Rafa out at Inter?

Looks like the Spaniard has once again found a way to shoot his way out of a job, granted with Liverpool it took him a few seasons to accomplish the feat. Rumor have it that former Milan manager and player Leonardo will be tapped to replace Rafa at Inter. Ah Rafa, what are you thinking?

Not sure what he could expect next in terms of a job, he left Liverpool in shambles and clearly left in a blaze of ignominy. Now he throws down the gauntlet at Inter and it appears that ownership might just call him out on his threats. The one once seen as a rising managerial star - from his days at Valencia. Has since appeared to be a manager that has lost his way, cannot manage for the long haul, complains more than Arsene Wenger and lives off 15 minutes of Champions League insanity. Again it is not as if Inter's cupboard is bare - Eto'o, Sneijder, Milito, Cesar, Lucio to name a few - too bad the man trying to manage this bunch is having so many difficulties. So as he did with Liverpool, he will blame the fact he has no money to go out and buy players and that is why he is no succeeding.

I think Rafa will head back to Spain. He will manage one of the second tier sides since Real and Barcelona have managers in place. I think that Rafa might be better suited for a Valencia or a Villarreal - solid clubs with resources, talent, fan base and strong ownership, but in the shadows of Real and Barca so not such a bright light nor a need for titles to be considered successful. Rafa never should have taken this role, following in the footsteps of The Special one, the season after a treble would have been a hard act to follow for any manager, but for one of Rafa's temperament a losing cause.  I should feel bad for Rafa but  I don't...he will be compensated and will land another job somewhere. At least this time he might not have as much time to ruin another club!

Rafa wants more money...sound familiar?

Ah how funny...so Rafa left Liverpool for Italy, too bad his tried and true whining has not stayed in England. Where have we heard this before? So the Spaniard feels as if he needs more money in order to acquire the necessary talent to compete, of course, because his side has no talent. This is basically the same side that won the treble last season, including a Champions League title. The only big name gone is Balotelli, otherwise much of the same roster. Could Inter use some new blood? Sure any side needs to be consistently adding fresh talent, but the fact Rafa is putting out ultimatums is getting old. Rather than whine, start putting together some success Rafa.

Rafa cannot let go...comical

The war of words continues as Rafa Benitez slings more incomprehensible jabs about the man that took over for him at Liverpool - Roy Hodgson. Granted the new Liverpool gaffer has found himself under a certain degree of pressure as the storied club only recently fought itself out of the relegation zone. Hodgson clearly inherited a club laden with failed signings from the Benitez era. Of course Rafa babbles about how he only spent a net 10m pounds and left with 17 internationals on the rosters...but how many new trophies did he add to the Liverpool trophy case with (take away the Champions League miracle)?

Note to Rafa, success at clubs such as Liverpool are measured in the silverware added to the trophy case...not the amount of internationals you have on your roster. What Rafa fails to realize, or admit, is that his tenure at Liverpool was flawed and in reality a failure. During his time he watched hated rival Manchester United equal the Reds in terms of overall league titles, yes he did win a Champions League trophy, but that was due to 15 minutes of insanity versus Milan. He did get a second place finish...but that and $4.00 gets you a latte at Starbucks. Rafa does have a tough task at Inter - following in the footsteps of the Special One and the Inter treble of last season - he has Inter within 4 points of the leader Lazio. Inter is also sits atop Group A in the Champions League and if they win at White Hart Lane, will qualify for the knock out stage. Of course nothing matters unless Inter makes a deep run in the knock out stage.

Meanwhile I am sure Rafa will continue to throw stones at Hodgson, Gillett and Hicks - somehow making everyone but him the reason why he did not succeed at Liverpool. We heard this the past two seasons when he was managing the Reds so why should anything change from the Spaniard???

Champions League finals preview

One more club match before we can start turning our full attention to the World Cup, then again according to the Special One this game is bigger than that silly tournament that will be held in South Africa. Anyways, we all know that Mourinho is susceptible to bouts of delusional grandeur. Of course if anyone had wagered that these two teams would be in the finals...well they would have made a tidy profit today.

The question to me is whether or not Inter will be able to block Bayern, Robben in particular, as they did against Barcelona. We all know that Barca is a much more offensively prolific side than the German champions, so on paper one would think that Inter and their defense will have an easier time against Bayern. Without Ribery, I think that Bayern will be hamstrung against what we all know will be a stout Inter defensive system. Much like against Messi et al, I imagine that Mourinho will scheme to have Cambiasso and Chivu nipping at the heels of Robben all game, where ever he goes one of the defensive midfielders will be right there, whenever the Dutch winger gets close to the offensive 1/3 of the pitch I am sure one of the Inter defenders will converge as well - Maicon or Zanetti - I would think Zanetti might be tasked with watching Robben regardless of which wing he is one since Maicon is a little to offensive minded. Much will be expected of Lucio and Samuel to keep an eye on Olic and Muller down the middle.

Bayern will have to worry about containing the counter attacks which will most likely channel through Sneijder and be looking to spring Eto'o or Milito behind the Bayern defense. Van Buyten and the rest of the Bayern defense should be able to contain this threat, but I fear that Butt remains the weak link and could easily concede a soft goal.

I fear that this game will be a drab game with Inter defending and looking to counter with Bayern being frustrated to break down the defense. Had Ribery not been suspended I think Bayern would stand a very good chance in this game, not sure Inter could slow down the Ribery - Robben attacks down the wing. Alas, that is not the case. So who will win the match....

Inter win 1-0. Mourinho is seem running around the pitch screaming that he is the greatest and will actually keep the Champions League trophy for himself and not allow his players to have a victory lap. He will then announce that since he is so great Inter Milan will be entered into the World Cup representing his own ego which is about as big as a western European country.

Other side story - Robben and Sneijder will be back in Madrid where they had unsuccessful stints playing for the local side - Real Madrid, must be some level of revenge for both. Both clubs are also sitting on a treble having both won their domestic titles and cups.

Camp Nou disgrace: Barcelona "win" but crash out of Champions League

If ever a 1-0 game can be so entertaining it was the Barcelona v Inter Milan second leg match yesterday. Between Mourinho running around the pitch like an out of control 6 year old after the game, or Busquets Oscar winning performance, or the drama of the match as Barca chased the 2 goals, the game was entertaining and fun to watch.

First, Milan and the Special One need to be complimented for a well strategized and executed game plan. Barcelona had an amazing 76% possession during the match, that is unheard of in a 1-0 game let alone a match at this level. You usually see that when you get a Germany vs Andorra or France vs Faroe Islands type matches. But this is Inter Milan! Yet with all that possession Barcelona really only had a handful of legitimate scoring chances and the bulk of those came towards the end of the match when Inter were playing 5 across the back with 4 "holding" midfielders, they were not even trying to go past the half way line! Barcelona clearly lacked their second play maker in the form of Iniesta (still sidelined due to injury), with an additional creative dynamo in the middle, Barca may have found the right combination sooner. I also question Guardiola taking out Ibra in the second half and putting in Bojan. He must have known that Inter were going to pack in the box with white shirts even more as the game went on, so why take out your big center forward for another "water bug" of a striker? I realize that you move Pique up to a center forward role, but are you seriously going to tell me that Pique is a better option than Ibra? Granted there are some that feel the big Swede disappears in big matches, and there is some merit to this critic, however all it takes from a player of his caliber is one moment of brilliance which is capable of, and that cannot be done from the bench. Clearly Henry is off Guardiola's radar, having been firmly planted on the bench in favor of Jeffren, to play on the left wing in the second half. Red Bull New York never looked so good.

Second, the play acting and other shenanigans of the match were entertaining but at the same time took away from what should have been a better display of football. Clearly the first incident was the Busquets acting...



Um I mean seriously...you would have thought he got elbowed and then kicked in the head by Tiago Motta. It was an absolute disgraceful display but not surprising from the lanky Spanish holding midfielder (by the way I know this made my friend Sam aka The Gooner irate since it is a pet peeve of his how much this player flops - you can listen to his thoughts on the Frog and Gooner podcast!) Simulation such as this is why I think there needs to be another ref on the pitch and possibly the use of video for such game changing events such as red cards and disputed goals...more on that in another blog! Once that happened, I started rooting for Inter, no way a player like Busquets needs to be rewarded for such play acting by getting to another Champions League final! Inter is also not fault free, they clearly were feigning so many injuries to break the game's rhythm, slow down Barca, waste time it was comical. Maicon crashing into the advertising boards early on and pretending his shoulder was broken....laughable. Ever time Lucio was near the ball he appeared to have been run over by a herd of elephants, comical. Granted these tactics worked, but comical and somewhat sad to see these players leverage such bush league tactics. Of course this might have been overshadowed by the ridiculous post game activities from both sides...



What was Mourinho doing? Okay we know what he was doing, but seriously...what other manager would prance around like a peacock looking like a 6 year old at a birthday party post chocolate cake and candy - hyped up on sugar and out of control? Maybe he was showing the Camp Nou fans who was #1 only elevating  his stock in the eyes of the Real Madrid powers that be...even more farcical was Valdes attempt to stop the Special One from his post game victory dance. The most comic was the grounds crew turning on the sprinkler system to get Inter off the pitch. Stay classy Barcelona!

So we have Bayern vs Inter...what were the odds on that final? Should be a fun filled 3 weeks of Mourinho telling us how great he is and how much more difficult his club have had it compared to Inter.

Champions League - Return leg for 1/2 finals

So what can one say about the ability of the Frog to predict matches...um...usually it is the inverse of what is written in this blog! I thought that the Inter v Barca match would be be a tightly played, low scoring match while the Bayner v Lyon had the potential for 4 goals....ooops.

This week we will have the 2 return legs with Inter heading to Barcelona with a 3-1 lead and Bayern heads to Lyon with a 1-0 lead.

First the match in Lyon. OL will miss Toulalan due to a red card while Bayern will suffer the same fate with Ribery. This gives Lyon a slight advantage since Bayern will not have their dangerous left winger. Granted, when Ribery went out Robben stepped up his game and was absolutely impossible to contain, granted once Lyon went down to 10 players he had much more room to roam and his goal was completely deserved. Lyon might be in trouble with their central defenders with Boumsong and Cris coming back from injury. I would think Gonanlons will be slotted as the holding midfielder with Boumsong and Cris in central defense. Much will be expected from the young midfielder to check Robben's runs. However based on what I saw in Munich, I fear that Lyon was overwhelmed by a Bayern team that was clicking with Robben and Ribery running wild on the wings. Even without Ribery, I think that Lyon will have difficulty controlling Robben for 90 minutes. I am not sure that Lyon can keep Bayern off the score sheet, meaning that Lyon will have to score at least 3 goals. Which I fear is to much to ask of this side - prediction: Lyon 1 Bayern 1 - Bayern through 2-1 on aggragate.

The second match comes off a very surprising 3-1 Inter victory in Milan against the team many feel is destined to defend their title of Champions League. Barcelona seemed completely out of sorts during the first leg. Without Iniesta, the Spanish club's midfield revolved entirely around Xavi and his ability to break down the Italian defense. Something he did not have the facility to do as he had against Arsenal. Messi was also contained, every time he came close to the ball he had his national teammate Cambiasso right on his heels usually with another defender to trap the Argentine flea. On the other hand Inter was clinical on the counter attack taking their chances and while the build ups were no way near as pretty as Barcelona's they were very effective - 3 goals. However this tie is far from over - with the away goal in hand, Barcelona have a belief they can get at least 2 goals on Inter. The question will become - can Barcelona hold off Inter from the score sheet? I cannot imagine Inter not taking the same strategy - look to shut down Xavi and keep a shadow on Messi. Inter will then look to continue to beat Barcelona on the counter - feeding Eto'o and Milito. Could Guardiola slot Henry back on the left with Ibra and Messi as a 3 headed attack formation? Try to give the formation much more width with Henry out on the left. This match will be very entertaining. I think Barcelona will come out guns blazing and look to get an early goal. If Inter can stem this early tide they are in good shape, otherwise it might become a back and forth match. I think Barcelona go up 2-0 at half time, Inter scores via Eto'o in the 70th minute only to see Barcelona fight back in added time to get the 3-1 victory which makes the aggregate a tie. In extra time both sides play more cautiously and the game goes to penalty kicks....Barca wins 6-5 in PKs.....

Barcelona v Bayern in the finals....

Inter v Barcelona part III - Champions League Semi Finals

So Inter meet Barcelona for the third time of this year's Champions League after having faced one another during the group stages - a draw at the San Siro and a Barcelona victory back in Spain. Now both clubs face each other for a chance at getting to the finals in Madrid.  To many these games are just a simple victory lap for the defending European Champions on their way to a back to back title...not so fast!

This game does hold many story lines - starting with Eto'o and Ibra playing their former clubs. Throw into the mix the Special One looking to secure his first Champions League title since he won it with Porto and you have a the making of a good match up. So what should we expect?

First, an underlying story - the volcano in Iceland has forced Barcelona to bus its way to Milan. Granted the trip, according to Google maps is only a 9 hour trip. However I am sure most of these players have not had to take a bus on such a long away trip since they were kids. With an already packed calendar the extra travel time could have an impact on the game.

I also agree with the Bleacher Report that Barca might underestimate their opponents, slightly. Barcelona is playing very well, Espanyol tie aside. With the last memory of Barcelona in the Champions League of Messi completely taking apart the North Londoners it is hard to imagine how Inter will slow down the offensive juggernaut that is Barca.



However this is not Arsenal, this is Milan who will play their usual Italian style of tough defensive football. I think the key will be how they slow down Xavi - therefore try and cut off the service to Messi and Ibra. Barca is without Iniesta which takes away their 2 headed midfield attack. Inter will probably throw a combination of Chivu and Cambiasso to break up the midfield flow. This could cause some problems for Barca. The other interesting story line will be how the 2 attacking full backs - Maicon and Alves influence the match. Neither is really known for their defensive ability but more for their forays into the offensive side of the pitch. With Barcelona missing Abidal it will be interesting to see how the defensive mates of Alves cover his offensive runs.

I think in the end, the match at the San Siro will be a very cautious affair. Inter will want to avoid giving up the away goal and will probably be content to head back to Barca with a 0-0 draw or at best a 1-0 lead to defend. I am sure that Mourinho will "muscle" up Messi and Xavi see if they can cut off the center of the Barcelona park.

I see this match ending 1-1 with an early goal from Ibra only to see Inter equalize late via a goal from Maicon. This will set up an interesting return leg to Barcelona.

Inter get the essential and Arsenal scrap back - Champions League Day 2

I will admit when Arsenal went down 2-0 I stopped paying attention to the match...my fault. First, the Special One made sure of the essential against CSKA by securing the 1-0 victory. A small margin heading to Moscow but the essential is done and Inter did not concede the dreaded away goal. All this came after Mourinho took away the spot light from his squad by saying he did not like Italian football. Okay. He did preface by saying he like Inter, I would hope so since they pay him a handsome salary...not sure if this was the Special One making outlandish comments to take the pressure and attention away from his squad prior to a big match or just his massive ego that once again was unleashed on the public. I would opt for the latter. Inter should be confident heading into next weeks match, it will not be an easy trip, but their 1-0 lead is something to defend and one thing the Italians are known for is the catenaccio!

The second match was much more entertaining....for those who did not turn away after the former Inter man - Ibrahimovic got his brace on a cheeky pass and finish. After watching the first half where Almunia, yes Almunia, saved the house for Arsenal making at least 3 world class saves in a matter of minutes.



Granted he went back to his old self on the first Ibra goal where he made the cardinal sin of hesitating on the ball. Rather than hold his line he timidly went out to meet a through ball and rather than continue at full speed to cut down the ball he stopped and started retreating allowing Ibra to chip him for the first goal. The second was a lightening bolt that Lev Yashin would have been hard pressed to get a finger tip to, let alone hope to stop it.

All the credit to the rest of Arsenal for then fighting back, the insertion of Walcott paying dividends with his goal for Arsenal. One could argue that Valdes should have done better with the low shot, but that is what good goal scorers do - take their chances even if they are not the perfect shot and force the other team to defend it. Arsenal would equalize on a penalty from Cesc....which is interesting because I had always understood Wenger's policy was if you were the cause of the penalty you did not take the kick. What made that play even more pivotal was that Cesc seemed to aggravate his knee on the shot and Puyol was shown red for his foul to get the penalty. Meaning Cesc might be out for a while and Puyol will miss the return leg next week.

Arsenal deserve credit in fighting back. However the task will me monumental next week - Cesc is out (injury or not he got another yellow card meaning he is suspended), Arshavin had to come out so not sure if he can play, Gallas re-injured his leg and Arsenal while level did give up 2 dreaded away goals. At least Arsenal have a better chance than they appeared to have with 30 minutes left in the game!

Barca passes to the offensive

So the European Champion is starting to stir in the transfer market. As it watches its hated rival, Real Madrid spend like a drunken sailor on shore leave after having just sold his Google options, Barca appears to be on the move. Barca, still rumored to be the destination of Villa, have set their eyes on the Swedish star, Ibrahimovic and will look to send Eto'o and Hleb in the reverse direction. Clearly Barca is unhappy with the Cameroonian striker's desire for an outrageous pay raise. And Barca's manager seems to have his eye on the Swede for a while now.

So what does this mean for both Inter and Barca? For Inter I think Mourinho has some master plan in mind and Eto'o is probably more of the type of striker he needs, much in the mold of Drogba. A big target man, can score anywhere inside the penalty box, but might not look to relance as much as Ibra. I also think that Eto'o is not a big a personality as Ibrahimovic, something I am sure the Special One feels is only reserved for him! For Barca it would be a good move, especially if they also found a way to get Villa. Eto'o was not going to be happy at Barca unless he got his money. He has won 2 Champions Leagues so it would be good for him for a change of scenery...and more money. Henry is not getting any younger, so Villa could be a natural replacement for him. Ibrahimovic would slot in at the top of the diamond giving Barca a proven goal scorer. And for Barca, the Swede's free lancing and roaming is actually a good thing, since they look to really pressure teams with an offensive attack that can come from anywhere on the pitch...any team with Alves as their right back means that offense is first, second and third on the priority list.

Overall a good move for both clubs as well as the players. I forgot to mention Hleb, but a move to Italy might be just what he needs. The style of play is much more built for his style. Plus, hard to see him getting much time in the Barca midfield any time soon.