Defending Serie A champions Inter Milan start
off the season looking to win four in a row for the
first time in their history. Juventus and
Torino
have done five but four would mean Internazionale
had at least done something local rivals
Milan
hadn’t. Known as the Rossoneri (red and
blacks),
Milan
won three scudetto (Italian for shields)
between 1991 and 1994 and again in 1996, but their
four triumphs were split by a
Juventus
title win in 1995.
Inter’s
main rival this year seem to be eternal bridesmaids
from the Eternal City,
AS
Roma.
Runners-up for each of the last three seasons and
five of the last seven, Romans can argue that had it
not been for an injury to talisman striker Francesco
Totti last season which caused him to miss eleven
games they might well have found the extra points to
overcome the difference.
Inter
however are under the management of none other than
Jose Mourinho, Portugal’s ‘Special One.' He has
brought in Sulley Muntari from Portsmouth and
Roma’s
Amantino Mancini. It would be surprising if
Inter
didn’t improve under his tutelage. Inter also have
the most underrated player in Italy, in Honduran
David Suazo. Even when he was at Cagliari, he shone
out on pitches chock-a-block with world class
talent. With
Zlatan Ibrahimović, Luis Figo,
Patrick Vieira,
Hernán Crespo,
Marco Materazzi and Esteban Cambiasso also
available for selection, it is hard to see anyone
surpassing Inter this year.
Roma
have added
John Arne Riise (from
Liverpool) and
Júlio Baptista (from
Real Madrid) but their pre season
preparations had been badly affected by the sudden
death of their owner, Franco Sensi. Juventus
seek to continue their rehabilitation after a
bribery scandal that saw them relegated two years
ago. They are temporarily playing at Stadio
Olimpico,
the home of local rivals
Torino,
while their Stadio delle Appi is undergoing
reconstruction. The Olimpico only has a capacity of
27,500 but this shouldn’t unduly affect Juventus
as they frequently achieve better attendances in the
home matches they move away from the city of Turin
due to their supporters being widespread across the
whole country especially in the south of Italy.
Their star players include Italian goalkeeper
Gianluigi Buffon, captain
Alessandro Del Piero, Mohamed Sissoko who was born
in the same town as Seattle’s Sébastien Le Toux,
Bosnia’s
Hasan Salihamidžić and French star
David Trézéguet. Bringing in Braziliam
Amauri from
Palermo was their biggest summer addition. They are the second club
in Serie A to employ a former Chelsea manager,
Claudio Ranieri, and their third place finish in
their return to Serie A was seen as acceptable last
year but may not be so this season. Interesting
historical note is that Juve’s black and
white shirts date back to their early days when a
friend of a player who supported English club
Notts County
supplied them with their shirts.
Milan
have been perhaps the most active in the summer
transfer merry-go-round.
Mathieu Flamini, Chedric Seedorf (younger
brother of Clarence)
Gianluca Zambrotta, and of course
Ronaldinho have all made the headlines. They
finished fifth last year, a full 21 points behind
Champions Inter and manager
Carlo Ancelotti will be under tremendous
pressure to improve that. They also missed out on a
Champions League place when
Fiorentina
pipped them for fourth place. Adrian Mutu was in the
news last year for the right reasons and he netted
17 goals to spearhead their challenge. Adding (World
Cup Winner) Alberto Gilardino, Stevan Jovetic,
Jefferson and Alberto Melo has strengthened their
squad and it will be interesting to see if they
manage to retain that place in Italy’s top four.
Their first test came early as they kicked off their
season against Juventus and attained a
creditable draw.
Lastly, I’d like to say a word about
Lecce,
the club from the heel of Italy. Promoted again from
Serie B, the giallorossi look set for another
enterprising struggle against returning immediately.
They have only ever won 90 games in Serie A in their
history and lost 204. If they can bring up their
century of wins this season, they may yet defy the
odds and survive.
Bologna
and
Chievo Verona
(known as the
"Flying Donkeys”) make up the trio of promoted sides
and on paper seem to have a better chance of
survival than
Lecce.
Next week we’ll look back on a busy week of World
Cup qualifying with all the European nations getting
their campaigns underway.
Glossary
Serie A – Italian First Division. Serie B comes next
and then Serie C1A and Serie C1B, divided
geographically.
Scudetto – Shield, name of trophy awarded for
winning Serie A
Calcio – Italian for football or soccer
Juventus - La Vecchia Signora
(The Old Lady), I bianconeri (The
white-blacks). Juventus play in Turin and are the
best supported club in Italy.
AC Milan - I Rossoneri
Inter Milan or Internazionale – scudetto winners and
rivals of AC Milan
Fiorentina- club based in
Florence.
Known as La Viola. The Italian for Florence is
actually Firenze
US Lecce – the giallorossi