Finger Off The Trigger.

By: chris | October 19th, 2009

SOCCER-ITALY/

Milan 2 – Roma 1

There may have been a bit of controversy about last night’s loss. Maybe.

“I hope that there was a penalty there for Milan, because for us there was definitely one in the first half. It’s strange that the referee was fooled when the ball was in Milan’s penalty area, but not when we had it in there ourselves.

“I don’t know where the referee was positioned for our penalty; maybe Thiago Silva made a smart challenge by fouling my player out of the referee’s sight.

“The whole world has seen what happened, so I must not say anything. Now the game is over and seeing the replays will only make things worse. We have to accept the decision, but hopefully next time the referee gets it right.” – Claudio Ranieri
“What can we say about the referee? It’s always the same story. We don’t know what to think any more.
“It’s a scandal – without that incident, we could have won the game.” – Mirko Vucinic.
“I got fouled in the first half and it should have been a penalty. How can you not give that? We are literally quiet fed up of taking it up the a***.”
“It already happened in the first game of the season against Genoa when one of their players should have been sent off for a foul on me, but the ref did nothing. We can’t take it any more.” – Jeremy Menez.
“I think there was a lack of respect for our fans who came here. To deny Menez that penalty… and we are not okay with the one Milan got. We had prepared well and had a great first half. That penalty was glaring, even though Menez shot and it went wide.
“The bad thing was that Rosetti was completely out of form…” – Bruno Conti.
“Tonight with Rosetti, we were unlucky, but with him we already lost a Scudetto for an episode which occurred in the past.”
“He did not give us a clear penalty on [Jeremy] Menez which would have closed the game, then he gave an non-existent one to Milan.” – Daniele Prade.
“I am very upset about what occurred, as my players deserved to win. At San Siro with Rosetti, we have already lost a Scudetto before.” – Rosella Sensi.
“Then there are the episodes that don’t depend on us but on the people who make decisions and should therefore be competent.” – Philippe Mexes.
“The penalty? There was nothing, everyone saw it on the television – I took the ball, it was clear. Even Nesta told me that it wasn’t a penalty.” – Nicolas Burdisso.

More than yesterday, more than Roma, more than anything: Roberto Rosetti is an abysmal referee – has been for some time. Serie A is less of a league with him in the fold.

Of course it’s not to say Milan posed no problem in the loss of result – it’s precisely that the Rossoneri posed none at all which was the problem. The red and yellow foot came of the pedal, yet again. It was always too easy, they’d hit them too hard off the start. Three to nil at the end of the first quarter hour wouldn’t have been unjust (or four, as it were), but their compassionate souls wouldn’t allow such a clinical absence of emotion. The hitman with the shaky trigger finger.

Rosetti then ushered Milan back in the game and the rest is history. Never had the killer instinct under Spalletti; never going to have it in six weeks under Ranieri. I think we’ve likened the perfect assassin to a great white shark and Roma to the playful dolphin, always wanting to fuck around for the sake of fun, not the result. In time they will evolve beyond their playful bottlenosed selves, but not just yet it would seem.

Milan got the dolphin, Roma got Rosetti and that’s that. Sometimes, it’s just that simple, just that unfortunate.