THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[maro]

With Pizza back in the team DDR was playing on the left of the midfield three, Pocari, rather than at the base of the diamond.

[ASR1927]

Well I am back after a week in Boston. Being around your family can be very therapeutic. However I am thankful for living so far away from them as well to stay with the theme of Thanksgiving as Lupa mentioned earlier. All in all a much needed break. I won't even talk about last night except as to say I have come to expect these results as a Romanista. They are par for the course unfortunately. Hopefully they and we can just move on and collect as many points as we can before Christmas as Gio pointed out. I have just watched the second half of Roma v Bayern and my God what a performance. Even though I knew the result I have to say I was on the edge of my seat in anticipation. Simply stunning.

Ed,
Thanks for picking up a scarf for me in Roma last weekend! I appreciate it. We will have to arrange to meet up in Dublin before Christmas. Perhaps as you said to watch a match.

[Italiamia]

[p_maldini_3]

[Italiamia]

That is the point shinpin. Roma were beyond mentally fatigued and the mental has an effect on the physical performance.

[Carlo Romano]

Gio & Maldini, I took our "Hard Day's Night" midweek into account and thought we would draw though always being the eternal optimist, I had hoped for more. Honestly, I thought we could have shut Palermo down at worst. Sadly, it didn't go that way...and I can tell you that Radio Radio among others in la città eterna were taking calls from fans not too bothered about who was facing their poisoned darts. As it happens, I think some of today's news is constructive in its criticism because it contains some harsh "home truths!"

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In the aftermath of yesterday when many tifosi romani, myself included, are growling about our "cursed transfers," (away matches) our mister insists he won't make our "absentees" an excuse for the "collapse" yesterday. Here are some reactions... all are worth consideration excepting possibly one which is very much made in a "Oh wow, you don't say" way.


Il Messaggero on our principessa: “This won't do. I am really disappointed.” She is expected to "make her presence felt" at Trigoria this week.


Roma Channel interviewed Philou Mexes: “We played well in the first half despite going behind. The goal made us lose a little confidence, but we have to lift our heads up again because we weren't playing as a team. There are many things that need seeing again. It's everyone's fault." Asked about poor away form, he said: “We won in Switzerland, but the stats say we are not doing well. Once it was our strong point. We must do better."


LaRoma24.it: The argument of the day is this, on the "contest" between Totti and Borriello: "I beat You!" "No," insists the other, "I beat you!" On the other hand, after a defeat like that from Palermo, the controversy is sure to be varied. For example, there are those who see Totti as a problem. Others "rumble on" over Riise. Finally, a more generalized criticism from journalist Massimo Ascolto: "When there is a need to show quality, Roma always falls short!" "When Ménez left the pitch, the game was finished!"



Romanews: Ranieri granted "his lads" a rest day today and will restart work again tomorrow to prepare for our next match, away in Verona to the assini volante! Taddei, Perrotta, and Okaka will be there. The condition of Greco's left knee will be assessed. Also Big Fatso who has had flu and an ankle problem. Ménez is reckoned to not have anything sreiously wrong with his knee and shoulder after yesterday and it is hoped to have Mirko fit to play this coming weekend following the sprained left ankle. Nico Burdisso will be available for Saturday.



LaVocegiallorossa is going with the increasing rumours that we are actually trying to get Carlo Ancelotti who is under increasing pressure at Stamford Bridge, for the end of this season when Ranieri is out of contract.

Original text: http://www.vocegiallorossa.it/?action=r ... izia=10342

[pocari_fenrir]

[vtec]

[ASR1927]

Footballers in Italy's Serie A announce strike

Serie A's top stars are to go on strike on 11 and 12 December, the Italian Players' Association (AIC) has said.

The walkout follows a dispute between the AIC - the players' union - and Lega Calcio over a new collective contract.

Fixtures due to be held on the affected weekend include Lazio's trip to Juventus and Roma against Bari.

The strike follows a rejection by the top-flight clubs to reopen talks about a new contract, which lays down basic rights of players.

The agreement had expired in the summer and the AIC said players would strike if a new one was not reached by 30 November.

Serie A president Maurizio Beretta was furious after the last-ditch talks failed but said he hoped the walkout would be called off.

"Today's meeting was incredible, without precedence in history," Beretta stated.

"The union refused to listen to the intervention of the federation president, which included the issue of players outside the squad. At that point they got up from the table and left."

AIC vice-president Leonardo Gross had earlier stated: "The strike has been called for 11 and 12 December. We are very sad because there was a willingness to find an agreement."

The union is unhappy with Lega Calcio's demands that teams' unwanted players must train away from their first-team squads and accept transfers even when they are under contract.

A strike had originally been planned for September but was called off to allow more time for talks.

[Italiamia]

Maybe the fans should boycott the matches because of the present level of football being played in Italy.

[ASR1927]

Yeah that's if the authorities don't stop them from going the matches as they are lately. From Vanda over at Spangly Princesss:

how the authorities make us safer

So on Sunday Genoa were away at Brescia. Big game that, historic rivalry, liable to kick off outside the ground… no wait. Are we allowed, in these days of endless fixture inflation by the media, to say small game, not terribly important to anyone outside of the two fanbases involved?

Anyway it matters to the Genoani and a group of them set off to follow their team, despite not having the Tessera del Tifoso. Unfortunately for them, the governing body of making “safety” decisions, the CASMS, had decided that this was a banned game. Just to be clear: under the regulations currently in operation (not actually a law) you need the TdT to buy tickets in an away section or a season ticket. You can buy tickets in a home section without a Tessera. So many away fans who refuse to subscribe to the Tessera have been buying regular ‘home’ tickets – perfectly legally – resulting in the absurd situation of having two away sections side by side, and in some cases actually reducing safety by undermining segregation of home & away fans. But the authorities don’t like this. It is defiance. Fans are supposed to either sign up for the Tessera or stop going away. So they have begun to prevent it by limiting the sales of home tickets to citizens resident in the local area. How can they do this? by declaring a game ‘at risk’ of violence.

Don’t believe me? witness the absurdity of the ban imposed on 11 November on Sampdoria fans for the game against Parma – a tifoseria with whom Samp have been ‘twinned’ for over 20 years. Every year the two sets of fans have lunch together before the game, wear each others’ scarves, sing each others’ songs. Yet the Casms declared this game ‘at risk of violence’ and banned sales of tickets to non-residents. In other words, this is clearly nothing but a punishment for continued refusal to lie down & stop complaining (indeed some police chiefs have admitted as much).

Genoa, like Samp, have been among those tifoserie most notable for continuing to follow wherever they can, without the TdT. So the ban on the trip to Brescia must be seen as a punishment for this ongoing defiance – since nobody in their right mind could see this as a high-risk fixture.

Of course, Genoani couldn’t buy tickets if they had no TdT, but they could, in their words, “let the team know they were still there”. Those 50 non-tesserati who decided to set off anyway were in for a nasty surprise.




When they got to Brescia, what did they find but the police waiting at the station. What, at this stage, had they done? they’d caught a train to another city in their home country, while carrying banners. Right.

The police stopped them, loaded them onto a coach, took them down to the local station, made them wait outside under a canopy (it was snowing!) while they inspected their identification documents, took down all of their details, then loaded them back on the coach and forcibly put them back on a train, which was then kept under police observation until it left the station.

WTF?

this isn’t about football, this is about the freedom to move freely about one’s own country! these people who had committed no crime, nor were in the process of doing so. They were on a station platform with some flags. And they were forcibly shipped out of town. With what justification? where is personal liberty in all this? do we, as citizens, have the right to catch a train to another city or not?

No, apparently, with a simple administrative circular (NOT a parliamentary law), free movement of private citizens has been abolished.

Quote from a Genoa fan who was there:

Io non voglio essere schedato per veder giocare il mio Genoa, ne ho diritto, e se dopo 55 anni di Ferraris faccio violenza ai miei sentimenti rinunciando, è perché subisco la vostra violenza, più affilata di una lama e più devastante di una bomba carta.
Ha vinto non la vostra sedicente prevenzione, ma la vostra incapacità di colpire i “puncicatori” e i delinquenti che con o senza TdT continueranno il loro mestiere, che non è il nostro.
E’ caduto il confine tra l’essere o no Ultrà, perché lo sbarramento tracciato ha invaso il campo individuale, quello in cui ciascuno è sovrano.
Come ampiamente previsto, il divieto di trasferta è ormai generalizzato e non distinguerà più le partite a rischio oggettivo: è una punizione contro il rifiuto della TdT, che appunto svela il suo ruolo di Cavallo di Troia e che, come tale, aveva ben altro scopo.

I don’t want to be on a police register just in order to watch my Genoa play because it’s my right to do so, and if after 55 years at the Ferraris stadium I have to do violence to my feelings and give it up, it’s because I am enduring your violence, which is sharper than a knife and more devastating than any firecracker. What has won is not your so-called prevention, but your inability to tackle the knife-wielders and delinquents who with or without TdT continue to go about their business, which is not the same as ours.
The line between being an Ultrà or not has dissolved because the impediments drawn up have invaded the territory of the individual, in which everyone is sovereign. As was widely predicted, bans on away games are now common and no effort to distinguish truly at-risk games is made: it is just a punishment for the refusal to accept the TdT which reveals [the Tessera's] true nature as a Trojan horse.

Next week’s “high-risk” games, according to the Casms, only available to tesserati include Chievo-Roma (last season: 20,000 Roma fans attended with no incidents recorded) and Lazio-Inter (last season: Lazio fans celebrated with Inter scored against them), both clearly simmering cauldrons of latent violence and irreconcilable hatreds. ma vaffanculo.


This is just plain stupid.

[red]

It's a stupid system.

I don't understand why it is deemed okay for police to treat fans like criminals.

When Aberdeen played in Edinburgh last season (a in game where there is a fair chance of trouble) a heap of Aberdeen fans were held in the station after getting off the train down, only to be loaded on to the next train home.

There wasn't even a checking of details or anything to see if those who were on the train were known troublemakers.

[ASR1927]

Sounds like what happened to the Genoa fans in the story above.

Stupid.

[Italiamia]

[juventino_italiano]

[Italiamia]

The world has gone to hell, Ennio. Pretty soon, Jesus will come back and end this whole thing. Those of you on the fence had better be prepared.

[RomaShield27]

[pocari_fenrir]

This may sound a little off-topic but i just saw the highlights on the Barca - Real game... and im quite happy to say ill take that 3-1 defeat where we physically collapsed to a decent and relentless Palermo side. Madrid on the other hand, got ripped apart and riddiculed with such beautiful passing. I urge you all to watch Barca's 4th (David Villa's second of the night) goal. Somehow goals like that never happen for us no more

[red]

[Carlo Romano]

Ed, personally speaking, I can't just down tools and go, even to meet my fellow forum members... but in the future that could change!

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Gio & Ennio, we all know the various reasons since the millenium, at least in a football sense, why the changes in Italy's fortunes came about. Big business sticking it's ugly great nose into things it previously had no real interest in, with motives not all football orientated, has a lot to answer for. Money is power and to a point, success can be bought! Since a lot of money is being spent outwith Italy, we suffer.

Gio, it's obvious you don't give any great credence to Nostradamus' prophecies or you might consider we have a ways to go yet before the lights go out. 3797 A.D. is the supposed last date foreseen. I think that's by the Julian calendar...no rush to make the long version of the "Act Of Contrition!"


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So you guys have finally made a comment or two over the decision to reschedule some of this weekend's matches. Jeff, fair play to you, you made an effort. I'm not really familiar with the "Spangly Princess's" writings so can't really compare her to Suzy Campanale. However, to her credit, Vanda is a giallorossa!

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Pocari, I noticed Mou got a one match ban as punishment for his recent "indiscretion" and I'm wondering what was involved in the making of that decision...I'm glad Barca beat Madrid btw!