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From the studio (okay, air-conditioned, recently renovated bedroom) of Mims Mashud, I present…
Stoodle!
Part-cartoon, part-social commentary, part-snapshot and part-ly a waste of time, a Stoodle is your facebook status in a doodle. Keep checking the Stoodle website: there’ll be a new one every day!
Continuing on the English vs Italy theme (and culminating tonight with Chelsea vs Juventus), an analysis of the starting lineup of the Arsenal team that beat Roma last night:
Arsenal:
Almunia – Spanish
Sagna – French
Toure – Ivory Coast
Gallas – French
Clichy – French
Eboue – Ivory Coast
Denilson – Brazilian
Diaby – French
Nasri – French
Van Persie – Dutch
Bendtner – Danish
No English, or Home Nation player; but 5 French dudes! 1 sub – youngster Kieran Gibbs, is English.
AS Roma
Doni – Brazilian
Motta – Italian
Mexes – French
Loria – Italian
Riise – Norwegian
Perrotta – Italian
De Rossi – Italian
Brighi – Italian
Taddei – Brazilian
Julio Baptista – Brazilian
Totti – Italian
6 Italians in the squad, 2 Italians on the bench.
So this match up looks a lot more like the 2006 World Cup Finals: France vs Italy.
The AS Roma side looks a lot like Italian sides of the 80′s, where Italian players would be mixed with a spattering of South American imports. Kudos to AS Roma I think, for keeping it real.
I grew up during a time when Serie A was where the best players in the world congregated – accentuated by Maradona’s presence at Napoli. That particular tide has turned, and buoyed by Sky tv rights money, there are those who argue it has fallen onto English shores.
This clash of pseduo-titans is being billed as the clash between the English and Italian league giants, but how many of the players are actually Enlglish and Italian?
Inter Milan
* 12 Julio Cesar – Brazilian
* 13 Maicon – Brazilian
* 24 Rivas – Colombian
* 26 Chivu – Romanian
* 39 Santon – Italian
* 04 Zanetti – Argentinian
* 19 Cambiasso – Argentinian
* 20 Muntari – Ghanaian
* 05 Stankovic – Serbian
* 08 Ibrahimovic – Sweden
* 10 Adriano – Brazilian
3 Italians on the bench
Man Utd
* 01 Van der Sar – Dutch
* 22 O’Shea – Irish
* 05 Ferdinand – English
* 23 Evans – Northern Irish
* 03 Evra – French
* 24 Fletcher – Scottish
* 16 Carrick – English
* 11 Giggs – Welsh
* 13 Park – Korean
* 09 Berbatov – Bulgarian
* 07 Ronaldo – Portugese
3 English on the bench
So it looks more like South America vs the Home Nations, then. At the time of writing it is 0-0 at half time; in a game that we could full well lose, still. Kamon la boys. Haih, jatuh nazar tak ni – if United win I am so paying the San Siro a visit this summer!