For all of the turmoil and dark clouds covering Milan this
week, winning a trophy was a bit of a silver lining amidst the storm. Granted,
it was not a trophy that Galliani can count in his “most successful club in the
world” obsession, since this tournament is not sanctioned by FIFA. And granted,
it was won playing two 45 min. halves against a team that just got back from a
long Asian tour, and the other team who just played a competitive match on
Thursday in the Coppa Italia. So it’s more like the bright sale stickers they
put on food at the grocery store that is about to expire. It got our attention
but doesn’t mean it’s what you need. But after the week we’ve had, it was a
welcome distraction.
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| Enjoy it, it's the last trophy we'll lift for a while |
First, Milan met Juventus. Needless to say, Allegri greeting
Inzaghi was entertainingly awkward. It was obvious at kickoff that Juve were
already under the spell of
Slow Start Allegri™, but less than 15 minutes in, they started to look
like they remembered Conte. Despite having flashbacks listening to Allegri’s
weasel-y voice screaming at his team, I was able to watch as our boys played
better than they had all summer.
In the 17th minute, De Sciglio earned a yellow for a badass
tackle on Lichtsteiner. Two minutes later, he sent in a fantastic cross that
required the divine intervention of Evra on Honda, or it would have certainly
opened the scoring. Diego Lopez made a nice save at the other end, and Muntari
channeled his inner Boateng with a little Sky Jousting™. But in the 30th, the
De Sciglio sublime pass to Honda routine finally worked as Honda scored the
winning goal. 1-0 Milan.
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| Honda celebrates his goal |
Menez took a page out of Muntari’s playbook and took out
Pirlo. Because Milan can’t have too many killers in the squad, apparently. And
one of the biggest surprises for me was that Ess had a decent 45 minutes,
unlike the usual error-filled, molasses-speed matches he’s typically known for
at Milan. Oh, yeah, and we beat Allegri. In “regulation” (if you can call it
that.)
So after Juve beat the tired Sassuolo with Allegri fielding
their missing persons lineup, I think I saw drool forming on the mouths of
Milan fans, and something in the eyes of the Milan players… what is it called?
Oh, yeah, confidence. And maybe it
was a little of that confidence that urged the ref to give us the penalty for a
Terranova handball in the box just 7 minutes in. With that luck, Menez took the
penalty and converted it well. 1-0 Milan.
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| Menez celebrates his penalty conversion |
Now that confidence was palpable as Milan took control of
the game. So it wasn’t surprising when El Shaarawy scored in the 19th minute
after one of his classic speedy runs into the box. 2-0 Milan. With a
comfortable lead and that "confidence" stuff, the subs started flowing, with
Pazzini on for Menez in the 25th, Poli on for Ess in the 26th, the young
Mastour on for Honda in the 37th, and Zaccardo on for De Sciglio in the 38th.
Some of the players got some time, and we were able to hold on for the win. It
was also good to see Acerbi, who had also played their match vs. Juventus, sub on and get some
time against his former club and the club of his heart. After his battles with
cancer and changing clubs, it was great to see him healthy and playing again.
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| Il Faraone is back. |
So Milan won the Trofeo TIM, the sprint version of a
friendly, which will have absolutely no impact on how the team looks in a 90
minute competitive match. Honda was awarded the player of the match, a
well-deserved honor. With so much heartbreak, it is hard to know if I should
even be happy about this. For one thing, with the record of past Trofeo TIM winners, this
completely blows our totally realistic Scudetto hopes. But also, it just kind
of feels like when your mom takes you out for ice cream to try to cheer you up
after your dog died. It’s sad we can’t enjoy the moment more, even keeping in
perspective that it is just a friendly tournament. But Milan is a mess, and a
meaningless trophy in a friendly doesn’t clean up a mess that big overnight.
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| A-W-K-W-A-R-D |
However after the week we’ve had, it was nice to see the
guys play with heart and grinta. If we were the most rested, well that was
lucky, and we won the advantage of having the hour rest in between the two half
games as well. But they did work for it, played with a level of focus and determination I hadn’t seen
this summer. So after all of the darkness surrounding Balotelli’s departure
this week and the seven days left in the mercato, lifting a trophy of any kind
was indeed a silver lining.
This post inspired by Queen’s “We Are
the Champions”
Our next match is
Milan vs. Lazio
Sunday, August 31st • 18:00 CEST (12noon EDT)
Stay tuned for a special season preview Milan
Obsession Podcast tomorrow