conflagration

everyone's going to blame the fans. all the pussy north american audiences are going to be appalled that something like this could happen. there will be calls for arrests and prosecutions and tightened security. bla, bla, bla.

this is nothing like the heysel tragedy. 39 people died that day. tonight, one stray flare hit a.c. milan goalkeeper dida in the shoulder, and a spark hit his melon.


the san siro burns with fan flares 

now that's a bummer that he got hit, and it's a bummer that inter milan will be penalized further for the behavior of the fans, but blame should be placed where blame is due: on dr. markus merk. shevchenko opens the game with a head butt, a red cardable offence, and walks away without even a warning, then he goes on to score the games only countable goal. then merk makes a string of terrible calls, ignoring two blatant penalty shot fouls on two inter milan players, and he caps off his shit night at the helm by disallowing a cambiasso goal that was totally legit.

did the inter fans overreact? sure. of course. throwing flares is an overreaction. but give me a place with that kind of passion, a place that loves their sport and their team so passionately that they will throw flares, over a place where soccer moms sit next to you in a sporting event and talk about their daughters most recent haircut.

and i bet if you asked dida where he'd rather play -- a safe, passionless arena, or a dangerous, passionate arena -- he'd choose the san siro tonight.

merk should be ashamed. that was the worst officiating i've seen in ages.