Getting a bit nostalgic this time around.
Yours Truly was once a Serie A geek.
In the early 1990s', Yours Truly's heart and mind were always on AC Milan. But in the 1990-91 season when he started tape-recording all the Serie A matches and jotting down all the scores and scorers (Back in those days, Yours Truly could tell you immediately the scores and scorers or each and every match!), they seemed not being able to score more than two goals in a game. That trend was finally buckled when they thrashed Juventus, of all teams, 3-0 away late in the season. They then went on to beat the bottom-dweller Bologna 6-0 at home, with Yours Truly's all-time favourite Marco van Basten bagging a hat-trick.
The 1991-92 season was an anomaly where all the stars were aligned in the right places. Not only did Milan go unbeaten all season, they also scored (and conceded) tons of goals and were involved in lots of amazing matches, the most spectacular of all was an 8-2 thrashing at newly-promoted Foggia (with budding stars like Giuseppe Signori and Francesco Baiano in the line-up coached by the attack-minded Czech Zdenek Zeman) on the final day of the season, a match which ended at least five minutes early because of pitch invasion. 10 goals in roughly 85 minutes of play, a truly astonishing rate indeed.
The following season Milan continued their magical scoring form. They won 5-4 at Pescara (after going 2-4 down at one point, with five goals in the first 23 minutes and a hat-trick by van Basten), humiliated Fiorentina 7-3 away and overcame Lazio 5-3 at home. In fact they were on their way to the record-breaking 58-match unbeaten streak and their second of three successive titles that season.
Although Milan won the title again in 1993-94, they did it in an astonishingly economic fashion.
-- 34 league matches played
-- 36 goals scored (just one more than the relegated duo of Udinese and Atalanta)
-- 15 goals conceded
Also worth mentioning is that they finally succeeded in what they didn't accomplish in 1990-91, when they didn't score more than 2 goals in any league game that season.
As Yours Truly got older, he could scarcely find time to indulge himself in the Serie A matches anymore. So his memory on AC Milan started to get sketchy. But Yours Truly does remember some special matches, like the day when Dejan Savicevic scored four goals away to Bari in the 1994-95 season.
From them on, it all went blank for Yours Truly. Every now and then Yours Truly would dig deep into his treasure chest to get those precious Serie A videotapes, and watch them for the zillionth time. Yours Truly's memory about these matches may have finally faded, but like the saying goes, it was the good old days for Yours Truly and something he will never forget.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
A Big Mountain to Climb
Yours Truly does not follow cycling that closely. But like what he has always done, he always wants the underdogs to do well.
And when a gangly Colombian climber broke away at the Col du Galibier on the way to win Stage 9 of the 2007 Tour de France, Yours Truly had found a new favourite rider.
Mauricio Soler.
And Yours Truly's mind is on this gangly climber after he had suffered serious head and brain injuries during Stage 6 of the Tour de Suisse yesterday.
Soler is definitely not the most elegant climber. Think of a giraffe crowding on an undersized bike and you will get the picture. But after becoming King of the Mountains in the 2007 Tour de France, bad luck always seemed not far away from him. A number of crashes subsequently meant that he has not competed in the Tour de France again since.
His win in Stage 2 of this year's Tour de Suisse was his first victory in four years. But bad luck struck again just four days later.
Just keep our fingers crossed hope that he would make a speedy recovery.
And when a gangly Colombian climber broke away at the Col du Galibier on the way to win Stage 9 of the 2007 Tour de France, Yours Truly had found a new favourite rider.
Mauricio Soler.
And Yours Truly's mind is on this gangly climber after he had suffered serious head and brain injuries during Stage 6 of the Tour de Suisse yesterday.
Soler is definitely not the most elegant climber. Think of a giraffe crowding on an undersized bike and you will get the picture. But after becoming King of the Mountains in the 2007 Tour de France, bad luck always seemed not far away from him. A number of crashes subsequently meant that he has not competed in the Tour de France again since.
His win in Stage 2 of this year's Tour de Suisse was his first victory in four years. But bad luck struck again just four days later.
Just keep our fingers crossed hope that he would make a speedy recovery.
Thursday, June 02, 2011
School's In
Latest entries into the sports lexicon:
If someone is going to win one of the most important races ever and all he has to do is to keep doing what he has been doing, but somehow makes a complete fool of himself by messing up big time and winds up losing the race, you can say that he has:
A) Pulled a Van de Velde;
B) Pulled a Jacobellis; or
C) Pulled a Hildebrand.
If someone is going to win one of the most important races ever and all he has to do is to keep doing what he has been doing, but somehow makes a complete fool of himself by messing up big time and winds up losing the race, you can say that he has:
A) Pulled a Van de Velde;
B) Pulled a Jacobellis; or
C) Pulled a Hildebrand.
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