Red Trousers. Casellina 0-0 IUE

Monday 26th November 2007, Turri, Scandicci.

[uh-oh, there have been some strange back end formatting bugs in this post, which keep reappearing. I have tried to fix them all now!]

There is a great piece of dialogue in one of my favourite Simpsons episodes: Bart walks in wearing a colourful hawaian shirt, Homer, who is becoming worried that Bart may be gay, says to Marge, "There's only two kinds of guys who wear Hawaian shirts: Gay guys and big fat party animals, and I don't think Bart's a big fat party animal." As far as I understand, there are only two kinds of guy who wear red trousers: Dutch guys and Italian guys, and I don't think Mate is either of those things. I don't really know where this is going, but Mate was definitely wearing red trousers last night. Not sure if IUE Calcio players should be seen in red trousers when they are neither Italian or Dutch men in midlife crises.

A nil-nil result is a rare thing in EUI football. My first one in two and a half seasons here. When was the last one, anybody? This was against a team who we trounced twice last year in two relatively open games. This was a less then open game, although they had a bit of an open goal in the first half, which they convenienly missed. We started with a little bit of rejigged front six, with Leo moving up front, Irial back into midfield, Dave H staying on the left where he made so much impact last week in the second half, with me switching to the right. Assistant Boss Graham, although he didn't tell me this til AFTER the match, also thought we should start with this formation, so I feel vindicated in doing it, but we never really got a chance to see how it might work, as we proceeded to gift Casellina the ball all the time, with us only having one coherent move in the whole first half, and only really looking a threat from crossed freekicks. In difficult foggy conditions, they played much more effectively than us, although to say they played well would be pushing it and not emphasising enough the extent to which we gifted them the initiative. We dwelled on the ball too long, played inaccurate passes and dropped too deep in midfield. We lloked laboured as we chased the ball all half and gave it away as soon as we got it. There is no point playing a high defensive line (which was exceptional last night, and our saviour in the first half), if our midfield plays only five yards in front of it. We could get the ball moving and repeatedly gave it to them who would just punt it forward and three times had good chances without really ever stringing a move together. They bypassed the midfield a lot when they had the ball and dominated it when we had it, with three central midfielders.

Lucky to be level at half time, Mate came on at right back, Dave moved to seconda punta and Leo to right wing, with me going to left wing in an attempt to have 1. someone who would come short and collect the ball from a static midfield, and 2. keep the midfield more compact and narrow in an attempt to have 4 against their 3 with more space for our full backs to overlap. We played relatively well for 20 minutes, although failed to really create any good chances, but played in their half for long spells with them doing all the running. Luis started playing some incisive passes and Dave H looked sharp. Mate and Mark made good use of the extra space that our more compact midfield shape gave them. Dave Horan picked up and ankle injury and Norberto came on. We failed to capitalise on our better possession and territorial domination, with the game simply being more comfortable rather than particularly enthralling. We had a shakey last few minutes as confusion reigned at the back, and they had a relatively good chance but put a tame effort straight at Charles. Arnout came in, followed by Tijl and Jonny, although the game was looking destined for a draw at this point.

The first half was the worst we have played for a long, long time, far worse than any game this season. The second half was competent at best. With the chances they had, including one great one, and how we had to dig in to secure the draw, we definitely have to look at this as a point won on the night rather than two dropped, unlike every other point we have dropped this season. Sometimes the parachute just doesn't open. Red trousers though...

Team: Charles - Dom (Mate), Andrew, Dave M, Mark - Luke (Tijl), Irial, Luis, Dave H (Nobby) - Leo (Arnout), Nate (Jonny)

Nate's Scoring. Wipes the floor with his keeping. IUE 4-2 Speranza

Tuesday, 20th November 2007. Scorers: Dave H, Nate 2, Irial

Every so often when I get bored I check out who has been visiting this website. As you would expect most visits are from Florence and round about, and then there visits every so often from places around Europe: England, France, Germany... Oldboys checking up on our fortunes. Some are from even further afield. Brazil, Australia, India, China, Russia. However, a while ago we started getting regular hits from numerous American states, in particular East Coast ones. Nate has obviously been telling his frat boy buddies that he is playing Soccer in Europe. Hi frat buddies. Nate would obviously love to think they were reading about his downward header after a great move and a beautiful cross from the left to put us 2-1 up, or his belter of a drive from the edge of the box that sealed our win after giving the keeper no chance. Well, I think it would be better to concentrate on his two missed chances when he was through on goal after he first came on. Rubbish, Nate! You have shamed your fraternity.

Also, Charles in goal (in for Nate, as it happens), okay, you may be playing in goal for the first time, and you might have made two phenomenal saves, but how did you fail to stop that perfectly placed penalty of theirs? And why didn't you save their second goal? Don't think being kicked in the head is an excuse! Nice hat though. A cross between Buffon and Bob Marley.

Okay, finally a win, after so many heroic failures over the past weeks. We went 1-0 down to a penalty, but held our nerve, were patient, came to dominate the game and eventually pulled clear to secure the win. We should be pleased with our resolve, but I actually think, apart from 10 minutes at the end of the first half and the first twenty minutes of the second half, we were not particularly outstanding yesterday, gifted a couple of chances to a not particularly good side, and struggled to get into our rhythm for much of the game.

We started with Dave H back in the midfield, withe the same compact 4, with me on the left and Leo on the right, with Dave M back in the heart of defence, and Irial back up front. The idea, against our slow and static opposition was to play expansive attacking football and use the space that their deep defence should have given us. Having tighter wingers meant space for Dom and Mark on the wings, which they made good use of, and they were often our outlets on the overlap. We struggled to really make the most of the space or the ball though, with lots of misplaced passes and failure to make the right runs and really push onto their sweeper. They got in behind us twice, missed a good chance and then got a penalty after the ball hit Mark's arm. Okay, not deliberate, but most refs would give it. God pen. 1-0 down.

We are dominant but not brilliant. Triangles break down because of lack of concentration and the lack of runs. We get caught with the ball in our feet a lot, and we look reluctant to play expansively. We need to be more ambitious. To prove the point, Luis and Dave H combine brilliantly to put Davie through, who shimmies past the keeper and slots home. Great goal.

1-1 at half time. Main ideas: Exploit the spaces better. This requires Nate's energy and explosiveness. Luis and Dave are told to be more ambitious and aggressive with their passing, and Dom and Mark have to think of themselves as wide playmakers, with all their great running and the space they are finding. We look much more cohesive in the second half. Nate's impact is superb, with us now stretching our play the length of the pitch. Irial pushes further up and the ball skids around with purpose. We have a series of excellent moves, and chances are missed, but the goal is clearly coming. Leo has to come off with an injury, and Mate comes on and gives us more width on that side. We throw caution to the wind slightly, as Speranza are looking cotti, Irial moves into midfield and Dave H to leftwing, with David BS coming on upfront. Nate grabs a great header after a beautiful beautiful cross from the left, and a great move before that. Irial gets a similar one and then Nate smashes in our fourth. Johnny and Simon come on for spells up front and both show great touches. Soon to be a Daddy Will makes his Debut at rightback. We lose shape and discipline, and the last three or four minutes are like a playground basketball match with lots of random attacking play from both teams. They get one back after what seemed a pretty clearcut foul on Charles. We get in behind twice but both times hesitate. Simon has a couple of minutes of genius, and a supreme pantomime moment of falling on his arse when through. They have a penalty shout and Charles makes a good save, but this was already well into injury time.

Always good to win, especially against this team, with whom we (and I would guess all the teams in Florence) have built up a antagonism. Their antics round the ref at the end were slightly disturbing, if a little comical. Best ref in the league by the way - same as last week.

We should not let this good and deserved win obfuscate our frailties though: lack of movement and bad passes in the first half, a lack of communication at times, and a lack of composure at others. Some great aspects though: A brilliant back line: Well done all involved: Dave, Andrew, Dom, Mark, and then Mate and Will, in particular Mate who looked a class act when he came on and changed position three times but looked good in every one.

Well done Nate. Well done Charles. Well done IUE.

What do we have to do?? S Ambrogio 3-1 IUE

Monday 12th October, 2007. Scorer: Norberto

Okay, I have been in a spiritual retreat regarding football for two days, trying to work out how it is possible that we dominate another game, yet managed to actually get thrashed 3-1. Letting in three daft goals, two after gifting their on-running players the ball when being naiave near the back and getting caught in possession or simply playing the kind of pass we shouldn't be playing, or failing to play to the whistle (again) when Andrew was fouled, but not in the ref's view and the entire defence stopped, meant that our (many, oh so many) missed chances cost us dear.

Missing 8 or 9 players, this game stretched our squad, but our starting 11 was still as strong as any this season. Irial moved back into midfield, and we had an all Portuguese strike force. Nate started in goal, and Andrew and Sebastian made up a makeshift centreback partnership.

We started slowly, failing to get the ball moving, and this cost us an early goal as we got caught in possession too deep in our own half and they ran in and scored. This got us playing, and the period between their goal and our equaliser was the best we have played this season. Truely brilliant. Having a right-footer on the left and a left-footer on the right (Me and Leo) gave our midfield a dynamism and creative versatility that had us creating all kinds of chances, and missing them in all kinds of ways. Once we got the ball moving we looked calm and patient, waiting for the right time to play the killer ball, but still managing to play at a pace that they couldn't keep up with. With Luis hitting his 2006 form, we were effectively playing with 4 fantasisti, along with Irial's bursting runs and Norberto's forward presence. In this game we must have had 4 or 5 one on ones, all from great little threaded balls through the midfield. All missed. Every move was ending in a chance, yet every chance was ending in a miss.

Jaime gets clattered by the keeper and has to go off at half time. Get well soon mate. Tijl comes on, and does excellently. At half time we all say that once we get one we will get more. We take our time getting the one, after missing a few more great chances. Norberto flicks in Irial's cross after a great run to the byline, after Tijl's unselfish movement created the space for first Irial then Norberto. Okay, we then go mental for five minutes and let in two goals. The first one night have been a foul. The ref (who was generally ourstanding) didn't think so, so we shouldn't stop. We stop, they score. We have a couple more chances, including a freekick of mine that Irial is already celebrating behind me before the keeper pulls off a miraculous save with his top hand as the ball was entering the top corner. He then pulls off a mirror image save from the resulting corner as Irial heads towards the other corner. We give it away, they score again (excellent finish by the way). Game over, effectively, although we still have to chances to peg them back. Obviously, we didn't score any of them though....

Look, we have to make this luck change. This is about responsibility. We all have to make sure we cannot blame bad luck again. Bad decisions at the back and bad finishing up front (or a pathological refusal on my part to shoot instead of setting it up for someone else) are costing us every week, when we are clearly superior. Clearly, as in much, much, much better. Mark even went as far as saying that it almost felt we had won on Monday, which was true to an extent. An excellent half from Luis, some great confident play by Leo, easily my best game for the EUI in ages (and a return to the always getting fouled days of two seasons ago. Ditto for Leo), a great goal from Norberto, after a great run by Irial, great selfless play by everyone, an excellent defensive line, and a good performance in goal by Nate all mean very little when it comes to the league table. This was a great game to play in, one that I think a lot of people enjoyed, because it was open, with a ref in control and we believed in our ability. Let's win next time, eh?

I have Charles and Norberto's IDs by the way! I have been offered 5 euros for Norberto's one, but no-one wants Charles' because the stamps in it mean he would never make it past US immigration. 6 euros and it's yours again, Nobby.

Training Saturday at 3pm & Get well soon Igor!

Okay, we have injury problems. We have had about 10 people injured already this season. crazy. Okay, let's do a rare afternoon session tomorrow (SATURDAY) at Schif, say 3pm!

Good training session last night, even with a lot of titolari not there we had 19 people there. Irial wasn't as good an enforcer as Glencross though, as two people didn't pay. Guai a voi!

Big game on Monday. Squad will be up shortly.

[No Title] IUE 1-2 San Frediano

Tuesday 6th November 2007. Scorer: Leo (see VIDEO below. Thanks to Dave Parsons.)

There ain't gonna be NO TITLE unless we make our luck change.

Okay, count to ten before reacting is a rule of thumb that is often banded around when talking about controlling one's temper in dealing with a situation that is threatening to boil over. I have counted to about ten thousand now before writing this match report. I am calm, almost.

In front of a huge crowd, apparently not all of them there for me, although Dom's girlfriend revealed her true feelings by calling me before the game during the teamtalk, we put on a performance that we should, on the whole, be very proud of. The reasons we didn't win are not that complex and are almost entirely down to our own failure to capitalise on our own domination and for a phenomenal ability to shoot ourselves in the head, nevermind the foot, TWICE. Sounds like a dodgy 'suicide' covering up a mafia assassination.

Seeking to get more texture and variation into our midfield, Nate came in on the right, and I switched to the left. Davie H came into the middle next to Luis and Leo pushed up to seconda punta. There is only so much you can say about our uncanny ability to fail to score in the last three games, despite our ratio of (excellent) chances being easily superior to our opponent's. Okay, a few missed chances and rushed finishes, but also the terrible luck of the ball going across the face of goal a good few times and missing the onrushing forwards by millimetres. Denied a stonewall penalty when Leo was pushed in the back when about to tap in my cross.

Ah the ref. Same one as last week (the groans and looks of dejection on discovering this were telling), and, in many ways, he was far far worse. I genuinely believe that this man is psychologically too unstable to be given the responsibility of such a volatile event as a men's football match. His decisions are so so so absurd at times, and his managing of the game even more so, that it is genuinely difficult to keep any semblance of concentration on the game. I, for example, as some of you saw, have two separate sets of stud mark on the back of my left leg, one of which stretches well over a foot down the back of my thigh and fucking kills. No foul either time. On the other hand, Davie Horan, among others, was penalised numerous times for absolutely cleanly winning headers, finally gets slightly frustrated and cries our a generic 'come on'. Booking for Davie. Unbelievable. UNBELIEVABLE. They get a free kick when two of theirs crock each other. One of their's ATTACKS Luis while he is on the floor (this is a red card), yet both of them get a ticking off. Insane. He also has a tendency to start screaming at random about not arguing when not a word has been uttered, and neither team knows who he is talking to. This is not the behaviour of 1. someone who understands football, or 2. someone who has the stability to do a job like this. A job for which, by the way, he is paid handsomely,

Okay, enough. I have sent a letter requested that this ref not be assigned to our games, with a detailed explanation of his erratic behaviour, arrogance and incompetence. His performance at the end of the game when I asked him how it was possible after NINE substitutions, two goals and at least two injuries that only three minutes of injury time were added topped even what had come before, as he first tried to avoid me by walking round in circles, then telling me that in Serie A the maximum amount of injury time is five minutes (??????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), then telling me that I had no right to talk to him, then on being told that I was allenatore, presidente and dirigente responsabile, he replied 'Non è vero', and started walking round in circles again, yelling incomprehensible nonsense.

Okay, enough about him. Fact is, we absolutely GIFTED two goals to them last night. In reality they created NO CHANCES, yet we let in two goals. We created six or seven excellent ones, yet only scored with a (fantastic) freekick at the end. Their first goal. One shout, 'yours', 'mine', anything the goal would have been avoided, instead we get our keeper 'saving' our defender's clearance, a daft pinball-style deflection routine off the two and the ball rolls in front off our goal.

Second goal. Even more ridiculous. Their striker is clearly offside, okay, so what. Ball bounces nowhere near him. Ref doesn't blow his whistle, so play is still going on, even though even the striker has stopped really. PLAY TO THE WHISTLE. We do not and we gift them an even bigger sitter that the first goal. This is pure pure tragicomedy, lads. Not good enough. So tragicomic that their lad hits the post from one yard before tapping when it comes back out.

Half way through second half, having dominated THE ENTIRE PROCEEDINGS, and we are two-nil down. We still have three excellent chances, in one way or another to score, plus Irial hits the post and Leo gets his excellent goal. This is a team which has one every game easily so far, yet they didn't understand where the pitch was for most of the game, given how much we was shitting on them. Even when we switched to 3-4-3 at the end, we still didn't look vulnerable until the last minute we got a rare favour from the ref when he called them offside when the lad was clearly in his own half.

Let's not be under any illusions though raga, the reason we lost is because of our psychological frailties - not taking responsibility, not staying focused and, fundamentally, not playing with the belief and arrogance that a winning team needs, and, more importantly, our superiority merits.

Still, I am willing to pray to any of the numerous inexistent Gods to help us never have to see this ref again.

At this rate, there will be No Title.