American sports can be tacky at times (see cheerleaders, singing the national anthem and extensive commercial breaks), but one positive that has arisen from the heartland of this fine country is the extensive use of trophies.
The present and future of the Champions League combined to lead Bayern Munich over Lazio on Tuesday with Robert Lewandowski scoring his 72nd goal of the competition and 17-year-old Jamal Musiala scoring his first as Bayern prevailed 4-1 in Rome.
You can’t give the world champions anything if you want to last over the course of 180 minutes, but Lazio damned itself as early as the ninth minute after Mateo Musacchio’s suicidal back-pass allowed Lewandowski to collect possession, round Pepe Reina and finish into an empty net.
The great grandson of former Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini is a member of Lazio’s U-19 team, it came to light this week. Romano Benito Floriani Mussolini is an 18-year-old right back for I Biancocelesti.
Benito Mussolini, Il Duce, ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943, and there’s something troubling about his kin playing for a club with a history of neo-Fascist fans.
Roma’s 22-year-old center back Roger Ibañez is not a bad footballer — we don’t want to pile on too much here — but he had one of the worst performances of his career on Friday. Ibañez was directly responsible for Lazio’s first two goals en route to a 3-0 defeat in the Derby della Capitale.
Lazio, which came into the match in eighth place and eager for a victory to get back into the race for Champions League qualification, controlled the Roman rivalry from the outset. A couple of early mistakes from Ibañez put Le Aquile on the road to an easy win.