Monday, August 3, 2009
Buffon: "Penalties? I’ll Save Them Only During The 90 Minutes"
A few hours after the Peace Cup final, all the Juventus contingent returned home. In the morning the team left from Seville and landed in Italy at noon.
The day after the final against Aston Villa, the mood at Juventus did not change much. There is a bit of disappointment with regards to the result but also satisfaction for the whole tournament and happiness with regards Trezeguet’s decision to stay and contribute to another great season.
In the group there are certain people who never lose their sense of humour. In fact Buffon, on his website www.gianluigibuffon.com spoke of the current situation, speaking also of yesterday’s penalty shoot-out.
The great save on Herd’s shot put the biancoeri ahead before the comeback and final victory of the English side. With memories of past experiences in mind, especially the 2006 World Cup Final in Berlin, Gigi joked saying:
"At the end of the match I nearly felt like smiling, thinking that when I manage to save a penalty we do not manage to win. This means that from now on I won’t even try anymore…Or rather, I will stick to saving penalties only during the 90 minutes!"
The parry from 11 metres, together with a number of saves in the first half made of Buffon one of the protagonists of the unlucky last act and also in the whole tournament. In three matches played (Manninger played in the first match against Seville), the number one only conceded one goal, the penalty scored by Cristiano Ronaldo during the match against Real. This is why a victory at the end of the tournament would have been welcome:
"We are obviously a bit disappointed with the way it ended, It is always a pity to lose a final after penalties, also because I believe that winning leads to winning and bringing the trophy home would have been useful to be even more charged-up for the next commitments".
Thus, as from Wednesday, after two days of rest, a new leaf will be turned over. As from the friendly on Friday against Vilalreal, Ferrara’s team will try to continue the drawing near to the start of the championship by pursuing the route embarked on up to now. All this with something more to cherish:
"We are all happy with Trezeguet’s will to stay with us – concluded Buffon-. I am sure that now that he is once again found his conviction, David will return to being another weapon like he always was and this cannot but make everybody happy. I already said so a few days ago: I have a positive feeling from seeing how the team is working. The basis is solid ad there is a nice environment. We have all it takes to do well. Now all that we have to do is put it into practice on the field and not just with words".
Juventus.com
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