The Pre-season Shenanigans of the Prince

Among the slew of pre season friendlies and other meaningless games this summer, there is one that tickled my fancy. From the minute I heard Inter Milan was playing AC Milan in Foxboro, MA I knew I had to make the trip to see my favorite team. It’s a long drive from Maryland, but I hear it is a little bit easier than driving to Milan.

It was great to watch the red, blue, and black jerseys (and strangely a few Mexico jerseys) meshed together in the parking lot drinking beer, barbecuing, having fun, and most importantly enjoying SOCCER.

Right from the kickoff we felt the mild tension that you can only get from a meaningless game. Even so, friendly or not, neither of these Milanese giants or their fans want to lose to the other. It didn’t take too long for the reigning scudetto champs to stamp their mark on the game. El Principe scored the first as he took advantage of the 6 foot 7 inch Australian disaster wearing goalie gloves.

As the match proceeded both teams seemed lack some flare with both of their magic men leaving this summer. However, the match presented everything fans have grown to expect from these teams; dirty fouls by Gatuso and Zanetti running with the ball as if he was a 20-year-old (while his geriatric counterparts in red looked older than Uncle Elmer and we all know Uncle Elmer doesn’t get around as good as he used to with his arthritis and dementia. We really should put him in a home you know….sorry I’ll stop).

Diego Milito’s second goal near the end of the match (making the awkward Milan keeper look foolish again) put the game to rest. While both teams looked sub-par after selling off their respective creative geniuses this summer, the experienced boots of Milito made the difference. Inter seemed to show that they now have someone who could finish the ball, but lack even more creativity now that the Super Swede is gone. Milan showed that they also lack creativity but the remainder of their team is nowhere near the team they were in 2003 and 2007.

While I take pride in any day that Inter can make AC look foolish, I still worry about where the offensive ideas will come from this season. With the fans of the EPL and La Liga already heavily criticizing the play of Serie A, it looks like both Milan squads need to invest in some proven creative talent for their midfields. I know I would love to see one (or all) of the Oranje trio of Robben, Sniejder, and Van der Vaart at Inter. At the very least, the city of Milan can’t let Juventus show them up with the signing of Diego. So to sum it up, Inter rules, Serie A could use some more creative talent, and Juventus=Blah!