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Roman Rule: Mischievous Lazio Fans Spice Up Inter - Roma Title Challenge
The Lazio fans picked a horse and backed it, to the detriment of their own team.
May 4, 2010 5:58:00 PM
By Zac Lee Rigg
Liverpool fans were generally torn about the side's 2-0 loss to Chelsea which all but assured Manchester United won't win the Premier League, because the result also guaranteed Liverpool won't take part in the Champions League next year.
Lazio fans showed no such ambivalence.
"If you win we'll beat you up," they chanted to their own players in the 2-0 loss to Internazionale which helped prevent Roma from winning the scudetto.
Whenever a Lazio player had the audacity to make it out of his own half and run at the Inter defense, the Lazio 'support' booed and jeered until Inter regained the ball. When first Walter Samuel and then Thiago Motta scored, the Curva Nord unveiled a sarcastic banner which read "OH NOOO."
Atalanta's 1-1 draw with Bologna earlier in the day meant that, barring a miracle, Lazio will remain in Serie A next season. So for the fans at Stadio Olympico, making sure bitter city rivals Roma didn't win took priority over the team's fortunes.
Of course, the rowdy crowd had its detractors.
"Seeing a stadium support against its own team has never happened to me in my career," said Italian national team boss Marcello Lippi. "Italian soccer is something else."
Perhaps the harshest criticism of Lazio fans came from a Lazio player: bombastic fullback Aleksander Kolarov, one of the lone bright spots for the struggling team this year.
"I am still disconcerted by what happened," he said today. "They shouted at us urging not to play our game. The jeers and moaning that accompanied our goalkeeper's every save and our own attacks were incredible.
"I don’t know whether to define all this 'anti-Roma hatred.' In my view this went beyond sporting rivalry, beyond common sense and intelligence. That isn't a passion anymore, this is sick. I simply cannot understand how someone can prefer to damage another team rather than support their own.”
The Lazio players responded to all the antagonism by providing a limp performance against an exhausted Inter. Only goalkeeper Fernando Muslera showed up, making a series of rather exquisite saves to keep the match close. (Gazzetta dello Sport likened him to the Japanese man in the woods who didn't know the war was over.)
"I believe that even Inter will be embarrassed," Roma director Gian Paolo Montali said. "I think that tonight, it was not just Lazio that lost, but sport and, in particular, Italian soccer."
The realities of a league system in which only the top seven teams are rewarded and only the bottom three punished mean that half the clubs will fall in that neutral zone and have no real reason to try in the last handful of games.
When it comes to that, Lazio fans did the next best thing to cheering for their team - rooting for the suffering of their rival.
Julius Caesar
Consul Of The Week
After being substituted at halftime of the match against Lazio a few weeks back, Francesco Totti knows he has to earn his time on the pitch just like everyone else. Against Parma on Saturday, he earned some playing time early, capping off a sumptuous ball from Daniele De Rossi with a clever one-time chip over the goalkeeper in the fifth minute.
That goal probably earned the Roma captain enough time to provide the game-winning assist with a bending cross to Rodrigo Taddei. Totti also hit the post himself and got Luis Jimenez sent off. As Roma continue to breathe down Inter's neck, Totti provided the inspirational performance worthy of a title race.
Cleopatra
Moment Of Beauty Of The Week
After Valdes scuffed the penalty he won, Tiberio Guarente decided to take things into this own hands. The Atalanta midfielder spotted Bologna goalkeeper Emiliano Viviano off his line and slammed a free kick on fram from quite some distance. As the ball swerved toward the corner, Viviano couldn't make it back in time and had to watch his side go down.
Late in the match, Bologna equalized. The point means Atalanta will be relegated if it drops a single point in the last two games of the season.
Cicero
Quote of the week
"I don't consider myself the best, but one who gives his best and goes home after every game and sleeps well."
Looks like Jose Mourinho is trying out that whole modesty thing with his team four wins away from a rather impressive treble.
Brutus
Backstabber / Club Hindrance Of The Week
Fabio Grosso continues to sit the Juventus bench because of his terrible form, but replacement Paolo De Ceglie really isn't any better.
The Ashton Kutcher lookalike showed this in the first half of the Catania match. De Ceglie reached for a ball sprayed in behind him without looking, and ended up drop-kicking Mariano Izco in the belly. De Ceglie's immediate punishment was a yellow card, and the lasting one - Catania scored from the free kick to earn a draw - mathematically ruled Juventus out of next year's Champions League.
Results
Atalanta 1-1 Bologna, Bari 3-0 Genoa, Cagliari 2-2 Udinese, Catania 1-1 Juventus, Chievo 1-2 Napoli, Lazio 0-2 Internazionale, Milan 1-0 Fiorentina, Parma 1-2 Roma, Sampdoria 2-0 Livorno, Siena 1-2 Palermo
Zac Lee Rigg is an associate editor of Goal.com. Roman Rule appears, as if by magic, every Tuesday. You should probably read it.
Keep up to date with Serie A and Italy news with Goal.com's Italy page and join Goal.com USA's Facebook fan page
Lazio fans showed no such ambivalence.
"If you win we'll beat you up," they chanted to their own players in the 2-0 loss to Internazionale which helped prevent Roma from winning the scudetto.
Whenever a Lazio player had the audacity to make it out of his own half and run at the Inter defense, the Lazio 'support' booed and jeered until Inter regained the ball. When first Walter Samuel and then Thiago Motta scored, the Curva Nord unveiled a sarcastic banner which read "OH NOOO."
Atalanta's 1-1 draw with Bologna earlier in the day meant that, barring a miracle, Lazio will remain in Serie A next season. So for the fans at Stadio Olympico, making sure bitter city rivals Roma didn't win took priority over the team's fortunes.
Of course, the rowdy crowd had its detractors.
"Seeing a stadium support against its own team has never happened to me in my career," said Italian national team boss Marcello Lippi. "Italian soccer is something else."
Perhaps the harshest criticism of Lazio fans came from a Lazio player: bombastic fullback Aleksander Kolarov, one of the lone bright spots for the struggling team this year.
"I am still disconcerted by what happened," he said today. "They shouted at us urging not to play our game. The jeers and moaning that accompanied our goalkeeper's every save and our own attacks were incredible.
"I don’t know whether to define all this 'anti-Roma hatred.' In my view this went beyond sporting rivalry, beyond common sense and intelligence. That isn't a passion anymore, this is sick. I simply cannot understand how someone can prefer to damage another team rather than support their own.”
The Lazio players responded to all the antagonism by providing a limp performance against an exhausted Inter. Only goalkeeper Fernando Muslera showed up, making a series of rather exquisite saves to keep the match close. (Gazzetta dello Sport likened him to the Japanese man in the woods who didn't know the war was over.)
"I believe that even Inter will be embarrassed," Roma director Gian Paolo Montali said. "I think that tonight, it was not just Lazio that lost, but sport and, in particular, Italian soccer."
The realities of a league system in which only the top seven teams are rewarded and only the bottom three punished mean that half the clubs will fall in that neutral zone and have no real reason to try in the last handful of games.
When it comes to that, Lazio fans did the next best thing to cheering for their team - rooting for the suffering of their rival.
Julius Caesar
Consul Of The Week
After being substituted at halftime of the match against Lazio a few weeks back, Francesco Totti knows he has to earn his time on the pitch just like everyone else. Against Parma on Saturday, he earned some playing time early, capping off a sumptuous ball from Daniele De Rossi with a clever one-time chip over the goalkeeper in the fifth minute.
That goal probably earned the Roma captain enough time to provide the game-winning assist with a bending cross to Rodrigo Taddei. Totti also hit the post himself and got Luis Jimenez sent off. As Roma continue to breathe down Inter's neck, Totti provided the inspirational performance worthy of a title race.
Cleopatra
Moment Of Beauty Of The Week
After Valdes scuffed the penalty he won, Tiberio Guarente decided to take things into this own hands. The Atalanta midfielder spotted Bologna goalkeeper Emiliano Viviano off his line and slammed a free kick on fram from quite some distance. As the ball swerved toward the corner, Viviano couldn't make it back in time and had to watch his side go down.
Late in the match, Bologna equalized. The point means Atalanta will be relegated if it drops a single point in the last two games of the season.
Cicero
Quote of the week
"I don't consider myself the best, but one who gives his best and goes home after every game and sleeps well."
Looks like Jose Mourinho is trying out that whole modesty thing with his team four wins away from a rather impressive treble.
Brutus
Backstabber / Club Hindrance Of The Week
Fabio Grosso continues to sit the Juventus bench because of his terrible form, but replacement Paolo De Ceglie really isn't any better.
The Ashton Kutcher lookalike showed this in the first half of the Catania match. De Ceglie reached for a ball sprayed in behind him without looking, and ended up drop-kicking Mariano Izco in the belly. De Ceglie's immediate punishment was a yellow card, and the lasting one - Catania scored from the free kick to earn a draw - mathematically ruled Juventus out of next year's Champions League.
Results
Atalanta 1-1 Bologna, Bari 3-0 Genoa, Cagliari 2-2 Udinese, Catania 1-1 Juventus, Chievo 1-2 Napoli, Lazio 0-2 Internazionale, Milan 1-0 Fiorentina, Parma 1-2 Roma, Sampdoria 2-0 Livorno, Siena 1-2 Palermo
Zac Lee Rigg is an associate editor of Goal.com. Roman Rule appears, as if by magic, every Tuesday. You should probably read it.
Keep up to date with Serie A and Italy news with Goal.com's Italy page and join Goal.com USA's Facebook fan page
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