Serie A is still trailing Premier League by a week or two, but all of the fun has been sucked out of it by Juventus (ain’t that always the way). Anti-climax aside, there are still a couple of interesting matches this weekend, including Inter v. Lazio, featuring Davide Massa (above) and, of course, the always-lively Roma v. Juventus, handled by
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Add yet another feather of refereeing oddness to the Honey Badger’s cap. Italy’s Nicola Rizzoli gave Diego Costa a deserved penalty kick in Atletico Madrid’s Champions League semifinal clash with Chelsea, after Samuel Eto’o clumsily chopped him down in the box. But Costa went all “princess and the pea”, bizarrely claiming the ball wasn’t sitting right and continuing to spin
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It’s official: Chelsea get the Honey Badger. Italy’s Nicola Rizzoli, who officiated the 2013 Champions League final, will referee the Chelsea v Atletico Madrid semifinal at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday, April 30. This is bad news for Chelsea’s manager, Jose Mourinho, and his band of thugs. Rizzoli is known as heavy-handed with the cards, even internationally, and he has no
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It must suck to be an Italian referee not named Nicola Rizzoli. He basically owns that league, and whenever there’s a big match, he’s pretty much like: “All your base are belong to us!”. Little dude’s not into sharing.* No other referee is really going to have a legitimate shot at anything cool until Rizzoli retires or gets the measles. In the meantime,
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Let me just say, Nicola Rizzoli is the Honey Badger of Serie A refereeing. And if you’re not American and don’t know what that means, watch the video at the bottom of this post. (And you’re welcome for introducing you to the very best of American culture.) You’re not even playing? Rizzoli don’t care. Rizzoli doesn’t give a shit. Rizzoli takes
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NOTE: This refers to an appointment in the past. See the sidebar for updated appointments. It’s a good weekend to be a female fan of the Serie A referees, because all the pretty boys come out to play. Daniele Doveri, Andrea De Marco, Marco Guida…they’re all here. Even Gianluca Rocchi and Daniele Orsato are hanging out on the wings. Speaking of pretty
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I don’t have much of value to add to this week’s Serie A referees. Only that Catania v. Torino wins the Eye Candy of the Week award, with both Nicola Rizzoli and Marco Guida serving as adds – to Gianluca Rocchi*, no less! Saturday CHIEVO – VERONA TAGLIAVENTO DI FIORE – NICOLETTI IV: MUSOLINO ADD1: DOVERI ADD2: CIAMPI INTER – BOLOGNA MAZZOLENI
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Poor Nicola Rizzoli. Being in Serie A, he basically referees the equivalent of a bunch of 10-year-olds on energy drinks every weekend. Sassuolo v. Roma was a prime example. It was a game of crying and begging and surrounding him at every turn. But one particular situation stood out: a penalty call in the 33rd-ish minute (I’ll explain the “ish”
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There were two huge red card decisions in this past week’s Champions League first leg ties. Each of the cards had massive impact not only on the matches, but on the overall ties. In both cases, English teams were facing formidable opponents (Barcelona and Bayern Munich, respectively) and found themselves giving up vital away goals after losing a man. So,
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So, by now you’ve seen the split-second video of Wojchiech Szczesny responding to being red carded with the universal symbol of what you can do with yourself. If you haven’t, here you go: This caused no end of pearl clutching amongst the press. No one was quite sure at whom the gesture was directed. It could have been toward Nicola
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PLAY THE ADVANTAGE 