Inter-ness + Viola: Coppa, Take 2
(Jose + Cesare: "He likes me! He really likes me!")
After the exciting, high-intensity match over the weekend, this one was sort of a let down, as well as a bit of a tactical reversal. On Saturday, it was Fiorentina who sat in more and soaked up pressure with a less attacking lineup, whereas yesterday, Inter sent out what might have been their most defensive formation of the season, with Maicon and Mario out wide in was basically a five-man midfield sitting behind Sammy, while Cesare brought Marco and Vargas back and threw all his attacking power at Inter. Unfortunately for Fiorentina, they fell back into their thing where they don't play full matches and, apart from from the last 25 or so minutes of the first half, never really brought anything like what they had on the weekend. For their part, Inter were tactically sound and, except for a scary moment of Gila!ballet that was cleared by Lucio, mostly managed to contain Fiorentina for the first half, and then went and got the goal they needed in the second to put the match away.
So Inter are into the final against either Roma or Udine, and Fiorentina are back to tearing people apart (hopefully) in their quest for Europe.
Fiorentina 0-1 Inter [highlights|Gazzetta pagelle|Viola ratings table]
Scorer: Eto'o 57.
Fiorentina: 1 Frey; 29 De Silvestri, 14 Natali (19 Gobbi 75), 2 Kroldrup, 16 Felipe; 15 C.Zanetti, 18 Montolivo, 32 Marchionni (24 Santana 62), 8 Jovetic, 6 Vargas (39 Keirrison 62); 11 Gilardino.
Inter: 12 Julio Cesar; 2 Cordoba, 6 Lucio, 23 Materazzi, 26 Chivu; 13 Maicon, 8 Thiago Motta (17 Mariga 79), 4 J.Zanetti, 11 Muntari; 9 Eto'o (19 Cambiasso 64), 45 Balotelli (22 Milito 64).
Gangsta!Marko celebrates in his own, strange way about actually being called up for once.
Jose, meanwhile, was making nice with the mayor.
And making the face he always makes when people realize Branca is a robot.
What the?
He musta got lost on his way to Turin, or something.
Cesare arrives to much fanfare, about half of it in regard to the continued absence of his beige turtleneck.
Yes, yes, hello. I have people to see, will be back for tifosi!greetings in a second.
Jose: *checks to make sure Paddy is at the ready*
Jose: *REALIZES HE'S LATE, NOES!*
Oh, whew, he's still there.
Daw. NGL, I love that these two actually seem to like one another, beyond the shoe-trading, and the token "Yes, yes, he's an excellent coach" bs.
Particularly considering that it was a Coppa match, there were a TON of fans there.
Aw, jeez. That one guy was all excited for another balloon tifo, and missed the memo it'd been canceled.
Inter fans made the trip yet again, and squeezed themselves into the away corral. (OHAI WES.)
Vamos Tractor! Awesome.
At least before the match, everyone actually playing was very much of secondary importance, cos Borgonovo was there as a fan for the first time in forever.
There was a big, oddly horn-heavy pregame ceremony to honor him before kickoff.
And then he went up into the Curva, and spent the whole match there.
As you'd expect, the day apparently totally exhausted him, but he said it was worth it.
The tifosi, needless to say, prepared a fine welcome for him.
&hearts
Before the match, there was a minute of silence in memory of the victims of a recent train accident. (SM and Monty don't like touching.)
Viola boys, with the semi-fit Vargas and Marco back on the wings, Gila back up top, and LDS taking his turn at right back.
Inter's lineup, meanwhile, was a world of turnover and people in weird positions. Hurrah.
With Toldone hurt, the Coppa!keeping skipped Orlandoni and went back to JC, who didn't make any huge errors. \o/
And here we begin the weird position thing: IRC at right back.
Which, admittedly, makes more sense that IRC at left back, where he's already played on several terrifying occasions this season.
And he actually did fine -- he's got the pace to catch Jojo when he runs away, and with Maicon ahead of him (I know), was content to just sit in and defend. Whew.
Sit in, defend, and dance with Vargas. I wonder if either of them know how lucky they are.
... No, probably not thinking about that right now. Definitely not.
Vargas committed a bad foul on Mario, had a good early cross, and that's it. Then he was pissy when he went off, and now he and Cesare are in a fight. Super.
Little Marco and his not-so-little crotch issues came back, too, on the wing opposite Vargas.
(You could tell he'd been away for a while, because he seemed a little big confuzzled.)
He was playing his first match in a month, and you could tell -- he's basically just trying to work his way back into fitness, and was much easier to contain than he usually is.
Next to IRC, holding things down and/or smelling of Snausage, was Lucio.
And he, thankfully, settled down and played well.
In addition to working on some sweet choreography with Gila.
Matrix was next to him and, despite his clear terror of pretty much everything, had yet another solid match.
Damn. Speaking of working on sweet choreography!
Most of Lucio's and Matrix's time was spent with Gila.
I don't know if Gila was quiet because Lucio and Matrix were good, or if he was just quiet, but the result was good for Inter.
He made one great layoff for Jojo and had a good chance early, but other than that it was easy to forget he was out there. (For everyone but Matrix, that is.)
This chance, on the other hand, was not easy to forget.
At the back of the box, he went up and somehow took this cross out of air, with some of his amazingly graceless, nevertheless impressive, flexibility.
Once he got the ball down, his first touch was sort of struggle, but then he got it under control and put the shot right through JC's legs.
He couldn't get enough on it to strike it that well, though, and Lucio very calmly just played it back into play from behind JC.
Gila was mildly displeased, though he looked resigned more than enraged for most of the day.
Cristian McHat played at left back.
Apart from when decided to take his hat off and play with it IN HIS HAND, he did good.
(Somehow, that hat thing was Marco's fault, as was the card that followed.)
At one point he seemed to completely lose Gila, which was alarming since it meant the ball at Gila's feet in the middle of the box.
But it was all good, cos Chivu recovered amazingly, and got a perfect block in on Gila's shot. Totally meant to do that.
Cuchu got to rest for most of this match, so Javi sat in front of the defense instead of him.
While he may not read the game quite so magically, his thighs and hair are all larger than Cuchu's.
And he put in his usual, solid performance in Cuchu's spot, running around and doing his best to annoy Monty and Jojo and CZ.
(Cuchu made a late, guest appearance, primarily to show CZ what his hair future looked like.)
Though it was probably more down to him than anyone else, Jojo actually looked pretty human yesterday, for once.
He worked like he was always does, but this was one of those rare matches in which you rarely really notice him.
Probably not coincidentally, I don't remember seeing him quite so frustrated before, even though he did try to put a happy face on it as much as possible.
(The happy wasn't so convincing, though.)
(Definitely not convincing.)
Up ahead of Javi, strange thing were afoot.
Strange things like Maicon playing as a winger, rather than as a right back.
And he did well there -- didn't take stupid chances, defended well, and mostly played with discipline. \o/
Next to him was Sex Machine who, as he typically does when Wes doesn't play, had another good game.
He still got caught from behind a couple times, but he digs on playing a more creative role and showed why when he made a fantastic pass for Inter's goal.
At some point late in the first half, CZ and SM seemed to be having some sort of contest.
From what I could tell, it involve alternating kicking people, and then giving the ball away and falling down shrieking. (I think it was a draw.)
Mariga eventually replaced SM.
He was like he always is: Unpolished but fearless. Could be a whole, whole lot worse, y/y?
Next to SM in the center of the midfield was Muntari.
Who, when he wasn't getting randomly confused with Chivu, had his best match in ages.
He did give the ball away, but also made some good passes trying to open the field up, and was mostly under control. Hurrah!
Monty handled the stress of having both SM and Muntari near him admirably well.
While not crazy magic like he was over the weekend, he was still Fiorentina's best player, and the source of most of their ideas.
In addition to his creative powers, he had a couple dangerous strikes from distance and, according to the fan sites, was the only guy in purple to fight to the end.
You best have been watching, Lippi.
Monty was perhaps surprised to be running into this dude in the midfield.
(The dude in white, I mean.)
Though he screwed up a good chance early and some of the newspaper ratings were hard on him, IMO he actually played pretty well.
He tracked back defensively almost without fail, and also was very conscious of spreading play, and switching fields with the ball.
Not to mention the RIDICULOUS shot he hit from like 35 yards that Seb barely touched around the post.
Even more importantly, though, his hair was Very Tall Indeed.
He went off with about 25 minutes left, to a pat on the head from Sammy.
According to Goal.com, he "did not look pleased" when he went off.
(This is news, presumably, because everyone else loves to be replaced. Or something.)
I would say that Krol was disappointed to see Mario go, since he so seemed to enjoy trying to jump over him.
Turns out, though, that he got quite a lot more pleasure out of handling his replacement.
It was LDS' turn at right back, so he got to fight with Mario, and anyone else who came that way, including Diego.
Mario beat him really badly once, but the angle was short and he couldn't make anything of it.
And, after that happened, LDS settled down and was solid, if maybe less threatening going forward than he sometimes is.
Cesare: Not impressed.
Special: Not impressed.
Special's team: Also not impressed.
Jose: "Forget the match, Cuchu, LOOK AT WHAT THE FOURTH OFFICIAL DID TO MY SHOE!"
Cuchu: *blink* *blink*
While Special was worrying about his shoes, Cesare was wearing the suede ones he sometimes lends Jose, and being uncharacteristically animated in them.
And, also, taking a page out of the Special!book and being oddly forward with the fourth official.
Back at the ranch, Sammy started in an unusual position for his Inter life: Lead striker.
And, what do you know -- he worked his tail off, no matter how ragged things got, and took his goal perfectly.
He's now scored in all FOUR competitions Inter's been in this season, and was Gazzetta's MOTM for his general awesomeness. (Or the faces he convinced LDS to make.)
And it's not like his goal was a tap-in.
SM looked around, and chipped the ball over the top into the box.
Lucky for Sammy, Fiorentina's offside trap was sort of a disaster, so he was miles on, and took the ball down with his right foot.
He let it drop, waited for what seemed like hours, then put it in with the outside of his left foot.
Poor Seb.
Not a thing he could do.
Sammy, while no doubt in sympathy with the Frenchie, wasn't going to not prance because of it.
Matrix: "HEY! ANYONE WANT A HUG OVER HERE? ANYONE?? COME ON!"
Sammy: *continues his leisurely prance*
(Aw, Marco! Such tiny rage.)
Righto, huggers. Sammy say it's time.
Chivu: "THAT WAS SO AWESOME, I TOOK MY HAT OFF!"
Sammy: "Aw, thank you! I'll help you fasten it after, if you want."
Maicon: *protects the dent, just in case Lucio is coming*
(Not to worry, he was otherwise occupied, celebrating with Sex Machine.)
Alrighty. Sammy's done. Match can restart.
Erm. Or not.
Gila: "I'm tired."
Jojo: "Me too."
Gila: "Sigh."
Natali: "Whenever you're ready, you two. Time's a-wastin."
Seb: "Um, hello?"
Seb: "Do you want me to come up there, Gila? I will you know. Don't tempt me."
(Shortly after the goal, the lamenting, and the restart, Sammy went off, making sure to wave to the tifosi on the way.)
And then, about 25 minutes after that, the whistle blew and Inter were in the final.
Jojo was sad.
Krol's posture was fabulous.
IRC was hot.
I could be wrong here, but I think Javi was looking even more smug than usual.
Matrix, on the other hand, was just as quick to strip, and just as silly-looking as he always is in these situations.
Daw, Santana!
(Seb is so pissed he's chewing on a finger that just came out of the stinky hell of his glove. That poor, poor man.)
Up next, Inter a visit from Juve on Friday, while Fiorentina go to Atalanta.