Hi everyone (or is it just Ming and Carol),

I watched Siena vs. Milan today and thankfully it was one of Milan's
better performances this season.

Milan faced a weakened Siena side- many of their starting
midfielders were missing- with a few absentees of their own (i.e.
Maldini, Cafu and Ambro). Carlo's started Pippo instead of Gila,
while the backline was the expected one with Stam and Serginho as
full backs and Kakha next to Sandro in the centre.

Siena lined-up with Mirante, Negro-Tudor-Portanova-Gastaldello,
D'Aversa-Paro-Foglio-Molinaro, Chiesa-Bogdani. De Canio played a
typical 4-4-2 which wasn't one of his most inspired decisions
considering the makeshift midfield.

It was sunny at the Artemio Franchi and the Milan players had the
sun in their eyes; Dida asked for a baseball cap after 10 minutes or
so. Most Milan players seemed to be pumped up for the game with
Gattuso being ultra competitive.Milan started the game brightly
looking for an early goal; they pushed forward in numbers and had
already won 6 corners within the first 10 minutes of play. Siena
were under siege and a goal wasn't far away. When Milan won corner
number 7 the goal duly came; Stam headed the ball to Kaka's path,
who scored from the edge of the small penalty area.

Siena's first chance came after a corner (17th min) and fell to
Chiesa, Milan's "boogeyman", but Dida managed to clear his goal-
bound effort and Stam beat Tudor for the ball to give another corner
away. Chiesa was practically unmarked in the penalty area when he
shot.

After Siena's chance Milan kept pushing forward and creating
chances, mostly down the left, and Sheva in particular had a couple
of nice efforts cleared away. The first was when Milan won a foul in
a good position at the 22nd minute after Tudor fouled Pippo. The
foul wasn't perfectly taken as the ball hit the wall but the rebound
fell to Serginho who found Sheva in the small penalty area but the
latter's effort was cleared away. The other chance came 5 minutes
later, when Negro cleared a goal-bound Sheva effort.

Stam was substituted by Simic at the 25th minute possibly due to
injury, while Tudor (36th min) and Serginho (39th min) received
yellow cards for fouls on Kaka and Foglio respectively. Milan
continued to dominate the play and Siena didn't really create any
dangerous situations for Dida although they upped their game in the
last 5 minutes of the first half, with Bogdani seeing more of the
ball. But it was Seedorf who seemed the most dangerous when at the
44th minute the referee denied him a clear foul at the edge of the
penalty area in the right. Gastaldello clearly caught him and
brought him down but the ref waved play on. The first half soon
ended with Milan leading deservedly, albeit with the slimmest of
leads.

The second half started with a bang as Chiesa hit Dida's left post
with a very nice diagonal shot. It was just after kick-off, not even
half a minute had gone by, and Milan were very lucky as Dida was
already beaten. Milan reacted quickly; they upped the tempo and
searched for another goal to build on their lead. Negro and
Gastaldello received yellow cards for fouls on Seedorf and Rino
within a minute (55th minute) respectively and I thought that
Gatsaldello's challenge was particularly strong. Gattuso stopped
impressively a Molinaro run at the 58th minute and a bit later when
Chiesa won a foul from Pirlo, Gattuso half-marked half-harassed
Chiesa. The weather seemed to become increasingly windy at that
point.

At the 64th minute it took an instinctive Mirante save to keep to
the score-line intact when he kept away a header by Inzaghi from a
Serginho cross. For a couple of minutes Siena took control of the
game but didn't really threaten Dida despite the ball being
practically played at Milan's half. Milan soon recovered and Siena
had to thank Mirante again for being quick off his line to clear the
ball when Pippo received a great ball from Kaka.

Unfortunately, it was Mirante to blame a minute later when Sheva put
his name on the score-sheet. Seedorf found Serginho making a run
down the left and the Brazilian's cross bounced off Mirante's chest
falling to Sheva's feet who was only a couple of meters away from
goal.

In the ensuing ten minutes there were lots of changes. Guzman and
Falsini came on for Molinaro and Negro respectively (73rd min) while
Pippo gave way to Gila a little later. The Paraguayan (i.e. Guzman)
was making his first appearance for Siena after his loan from
Crotone.

At the 81st minute Mirante made a mess of a clearance when
mistakenly hit one of his defender's back but Sheva wasted the
opportunity by being selfish and not passing to Gila. Kaka put the
game out of Siena's reach when at the 84th minute he got his second
goal of the game. His beautiful yet simple diagonal shot from the
right was inch-perfect and Mirante had no chance. Sheva's diagonal
assist was quite nice too.

After that the game was over and the only noteworthy instances were
when Jankulovski and Esposito came on for Kaka and Chiesa
respectively.

All in all it was a nice performance by Milan, with practically
everyone enjoying a nice game. Nesta seemed quite assured and sharp;
he didn't really have any concentration lapses, his passing was
crisp and he was dominating in defense. He put in a leader-like
performance, handing instructions right and left, trying to sort
everyone out; he actually reminded me of his Lazio days a bit. On
today's evidence, he seems to be rediscovering his form.

Unfortunately both Inter and Juve won games that could have gone
either way. What's happening to Fabio, he scored twice for Juve vs.
Empoli today.

All the best,

Marina