Turin Stalemate

People who didn’t watch the Juventus/Milan derby today are bound to say it…”oh, typical Italian catenaccio.” Far from it. But you combine stellar goalkeeping, some bad luck and dodgy refereeing with an atrocious pitch, and you get nil-nil. Little Alex came on in the second half for an uninspired Ibrahimovic and promptly paid dividends, opening the match up with some clever play. Alas, no goals though. At one point Del Piero dribbled for a solid 50 or 60 yards…only to have his shot deflect off the back of Trezeguet. Some days, that’s how it is. Juventus might also have benefitted from a non-call on an apparent handball by Edmilson in the box. (Wouldn’t be the first time for Juventus, won’t be the last, some would say. ahem.)

On the other side of the pitch, Gennaro Gattuso got sent off for two yellow cards, the second a nasty challenge on Pavel Nedved. The GolTV announcing crew seemed to think it was the fault of the pitch…but Gattuso plays on the edge quite often, and I felt it was just a bad decision on his part. His antics toward the referee after the second card will likely earn him some trouble from the FIGC, but we’ll see. Again, see my post from the other day (re: De Rossi versus Gattuso) and add this incident. I think its less and less clear how much playing time Gattuso is going to get this summer.