I’ll
be the first to admit that I have played the part of Chicken Little, of “The
sky is falling” fame, since the end of the season. To be fair, losing 12 of
your highest quality players all at once is a bit of a natural disaster of
comparable proportions. But I wasn’t as concerned with having a
Scudetto-winning or Champions League contending team this season, my concerns
are for the future of the club in general. People criticize those sounding the
alarm, but the alarm finally got through to some people watching the match
tonight. Nothing gets through to people like a 5-1 loss.
Unfortunately,
with an alarm like this, people miss the other half of what was good about
tonight. Like Allegri going with the new formation, for example. Or the news
today of signing Cristian Zapata, who couldn’t come a minute too soon. There
were a few bright spots tonight, but if you sit back and think about it, this
was really to be expected. I don’t have the figures in front of me, but think
of the transfer values of the Real Madrid players vs. the Milan players, and
there are probably plenty of them that are worth at least 5-10 times as much.
Money doesn’t buy a team, but you also get what you pay for. Tonight wasn’t a
disaster, it was Allegri’s chance to try everyone out, give everyone some
minutes, and show the world what a Budget Milan™ looks like.
We
started out getting absolutely dominated by Real Madrid. They controlled the
game, they took all of the shots. Seeing Abbiati back between the sticks again
for the first time since the derby was very nice, and he had some great saves,
like in the 8th minute and again in the 37thm, to shut down Cristiano Ronaldo.
Speaking of Cristiano Ronaldo, at one point, my commentator said “Good strong and in your
face defending from Daniele Bonera” when he was defending him. If I learned one
thing tonight, it’s that Bonera IS a world class defender. He can only defend
against the best two strikers in the world.
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| Defender of Ballon d'or candidates only |
The
other one who could defend was Abate. He singlehandedly took Coentrao out of
the game. His counterpart, on the other hand, inspired this thought provoking
comment from the commentators: “It’s almost as if Antonini wasn’t there.” So a
typical night for him. And to quote someone on Twitter (sorry, I can’t find who
it was!) “Seeing Acerbi chasing Di Maria almost gave me cancer.” Considering
their comparable values, wages, and experience levels, I’d say we should all be
on chemotherapy already. We lost 2 of the best center backs in the world, and
started Bonera and a Serie B player with 17 Serie A games under his belt. We
had to know the sky would be falling.
And
yet, we kept Real Madrid scoreless, at least until the 24th. Abbiati’s glove
just brushed an exquisitely beautiful kick from Di Maria. 1-0 Real Madrid. But
we didn’t take that one lying down. Despite Nocerino’s yellow in the 27th, we
managed to counterattack a few times, including a shot by none other than
Flamini. Then in the 33rd, we saw the quality and hope for our squad:
Nocerino’s immense one-touch assist to Robinho, who also one-touched it right
into goal. 1-1 to the half. Casillas was probably left with his mouth wide open
on that one, and here I give you the other part of that alarm: we may be a shell
of the team we were, but we still have quality. And quality = hope. That goal
was every bit as beautiful and brilliant as Di Maria’s strike, and think of how
cheap we got Nocerino for! Plus, I didn’t see any Real Madrid scorers go over
to a young girl and kiss her hand like Robinho. Milan has certainly not lost
our class.
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| Abate was in "not on my watch"mode, much to Coentrao's dismay |
Okay,
so Allegri, who NEVER subs, not even when a player is actually dead on the
pitch, made FIVE substitutions at the half: Mesbah on for Antonini, El Shaarawy
on for Cassano, Amelia on for Abbiati, De Sciglio on for Abate, and Yepes on
for Acerbi. While each individually can be praised or criticized (or for most
of them both,) it showed the disparity between our first team and our bench,
and we were no longer able to hold off the Real Madrid attack. But to be fair,
Higuain also came on at the half, and was monstrous for them, taking their
attack up a notch.
And
so it was, that in the 49th minute, Cristiano Ronaldo scored. 2-1 Real Madrid.
While my commentators were sharing facts about Kaka & Ronaldo’s Twitter
accounts, Boateng earned himself a yellow. In the 56th, Özil’s free kick
rebounded off of the wall, but stayed in the area for a couple of dangerous
chances. But Amelia had the lucky posts to help him out on this one.
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| His contributions are often overlooked, a serious injury certainly would not be. |
The
rest of the substitutions, if I caught them all, were as follows: 59th Constant
on for Flamini and Urby on for Boateng. In the 69th, Ambrosini came off injured
(take a deep breath, he’s still alive) and Traoré came on for him. And in the
78th, Valoti came on for Nocerino. Constant was perhaps the most impressive of
these subs, as he came on and was fearlessly attacking, had some nice chances,
too. One has to think, though, with
Urby’s earlier preseason performances, that Allegri was looking to find other
gems to solidify his first team, and I am going to make an unpopular statement
here and say that Urby should start ahead of Boateng, at least until the latter
finds his form in this Budget Milan™ squad.
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| Kaká was promised if he came to Milan, he wouldn't have to face Abate tonight. |
Kaká
came on in the 62nd, and made a huge difference. To the tune of assisting on
all 3 goals that came after that. One could see how much of a difference a
solitary quality player like that could make for us. First from Higuain to him
to Cristiano Ronaldo in the 66th, that is how you do it, boys. 3-1 Real Madrid.
Then, despite a huge save in the 80th by Amelia, just one minute later, he sent
the ball to Sergio Ramos for the 4th Madrid goal on the night, 4-1 Real Madrid.
Finally, in the 89th, an assist to the young Callejon to make it 5-1 Real
Madrid. Ouch.
But
take a deep breath. Mourinho fielded a team to win. He put on his starters and
made very few changes until late in the game. Allegri intentionally utilized
the match to get a look at what everyone could do. Pair up any two players that
faced off against each other, and 9.5 times out of 10 Milan players were
outclassed, often by a lot. But the first half team kept things level. That
defense we all have ulcers about only conceded one goal. Against a team that is
way ahead of us in quality. Are you sure the sky is falling, or did tonight
actually demonstrate that we’re better than we thought? Don’t look at the
scoreline, look between the goals. We’re better than I thought, that’s for
sure. And with Galliani’s ninja move for Zapata today, it shows things are
likely to get better rather than worse before August 31st.
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| Galliani showing he's serious about youth, finding affordable replacements for the senators. |
While I will still lose sleep over the long-term management issues we have, this friendly taught me even more than the others where we won that we have the foundations of a successful team, even if some of the pieces are missing or need to finish being formed. This new Budget Milan™ that Allegri said could play “efficient” football just might make those goals of top 3 in the league and getting out of the group stage of the Champions League. If the sky is falling, our boys are not going to let it touch the earth, even if it will rest a little lower than we’re used to. Besides, it was just a friendly. On a baseball field, in a country where Little League baseball preempted two European football powers facing off in front of a record-smashing 50,000 people in that Stadium. With all of that stacked against us, who could take anything seriously?
This post inspired by the music of
Ludo’s “Love Me Dead”