As illustrious and highly esteemed as Silvio himself, the
Trofeo Berlusconi is always a riveting, highly watched match between the
world’s greatest teams. Oh wait, my bad. The Trofeo Berlusconi is a meaningless
friendly that was once a preseason match, but has now been bumped to October or
November because of the more lucrative summer friendlies that are now
available. In fact, Milan wisely chose to play it the same day as Champions League
matches for the second year running. Which means neither team are playing in
Europe, and you won’t even be able to find a stream. As if you’d want to.
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| Just give yourself a trophy, Silvio, and then fix Milan or get out. |
The Trofeo Berlusconi is actually the Trofeo
Luigi Berlusconi, a match Silvio created in honor of his father. It
used to be played preseason, and the concept was for Milan to play the
Champions League winners every year, but then it turned into a Milan vs.
Juventus thing for the longest time. Now it’s a Milan vs. any team that will be
seen on the pitch with us, and the irony of now scheduling it during Champions
League matches is not lost on me. Perhaps they were trying to have a midweek
match to distract fans, but nothing says “fallen from grace” louder than trying
to compete with the competition you should be in.
As Juventus are actually playing in said Champions League on Wednesday, they were obviously unavailable. So why not get the
team that is most readily available, our cross-town rivals instead? I mean they
are actually very competitive in the league this year, so a midweek
butt-kicking by the team we hate the most sounds like a great way to remember
dear old dad.
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| He's supposedly a liefelong Milanista, but it won't stop him from hurting us on Wednesday |
There is one plus to this madness: the
curse of the Berlusconi Trophy. It is well known that whomever wins the
Berlusconi Trophy does not go on to
win the Scudetto that season. Considering Milan aren’t even contenders, we can
win a trophy and not worry about the curse. Like last year, when
we beat San Lorenzo. However, if Inter win the trophy, we can take
solace that they then will definitely not win the Scudetto, either. So it’s
kind of a win-win for Milan. If you call playing ameaningless friendly midweek and risking injuries to try
to win a trophy your own team owner bought winning, that is.
We did beat Inter twice in meaningless friendlies in the
summer, so I suppose we could make it three times. But given the players they
acquired since then and the form they have, it’s unlikely. Also, Milan are like
a blind man trying to find his own foot in the dark, we’re carrying a few high
profile injuries, experimenting with tactics, and mostly sucking the life out
of every Milan fan on the planet. If we get excited about this match because
there’s a useless trophy involved, I will actually be sad. Winning to beat
those cheating, scum-sucking, slimy, useless snakes, on the other hand, is
something I can totally get behind.
Inter
fans portraying Juve as thieves is like Berlusconi portraying himself to be the
Pope.
Except Berlusconi knows better.
#DerbyDItalia
—
Milan Obsession (@milanobsession) October
18, 2015
For once I have absolutely no clue as to which system
Mihajlovic will play, or who will start. It would certainly be a great game to
give the Mexes’ and the Nocerinos of this world a run out. But with the media
more consistently expecting Milan to pay a fourth coaches’ salary should
Miahjlovic be sacked, he may use this match to try a new system or tweak an
existing one, with mostly starters since we are knee deep into the season
already. We face a dangerous Sassuolo side on Sunday, so it’s hard to know if
he’ll experiment with the starters or rest them, or maybe a little of both.
One thing is for sure, even the most ardent Milan fans will
likely be keeping at least one eye towards the Champions League games. Because it’s
less painful to think about the coefficient than it is to watch Milan play
these days, even if it’s just a friendly. Also, it won’t be hard to find the
Champions League games, whereas we’ll be lucky to find a way to watch the
treasured Trofeo Berlusconi match, and even luckier to still have our lives and
our sanity after having seen it. Poor Luigi, it must be awful to be remembered
like this.
This post inspired by the music of
the Hollywood Vampires
Our next match is the world renowned
Trofeo Luigi Berlusconi
Milan vs. Inter
Wednesday, October 21 • 18:00 CEST (12noon EDT)
This match will NOT be shown LIVE in the U.S.