7-6 on penalties

Junebug skipping like a stone
With the headlights pointed at the dawn
We were sure we'd never see an end to it all
And I dont even care to shake these zipper blues

- 1979 by The Smashing Pumpkins

I'm listening to The Strokes at the moment, and it's suddenly occurred to me that all the songs on my flashdrive are probably at least 5 years old. Unless you count The Fray, of course, but I'd rather not. Suppose it indicates something, but I don't know.

We got through, 7-6 on penalties. We played poorly, conceded a really weak goal in the first half. The Roma guy crossed it low into the box, Diaby faked a dummy to let the ball pass through, Clichy wasn't marking Juan, and Almunia can't make a match-winning save to save his life. He can bleach his hair dye his goatee brown, but he doesn't do great saves. It's just not his thing.

Bendtner did a bit. Nice shimmies on the right wing, but he's a bit too one-paced to be a winger. Nasri did a bit; not really effective, but had some nice touches. Diaby made a credible imitation of a defensive midfielder.

We played too quickly in the first twenty minutes, and our players aren't skilled enough to control the ball at pace and pass it on. Both teams turned it over so many times that it was like watching fart molecules diffuse into a stagnant room.

But 7-6 on penalties. We made a hash of it, conceded a weak goal, played like crap, missed a penalty and sneaked through despite our performance. We like to do things the hard way, the Arsenal.

We love the Arsenal, despite it all.

3-2 to Roma

I went to the Stadio Olimpico the other day to watch the Roma-Cagliari match. I'd seen Roma play midweek in the Champions League, thought they were far, far better than 14th place, and wanted to check them out in flesh. Also, the tickets are surprisingly cheap - €15 a piece.

It was a little disappointing for a 3-2 win. Epic result, and very dramatic (Roma equalised in the 80th minute and scored the winner in the 87th), but they really shouldn't have been in that position. They dominated possession and hit the goal posts twice. Caligiari's goals were against the run of play. They were weak, jammy goals as well - I think breaking an offside trap, and a deflected shot.

What was irritating was that Roma lacked a genuine striker. They had all this great link-up play, but they didn't have anyone up front to focus their passing. Totti's not a striker, and Baptista played like he did for the Arsenal. It made for a strangely Arsenalesque experience - a lot of pretty passing and not a lot of end result. A lot of missed chances, too. They improved substantially once they subbed in Montella and Vucinic.

But the thing that really surprised me was the number of goals in Serie A. 3-2 to Roma, 4-2 to Inter, 4-3 to Lazio (I think), and later on, 4-2 to Juve against Milan. Some from the Juve game were great goals (Amauri's chest-down effort was impressive), but still.... it's a lot of goals. What's happened to the Seria A?