AC Milan take on Juventus in the Trofeo Luigi Berlusconi on August 17, 2008, at the San Siro.

6 days from now!!! Can't wait! Can't wait! Can't Wait! Can't wait! Can't wait! .....

i can wait .......until nesta-kaka-pat-r80 come back i wont be looking forward to anything

i dont think we can win this one as well but we could be scoring as pippo will be back

Oh, that's the first real test-match. I expect Milan to score goals again. And...well, will we see the Uru-boys?

@Filippo: Nope...that would be Uru-guys...

I saw one, I hope to see them both. And Emerson too...if I could. Would also like to see Ambro alongside Bonera.

Ambro is our Essien. Suck on it Chelsea.

I hope so, Filippo. Plus, I wouldn't be surprised if Pippo were to play a few minutes of this one.

I'd rather not see Pippo being risked for a friendly. He get's injured by the slightest things so it would be better to not play him and have him 100% fit for the start of the season in case something happens to Pato

Its a friendly and he will need this game to get back in shape ... If I remember correctly, he did specify that his comeback will be against 'The Inmates'

Correction: inmates.

They have a spine you know, unlike certain reptiles

Today's training has taken place.

Nesta watched from the bench.

Training started with warmups and drills with the tall obstacles. Following this there were ball possession drills; Emerson also took part in these drills, but thereafter trained in the gym.

The second part of training involved attack v defense drills.

The last part of training was a practice game with Abbiati and Dida in goal.

Kaka, Kaladze, Inzaghi and Borriello trained in the gym.

Tomorrow there will be two training sessions.

Cool. LOL. What happened to Kalac? Not training anymore lol?

Borriello is okay now? I hope so. We could use him...

Guys who train in the gym are generally not match-fit. They're usually doing rehab of some sort.

The training notes usually don't mention every single player. I've got no clue what Kalac is up to; generally the keepers do most of their training (except the practice games and warmups) separately with their own coaching staff.

Yeah that's true.

Well one thing is we won't have to face Zanetti or Marchionni...

http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/aug11l.html

Juve is having an injury crisis of their own... in their midfield.

In addition but unrelated to this is the fact that Claudio Marchisio was hurt in training in China with the Azzurri and they're still not sure how long he'll be out of action (though since he's staying in China it probably isn't too bad). Add to this the fact that Nedved is suspended for the first game of the Serie A season and the poor Zebras have a bit of a midfield crisis on their hands.

I think their crisis in their midfield is worse than the one we have in our defense... they'll have trouble completing passing moves... from the midfield to the forwards...

What fit midfielders do Juve have then? Salihamidzic, Camoranesi, Tiago, Poulsen, Sissoko? Any injuries/suspensions with these?

Nope, no suspensions, but that's the entire midfield available to them unless they count Giovinco as a midfielder.

(Juve's first game of the season is against Fiorentina).

I think Kurt wants to say their injury crisis looks pretty funny compared to our trouble last season and now...

Kind of.

Juve have a crisis as they only have players like Salihamidzic, Camoranesi, Tiago, Poulsen, Sissoko available to them, they could even count Alex as a midfielder and still have 3 good strikers. I wish our crisis' could be more like theirs!

Carlo: "Dida è stato poco impegnato, ha fatto la sua gara, ma non giocava da tempo. Il giudizio è sospeso."

[Dida was hardly tested; he had his opportunity, but hadn't played for some time. The judgment is suspended.] (Gazzetta)

Interesting. I think that's the first time Carlo and I have thought alike. He must play at least the Juve match, especially if Buffon shows up.

Barring some freakish accident, I imagine we will see Dida for at least half the game. This being a friendly, the teams generally use all 6 subs.

Even if he's healthy, I doubt we'll see Kaladze play. Given what's happening to his country, it's quite understandable that his attention is elsewhere.

I'd like to see both of the new kids play. Hopefully Pippo and Seedorf will play too; the zebra fans of my acquaintance are always frustrated by how these two seem to score on Buffon at will.

But that seems to be the case every match, not only just now.

True enough, Grin. But even if he were Nesta, I'd not ask or expect him to play if his country were being cluster-bombed.

Well, I'd not expect him to play either. But I don't I'll ever ask him to play for us.

I'm probably the only one here who would actually defend Kaladze, and I think he's a class defender.

To be serious for a minute, I'd rather have my dog playing at CB than Kaladze. The only good thing I've ever seen him do is scoring a goal against a certain Black and Blue team.

That's rather disdainful and not for a minute will I agree with such nonsense.

I hope they do, they should have used more than 3 against Man City

Has the article on the official site about this already been posted? In it, Kakha said his knee was getting better, he went to Brussels to see the doctor who gave him an injection for the pain and he thinks he'll be there for the game (dunno whether this means he'll play, be on the bench or in the stands ).

Kaladze is, I think, overrated by the powers that be in Milan. He's good but he's nowhere near the class of Nesta or Maldini (or the other Invincibili, Tassotti, Costacurta or Baresi). He's far too prone to Kaladzities - dumb fouls, poor marking, getting himself sent off while wearing the armband. That said, he did play the full 90 minutes of the May 2, 2007, game against MU - and got the highest player rating of all defenders for the game.

I agree with that. I've felt, Kaladze was one of those players who on a good day are very very good, but don't really receive a lot of attention, but who on a bad day seem to have their every mistake laid open.

Pippo and Buffon are players whom I think are on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Well, that's because he puts on his excellent displays once in a blue moon. But is the bumbling defender in most of the matches. And people tend to remember the regular stuff instead of the rare. Same argument for Superpippo and Buffon.

Nope...the bumblingness, comes once in every 7-10 matches imo. Unfortunately Milan have been so bad last couple of seasons, that we've had no breathing room with mistakes. Every mistake has been costly, simply coz our attack has been pretty bad. There were times when being 1-0 down in the first half was bad news.

And so every Kaladze mistake was amplified. Of course in his good games, he doesn't do anything extraordinary. He isn't going to pull off an inch-perfect slide tackle. Or a goal line clearance. Or a standing ball-steal from the opposing defender. He uses his size, to cut down space and makes lateral tackles.


He's not the best defender ever, but he's not a pathetic loser, who's the worst to wear a Milan shirt either.

I really don't agree with either of the sentiments shown by either of you...

Hmm....

Tennie and I basically say: He's not the greatest ever, but he's pretty good.

The others say: He's on the good side of terrible.

You're saying what exactly?

I guess you're right, Jackieboy, but I don't think I can ever make myself to not have over-expectations from any Rossoneri player. It's all black or white for me while judging those wearing the read and black (or white or black, as the occasion demands).

He's a really good defender but he is pretty clumsy

Some of the mess ups he has with Dida.. sometimes I have to think to myself, is this staged or what?

I think he's an underrated class player that some people don't like, but I happen to think he's mainly effective.

IMO Kaladze is a good left back. This is the position he was introduced in and he really did well. As a CB he simply lacks of consistency. You cannot rely on him like you can on Nesta, he's just to unpredictable. But Carlo usually allways plays him on the central position..

It really does annoy me when he puts Maldini at LB and Kaladze at LCB.. makes me want to punch him in the face.

Now it's his turn to 'recover'

And gives away penalties like candies. that's the worst part

He usually plays great in big games (against Manchester Utd in San Siro for example) but his mistakes cost us more than his effectiveness could help.

Seedorf is the funniest though considering all the deflected shots that for some unknown reason always manage to go in. He does it against the Merda to


Kaladze, I though was good when he played in the LB position, powerful and strong defensively and managed to put in some decent crosses. But as far as him playing in the CB position he was never good. Nesta made him look good in the 05/06 season because he was in good form and managed to stay injury free so he was always there to cover Kala's back, but these last 2 seasons where Nesta was either injured or not playing at 100% we saw how bad he is. He makes bad decisions and especially last season he made some horrible mistakes that ended in us conceeding ridiculous goals

In all honesty he didn't have much to do against Manchester...

And if we are going for the league this season we need a consistant defender that will show up for every match against every team not just Juve, Inter and Roma. You win the league by winning against the smaller teams not by winning against those 3 mentioned teams.

And I've seen Kaladze have bad games against big teams in the past, 05/06 against Barca he had a terrible game.

@ han

Well, I agree that he's had bad games against big teams too. but overall he plays well IF he gives a **** about that certain game! just like the Turtle. most of Kakha's mistakes have been against average teams.

Well Seedorf is another concept all together, he's not a central defender thus him making mistakes here and there or not playing up to standard won't effect the team like a CB would. But still, I just don't think Kaladze is good enough no matter the opposition, he shouldn;t be first choice for a club like Milan.

As for who he doesn't play well against, like I said, we are going for the league this season, and in order to win the league you have to win against the small teams, and players like him making stupid mistakes against said teams will only result in us losing precious points and dropping back in the table

This morning's training has taken place.

The first 30 minutes of training were spent on warmups and technical exercises. Following this there were practice drills on offense and defense.

Emerson, after the first 30 minutes of training with the team, did specific work in the gym.

Pippo, for the first part of training, did some running at different rhythms around the perimeter of the pitch, and then rejoined Kaladze, Borriello, Kaka and Maldini in the gym for specific work.

There'll be another training session this afternoon.