WWII. Ever heard of the iron prefect?
terryl

This is so funny.. lega calcio is the best.. and funniest too sometimes and weird! forza italia.
Jorid

Forza La Juve: Welcome. Come and check out the Juve Offside.
Forza La Juve

I just found this site, and I'm glad I did! It's what I've been looking for! It's so hard to find good, quality Serie A talk in English. I'll be visiting this frequently.

I am an American who loves Juventus and US Sassuolo Calcio. I love watching Serie A overall. I tried watching EPL and that's pretty boring. Give me an Italian derby like the Derby della Madonnina, the Derby d'Italia, or the Derby della Capitale over Man U/Chelsea or Man U/Liverpool any day. Even the lower class derbies like Samp/Genoa and Palermo/Catania are way better than the second rate derbies EPL has. There's more drama and the matches are so much more tense in Italian football.

I love Italian football, and, even if people say that it's gone downhill (which I don't think it has), I'll still be watching every Saturday and Sunday. Forza Calcio!
Francesco

I know on gameday you'll definitely be able to find streams of matches on sites like www.myp2p.eu, atdhe.net, and iraqgoals.net. They may even have the RAI streams, but I don't know what the quality would be like.

I don't know about New Haven, but here in New York on Sunday mornings there are two local stations that show RAI's programming until like 1 pm and they broadcast the soccer match RAI is showing on "La Giostra dei Gol" that morning with the goals and everything. Maybe check for that this weekend. See if you can find a local station showing Italian shows and that would be the one.
NewLou

Francesco-thanks for the info. I checked with directv and they don't offer RAI, just the Fox stations you mentioned. Is there any way to stream RAI and get the games?I am going to check to see if there is an over the air RAI feed(yes I might get the old antenna out of the basement. There is a pretty large ital American population in the New Haven CT area. If you an think of any other ways to get RAI let me know.
Cool site!
Francesco

New Lou, as Johonna said there is Fox Soccer Chanel and RAI, and not to mention the new channel Fox Soccer Plus which shows all the other leftover Serie A games that FSC didn't show live. Honestly I think RAI is the best option even if you don't speak Italian. It shows every single Serie A game without ever having to be worried about the game being replaced by an EPL game or something. In addition, on Sunday mornings they have a great program called "La Giostra dei Gol" where they show you one live game but show you the goals from all the other games as they happen. Another perk of RAI is that they show every Italian national team game and U-21 game too.

The Coppa Italia is shown by GolTV.
Julius.

Hi to u all... italians.
I have come here with the noble cause of doubting all the above reasons. And bcse I love to set things on fire.

Lets start to tear it appart.

1 Fashion. Capelli gelatti and superficial stuff. Why not mention that all italian players will wear this year Versace shorts? And is funny to write this as the very first reason. Its all explained. “Vanity, italians favorite sin”.

2. Politics. No wonder why Berlusconi is still ur prime. That says it all.

3. So?

4. Simulation.
If we see the numbers, Its all Inter, Milan, Juve. And it will quite be this way for more seasons to come.

5. Oh pls... the less Italian team from Serie A, is quite THE atraction of it. Inter would be the only reason for me to watch Serie A.
And Mou winning and departure, should put ur minds into thinking. Mou was a revolutionarist for the italian football. He set things on fire. And u should question more the status quo of things there. Beside winning the treble and going away, the best Mou did, was to make u be able to see things differently. And instead of thinking, u are making hs departure a reason to watch serie A. What a pity...

6. From where did this myth come from? I mean, what about this? How can rookie managers or “never won anything” managers be best tacticians? Something doesnt fit in here. I guess this word “tactic” remains the only usable for defensive football. U cant use the “atractive” word. That is for the players’ short only.
U cant see good tactics in a country that the opposition not to score, is the only ..goal u’ll see.
U cant see good tactics where scoring a goal is experienced as a natural disaster.

7. Just the fancy name. Fantasista sounds good, to hear only, not to see. Are u targeting blind men here? So pity they cant see the shorts...

8. On this I will agree. They will start big and will get small toward Ch.L. Max offer for any italian team this year? Quarter finals of Ch.L.

9. U should really start a war with Albania in order to keep what has remained of good players in Italy. Really.

10. Gli italiani sonno buoni, solo per mangiare macharoni.
Johonna

I think RAI is available on Directv, but you have to pay more.

As for more books, there are tons of books about Italian soccer (Calcio) but they are all in Italian. There just is not the English language demand yet so choices are limited.

The
NewLou

Johonna thanks for the info. I have directv-I don't know if they carry RAI. I wonder if there is an over the air feed. I have Fox Soccer Channel and I think Espn3 is an option directly through espn. I will check the link as well. Thanks for the book recommendations too. If anyone has any other suggestions they would be appreciated.
Johonna

I forgot to add that many cable/dish companies carry RAI International (the state broadcast network). RAI will carry a few Serie A games and a couple Serie B games per weekend.
Johonna

NewLou: Serie A (the top-flight Italian soccer league) is shown on Fox Soccer Channel. They usually carry the one Saturday game and two games on Sunday. Other games are on ESPN3 (ESPN's online presence). These games are available if you have an internet provide that subscribes to the service (like Comcast).

As for streaming, many (if not all) games are available over the internet, though many are of dubious quality. There are many streaming sites around the internet, probably the best one for finding links is at:
http://www.myp2p.eu/competitio...

Also, most of the blogs here do previews for games that provide links to streaming options.

As for books, may I suggest:
A Season with Verona: Travels Around Italy in Search of Illusion, National Character, and...Goals! by Tim Parks

and

Winning at All Costs: A Scandalous History of Italian Soccer by John Foot (this book is also titled "Calcio: A History of Italian Football.")

The first is more like the Miracle of Castel di Sangro while the second is more reference material type stuff.
NewLou

Hello all

Like many others, I watched the World Cup and got the soccer bug. My daughter just took up the sport as well. SO since I am Italian American, I want to watch Italian Soccer, my 1st question is: how can I watch? Can you watch streaming Internet soccer games live? If so, how? Free or do you have to pay?
I am reading the Miracle of Castel di Sangro. Other than that, I don't know much about the personalities of the teams. Your info is appreciated!
Jikiboy

Gurnam,lol.at least Amauri is good at 1 thing-his jokes aren't bad.
Gurnam "bigman"

Jikiboy, i admit, i am amauri...
Jikiboy

I can't believe that Gurnam is also here @ d Italy offside.As i've always said on the Juventus offside.Gurnam is Amauri,during Juve's matches,he's never on the Juve offside bcos he's on the pitch.He's also gay & he's admitted that Palermo's pink jersey is the reason he signed for them in the first place.
Tottigol

Roma will forever be the enigma of Serie A. Come every pre-season. No one knows if this will be a season where they go above and beyond all expectations or just slump into mid(lower) table mediocrity.
zzzzurzolo

Roma looks intriguing this year...

Also, you should update the Lega Calcio logo. We have a new one this year!
Eugenio Ferrari

I would add another reason >> Diego and Giovinco - modern fantasistas, and if Gio goes to Bari the Show Will Go On! =)
NETTII

I love Serie A cause its full of drama. Love it.
Giuseppe

Pat, the Comorra is a "knock off" of La Cosa Nostra. The Mafia started in Sicily during the 1950's in the aftermath of The Second World War. It was started in Montelepre by Totò Giuliano.
Gurnam "bigman"

Forza juve, go and suck on amauri's hairy testicles...take it from me they're tasty!
Forza Juve

This Bigman guy is like a frikkin cockroach: You think you killed it, but before you know it, out it comes crawling out of another corner to annoy you.
pat

the original home of the mafia wears light blue, Naples's camorra are older then the Sicilian version i believe
Gurnam "bigman"

10 reasons to support amauri:
1. his hair are like beautiful locks swinging across his face everytime he scores and celebrates, giving him a warrior type image.
2. his facial hair gives makes him look like a tough guy with his own version of stone cold steve austins famous beard.
3. his body is a work of art and sculptured to perfection with his chest being as wide as a house, hence the amauri/chielline chest celebrations.
4. he has modelling contracts across the world and women love him. One even offered her services to Amauri for free, in hope that amauri would touch her, as he has the midas touch.
5. He has taken the number 11 shirt like a duck to water, and wears it better than former players like nedeved. whilst he is also currently juve’s most important striker ahead of iaquinta, ADP and Trez.
6. Amauri is better than iaquinta endof. as Iaquinta always sits on his arse on a hospital bed, picking up wages for doing nothing.
7. Amauri has great finishing ability, such was the case during palermo, and his first year at juve. The system most recently has not favoured him, but from inside sources, he has been the best player in training under del neri and will be lethal next season.
8. There are photos and videos of him naked on the net. Take a look, he is very large indeed. : heres the link -http://blog.stripperboyz.net/2...
9. its always great to sing amauri chants such as this:
AMAURRIII WHOOAAA
AMAURIII WHOAAAA
HE SCORES GOALS FOR FUN!!
HE FUCKS IAQUINTA IN THE BUM!!!
AMAURI WHOOOAAA
AMAURIII WHOAAAA
10. Also it is great to support amauri as you always feel as you are part of a community, in his recruitment agency. Supporting amauri is the way foward, and the fact that he is juve’s most important striker currently, suggests that it is time for us all to have great faith in Amauri’s ability as footballer and a sex god.
amrush

Great Post!! Serie A is indeed like a game of chess.. and La Liga/EPL fans can suck it because the WC final wasn't good enough..

I'm sure 80% of Serie A fans LOVED the game (maybe not the colors though)
Giuseppe

The home of the mafia wears pink <33333
agiamba

For those unaware, Gurnam is the resident Amauri troll at the Juve Offside, who apparently has nothing better to do in his life than research naked pictures of Amauri
Mike R

"the biggest reason to watch serie A is to watch Amauri play football. He is excellent, and one to look out for next season."
funniest statement so far lol
Gurnam "bigman"

the biggest reason to watch serie A is to watch Amauri play football. He is excellent, and one to look out for next season.
pat

it would be interesting to see which league had the most players represented in the world cup. Im sure serie A is right up there
ForzaRoma

hehe,agiamba,looks like foggia is in lega pro and zeman is with them there,not in seria a
Jorid

Francesco: As always, your posts are funny as fuck.

I lol'd hard as hell at this "We don't have Lionel Messi, C. Ronaldo or Erjon Bogdani. Oh wait, we do have Erjon Bogdani."

Bogdani used to (and still does) drive me nuts every time he played with the NT.
Just plain awful. He's like the Albanian Amauri.
NYBarifan

@juvecheats your name made me LOL

liking the reasons lol
agiamba

I say he's playing for Parma in that video.

Francesco, great post. Summed up everything I was thinking.
juvecheats

agiamba wat do u say about this??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

your player canavaro caught doping!
Mike R

Serie A soap opera??? How many Premier League players are cheating on teammates wives these days?
agiamba

t’s clear to me that Serie A is not what it used to be, either in the heady days of Maradona-Platini or Van Bastern, Gullit, Rijkaard or even Zidane and doped-up Juve.

Welcome back, Zeman.
ForzaRoma

Great post,also i love serie a overall,because its calcio,not a 4-4-2 and "great" epl or 2>18 la liga
Oh and Francesco,you could add another great reason:in recent years,even if serie a is struggling more and more,one of the top 4 teams of 2000s had always failed to qualify for CL,milan(07/08),roma(08/09) and juve(09/10) which allowed viola to rise,the same could happen with samp which makes the league more equal.Even though its the reason why italy lost some much needed points for uefa ranking,i say that makes the league far more interesting with so many teams fighting for 1st,4th and uefa places with equal chances
Gianmaria

Of course, I meant to write "Van Basten". Great striker, too bad his ankle problems cut his career short.
Gianmaria

As an Italian, it's clear to me that Serie A is not what it used to be, either in the heady days of Maradona-Platini or Van Bastern, Gullit, Rijkaard or even Zidane and doped-up Juve. The games now are regularly dull, the league full of mediocre but organized sides, and the Lega and FIGC administration absolutely useless. And the Azzurri's debacle at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa is the result of these and other tribulations. (Please don't talk about Totti and Del Piero -- they should retire asap.)

But if you like soap operas, then serie A is for you.
Aquismaia

loved it