Week 23, Or: Did You Hear That? I Think a Pin Just Dropped in Row Z!

By: Martha | February 12th, 2007

And the cheese stands alone. After a depressing week away, calcio came back yesterday. And there was much rejoicing.

Well, a little rejoicing — everyone was happy to be playing again, but by the same token, pretty much everyone who had a mic in his face on Sunday engaged in copious amounts of bellyaching about the conditions under which (some of the) games were played. And, really, who can blame them? I had an incredibly hard time concentrating, and I was sitting on my couch, watching TV. Imagine trying to play a real, competitive match under what were essentially training conditions — anyone who has ever played a little-watched game of any kind (Division III college basketball in front of four fans, any one? Oh, wait. That was me, sorry.) has a small sense of what they were going through, and how incredibly hard it is to get up for something so surreal. I mean, I know it’s their job and all, but let’s cut them some slack — those conditions were not normal.

That said, however, Fiorentina played freaking awesome in front of stands occupied only by cops, owners, and 400 journalists, so maybe everyone should just quit their bitching.

With regard to the table, Roma “kept pace” with Inter, if a team 11 points off the lead can be considered on pace. And, as if you need to ask (sigh), Palermo continued to wilt and are now a full 18 points behind Inter (on the positive side, though, they’re still 10 clear of fourth place Empoli). As it has been since before the break, the real battle is for those last European spots: Lazio, Catania, Milan, Atalanta and Udinese are all within three points of fourth, while Fiorentina and Siena are just a few points behind them. At the other end of the table, meanwhile, Asocoli continue to prop up the league with just 12 points, a total that leaves them three behind an increasingly pitiful Parma side. Messina, Chievo and Reggina are also living in a state of abject drop terror, though since Reggina’s 19 points don’t including the 11 it took them to make up their penalty, we can probably assume they’re destined for safety.

The weekend’s full results are after the jump.

Atalanta - Lazio 0-0
Cagliari - Siena 2-2
Chievo - Inter 0-2
Fiorentina - Udinese 2-0
Messina - Catania 1-1: Check it out, a Sicilian derby without violence. Granted, there was no one there, but still — baby steps.
Milan - Livorno 2-1: Ronaldo played, Ronaldo played! I could be nuts, but he looked nervous as hell to me when he came on. Word on the street is that he made something of an impact, which is a good thing for Milan. A good thing for Ronaldo is that at one point the announcer confused him with Brocchi who, while also squat and bald, has never been called El Gordo — so perhaps that diet is working.
Roma - Parma 3-0
Palermo - Empoli 0-1: Palermo president Maurizio Zamparini apparently arranged for kids who came to the game with a parent to get free tickets (his thinking was that kids who watch football with their rents are less likely to spend free time hitting cops with bats), which is a pretty cool — albeit wildly idealistic — idea. It’s just too bad the game they saw was crap.
Sampdoria - Ascoli 2-0
Torino - Reggina 1-2