Alexandre Pato's Skill Angers Siena

(Photo by Claudio Villa/Getty Images)

This past Saturday AC Milan opened their season against Siena, whom they had previously demolished 5-1 in the second half of the 08-09 season.

Pato, along with the rest of the squad, played a great game in which he scored a brace to finish the game 2-1 in favor of Milan.

While the Milan players were very pleased with this and their performance, the Siena players were not amused.

They accused Pato of disrespecting them by baiting them and telling them to "come and get it," in regards to the ball.

"OK, he is Brazilian but he can't make fun of us like that," Simone Vergassola told Sky Sport Italia after the game.

"He can do what he wants with his legs, but then if he adds his tongue and signs with his hands to say 'come and get it', then that is too much - it is a lack of respect."

I personally did not see Pato make hand signals or anything of the like, however it's not like the cameras are on him for every second of the match.

What I did see was Pato being continually fouled every time he tried to make a run.

He was cut down intentionally at least 7 times that I counted. Clearly, the Siena defense was becoming frustrated with their inability to put a stop to Pato's dangerous runs.

What's worse, the referee only gave out one yellow card, and that was to Siena's captain Vergassola.

Perhaps if the ref had done a better job of officiating, Pato would not have felt it necessary to take matters into his own hands.

Towards the end of the game, Pato definitly did hold the ball and stay stationary, in a bid to bait the defenders and waste time since Milan were 2-1 up, but that is part of the game.

And as soon as he'd do a little flick to get past them or something of the like, he'd get cut down from behind.

They accuse him of showboating, but I've always believed that if a player has got the skill, he should use it. There's no reason that a player should be inhibited just because the opposition isn't good enough to deal with it.

I think it's wrong that as soon as one player pulls off something fancy or a trick, the opposition players get angry and tell him to stop.

Ultimately, what made the Siena players angry was that Pato made them look like amateurs, and that the score was in favor of AC Milan.

I hope it continues like this.

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