Week 10, Or: Happy Birthday, Figo — You’re on the Bench

By: Martha | November 5th, 2006

Figo and Mancini Thanks to the ever-vigilent official Inter website, I not only know that Luis Figo turned an ancient 34 yesterday, but also that, instead of have birthday sex with his hot wife or enjoying a dinner out with friends, he chose to “celebrate his birthday with Roberto Mancini and the Nerazzurri after [the] morning’s training session.” Clearly, however, the old man wasn’t appreciative enough of the cupcakes Mancini made, because he inexplicably found himself on the bench for the Asciolio match, while Inter started a midfield made up almost entirely of what the announcers called “destructive players.” Which, you know, might explain why they couldn’t create anything for most of the first half, despite being opposed by a team with no wins this season. To be fair, though, Ascioli are way better than their record suggests — they played possession when they could, and were frightfully organized at the back and were unlucky to give up a late first half goal. If you’ve got any doubt about their defensive sharpness, just ask Ibra and Crespo, both of whom struggled to deal with this new “offside” rule. Who knew you couldn’t just blunder past the entire other team and stand around with the keeper?

But then justice was done: Figo came on in the second half and, presto: A goal! (Ok, granted, it was an own goal, but still. If the defender hadn’t scored, Crespo would have.) From that point on, instead of accidentally beating the offside trap and having periodic chances, Inter looked fairly convincing going forward, with Figo swinging in crosses and Ibra not making a complete hash out of most things. At the other end, however, there were bits of trouble, including a penalty for Maicon’s handball in the box. Oops. Luckily for Maicon, Julio Ceasar made a great save on Fini’s low penalty, which both kept Ascoli at bay and won the keeper a chest bump (from Dacourt, I think) — not something you see very often from spindly fooballers. So, in the end, poor Ascoli played reasonably well and still lost 2-0. I think they’ve scored a grant total of like three goals this year. Sad.

The other results from this weekend, with Roma-Fiorentina still to come, are after the jump.

Atalanta - Milan 2-0: For the love of God, seriously? Football Italia’s report describes Atalanta’s win as “a hammering.” OUCH. Perhaps for all these years the officials were playing for Milan, not Juventus.
Chievo - Cagliari 0-0
Empoli - Lazio 1-1
Livorno - Udinese 1-0
Palermo - Samp 2-0: COORRRRRRIIIIINNNNNIIIII!!!! Ahem. Moving on.
Reggina - Catania 0-1
Siena - Parma 2-2
Torino - Messina 1-1

And so the top of the table remains the same, with Inter and Palermo tied on 24 points. Thanks to that win over suddenly hapless Milan, Atalanta are now tied for fourth, only a point behind Roma, who are third with 17. A win over Fiorentina would get Roma some much-needed breathing room, if nothing else.