Milan 0 – Inter 4

By: Gianfranco | August 31st, 2009

I don’t even really know where to start here. The fact is that there is no single member of the current Rossoneri setup without blame after this disgraceful, unacceptable, and flat out embarrassing loss. If you want me to put a positive spin on this, or have some optimism, it is not going to happen. I am angry and I am going to let it rip right here…

I am going to start with the red card, what Rino did was inexcusable, did it cost us the game? Debatable, we were dead before the sink even sank, but again it does not make it right, and we all should expect better. We can rewind though and use a little hindsight to place some blame across the board. When Rino went down in the box and then subsequently went off to get treatment things starting going south. Now I know he is tough and a trooper, but clearly he did not look OK. A good coach, not the one we have now, would have gotten a read and began moving the wheels for a sub, instead he left Rino out there to tough out, and again it won’t be the first or last time Rino does that. Soon thereafter the defense get cracked open like a nut and Rino is left to mark a lighting quick Eto leading to a foul and PK which should have been a straight red . Why not let Storari make the save? Who knows.

Now Rino is on borrowed time and a good coach would take an injured player on a yellow off the pitch, not our coach, Rino motions for a sub, Seedorf is summoned to come on, not a bad sub, but the next two to three minutes unfold like an eternity. Camera pans to Seedorf who is gearing up and Leonardo is talking and talking, Rino comes to the sideline is waived back onto the pitch and seconds later he drags down Sneijder, was it a yellow sure it was, was it a challenge that Rino will do again, of course it is, he was sending a message, the problem is this message appeared to be at Leonardo and Company as much as it was for Inter and Sneijder. Now Milan is down to ten men and Seedorf is still be chatting up by Leo, you missed the boat Leo, and hopefully you learned a lesson.

Yes Milan pushed play for the first twenty minutes but as Sneijder found his bearings and Inter realized they could take what Milan had the offer the game quickly changed. Once again Leo and Co. missed the boat, no tactical shift, no pull back into a compact midfield, in fact nothing changed at all and a surgically precise offensive moved tore open the defense. No midfield cover, no left back cover, and CB’s nowhere to be found. Maybe the CB’s were man marking, the TV angles did nothing to prove or disprove any of this but the fact of the matter is that Motta was a free man with not a soul in front of him, and Storari was left hung out to dry. Poor Storari, he was the slimmest bright spot on a day of dismal performances, his two saves kept this game from being 6-0, and if it wasn’t for horrific defending this guy may have kept the club in the game. For the record, Inter is a very good team, Sneijder is the missing link, and removing themselves from Zlatan dependency will prove a boon come CL time…

Now this little gem is for all of you Ronaldinho fans. Many of you lambast me day in and day out for my high expectations of the man you call a legend and a gift to football, you tell me I expect too much, and you tell me that I don’t give the poor lazy fatso a chance…I hope you know understand. It’s funny because this blog is the only place on Earth where Ronaldinho still seems to hold some kind of luster and mystique; this is not 2004 or 2005 for that matter. Every MIlanista I have spoken to in the past two day has reiterated the same point, this team cannot move forward on his shoulders and his shoulders alone. Even Charlie Stillitano, host of the Football Show on Sirius, and avid Milan fan and friend of the club was adamant that Ronaldinho is far to slow and inconsistent to be more than a role player in a squad. Last season you belittled Seedorf for slowing play and holding possession, feel free to do the same to your boy this season.

I am done talking about this guy or even thinking about him, Silvio and Fester messed up, and this was just the first of the mistakes. Eto, Adebayor, Sneijder, Drogba, De Silvestri, DeAgostino, the list of lost transfers is endless and these lost transfers have put us in the position we are in right now. Instead Inter have two of those failed targets, Chelsea has the other and our coach to boot, who is a on tear right now and looks poised to win everything in front of him, and were are left with absolutely NOTHING. No creativity, no depth, no defense…but hey look on the bright side we have 42 defensive midfielders and Ronaldinho, let’s take on the World!

I know I have said it before and I will say it again, and probably keep saying it, the last time we had a foreign coach and a roster full of showpiece legacy straineri we finished tenth and the Coach didn’t make it past Christmas…Leo is Brazilian and the squad has lost its Italian roots…tenth place would be a gift at this stage, that’s the biggest difference.

Am I going to abandon hope, am I going to don a Lampard jersey and going running up and down the block chanting for the Blues!? I thought about it, and after a few Vodka tonics following the Derby I even considered it as I perused soccer.com for a Chelsea strip. But then I realized that this Club means far more to me than an idiot owner, a terrible GM, a tactically naïve coach, and a has-been Brazilian. This Club is my roots, the foundation for my wardrobe, the reason I bought a red and black car, the reason I love Football. I am down, we are down, but this quote from our very own Shingai brought it all back into perspective…

“We’ll see who the fairweather fans are when each win becomes a struggle and there is no certainty whatsoever as to where to expect the team to end up at the end of the year. But to answer the question, what do we do from here – if you can make it to matches, show up in full colors, be as vocal and supportive of your team as you can, even when they are struggling and playing like shit. Awesome fans can make the difference for a team, especially in moments of self-doubt like these.”

Bench the whole lot, start next match with Antonini, Abate, KJH, DiGennaro, Berretta, Strasser…I don’t even care, send a message, if we are going to lose anyway let’s do it with a fighting spirit a younger look and hungry players. I hate International breaks (oddly enough our “World Class Brazilian Playmaker” did not get called up,see Diego as to why) but this break comes at a time to get the head’s straight, push the issue in training and make everyone expendable. Leo can learn from this and come out stronger, but that choice is his…the same way we can get behind this team through a looming dark period…choice is yours, love Ronaldinho, or Pato, or Pirlo, or Nesta or LOVE AC MILAN…