Il Campione

So this is how it goes down...AC Milan take the big shiny cup thanks to the predatory scoring of Filippo Inzaghi. As some of you may know about me, I'm a fan of irony. This is of course not lost on the British press, which is ruefully writing about the game and inserting the occasional comment about 1) that perhaps AC Milan should not have even been in the competition and that 2) Inzaghi was pretty useless during the Serie A season but is now the hero of the CL final. So it is the unwanted and the almost-discarded that has taken the prize in European football's biggest competition. Gotta love it. It's equally as fun to read the textbook-example of hyperbole that is the Italian press, particularly when it comes to anything Italian winning anything of note. To read some of the articles almost has you thinking Inzaghi was briefly possessed or assisted by an angel to score those goals.

Let's just see it for what it is: two defensive-minded teams that score when needed to win. This is not Joga Bonita, folks. Liverpool counted on Gerrard in the advanced role (not a bad idea) to create and supply the lone striker Zenden (horrible idea. Just sign me up instead...all 240lbs of me). Milan counted on a defensive and midfield struggle and for Kaka to create (great idea) for himself and the lone striker Inzaghi (good idea, turned out to be great). And guess how the game turned out? Slightly discombobulated and the occasional good bit of flow from both teams, but neither gave the other enough to really dominate. Mind you, Pennant completely owned Jankulovski on the right (and for the life of me I don't understand why Rafa didn't push that point) but other than that, Liverpool did what Milan had predicted: played the long ball and hope that Gerrard could come up with something. Which, in fact he did...only he couldn't quite put it together. Liverpool had as many chances to score as Milan, only Milan simply took advantage more. End of story. And props to Pippo for doing what he needed to do to score. And while Kaka was contained most of the night (except for that completely sick spin off of his defender...I'm trying to remember who it was but he might still be on the pitch looking for his soul. Don't worry dude, Kaka has it in a jar with an angry hornet), he made it count when he slid through that perfectly timed through-ball to Inzaghi. So tip of the hat to Milan, go and celebrate this one

So its back to reality for me, I'm being faced with the prospect of having our developers re-create the project we've been working on for months. This ought to be fun...I love our development team, they're a fantastic bunch of cats but they have been seriously overworked and I hate to think that we're going to have to start from scratch in a sense. Oh and real quick, birthday shouts: my sister Marie (yesterday) and Nissi (today). You kids be good.

I think that's it for now, there's a very likely chance I'll update again later in the day. For now lay low and wait for my instructions

-M