franz beckenbauer cup 2008...
FC Bayern München vs FC Internazionale di Milan: 0-1
(Mancini 52')
Bayern: Rensing - Lucio, Demichelis (Kroos 21'), van Buyten - Lell, van Bommel, Lahm - Altintop (Jansen (68'), Zé Roberto (Ottl 68') - Klose (Müller 74'), Podolski
Inter: Toldo -
Maicon, Burdisso, Cambiasso, Maxwell - Stanković (Dacourt 81') - Zanetti (Santon 90'), Muntari (Suazo 82'), Figo (Pelé 66') - Mancini (Balotelli 78'), Adriano (Crespo 66')
Before I talk about the game, let me just say something about José Mourinho. Seriously, I wouldn't be able to work with this man - at least not in a position that requires me taking orders from him. The moment he opens his mouth to speak, I am reminded of "I'm on Setanta Sports" because he talks EXACTLY like that (only without using vocabulary like "fantastic", "amazing" and "incredible" to describe himself), and I nearly died laughing during the interview they showed before the game in which he talks about working with Michael Ballack German players and how he'd like some of them at Inter. But he did look pretty gorgeous in that white Inter sweater. Ah well. XD I was also amused to learn that in the short time he's been at Inter, he's already managed to piss off Juve's coach. XDD
The game. Some of you might remember last year's Franz Beckenbauer Cup, which at the same time was Mehmet Scholl's farewell game. Back then, we lost 0-1 against Barcelona, who played with their best squad. Today, we lost 0-1 against Inter, who had a crippled squad due to their injury problems (Julio Cesar, Materazzi, Cruz, Ibrahimović) and were behind in training as the Serie A doesn't start before the end of August. Of course, the cup is nothing more than a matter of prestige, and preseason friendlies usually don't provide with arguments for season predictions, but today's game had some good moments that I wouldn't mind seeing in the league, the DFB Cup and the CL. During the first 20 minutes, Bayern created lots of pressure and managed to advance several times, especially thanks to accurate, quick passes (except for Podolski, who always hit an opponent). That's something I missed during the previous friendlies against Köln and Dortmund, so I'm glad to see they're dealing with that. I was especially intrigued about Bayern's formation, because I had never seen them play like that before and I do think it could work. Unfortunately, Demichelis had to be subbed in the 21st minute after a duel with Adriano, and since we don't have any more centrebacks, we had to reinforce our midfield and pull Lahm and Lell back. Significantly, the match slowed down after that and we didn't have that many chances anymore.
Inter had the first real chance of the game. In the 18th minute, Adriano sent a well-aimed, flat free kick towards Bayern's goal, but Rensing parried it well. Bayern's first (and probably only) real chance in the first half was Altintop's distance shot in the 23rd minute that passed the goal by only a couple of feet. Klose was completely invisible from the pre-match line-up to the 37th minute, when Luis Figo fouled him. Am I the only one who thinks that we have a striker problem? Toni is injured, Klose is lightyears away from his best form, Podolski seems to be on strike (he's doing so badly that I've come to believe it's deliberate), and the only one who seems to be doing his job is Thomas Müller, a reserves player. And we're supposed to survive three tournaments with that? I don't think so. Some reinforcement (that is not Mario Gomez - I really don't want him at Bayern) is in order, I believe. You reading this, Klinsmann?
Anyway. The only other remarkable thing in the first half was the feat Adriano pulled off in the 38th minute, when he stopped the ball with his foot and spun around to dodge an opponent (like Kaká did in one of those Adidas Dream Big videos). Unfortunately, he was stopped in a rather uncouth manner by van Bommel.
In the 52nd minute, we were rewarded for our more or less static play (and some holes in the midfield). Zé Roberto allowed Figo to pass the ball forward to Mancini, Lucio was miles away from him, and Rensing had no chance to catch the ball that was aimed towards the back post. After that, the flow disappeared from the game entirely and shifted to the substitutions, of which there were a lot. Kroos made two more chances for Bayern with direct, flat shots on goal, but Toldo parried them both.
On the whole, Bayern's performance wasn't as horrible as in their previous games (not talking about the one against Urawa Red Diamonds, in which they decided to play well just because I wasn't watching it), but there's still a lot to do, and it's obvious how much we're missing Ribéry and Toni. (And it's also obvious how much of a liability Lucio is when there aren't two more centrebacks on the pitch to make up for his mistakes. Van Buyten did an excellent job, but we still got a goal.) Unfortunately, we won't really have a better squad than this for our first competitive fixture of this season, next Sunday's DFB Cup game against 3rd league Rot-Weiß Erfurt. Maybe Schweinsteiger will have recovered from his flu back then and join the squad again, but I'm not sure if I can call that improvement. And Erfurt have played two competitive fixtures in the 3rd league already, which means they might be ahead of us in matters of fitness and tactics. Let's hope there won't be a repetition (or even worse) of Burghausen... *bites nails*
Okay, that was a lot about Bayern now. What can I say about Inter? I thought they were pretty good. The second half was a bit too confusing with all the substitutions, but from what I saw, they were very disciplined, clearly following Mourinho's tactics. The absence of Ibrahimović wasn't as blatant as the absence of Luca Toni on the other side, Mancini did a good job and Adriano showed great effort (which surprised me, to be honest). I was a bit o__O when I saw Cambiasso with Burdisso in the centre of Inter's defense, but Cuchu was surprisingly solid back there, and Burdisso didn't make any mistakes either. Stanković was as invisible as Klose, Figo seemed to put most of his energy into fighting a private battle with van Bommel, but other than that, I think Inter did well. It might be exaggerated to say that Inter totally deserved to win this because they were on the same level as Bayern for most of the game, but I think it's a fair victory.
(Mancini 52')
Bayern: Rensing - Lucio, Demichelis (Kroos 21'), van Buyten - Lell, van Bommel, Lahm - Altintop (Jansen (68'), Zé Roberto (Ottl 68') - Klose (Müller 74'), Podolski
Inter: Toldo -
Maicon, Burdisso, Cambiasso, Maxwell - Stanković (Dacourt 81') - Zanetti (Santon 90'), Muntari (Suazo 82'), Figo (Pelé 66') - Mancini (Balotelli 78'), Adriano (Crespo 66')
Before I talk about the game, let me just say something about José Mourinho. Seriously, I wouldn't be able to work with this man - at least not in a position that requires me taking orders from him. The moment he opens his mouth to speak, I am reminded of "I'm on Setanta Sports" because he talks EXACTLY like that (only without using vocabulary like "fantastic", "amazing" and "incredible" to describe himself), and I nearly died laughing during the interview they showed before the game in which he talks about working with Michael Ballack German players and how he'd like some of them at Inter. But he did look pretty gorgeous in that white Inter sweater. Ah well. XD I was also amused to learn that in the short time he's been at Inter, he's already managed to piss off Juve's coach. XDD
The game. Some of you might remember last year's Franz Beckenbauer Cup, which at the same time was Mehmet Scholl's farewell game. Back then, we lost 0-1 against Barcelona, who played with their best squad. Today, we lost 0-1 against Inter, who had a crippled squad due to their injury problems (Julio Cesar, Materazzi, Cruz, Ibrahimović) and were behind in training as the Serie A doesn't start before the end of August. Of course, the cup is nothing more than a matter of prestige, and preseason friendlies usually don't provide with arguments for season predictions, but today's game had some good moments that I wouldn't mind seeing in the league, the DFB Cup and the CL. During the first 20 minutes, Bayern created lots of pressure and managed to advance several times, especially thanks to accurate, quick passes (except for Podolski, who always hit an opponent). That's something I missed during the previous friendlies against Köln and Dortmund, so I'm glad to see they're dealing with that. I was especially intrigued about Bayern's formation, because I had never seen them play like that before and I do think it could work. Unfortunately, Demichelis had to be subbed in the 21st minute after a duel with Adriano, and since we don't have any more centrebacks, we had to reinforce our midfield and pull Lahm and Lell back. Significantly, the match slowed down after that and we didn't have that many chances anymore.
Inter had the first real chance of the game. In the 18th minute, Adriano sent a well-aimed, flat free kick towards Bayern's goal, but Rensing parried it well. Bayern's first (and probably only) real chance in the first half was Altintop's distance shot in the 23rd minute that passed the goal by only a couple of feet. Klose was completely invisible from the pre-match line-up to the 37th minute, when Luis Figo fouled him. Am I the only one who thinks that we have a striker problem? Toni is injured, Klose is lightyears away from his best form, Podolski seems to be on strike (he's doing so badly that I've come to believe it's deliberate), and the only one who seems to be doing his job is Thomas Müller, a reserves player. And we're supposed to survive three tournaments with that? I don't think so. Some reinforcement (that is not Mario Gomez - I really don't want him at Bayern) is in order, I believe. You reading this, Klinsmann?
Anyway. The only other remarkable thing in the first half was the feat Adriano pulled off in the 38th minute, when he stopped the ball with his foot and spun around to dodge an opponent (like Kaká did in one of those Adidas Dream Big videos). Unfortunately, he was stopped in a rather uncouth manner by van Bommel.
In the 52nd minute, we were rewarded for our more or less static play (and some holes in the midfield). Zé Roberto allowed Figo to pass the ball forward to Mancini, Lucio was miles away from him, and Rensing had no chance to catch the ball that was aimed towards the back post. After that, the flow disappeared from the game entirely and shifted to the substitutions, of which there were a lot. Kroos made two more chances for Bayern with direct, flat shots on goal, but Toldo parried them both.
On the whole, Bayern's performance wasn't as horrible as in their previous games (not talking about the one against Urawa Red Diamonds, in which they decided to play well just because I wasn't watching it), but there's still a lot to do, and it's obvious how much we're missing Ribéry and Toni. (And it's also obvious how much of a liability Lucio is when there aren't two more centrebacks on the pitch to make up for his mistakes. Van Buyten did an excellent job, but we still got a goal.) Unfortunately, we won't really have a better squad than this for our first competitive fixture of this season, next Sunday's DFB Cup game against 3rd league Rot-Weiß Erfurt. Maybe Schweinsteiger will have recovered from his flu back then and join the squad again, but I'm not sure if I can call that improvement. And Erfurt have played two competitive fixtures in the 3rd league already, which means they might be ahead of us in matters of fitness and tactics. Let's hope there won't be a repetition (or even worse) of Burghausen... *bites nails*
Okay, that was a lot about Bayern now. What can I say about Inter? I thought they were pretty good. The second half was a bit too confusing with all the substitutions, but from what I saw, they were very disciplined, clearly following Mourinho's tactics. The absence of Ibrahimović wasn't as blatant as the absence of Luca Toni on the other side, Mancini did a good job and Adriano showed great effort (which surprised me, to be honest). I was a bit o__O when I saw Cambiasso with Burdisso in the centre of Inter's defense, but Cuchu was surprisingly solid back there, and Burdisso didn't make any mistakes either. Stanković was as invisible as Klose, Figo seemed to put most of his energy into fighting a private battle with van Bommel, but other than that, I think Inter did well. It might be exaggerated to say that Inter totally deserved to win this because they were on the same level as Bayern for most of the game, but I think it's a fair victory.