Navarro's Milan Futuro pulled off an impressive comeback win on Sunday, with a 2-1 win away to Villa Valle. The score may not seem impressive, but considering that Villa Valle dominated play and pummeled Milan's goal with shots for 90 minutes, then scored the first goal as well, the score starts to mean something. While previous iterations of Milan Futuro were more likely to start out strong and then concede goals to drop points, this Milan Futuro side stuck together, showed grinta and a strong mentality that resulted in them coming back with all three points. This one was not just a physical victory, it was a mental victory.
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| Pandolfi celebrates his winning goal with his teammates. |
First of all, let's talk about The Pittarella Show. That man stood between the posts and faced an ungodly amount of shots, saving all but one. And a few of his saves were very, very impressive, too, beginning with a great save after a corner in the eighth minute. In the second half, Siani was determined to score, but, as Villa Valle's commentators put it after another big Pittarella save in the 68th minute, "Pittarella says no." Three minutes later, he also managed to save a wicked Siani free kick, which he tipped over the crossbar. Then there was the point blank save on Nicolli from a 1v1 situation. He stopped every free kick, and denied Villa Valle an equalizer. For me, he was the hero in this match.
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| This match could have just as easily been called "The Pitarella Show," he was so fantastic. |
As far as attack, Futuro saw any efforts blocked in the first half, and while they managed to create more chances in the second half, it was Benzoni who scored in the 65th minute to make it Villa Valle 1-0. Cappelletti was shown a yellow card less than five minutes later, then was almost immediately subbed off and replaced by Federico Colombo, while Pagliei replaced Zukić. Asanji was down in the box after some contact with a Villa Valle player, but the referee did not award a penalty, which appeared to be the correct call from the only angle we were shown.
Within one minute of Pittarella's big point blank save on Nicolli, Ossola managed to break through, position himself to take on Offredi, the goalkeeper, whom he easily beat and put the ball in the back of the net to equalize. 1-1 all in the 78th minute. Navarro made two more changes, with Luca Menon replacing Sala, and Perera replacing Borsani. That was followed by the Mister earning a yellow card for himself in the 83rd minute for protesting to the referee.
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| Ossola beats Offredi, Milan's former youth player for Milan's first goal. |
Then things got a little dicey. A Villa Valle player fouled a Milan player, another Milan player pushed a different Villa Valle player, and there was another foul where they pushed a Futuro player, and then Luca Menon made a sliding tackle that Villa Valle took particular issue with. More specifically, Offredi their goalkeeper who began his career in the Milan youth system, was incensed by the tackle, and even Pittarella ran down the pitch to try to calm him down as a number of players confronted their opponents. Unlike Serie A, where the referees actively work to separate players in situations like this, the Serie D ref just stood back and watched, finally showing Offredi and another Villa Valle player yellow cards, and alwo Pandolfi, for some reason.
The match continued after the altercation and subsequent punishments, and it was in stoppage time that Futuro got their winner. In the 92nd minute, after a couple of attempts at getting the ball toward boal, Pagliei sent the ball back to Pandolfi, who just slotted it home for the win. 2-1 Milan Futuro. But the match wasn't over, Villa Valle thought they had scored another goal two minutes later, but it was ruled offside, so not given. It ended Milan Futuro 2, Villa Valle 1. Brief highlights are available or you can watch the full match.
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| Pandolfi knew he had scored the winner. |
In the past, this team would have either achieved a draw or perhaps even lost. But not on this day. Navarro has already built a strong sense of unity in the team, and they all worked together to fight for all three points. The players also showed a lot of grinta, and all worked hard to the final whistle. This second consecutive win also pushed them back up the table into third place in Group B. Now they will have a couple of weeks without any matches, as their next match will be Sunday, October 4th, when they travel to face Pavonese.
This post inspired by the music of Måneskin's "Own My Mind"
Reviewed by Elaine
on
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