[ITA] Serie a 2006-07 (41 Viewers)
- Thread starter danielão
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The former Juventus director believes that the Inter coach was wise in renewing his contract with the Nerazzurri before the match against Valencia, which saw Inter crush out of Europe.
Full article here :
http://goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=250623
Full article here :
http://goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=250623
Especially when another guy, (was it Foschi?) got banned until 5/4/2007. Blatant string pulling by moratti here. 
As oxymorons go, 'meaningless derby' must rank among the best, and Milan's own As oxymorons go, 'meaningless derby' must rank among the best, and Milan's own confrontation among brothers, or cousins according to the Italian word used for it, on Sunday will surely be anything but devoid of meaning.
Too many elements conspire to make Inter v Milan an intriguing match, regardless of the league position of both. Inter can start ordering the new Scudetto logo to sew on their shirts while Milan's best option is to keep pace with the excellent Lazio and surprising Empoli in the race for fourth place and a shot at the Champions League next season. And this, in turn, may mean Kaka, once assured of top flight European football, will not be tempted to leave and Milan's long-time interest in Ronaldinho could also end in a bid.
Having operated on different levels on the domestic front throughout the first months of the season, the Milan rivals now meet with a state of mind that is awkward to grasp for outsiders, and when the derby approaches that status is pinned like a badge of shame to everyone who is not part of the inner sanctum of the two clubs.
Will Inter enter the match with the sense of superiority and the expectation of that has marked a Serie A season where they have shrugged off the early attentions of Palermo and Roma?
Will Milan be fired up by the additional motivation of getting revenge for the first encounter of the season, which Inter dominated before escaping with a 4-3 'away' win?
Milan's recent form has been good in Serie A, with five wins in six lifting them to sixth place, four points behind Lazio. But they struggled mightily to overcome Celtic in the Champions League, boring them into sleep before suddenly turning off the light with Kaka's quick run and shot. Milan have rarely looked like catching their crosstown rivals as vice-president Adriano Galliani had predicted, after the Italian Federation delivered the first point deductions for the nth scandal tainting the reputation of Italian football.
The events of the past week, though, may have turned the tables on form. Inter's interest in the Champions League, which they dearly care about, ended in Valencia with a whimper and a fistfight - started by the locals, to be fair - and this may still have an effect on their morale entering the weekend. Progress in Europe would have confirmed Inter's status as Italy's best side and vindicated their stranglehold on the domestic scene.
One question mark over them, of course, has been the absence of Juventus and the clamped-wheel status of Milan - both of their own making - which have meant Inter had few credible rivals for the title, but this column has already remarked how the Nerazzurri's ability to dispatch the lesser teams, a weakness in the past, has now become a strength. Regardless of where Juve or Milan are, Roberto Mancini's side have shown a physical aspect that in some matches has literally helped them bundle opponents off the pitch.
Coupled with the increasingly influential skills of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the renewed freshness of Dejan Stankovic, this overall strength has given Inter an unparalleled run in Italy, with 17 consecutive wins in Serie A. But they proved ineffective against Valencia, who matched Inter's exertion and power and rarely looked like conceding a goal at home, despite the visitors' increasingly desperate attempts to take the ball inside the Spaniards' penalty area.
Meanwhile, Milan having gone through to the Champions League quarter-finals and the derby match on Sunday will provide a stage for some players on either side to prove their worth. Both camps will have plenty of motivations to emerge as winners, bragging rights being only part of the picture.
One bone of contention, although with a sizeable (but decreasing) amount of flesh wrapped around it, is of course Ronaldo. The majority of Inter fans never forgave him for leaving Inter following the 2002 World Cup, just a few months after the Nerazzurri had thrown away a Scudetto on the last day of the season, going down 4-2 at Lazio and gifting Juventus the title.
The day of the match, May 5, 2002, still stands as one of the most painful in the glory-laden history of Inter, who at the time had gone 13 years without a Scudetto, a drought that only this year will become a thing of the past.
Ronaldo's tears at the end of the Lazio clash had apparently shown both his grief and his dedication to a club that had twice waited for his recovery from serious knee injuries, the second one sustained just six minutes into his return from the first, but his sudden move to Real Madrid washed away all the goodwill and sympathy the Brazilian striker had accumulated in five eventful seasons at San Siro, and Ronaldo soon became Public Enemy number 1 for many - not all - Inter fans.
A fan himself even before becoming the owner in 1995, Massimo Moratti took Ronaldo's request to leave hard, having seen him as a son in frequent need of direction and comfort rather than a footballer. A sentiment he subsequently transferred to injury prone, left-foot genius Alvaro Recoba who spent so much time on the sidelines that an Italian sports website has special feature called 'Recoba trained on his own today' - a subtle reference to the practice of injured or rehabilitating players of working separately from the rest of the squad to avoid full-speed contact.
Ronaldo never really left, though. As one of the world's best footballers and a bon viveur with a seemingly endless trail of girlfriends, his presence in the Italian media was constant even during the Madrid years, not least because of the shenanigans of the Spanish club which usually had the Brazilian involved in a high percentage.
Considering the vitriol hurled in the general direction of Ronaldo when he left, the news of his return to Milan, only with the 'wrong' club, would have had the Inter fans at San Siro hit the roof. Instead, their - um - disappointment was channelled through banners and signs hung from the balconies at Inter's first home match after Ronaldo signed for Milan, but you can be sure the Brazilian will receive a hostile reception from most of the Inter home crowd on Sunday. His performance against the rugged Inter centre-halves (just pick any, and the description fits) will be one of the most watched bits of the match.
As Nils Liedholm, the Swedish manager of the 1979 Milan side which won the coveted stella (the yellow star signifying ten scudetto wins) correctly pointed out on Thursday, the arrival of Ronaldo would never have been accepted even by Milan fans in his time at the club, as loyalty still counted for more than it does today.
Another indicator of the peculiarity of this derby is the fact that the match will kick-off at 3pm on a Sunday. As Celtic fans know, the San Siro received the green light as a safe venue, but the derby, despite no recent history of clashes between the opposing sets of fans, was still deemed too risky to be played on a Sunday night.
So it will be back to the dear old 3pm kickoff time, with the now unusual sight of both the wonderful looking kits shining in daylight. If this is the result of the same changing times that allowed Ronaldo to join a side whose fans despised him - a very well-known song among Milan supporters unfavourably compared the Brazilian to Shevchenko when both played in Milan - then Ronaldo may come back whenever he wants, and even go back to Barcelona then stage another return, if he so likes.
by Roberto Gotta
Too many elements conspire to make Inter v Milan an intriguing match, regardless of the league position of both. Inter can start ordering the new Scudetto logo to sew on their shirts while Milan's best option is to keep pace with the excellent Lazio and surprising Empoli in the race for fourth place and a shot at the Champions League next season. And this, in turn, may mean Kaka, once assured of top flight European football, will not be tempted to leave and Milan's long-time interest in Ronaldinho could also end in a bid.
Having operated on different levels on the domestic front throughout the first months of the season, the Milan rivals now meet with a state of mind that is awkward to grasp for outsiders, and when the derby approaches that status is pinned like a badge of shame to everyone who is not part of the inner sanctum of the two clubs.
Will Inter enter the match with the sense of superiority and the expectation of that has marked a Serie A season where they have shrugged off the early attentions of Palermo and Roma?
Will Milan be fired up by the additional motivation of getting revenge for the first encounter of the season, which Inter dominated before escaping with a 4-3 'away' win?
Milan's recent form has been good in Serie A, with five wins in six lifting them to sixth place, four points behind Lazio. But they struggled mightily to overcome Celtic in the Champions League, boring them into sleep before suddenly turning off the light with Kaka's quick run and shot. Milan have rarely looked like catching their crosstown rivals as vice-president Adriano Galliani had predicted, after the Italian Federation delivered the first point deductions for the nth scandal tainting the reputation of Italian football.
The events of the past week, though, may have turned the tables on form. Inter's interest in the Champions League, which they dearly care about, ended in Valencia with a whimper and a fistfight - started by the locals, to be fair - and this may still have an effect on their morale entering the weekend. Progress in Europe would have confirmed Inter's status as Italy's best side and vindicated their stranglehold on the domestic scene.
One question mark over them, of course, has been the absence of Juventus and the clamped-wheel status of Milan - both of their own making - which have meant Inter had few credible rivals for the title, but this column has already remarked how the Nerazzurri's ability to dispatch the lesser teams, a weakness in the past, has now become a strength. Regardless of where Juve or Milan are, Roberto Mancini's side have shown a physical aspect that in some matches has literally helped them bundle opponents off the pitch.
Coupled with the increasingly influential skills of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the renewed freshness of Dejan Stankovic, this overall strength has given Inter an unparalleled run in Italy, with 17 consecutive wins in Serie A. But they proved ineffective against Valencia, who matched Inter's exertion and power and rarely looked like conceding a goal at home, despite the visitors' increasingly desperate attempts to take the ball inside the Spaniards' penalty area.
Meanwhile, Milan having gone through to the Champions League quarter-finals and the derby match on Sunday will provide a stage for some players on either side to prove their worth. Both camps will have plenty of motivations to emerge as winners, bragging rights being only part of the picture.
One bone of contention, although with a sizeable (but decreasing) amount of flesh wrapped around it, is of course Ronaldo. The majority of Inter fans never forgave him for leaving Inter following the 2002 World Cup, just a few months after the Nerazzurri had thrown away a Scudetto on the last day of the season, going down 4-2 at Lazio and gifting Juventus the title.
The day of the match, May 5, 2002, still stands as one of the most painful in the glory-laden history of Inter, who at the time had gone 13 years without a Scudetto, a drought that only this year will become a thing of the past.
Ronaldo's tears at the end of the Lazio clash had apparently shown both his grief and his dedication to a club that had twice waited for his recovery from serious knee injuries, the second one sustained just six minutes into his return from the first, but his sudden move to Real Madrid washed away all the goodwill and sympathy the Brazilian striker had accumulated in five eventful seasons at San Siro, and Ronaldo soon became Public Enemy number 1 for many - not all - Inter fans.
A fan himself even before becoming the owner in 1995, Massimo Moratti took Ronaldo's request to leave hard, having seen him as a son in frequent need of direction and comfort rather than a footballer. A sentiment he subsequently transferred to injury prone, left-foot genius Alvaro Recoba who spent so much time on the sidelines that an Italian sports website has special feature called 'Recoba trained on his own today' - a subtle reference to the practice of injured or rehabilitating players of working separately from the rest of the squad to avoid full-speed contact.
Ronaldo never really left, though. As one of the world's best footballers and a bon viveur with a seemingly endless trail of girlfriends, his presence in the Italian media was constant even during the Madrid years, not least because of the shenanigans of the Spanish club which usually had the Brazilian involved in a high percentage.
Considering the vitriol hurled in the general direction of Ronaldo when he left, the news of his return to Milan, only with the 'wrong' club, would have had the Inter fans at San Siro hit the roof. Instead, their - um - disappointment was channelled through banners and signs hung from the balconies at Inter's first home match after Ronaldo signed for Milan, but you can be sure the Brazilian will receive a hostile reception from most of the Inter home crowd on Sunday. His performance against the rugged Inter centre-halves (just pick any, and the description fits) will be one of the most watched bits of the match.
As Nils Liedholm, the Swedish manager of the 1979 Milan side which won the coveted stella (the yellow star signifying ten scudetto wins) correctly pointed out on Thursday, the arrival of Ronaldo would never have been accepted even by Milan fans in his time at the club, as loyalty still counted for more than it does today.
Another indicator of the peculiarity of this derby is the fact that the match will kick-off at 3pm on a Sunday. As Celtic fans know, the San Siro received the green light as a safe venue, but the derby, despite no recent history of clashes between the opposing sets of fans, was still deemed too risky to be played on a Sunday night.
So it will be back to the dear old 3pm kickoff time, with the now unusual sight of both the wonderful looking kits shining in daylight. If this is the result of the same changing times that allowed Ronaldo to join a side whose fans despised him - a very well-known song among Milan supporters unfavourably compared the Brazilian to Shevchenko when both played in Milan - then Ronaldo may come back whenever he wants, and even go back to Barcelona then stage another return, if he so likes.
by Roberto Gotta
