Champions League/Chelsea/World Cup

The blog is beginning to lack in consistency of posts, and for this we apologize. Because of this we have a lot to talk about, first up: Champions League. Now I wished the worst for Inter Milan, mostly because Jose turned his back on Chelsea. He is the master tactician though, I will give him credit for that. But what will he do to Real Madrid? I think he'll turn them into a style the Madrid fans won't like, predictable, tough to break down, and boring. I'm a Chelsea fan, I loved when they would win, and its hard to dislike a winner, but eventually, just as at Chelsea, the Owner/fans will want not just to win, but to win with style and class. Back to the Champs league, Jose did well to beat three sides that outplayed him, Chelsea, Barca, and Bayern in that order. I think Jose was talking with the Greece 2004 team, they're coming out with a new book titled "How to win competitions you have no business winning". It is due out next summer, should be pretty good a lot of stuff to help your team over achieve. But credit to Milito, I didn't rate him too much before this year, but he was absolute quality.

Second on the docket, Chelsea winning the double, its fantastic to be on top once again right where we belong. At one point in the season I saw united 2 points clear, Chelsea we're eliminated from the Champions league by some scrubs and I thought to myself, not again. But now we have 2 trophies, United have 0, well 1 if you count Carling and in my opinion Carling only counts if you win the other three..

Now world cup is coming quickly, as I type I am watching Donnovan pick apart Turkey. If I were English I'd want to double team him for sure. English would love to have a winger of his quality, but instead they take their best Center Mid and play him out wide, Steven Gerrard for those of you who didn't get that one. I'm just saying, USA have a good team this year and not to jinx it but England should make sure they secure that second spot in the group stage.

World Cup predictions soon to come.

Matt

Barca v Inter Response

You know I watched this game hoping Barcelona would win, after Mourinho left Chelsea I decided I would hope the worst for him. But The fact of the matter is, he is a great manager, he did what he did to Chelsea in the round of 16 to Barcalona in the Semi-finals. These two things are no small feat, especially when you have a crap squad, compared to Chelsea and Barcalona of course. Inter has some players I admire, par example, Cambiasso, Sneijder, and the Brazilian who has been brilliant this year Lucio. I know I hated on him against Chelsea for diving, but the jobs he did shutting down Drogba and Ibrahimovic are admirable because that is not easy.

At times in this game you could see Inter going with the hardly used 7-2 formation. With a man down to Barcalona you would expect them to park the bus though. I was glad to see Barca score because that last 10 minutes was the only bit worth watching, unless you like watching Inter's ability to shift and close down in the danger areas. I wish the goal would've come about 20 minutes earlier, that would've been a real test of strength for the Italians. As a midfielder myself, as soon as I go down a man against Barcalona I would think, here goes the longest 60 minutes of my life. Credit to Inter, they pulled it off and I would bet they will take the final as well. Robben might have a thing or two to say, but away goals don't count in the final so they might be in for it.

Matt