THE TWISTS AND TURNS OF THE 2012 “BEAUTIFUL GAME” SEASON: SERIE A (SERIES 4)

 

                       The Italian Serie A                         

         

The fourth football tourney in view is the first tier football in Italy, the Serie A. The Serie A and Italian football in general, inclusive of the Italian National football team is one that is widely known for the tight marking, physical approach to the beautiful game, in addition to a disparate more attention paid to the defence rather than the attack. To this end, the Italian football league compared to the English Premier League and Spanish La Liga has a slower flow and pace inherent in their approach to the game play.

The manner in which the 2011/2012 Serie A season was won by Juventus F.C. aka the Old Ladies has got the Italian League added to the twist and turns of the 2012 year of football. This is due to the fact that Juventus clinched the league in grand style and in a distinct fashion that was marked by their invincibility leading to them adding to their 27 Serie A title and extending the gap between them and the two Milan sides (AC and Internazional) with regards to the number of Italian League titles won in history.  To this end, both AC and Inter Milan have won the Italian Serie A 18 times and I must reiterate with the 2011/12 Serie triumph by Old Ladies, Juventus have won the Serie A at an unprecedented 28 times.

In highlighting the remarkableness of Juventus awesome clinch of the 2011/12 Serie A title, it is high time we went back memory lane, though of recent, the 2006 Calciopoli Scandal. 

That said, what makes Juventus clinch of the 2011/2012 Serie A one to savour is looking back to 2006 when the old ladies got relegated to Serie B. A relegation that arose from the 2006 Calciopoli Scandal. 

The Italian football scandal in 2006 which was born out of match fixing accusations shook the Italian football league, further stripping the old ladies off the titles they won in both the 2005 and 2006 seasons. In addition, Juventus were relegated to Serie B and had 9 points docked off their transient in the second tire of Italian football.

With the relegation of Juventus to Serie B, a handful of players left the club. These players included the then world footballer of the year Fabio Cannavaro, Lilian Thuram, zambrotta, Zlatan Ibrahimovic. But club veteran, Alexandrio Del Piero; “my then best striker in the world”, David Trezeguet and of course the one and only ever reliable midfielder, Pavel Nedved portrayed their allegiances to Juventus by staying back to fight for promotion back to where they truly belonged, the Serie A. This indeed paid off as Juventus sojourned in Serie B and were back in Serie the following season.

With Juventus back in the top flight in the 2007/2008 football year, it meant an old team that just got back to get acquainted once again with an old league level they had for old dominated more than any other team as far as Italian club football is concerned. 

Now in Serie A in the 2007/08 season, the Serie B Champions were generally not considered for the title but in my opinion were impressive in their performance, finishing 3^rd on 72 points behind Champions Internazional and AS Roma who finished on 85 and 82 points respectively.

My reason for the aforesaid postulation is due to the fact that due to their relegation to Serie B, I perceived that Juventus was undergoing somewhat of a recovery, a recovery that finishing the league in 3^rd place was one I considered an achievement that got my jaw dropping. 

As the years went on, Juventus proved to be a force to reckon with and exhibit a remarkably fast acquaintance with the Serie A by finishing in 2^nd place on 74 points, signifying a 10 point finish behind the 2008/2009 league champions, Internazional. Indeed, the old ladies were moving close to the trophy with all eyes on the subsequent (2009/2010) season in expectation of a continuation in the upward trend, signifying a 2009/2010 title clinching year for the once upon a time foes of Italian football.

But in the 2009/2010 season the closeness of Juventus to the trophy had a heavy knock. This is due to the fact that going by the remarkable two years performance of Juventus since promotion rather than having a continued upward performance entailing a clinch of the Serie A, Juventus had a downward and title distancing performance, finishing 7^th place in the league. 

Though Juventus had a 7^th place finish in the 2009/10 season, the 2010/11 season had Juventus being tenacious in their quest to avoid a drop. This tenacity entailed them having a déjà vu to their 2009/10 season performance. 

But with the 2011/12 season performance by the Old Ladies, the only conclusion to generate is that Juventus had their eyes on a huge mountain they had dreamed they climbed successfully, a mountain they climbed with style in an unprecedented fashion and an unimagined display of obstinacy to defeat which marked the old ladies finishing the league undefeated.

Due to the recent years of adverse happenings surrounding Juventus F.C, the 2011/2012 season is one to behold, climaxing a happy ending at least to the players, fans and management of the old ladies, a season to go down memory lane, not just in the history of Juventus F.C but the Italian Serie A.

...Juventus F.C. Players in jubilant mood following the trophy presentation 

Image Source: Google Image

References:

“2006 Italian football scandal” Wikipedia 21 June 2012    <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Italian_football_scandal>

“2011/12 Italian Serie A Table / Table” ESPNSoccernet  21 June 2012 <http://soccernet.espn.go.com/tables/_/league/ita.1/ita-serie-a?cc=3888>

 “Italian Serie B (Season 2006-07)” ESPNsoccernet 22 June 2012 <m.espn.go.com/soccer/standings?leagueTag=ita.2&season=2006&lang=EN>

 

“Juventus F.C.” Wikipedia  20 June 2012 < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juventus_F.C.>

“SerieA” Wikipedia 20 June 2012 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serie_A>