Daily Archives: April 19, 2011

Napoli 1-2 Udinese: Guidolin without Di Natale and Sanchez, but masterminds great victory


“Two fantastic goals gave Udinese an important win over Napoli. Francesco Guidolin had numerous absentees, most notably his two star forwards, Antonio Di Natale and Alexis Sanchez. He had to play Kwadwo Asamoah just off German Denis, the former Napoli player. Walter Mazzarri played his usual 3-4-2-1 system – Hassan Yebda continued over Walter Gargano in midfield, and Victor Ruiz started at the back.” Zonal Marking

Under-strength Udinese force Napoli to rewrite their Serie A script
“Giampaolo Pozzo has never been afraid to ask for a little divine intervention. For years the Udinese owner has been leading his players up into the hills to the east of their city, on an annual pilgrimage to the Blessed Virgin’s Sanctuary of Castelmonte. As they climb he might recount the sanctuary’s legend, telling of how the devil once challenged the Virgin Mary to a race to Castelmonte’s peak, with the winner taking possession of the local town of Cividale.” Guardian

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The Velvet Underground and Raúl

“I still remember the first time I heard a Nico solo track from the post-Velvet Underground, post-Chelsea Girl era. It was ‘My Only Child’ off Desertshore, Nico singing largely a capella in her unique voice, with occasional trumpet notes. It was like nothing else I had heard. I was stunned to find it was a song she had written herself. It was on a German anthology of ‘death songs’ that my girlfriend gave me for Christmas in the far-off days of my unremembered youth (a.k.a. 2003).” Run of Play

Barcelona 2011 vs. AC Milan 1990

“Ask anybody who’s done it, and they’ll tell you that sustaining success is much harder than achieving it in the first place. The great Hungarian coach Bela Guttmann refused ever to spend longer than three years at a club because he felt that after that he could no longer motivate players. It may be that in the modern world of soccer in which money begets money, success is easier to sustain than previously, at least on a domestic level. On a European scale what that means is a cluster of perhaps eight or so super powers constantly battling for the Champions League, which is surely the main reason no side has successfully defended the title since the AC Milan of Arrigo Sacchi in 1990.” SI