Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about families and spending time
with them and such. But when the rich brother gets richer and the poor brother
loses everything he has and gets even more poor, it’s more tragedy than football.
So even if it’s just a friendly, tomorrow’s match in Dubai proves to be a very
painful family reunion for Milan fans… both on and off the pitch.
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| Like most family reunions, embracing beneath the Champions League trophy |
In this case, our beloved Carlo Ancelotti’s overachieving
team in both spending and in football has also just won its 18th International
title at the Club World Cup, tying Boca Juniors and… wait for it… Milan. This
after him winning the club's record tenth Champions League title. Ancelotti himself as a manager has
won the Champions League twice (and been a runner up) with Milan as well as having won two European
Cups with Milan as a player. Real Madrid come into this match at the top of La Liga,
one point ahead of their title-wealthy cousins, Barcelona. It must be tough to
be both wealthy and successful.
Milan wouldn’t know about either one of those in recent years. We come into
the match as the poor little brother, with Pippo Inzaghi, one of the players
who gave Ancelotti his other two Champions League titles as manager. Sure, Milan have
won seven Champions League titles, second only to Real Madrid. But that was in
the days that we could afford a manager like Carlo Ancelotti.
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| To be fair, the hand-me-down has served us quite well. |
At least he threw us a bone, sending Diego Lopez our way
when he was pushed out at Real Madrid. Still, Milan come into this “friendly”
in seventh place in Serie A, which is a struggling league in and of itself. To
make matters worse, Galliani has stopped begging for free transfers and is now
begging for free transfer swaps, making Milan appear to be the most pathetic
and impoverished European team out there (and that includes Parma, who were
recently docked a point because they couldn’t pay their players’ wages.)
But whatever about comparing the two clubs and their polar
opposite situations, this is going to be about the football, right? Well it’s a
friendly, so who knows what it will be like? I expect to see a lot of bench
players get time, but the fans will want to see the stars, too, so expect Zio
Carletto to offer them a few minutes as well. (Milan, of course doesn’t have any
stars, really more just fan favorites, so hopefully the fans will see some of
those.) All I know is that if you compare Cristiano Ronaldo and Milan
keeper Michael Agazzi, there are more than universes between them. Kind of like
comparing billionaire Silvio Berlusconi’s bank accounts with mine.
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| Umm... Galliani? The bicycle/clothes thing was just supposed to be an analogy. |
While both teams have a rich history, only one is actually
rich on and off the pitch right now. With 17 Champions League trophies between
them, you would expect to see some decent football. But that would only be if you
haven’t followed Milan lately. At least it will be nice to see
Ancelotti and Inzaghi together, and maybe to see some of our players that
haven’t been getting much time if any get a little run out. Like a lot of
family reunions, it’s probably best to keep expectations low on this one. After
all, when the rich Spanish brother pulls up in his Lamborghini with his Armani
suit and surgically enhanced WAG, there’s not a lot that the poor Italian
brother can do to hide his rusty old bicycle and his threadbare clothes.
Friendly or not, the differences in fortunes are going to show on the pitch, so
don’t lose too much sleep on this one (especially if the game is at 8am like it
is for me here.) Remember, family reunions can be both painful and overrated.
This post inspired by the music of
Sister Sledge’s “We are Family”
Real Madrid vs. Milan
Tuesday, December 30 • 17:00 CET (11am EST)
This match is being shown on BeIN Sport in the U.S.
Check comments for stream links ahead of the match