Internazionale Main Thread II

[RomaShield27]

Morbo, 'El Mega Duelo' and Mourinho
– Phil Minshull | 07:30 UK time, Tuesday, 15 September 2009

The undoubted eye-catcher of the opening round of the Champions League group stages is Barcelona's visit to Inter Milan. With a cast of stars of the world game and characters like Jose Mourinho basking in the limelight, it's a game that has, as the Spanish would say, plenty of morbo about it.

As Phil Ball said in his excellent book with the same title that came out a few years ago, it's a word that entails a lot of slippery little notions that just won't rub shoulders with a convenient English synonym.

A sense of what it may entail can be grasped by just looking at El Mundo Deportivo's front page on Monday. The Barcelona-based - and Barcelona-biased - daily sports newspaper naturally focused on the impending battle for supremacy between Barca's Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Inter's Samuel Eto'o, who swapped sides during the summer.

"Eto'o-Ibra, El Mega Duelo," trumpeted its headline. "The champion will make its debut in Milan in a clash con morbo between the two best number nines". (By the way, that's me partially translating the last sentence.)

You get the idea. This isn't a Spanish lesson but morbo in a footballing context means a game with that bit extra about it. There's been plenty written about how both Ibrahimovic and Eto'o fell out of love with the clubs where they had been previously cherished.

Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola almost simultaneously decided that the time was right to get rid of their two dressing room prima donnas. Both strikers scored for their new clubs at the weekend and have since wasted no time in telling the Spanish and Italian media about how much it would mean for them to get one over their old employers in the San Siro on Wednesday.

Then there is also the issue of Mourinho entertaining the club with whom he has had the quintessential love-hate relationship. He spent four years at Barca in the late 1990s, starting off as a translator and coaching dogsbody for Bobby Robson and stayed on in a more formal role as an assistant coach to his successor Louis van Gaal until 2000.

In that era Mourinho was a well-liked, if slightly peripheral, figure at the club. But he managed to build up a useful network of contacts including Johan Cruyff, who remains a hugely influential figure behind the scenes, and current Barca president Joan Laporta. Laporta at the time was an ambitious young lawyer battling against Barca's board of directors.

After winning the Portuguese double and also the Uefa Cup with Porto in 2003, Mourinho could have easily ended up back at Barca, when Frank Rijkaard hit a rocky patch during the 2003-04 season. Winning the Champions League in 2004 continued to keep Mourinho's name in the frame whenever there was debate about who would take over from Rijkaard.

The next part of the story is well-known. Rather than hop across the Iberian peninsula, Mourinho decided to gorge himself on Roman Abramovich's largesse. Nevertheless, there was still an enduring sense that one day Mourinho would still end up back at Barca, at least until several bad-tempered Champions League matches in 2005 and 2006.

The affection of the cules - the local name for Barcelona fans - for "The Special One" declined rapidly after Mourinho infamously decided to get up close and personal with Rijkaard.

"When I saw Rijkaard enter the referee's changing-room at half-time I couldn't believe it. When Drogba was sent off I wasn't surprised," said the then Chelsea manager after the Barca v Chelsea fixture in 2005.

The following season, Mourinho made the unforgivable mistake of publicly accusing the new Barca icon of trying to fool the referee.

"Can Messi be suspended for acting? Barcelona is a cultural city with many theatres and this boy has learned very well," said Mourinho, after his side had been beaten by Barca 2-1 at Stamford Bridge.

At the start of last season, his name still cropped up in the media as one of the contenders for the vacant Barca job. However, his old friend Laporta decided not to further endanger his fragile relationship with the Barca fans - a vote of no confidence against him received 60% support in the summer of 2008 - opting instead for the unproven option of the Catalan born-and-bred reserve team coach Guardiola.

The gamble paid off spectacularly as Guardiola went on to do the unprecedented triplete last season and the chances of Mourinho ever being employed again at the Camp Nou now seem remote.

The current Barca reserve team coach Luis Enrique Martinez - another ex-player and local hero despite five seasons in his early career being spent at bitter rivals Real Madrid - is also being groomed to follow in the footsteps of Guardiola, leaving Mourinho looking like he'll permanently be on the outside but seemingly happy to play the role of agent provocateur-at-large to the Catalans.

[Totally FRANK]

We did not lose and won a point against the best team in the world which in itself is a positive result but we played well especially in the first half. In the second half we were quite bad as we lost possession quite easily. May be because the fitness levels of Sneijder and other in midfield dropped but overall I am satisfied with the way the team is playing. Lucio and in particular Samuel were rocks at the back. Not to forget Chivu who was MOM in my opinion as he nullified Messi and made some superb last ditch tackles.

I thought Milito would convert at least one of the chances he got which he usually does but bad luck I suppose. Anyway one point gained IMO.

[red]

Very good defensive display from Inter.

If Eto'o, Milito and Sneijder had been a bit smarter, Inter could have taken advantage of the space in behind Barca and possibly won the game.

[Dejan-Stankovic]

[Messinterista]

[maro]

I think the only positive an Interista can take out of that game is the knowledge that had Ibra and Eto'o been on different sides it would have been a pasting. How you think you build confidence by playing scared in your own stadium is beyond me. What was the difference from the first tie against ManUre last season?

[Dejan-Stankovic]

Take into consideration we're playing the world champions and literally half our team has only played 4 games together, how can you see this as anything but a positive result? I don't think any of us expected a win but keeping them scoreless is a trophy in itself, especially since they had a number of half chances but how many huge saves did Cesar need to make? He didn't look bothered at all for most of the night imo.

And playing scared? Rubbish. The only time we threw all players behind the ball was at about the 80th minute mark when there was nothing else we could do as their quality was taking over. We also had at least 4 - 5 good chances to score.

What did you expect? Us to beat them 7 - 1? This is a team in progress and regardless of how much talent we've got, we were never going to go out there and play them off the park, especially not when the team is still gelling.

[maro]

Wimp. You watch. Lomba's going to come on here today and tell you how it really is - Moaninho is a poussez who only knows how to turn all those millions of attacking talent into a cowering, timid, defensive pile of turd.

[Lombardiamia]

[zafferano]

[Messinterista]

[Dejan-Stankovic]

[zafferano]

[Lombardiamia]

[Totally FRANK]

[Dejan-Stankovic]

[Totally FRANK]

‘Strong’ Inter impress Guardiola
Thursday 17 September, 2009
Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola has praised Inter after last night’s 0-0 Champions League draw at the Giuseppe Meazza.

“I compliment Inter,â€

[Lombardiamia]

As I said, the result is not my point. We could have got a scrappy win or a scrappy loss, that is not the point. What I would like this team to do is to be less fearsome of its opponents. How many times have we been bossed around cause we feared our opposition? Yesterday was yet another game in which we showed only how well we could park our bus infront of goal. I might be wrong, but I would have much preffered to lose 1-0 yesterday and come out of this match saying wow, we looked almost on par with them. Maybe I'm dreaming, maybe my expectations are too high, but how can we get further in this competition then previous years if we keep fearing our opposition? Hopefully with the return to full fitness of Stankovic & Cambiasso + a better gelling of our tactics will make us a better team, but we're still a step or two behind EPL opposition. Not to mention Barca IMO.

[red]

I think you're being a bit harsh, Lomba.

If you attack Barca and give them space, you will get taken apart.

Inter got their tactics right last night and all that was lacking was a little composure on the break to take advantage of the space Barca leave in behind.

The CL Final shows what happens if you play Barca at their own game, and that Man Utd team was better than the current Inter team is.


I don't think there is another team in the world right now that Mourinho would play so negatively against.

[Dejan-Stankovic]

The Barca game should be seen as an experience, a positive one at that, for the new Inter. All the experience we gained last year in the CL is gone and we're starting again. This team from the midfield forward is not even remotely recognizable to last season and therefore, all the comparisons to last year are irrelevant now. That's exactly what happens when you change your team and that's exactly why Mou was brought in. How long did it take Chelsea to become the team it is because of all the chopping and changing? That's the same scenario we're looking at.

And let's be honest here; we're in pot 2. No CL contender can be in pot 2 so we're back to the drawing board and that's why our first experience with the new team up against the best team in the world was so positive. We'll get a better picture on how good we are after the 6 group games and our performance in the knockout stages. Then, you can start to improve next season.