Everybody Loves Juve
By: Martha | July 16th, 2007
This weekend, La Gazzetta dello Sport published the results of a poll (print-only, as far as I can tell) in which they ask Italians which football team they support.* The runaway winners, not surprisingly, were Juve, who were loved by over 17% of participants despite that humiliating stint in Serie B. Juve have long been the most popular team in Italy; frankly, I’m surprise the number isn’t higher than that.
Coming second and third are just who you’d expect: Milan had the support of just over 12% of the poll’s participants and Inter were third with 11%. Interestingly, the younger generation overwhelmingly supports Milan, which I guess is a credit to Berlusconi’s money, and his obsessive (and successful) desire the expand and grow the team’s brand. Plus, having Kaka and a few shiny new trophies probably doesn’t hurt, either.
Inter, meanwhile, were the favorite of the old folks (Which doesn’t surprise me since I love them and am, emotionally, an 80-year-old woman.), presumably because the last time they had a strong run of success was in the 1960s. Yes, it really was that long ago. Plus, younger Inter fans have apparently been jumping ship out of disgust at the recent dry run, the bastards. Go on then, we didn’t want you anyway! Punks.
*I know Napoli were a distant fourth, but if anyone saw the actual poll feel free to provide anymore details in the comments. I failed to buy a pink paper yesterday so have no clue what the further rankings were.
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Honestly, when I think of this upcoming season my heart explodes with fire, and I see Juve crushing everyone that tries to stand in our way because sometimes, justice and revenge are one and the same…
Wait, you meant realistically? The team we have now is only “pretty good”, and I think a CL post is reachable, as long as we don’t lose too many points against the smaller teams. But we still need to make one or two big transfer moves, preferably in central defense and midfield.
Some interesting variables for Juve include (x)how the club plays and reacts to results with Tinkerman at the helm and (y)the motivation for the team to live up to the “exploding heart fan expectations” referred to above when coming up against the huge teams from Milan.
Posted from
United States
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I was just about to congratulate Mike on his interpretation of that picture too Martha. Because, I’m sorry to say, I missed it as well. It’s a sad day when I a guy has to point out the pervy potential of a Canna pic to me. LOL.
I did get the Dirty Dancing line though. But I thought that was a chick flick. Mike’s girlfriend must have forced him to sit through it 12 times.
Posted from
United States -
Not next year. Too much turnover. Plus I think everybody forgets that, while Pazzini is good, they lost Luca fricken Toni. And who have they added outside of kids?
Juve is much much much better than the Viola right now, and you know I like Fiorentina.
Posted from
United States -
i think mike was being slightly realistic when he said that justice and revenge are one in the same because the players are pissed tht they had to sit through a season of serie b while everyone else got of scotch free. juve may surprise us all and crush their opponents just on the sheer feelings of anger and revenge, i mean those two feelings combined can make a huge difference in the way a team plays because if you are angry and want revenge you will be hungry for victory and therefore demolish anyone that stands in your way. we will see what happens soon enough. all i know is this is gonna be one interesting season…
Posted from
Canada -
um, yeah. I was totally forced to watch Dirty Dancing. 12+ times. and someone else bought me the soundtrack. it was a gift?
My fondness for chick-flicks aside (anyone else love ’she’s the man’?!), I’m glad that despite all the fantasy-homo-erotic-love-triangles, I’m still assumed to be heterosexual. Not that I’m insecure or anything.
It is ironic that when I defend football to Americans who hate soccer because they tell me it’s “a pussy sport” and “gay”, I now immediately think of the sexual goal scoring celebrations, suggestive signs of affection between players, and of course sweaty-man-piles… hey, where’s that girl-on-girl action that Chris promised us?
Posted from
United States -
Mike, don’t take this the wrong way, but are you me?
Posted from
Portugal -
Ady, I think we need to take a collective Mulligan on this one. Clearly we were both distracted by something very important today, which forced us to miss what was really going on between Canna and Ale. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure I had some sort of very deep political issue on my mind.
Posted from
Portugal -
Juve aren’t traditionally the bottlers that, say, Inter are, are they Mike? Even I won’t assume they’ll fall apart because of the pressure in big games no matter how many hearts are threatening to explode.
And Chris, intellectually I agree with you on the Viola, but it seemed impossible last year, too, and look what happened. Until we see evidence to the contrary, I’m going to keep telling myself they’ll be juuuuust fine without Toni. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Posted from
Portugal -
I think a huge part of “pre-B-Juve”’s strength was their dominance over mid/lower-table teams. They rarely gave away points to teams other than the top tier, while the rest of the big guns would occasionally slip up and lose their concentration/momentum.
Despite the evil smile I wear when thinking of the glorious bloodbath that will be Juve-Inter/Inter-Juve, I don’t expect 6 points. I DO expect carnage, violence, and quite possibly divine intervention.
Posted from
United States -
And by “divine,” I assume you mean “referee”?
Posted from
Portugal -
Cheap Shot! I’m calling Moggi.
Posted from
United States -
Typical.
Posted from
Portugal -
Martha I don’t know about you, but I must have been focused on the amazing amounts of money Barak Obama has been raising. Yeah, that’s it! *nods*
And Mike, I was going to do you the courtesy of assuming you were straight until you told me otherwise. And the soundtrack to Dirty Dancing is indeed a dubious gift - it didn’t even have any of the cool songs on it!
As for the sexual goal scoring celebrations, suggestive signs of affection between players, and of course sweaty-man-piles… I’m actually kind of relieved to know that straight men can see this too. I thought perhaps the rest of us were trapped in some kind of testosterone induced hallucination with regard to this.
*sigh* The players just do it to torment us. All of us - just in different ways!
And one day, I’ll actually know enough about Juve to add intelligently to the discourse on their prospects…
Posted from
United States -
Um, Ady, clearly you’re forgetting the brilliance that was Patrick Swayze’s “She’s Like the Wind.” Jeez.
Posted from
Portugal -
1. milan
2. juventus
3. internazionale
4. roma
5. fiorentina
6. sampdoria
7. udinese
8. lazioPosted from
United States -
Damn, Marco! Spoken like a true Juve fan. Give us some point ranges for the top four — how tight is it?
Posted from
Portugal -
And what about Eric Carmen, Bruce Channel, and (my fav) The Ronnettes?!
You gotta respect Patrick Suazo (I mean Swayze); not only can he can sing, but he’s a world’s deadliest bar-bouncer, a motivational speaker (”I’m not afraid anymore!”), AND he’ll fight the commies in WWIII.
Posted from
United States -
What is it about Roadhouse, man? People LOVE that movie, though perhaps not exactly for the reasons Patrick intended. Nothin’ like an Ivy League-grad bouncer to put butts in the seats.
(A week or so ago I walked past a car that was blasting “She’s Like the Wind.” I like to think that Swayze’s to the Portuguese like Jerry Lewis is to the French but admit the odds of that being true are pretty slim.)
Posted from
Portugal -
Actually, I agree with Mike, for this year. Juve end up just three points shy of Milan, but only because they do not lose any easy 3-pointers along the way. However, in 08-09, when they will be older and stretched thin with European play, their weaknesses will glare. In fact, in 08-09 they will finish behind fiorentina and la viola youth. Voglio sapere cosa vuol dire.
Posted from
United States -
Hey, hey you two! I actually like Dirty Dancing - and apparently so does Mike if he quotes from it. And you Martha actually know what’s on the soundtrack? I just know that I own it and never listen to it, because the good songs didn’t make it onto it.
As for Patrick Swayze, I believe he’s what you would call a “guilty pleasure”… Even if his movies are really, really bad!
Now what was that about Russian cheerleaders coming to Torino?
Posted from
United States -
Russian cheerleaders, Eugenio Corini — same difference.
(There’s a small chance that I used to listen to the soundtrack sort of a lot. When I was young, dumb, and even more free of taste than I am now.)
Posted from
Portugal -
And, Marco, I like how you think about the Viola.
I was going to say something about Juve having a great pool of young talent but you’re right: 08-09 is the year all the old folks will go, which is going to leave a massive hole in the team no matter how good the kiddies are.
Posted from
Portugal -
Did somebody say Russian cheerleaders?
Posted from
United States -
Funny how Juve can be so popular and have such hilariously low home attendance records.
I’m still sticking by my dream of a Fiorentina Serie A/UEFA Cup double (beating Bayern Munich in the final of course).
Posted from
United States -
Nolan - the reason juve have low home attendance records is because most of the juve fans arent actually from torino. juve fans are located across italy. most people that live in torino support Torino probably because the team is named after the city.
Posted from
Canada
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