Like a motherfuckin' boss...

Boo. Yeah. Mofos.

That was an awesome game (though I'd rank Italy-Germany in the 2006 World Cup slightly higher). Seeing as today is San Pietro & Paolo, a holiday in Rome for it's patron saints, last night was a cacophony of horns and festivities well into the wee hours of the night.

Balotelli's spectacular performance last night is also a big "Sit down and shut up" to neanderthals who decry the changing multi-culti face of Italy.

Integration, biznitches. It's what's good for you.

(Slightly less) swollen fingers and toes crossed for the final...

Forza Azzurri

So both Mon Amour and Olive have now witnessed my transformation into a shouting, cursing, spittle flecked ball of fury when I watch a footie match. They find it slightly dustirbing, yet highly amusing (I think).

It's probably a good thing I'm not further along, because I might have shouted myself into early labour last night. Eesh.

Crossing my fingers and overly swollen toes (water retention sucks) for the game against Germany...

Campioni d'Italia

Juve wins the scudetto! Serie A Champions! Woot! 

And Napoli & Juventus are the Coppa d'Italia finalists, playing here in Rome at the Olympic Stadium in a few weeks. Mon Amour is a Napoli fan. I think we are going to have some fun playing some Napoli-Juve games of our own beforehand. Why yes, I do have an evil, evil grin on my face right now...

My Worst Fears are Proving True

Cannavaro's out injured.

And Donadoni isn't fit to lick the week old dog shit from Lippi's trainers.

*crosses fingers for Friday's game and wonder to whom I should sacrifice these virgins to...*

Yet Another Early Present for Me

This time it's an early x-mas pressie. Lazio beat Roma 3-0 last night.

Being the vindictive bitch that I am, and seeing as how the SO & I have been sparring on a few things lately, I took an unholy and gleefully sadistic pleasure in ungraceful gloating last night. The highlight was the BG putting an AS Roma Merda sticker on the SO's sacred jar of Nutella.

Immature and childish? Yes. Do I feel somewhat better? Slightly, which means that the urge to stick him repeatedly with sharp objects has been downgraded to an urge to tie his shoelaces together and say "Neener Neener" when he falls.

Footie Fans I Live With

At the flat the BG & I have taken*, we have a veritable smorgasbord of nationalities and tifosi. To wit:

• Moi Lolita - Americana who roots for the Azzurri, Juve, anti-Milan, anti-Roma. I hate Roma, but I hate Milan more.
• The BG - East European laziale. Growing up in a formerly communist regime tends to make one's politics lean rightwards...
• the Leech - Quebecois laziale who roots for France. As far as I'm concerned, he's only Laziale because he's dating the BG. Can't prove it though.
• The Leech's Best Friend - Again, Quebecois. doesn't much care for footie, but wasn't happy that France lost the WC. HA HA!
• LBF's Girlie - American, also doesn't follow much footie. Will root for USA & the Azzurri though.
• New Aussie Guy - dunno much about his footie preferences as he's usually out shagging some chick from work
• The Sisters - also east European, interisti

Then we have the Peeps Who Can Be Found at Chez Moi Come Gametime:

• The SO - Half Italian, half North African, full on romanista and obviously Azzurri supporter. Hates the French
• Mr. Almost Perfect - Italian, juventino
• Miss Tiny - Italian, romanista
  
• Marco Bevecomeunaspugna - Italian, romanista (actually 90% of SO's friends are romanisti so we'll just skip on to listing the only friend of his that's not...)
• Luca Fumacomeunturco - Italian, juventino

So gametime is always fun, to say the least. Forza Azzurri! *Has it really been over two years? Shit, that means SO & I have been re-seeing each other for 2.5 years (though the first year was admittedly me keeping him at arm'sdick length...

Pity the Beautiful game has Some Really Ugly Fans

Throughout the World Cup there has been a continuous stream of greasy, diving, cheating, cattennacio-playing, undeserving, racist(?!) wop bastards comments on three of my typical lurk/occasional post sites (MeFi, MetaChat, & Sportsfilter) as well as in the English-speaking media.

I've typed up some nasty responses to said comments and then bit my tongue and closed the browser before hitting the post button. I'm just the American in Rome, and hell, why argue on the Internets.

But what with the Zizou/Matterazzi headbutt furor (neither of whom I consider saints, despite my fetish of the former and my sadness at his expulsion), the strategy of biting my tongue is proving painful.

It seems as if people, egged on by the media, willfully shut their eyes and play into their own personal confirmation biases. The aforementioned slurs on Italians, Germans as 'boring', France as 'formidable but, well, Gaelic', Spain as 'underachievers', English as 'hooligans', Brazil as the 'behemoth', Argentina forever to be mentioned along with the phrases 'Maradona' & 'hand of God', and the rest of the teams as second or third tier underdogs not worthy of too much consideration.

It's annoying. And saddening, especially on my aforementioned web lurks which are usually fairly intelligent corners of e web. Pre-Cup snark notwithstanding, can we really not get past the whole stereotyping shtick and just watch the games as they are played or must we all endure your disparaging, even racist insults in an effort to prove your flag pole is bigger than ours?

Because if it's the latter, then I guess I'll just save my breath trying to make a reasonable response to the contrary and just use small words:

HaHa. Fuck you. We won. Go peddle your cunty, insulting, racist stereotypes to someone who cares.

Damn. That last phrase has polysyllabic words. Let's try again:

HaHa. Fuck you. We won. Go peddle your cunty, insulting, racist stereotypes to someone who cares. Take your insults and shove them up your ass.

---

Anyhow, on to some thoughts on the WC in general.

SIAMO NOI I CAMPIONI DEL MONDO

The only thing that could make this photo better was if he was nude.

italy supporters kit from the Guardian

Bunting, official badges, cards, and your very own referee-bribing kit.

The Guardian fell down on this one, using Lira instead of the correct Euros and forgetting the cell phone and Rolexes.

Forza Auzzurri!

Oh Hell Fucking Yeah

Or: Why I love World Cup season.

Ok, I could do without Gattuso (who I've dubbed 'Ooga Booga' as he reminds me of a cavemen; am rather surprised by the chest depilation) or Pirlo (meh), but there is my baby Cannavaro. 3 Juvis and the 2 Milani (whom I'll just cover up their faces...) = serious spank bank material.

The only thing missing to score a 10 on the Orgasmatron is Cannavaro's younger brother Paolo (who seems to be a bit more inhibited when it comes to stripping in front of the camera. Pity)

Mmm. Cannavaro sandwich. Oooo.

Neener Neener, Habitually Late per Usual

A big fat raspberry to AC Milan (& Berlusconi) after losing both the scudetto & a 3-0 lead on Liverpool, beaten by penalty kicks in the Champions League Final.

HA HA!

*wiggles nekkid bum in general direction of AC Milan Headquarters & Palazzo Chigi*

Yet another reason why I love the Bianconeri

Not only did A.S.Roma lose the excellent Cappello (coach) to the bianconeri but they made me orgasm with a mere press release.

Cannavaro. Oh yes, baby. Am so going to Torino this year.

In case you don't recall, Cannavaro is why I want
to be a football when I grow up

The Agony of Defeat...

is slightly lessened by the fact that we are still the prettiest. Yes we are. Oh dear. This is my new desktop wallpaper.

More footie beefcake - Grazie Matteo!

Devi fare sempre il divo, coglione...

You bloody immature fecking idjit.

Just when I was starting to think you might be maturing as a player, you pull a diva-ish stunt like this to the possible detriment of the team.

You will never, ever be the same class as Zidane, no matter how talented you might be.

And the next time I see you at a restaraunt or disco, you better have ScotchGuarded those tacky coatti togs you sport as I fully plan to dump the contents of my glass over your head.

Scratch that. You aren't worth the waste of alcohol

Fuck.

Fuck fuckity fuck

SIAMO NOI I CAMPIONI DI ITALIA

Juventus has secured the scudetto, the Serie A championship.

And tonight beat out the fearsome Real Madrid 3-1 for an aggregate win of 4-2 to advance to the finals of the Champions League.

WOOT!

AC Milan against Juventus in the finals on the 28th. I am a happy little footie slut.

Siamo noi/ siamo noi/ i campioni di Italia siamo noi

Il Derby - Pt. II

Flares, insulting signs and songs, tear gas, joy, despair, and little bottles of coffee flavoured liquor. I become a laziale for a few hours.

So me and my two girlfriends had a plan to get into the stadium for free through a friend of theirs that works at the stadium gates. He was suppose to call us at 5 pm to let us know which gate he would be working at. He calls before then to let us know that due to a planned heavy police presence, he can only get in two of us, and even that's not a sure thing. Ack. We decide to give it a go anyway, and head off for the stadium at 6pm. We park the car and find a scalper. After some debate amongst ourselves, we decide to buy the tickets at 40 Euro a pop and if our friend can get two of us in, the other will sell two of the tickets and use the third to get in. We also buy a few cafè borgetto from a vendor who gives us a fourth one for free since we're cute. Cafè borgetto are small vials of coffee flavoured liquor. After one each, we are already feeling a bit toasty.

Il Derby

Rome has two calcio squads: S.S. Lazio and A.S. Roma. Tomorrow afternoon they face off.

There are two derbys every season. I've lived in this city since June '98. And have never gone to one of these epic battles. Tomorrow that changes.

The rivalry between the two squads is indeed epic. The choreography of the two curve (Nord and Sud)would inspire the most lackadaisical calcio fan to lose their voice screaming insults at the opposing team's players, fans and the refs. Tear gas is used frequently. Something is always set on fire. The Ultras (uber-hardcore fans) of each squad always fight. A Laziale friend of mine told me yesterday that tomorrow will be the anniversary of the death of a Lazio fan who was stabbed by Romanisti. I think he said 24 years ago; the Ultras have long memories. Tensions will be running high; Lazio performed dismally last year and Roma is still flaunting their scudetto win two years ago. This year Lazio is looking good, despite the selling off most of their major stars, including the long standing captain Alessandro Nesta (easily one of the best defensive players in the game, and a major fucking hottie to boot. Even I, Juve fan that I am, mourned that move). Roma's luck seems to be on the wane.

Off to Get My Ass Kicked

Being a Juventus fan in the middle of Rome is like having an affair with Dr. Kevorkian.

There are two footie teams (aka soccer) in Roma: A.S. Roma and S.S. Lazio. I root for Juventus (from Torino) due to the simple fact that when I first started following calcio, I was awed by Zinadine Zidane's skill and grace with a ball. The man danced with the ball like it was Ginger to his Fred. At that time, he played for Juventus , ergo, I started following Juventus. He left for Real Madrid a year later, but by that time it was too late; my loyalties were firmly placed with the bianconeri.

AS Roma gets on my tits, mainly due to that ponce Totti and their fans tend to be self-righteous little bastards. SS Lazio amuses me for some reason. The past three winners of the Italian cup have been Lazio, Roma, and last year JUVENTUS.