Serie A

The death of Davide Astori was announced on the morning of March 4. The club captain of Fiorentina, he had been expecting to take part in a run-of-the-mill away game against Udinese. Instead, every match in Serie A was postponed in the wake of the news. 

The night before, Astori had been playing videogames with the Fiorentina goalkeeper, Marco Sportiello. The next day, as the players sat down to breakfast, his absence was noted. According to coaches, the center back was typically one of the first to rise on a match day. 

We were all wrong. Let’s take a moment to come together, as a community, and admit that we all assumed the appointment of Gennaro Gattuso as AC Milan manager was absurd to the point of hilarity. Our sides were splitting. Our guffaws echoed along the corridors of the internet. We laughed and we laughed and we laughed. 

But we were all wrong. 

You see, it turns out that Gattuso might just be exactly what Milan needed. 

Apparently, soccer comebacks are all the rage right now. Landon Donovan is back playing with León, Freddy Adu rediscovered his love for soccer with the Las Vegas Lights, Marco Reus is back scoring for Dortmund and now a Gianluigi Buffon Italy return appears imminent. 

This was a big week for Juventus. Not only did they get a hiding in the Champions League, they also released a self-glorifying TV show and lined up against their old cross-city rivals, Torino.  

This kind of glitz and glamour is what we’ve come to expect from the reigning six-time champions. It shows why they’re one of the countries best loved and most hated teams, all at once. 

But what did we actually learn from this week?