Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it didn’t exactly fall in 90 minutes as had been predicted.
The MLS tried their best to ratchet up a pre-season friendly between their All-Stars and Roma last night, but even their psychological warfare wasn’t enough in the end.
With the MLS season in full-swing, the players would have fancied their chances of the scalp of the Serie A side and the team included a certain Thierry Henry. Indeed they beat Chelsea 3-2 last year, but conceded as early as the fourth minute, with an injury-time consolation putting a gloss on a 3-1 defeat. Though the PR work beforehand was all about the win.
Last year they led with a campaign of “Let’s kick them in the crown jewels” prior to entertaining the men from Stamford Bridge and this year they continued in a similar vein when they chose to go with this poster, showing both an extensive historical knowledge as well as a penchant for a bit of sledging.
Francesco Totti by all accounts was not impressed when he saw the poster in their changing room, while a promotional video was also released in which several of the MLS players, including Montreal’s former Italian international Marco Di Vaio, learned to say phrases in Italian. Like ‘Welcome to the Blue Hell,’ ‘You know the ref is American’ and ‘Yellow and red don’t go well together.’
It was hardly the type of stuff to have the Italians quaking in their boots, but you can’t fault them for trying.
Totti though had the last laugh and can now add the prestigious piece of silverware to his glittering list of achievements.
