Impacts of Champions League final: Inter vs Bayern Munich

First up, a massive congratulatory message to Internazionale, the team that has just notched a historic treble with the encouraging 2-0 victory against Bayern Munich in the Champions League final at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid. Also, congratulations to Jose Mourinho who has just joined an elite group of managers who have won the Champions League (or European Cup) with two clubs and potentially surpassing all of them as early as next season. (which will be touched upon again later on). Soon after, the massive celebrations among everyone associated with the Nerazzuri whether in Milan and all over the world will cease and soon after the World Cup will start and soon afterward, the new European footballing season will start again, and that's when the impacts from the recently concluded massive Champions League final between Internazionale and Bayern Munich will be revealed and also take effect in the top footballing arenas in Europe. The question now is that, what are the impacts I am talking about? and how are those impacts going to continue to write memorable football history for the next season and beyond...

First and foremost, the impact will be about the champions themselves, Internazionale. It is true that they have reached the ultimate footballing pinnacle right now by clinching a marvelous treble by clinching the routine but edgy Serie A title, the Coppa Italia in an intense match against AS Roma, and the recently won Champions League trophy against a gallant but rather unfortunate Bayern Munich side. After highlighting the first impact which is directly impacting Internazionale, Interistas who read this will perhaps brand me as a party pooper who tries to spoil Inter's celebrations (I am a Roma fan). But I assure everyone that this is an objective assessment on the issue and it is a time tested reality which will no doubt affect Inter as well. Let's face it, the only way a team would go after reaching the very apex of their game is down. Firstly, there's no longer a further way up as they have won anything and everything that are up for grabs in the season, and secondly, maintaining their position would be much more difficult than attaining the trophies in the first place. Thus the saying, “It is much harder to retain than to win a trophy in the first place”. Just like how we saw the all conquering Barcelona side losing steam this season, although they would still argue that they had won “unprecedented” 6 titles in a season, I would still say that we go by the European season calendar, and that's only totally valid if the season's schedule mimics that of the Russian Premier League, for instance. In any case, there's a marked decline in Barcelona's season although they are still able to win the La Liga title, which is decided by the El Clasico matches but nevertheless they won something.

Thus, I could see a similar decline happening in Internazionale very soon. One main reason for this is of course the departure of Jose “The Special One” Mourinho himself. His departure is already a big blow to the club and Italian football in general (no matter how volatile his relationship is with the personnel in Italy), and his departure is likely to be followed with a kind of exodus of the players, again looking at how the key players of Porto such as Paulo Ferreira, Deco, and Ricardo Carvalho just to name three left the club after the 2004 Champions League triumph, either following Mourinho or to another club. The same could be happening, and the loss of Maicon, Diego Milito, Julio Cesar, and even Wesley Sneijder could be a fatal blow to Inter, and this might even end their domination in Italian football, and if this scenario pans out, we are likely to see a new Champion of the Serie A next season. But then again, it is not a foregone conclusion, and even if this has been the case throughout football history, there's no reason against Inter breaking the rather unwanted tradition. Also, not forgetting the very fact that Mourinho eft for La Liga, already tipped as the next best league in Europe despite the fact that the recent flock of superstars to La Liga are to either Barcelona or Real Madrid. This gap will widen so much further as David Villa has left Valencia, and David Silva is very likely to follow, which fatally cripple Valencia, the nearest club to challenge the big two. But still, La Liga's standard will be bolstered so much with Mourinho's arrival in the Real Madrid hotseat while without the Special One, the Italian football's standard might decrease, especially if the Inter exodus mentioned above takes place.
Secondly, while it is too much to expect Mourinho to win back to back Champions League title by winning it with Real Madrid next season. One thing for sure is that any fans who followed Chelsea during the last season of Claudio Ranieri's tenure until the successful period under Mourinho will feel a huge sense of deja vu next season. In the aforementioned Chelsea case, Jose Mourinho simply arrived and sowed the fruits of Claudio Ranieri's labor, in which the Italian had set a foundation and laid the ground and assembled the core of the team which Mourinho utilized to win their first title since 1955. The same thing is going to happen in Real Madrid. Despite racking a record breaking number of points in the League (a whopping 96 points), Manuel Pellegrini will make way for Jose Mourinho since the Chilean failed to win any trophy in his first and last season in charge of Real Madrid. However, Manuel Pellegrini has actually laid the very foundation of the team. While many would argue that the team wasn't assembled by him but by Jorge Valdano and Florentino Perez, he has been integrating those great individuals such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Karim Benzema, and the rest of the Galacticos as a team and also integrating them into the Spanish League. While no trophy has been won by the Chilean, this is arguably the baby steps required for a team to gel first, get to know how each other plays, and build a solid team chemistry. Even this season, he has succeeded to an extent, especially in the league with the impressive points collected. Given one more season, I believe Pellegrini would start winning the trophies that everyone associated with the “Casa Blanca” craves oh so much.

But football is not a nice game, not modern football at least. Mourinho will be in charge next season, and he will be in charge of a team which has gained a considerable degree of team chemistry, and Mourinho only needs to fine tune the team a little bit, perhaps by bringing in reinforcements from his Internazionale treble winning team and then perhaps he will be the very first manager who wins the Champions League thrice with three different teams, and perhaps confirms his status as a world beater who has won every single title within the triumvirate of World football (BPL, Serie A, and La Liga). The cruel aspect of this is how Mourinho hogs all the glory with the fruits of Pellegrini's labor this season.

If everything goes according to plan, and Mourinho really brings the glory days back to Real Madrid by winning another treble, this will further enhance La Liga's status as the best league in the world by a mile. Nevermind the aforementioned fact that the league is turning into a massively enhanced Scottish League. Also, more superstars such as Fabregas will continue on to flock into La Liga, and by that, continue to flock to either Real Madrid or Barcelona, I won't be surprised that the massively star studded teams of Real Madrid and Barcelona will be locked at the top of the league with both having 110 points and the tie breaking criteria are all exhausted and thus the title might be decided by a playoff in a neutral venue (the last tie breaking criterion if all other criteria fail). This third El Clasico will eclipse even the World Cup final itself. Trust me.

Last but not least, I have been blabbering about the winners. All about Inter, all about Mourinho and his new club Real Madrid. But why haven't I mentioned anything about the runners-up, Bayern Munich, who, to be fair to them and to their manager Louis van Gaal, played extremely well but rather unfortunate to lose the game, and also due to certain lapses in defense. The reason why they are mentioned last is simply because of the very fact that only the winners are remembered. Runners up are forgotten as soon as they have received their silver medals and the moment the Champions receive their gold medals and their captain hoisting the big eared trophy up in the sky, that's it for the runners up.

I have seen articles and comments by pundits and journalists around the world claiming that this will undoubtedly boost Bayern Munich's and more importantly the German Bundesliga's profile and that this is the signs of things to come for Bayern Munich as if they are able to win it next season. But I don't see it that way. Bayern might well continue to dominate the German football, but I don't see them emulating their amazing run all the way to the final of the Champions League like this season and even winning it next season. While Ribery has reportedly penned a new fresh deal to keep him in Bayern, he might still leave next season to places such as Manchester City and Real Madrid who won't be put up by the massive compensation to break him from his contract. Also, there's no guarantee that other important players such as Robben and even Louis van Gaal would stay put as despite the fact that collectively, the runners up will be forgotten, but at individual level, there would be suitors for the key players and the manager. Bayern Munich must be ruing their loss to Inter as they have to be careful not to lose the very foundations that have brought them this run in the first place. Also, looking at the effects on Inter and Bayern as explained in this article respectively, perhaps everyone associated with Bayern Munich, and all Bundesliga fans in general would really ask the huge what if question, “What if Bayern had won the treble instead of Inter?” My answer to that is simply that it would launch Bundesliga as yet another top league in the world, and Mourinho, the loser in this alternate universe will perhaps be eyeing Bundesliga as his destination in the future to win the title, and confirm his “world beater” title.

Inter vs Barca Reflection...

First off, as usual, an obligatory congratulations to Internazionale who have just secured a date with Bayern Munich at Santiago Bernabeu in the Champions League final. The fact that Inter have gone through to the final with 3-2 scoreline aggregate against Barcelona somehow gives Real Madrid fans a sense of relief as the final will be held in their own home ground, Santiago Bernabeu, and the sight of Barcelona being there in the final instead of them, let alone the abhorrent sight of Barcelona lifting the coveted Champions League trophy at Santiago Bernabeu would certainly haunt anyone associated with Real Madrid. Also, this somehow re-confirms Jose Mourinho as the Special One, although the aspect of that tag which was vividly expressed is “luck”. But still, in my opinion at least, luck is still a quintessential component for any top class managers or anyone for that matter if they are to obtain huge successes in life.

Any visit to the various top football websites around the cyberspace would reveal that many pundits have blamed a lack of some sort of Plan B as the main reason for Barcelona's undoing against Inter. They reason that Barcelona refuses to let go of their “beautiful, silky skilled football” in favor of more direct and unorthodox approach. However, I would certainly beg to differ on this issue. Yes, Barcelona was pinned back, and yes, they needed the plan B, and actually the sharper ones among us would have noticed that Barcelona did have a Plan B and they have executed it, albeit to no avail due to the eclectic combination of Mourinho's tactic tunings and luck. Basically, Barcelona's plan B did not involve them employing a traditional English style “Kick and Rush” into the box or “Kick and Shove” style associated with clubs like Blackburn and Bolton, but Barcelona simply dig deep into the depths of football's sinful and dark arts. Yes, they really got down low and dirty for this match.

Just take a look at the incident at the 30^th minute mark in the match. First thing first, we know that football is actually a contact sport, and bodily contact, even severe ones at times, is not inevitable. With this in mind, at the 30^th minute mark, Thiago Motta was maintaining his possession of the ball, and at that time he was trying his best to hold the advancing Sergio Busquets and there was a contact between Motta's palm and Busquets' face. What happened next was as shameful as an incident involving Rivaldo in 2002 World Cup against Turkey. Busquets simply tumbled to the ground, writhing in pain as if someone from the stand had shot him with a sniper, and the really shameful thing is that Busquets was holding HIS BACK OF THE NECK in “pain”! My goodness, the replay clearly showed that the palm of Motta's hand touching busquets face, and if the Spanish youngster wanted to play-act, he should have acted properly and clutched is face. It was really a shameful act, especially for a player touted to be the next big thing in Spain as well as the world. Even after Motta has received his red card, and went to confront/check on Busquets, the Spaniard was still clutching his back of the neck in “extreme pain”. Of course, after Motta had reached the dressing room, Busquets was able to run like a horse. So mysterious how players can “recover” so fast sometimes... But I digress. Nevertheless, it was one big incident involving Barca resorting to employ the darkest and most tabooed acts in the game. Whether this is the gameplan of Barcelona or whether it was simply triggered by the sheer frustration for not being able to breach the sturdy Inter wall, it is anyone's guess. There were also massive refereeing decisions but it will be touched on later.

As for Inter, I would consider their tactics last night as “Parking the bus”. I still vividly remember one of Jose Mourinho's colorful press conferences when he was in charge of Chelsea. It was right after his team was frustratingly being held by an ultra defensive Spurs side 0-0, and Mourinho commented that Tottenham had “parked the bus in front of the goal”. I would say that Mourinho certainly kept that tactic in mind. Mourinho did not utilize his attacking and effective 4-2-1-3, many attributed this to the fact that Goran Pandev, one of the triumverates of Pandev, Eto'o and Milito was injured, but nevertheless he utilized 2 defensive midfielders (Motta and Cambiasso). But actually which exact formation that he used didn't really matter as the real form of Inter's tactics last night was simply in the form of “parking the bus”.

The tactics were simply further discussed along with the game's statistics (taken from soccernet)

Shots (on Goal) 20(4) 1(0)

Fouls 20 15

Corner Kicks 9 2

Offsides 4 5

Time of Possession 86% 14%

Yellow Cards 1 5

Red Cards 0 1

Saves 0 3

A glance on this set of statistics, any statisticians would say that based on this alone, the clear winner of the match was simply Barcelona. But, just like many of Statistical data in this world, it simply lacks validity, and for this case, it lacks construct validity, for it doesn't represent what it is supposed to be presenting (well, mostly due to the fact that this tie consists of two legs but yeah).

Now, back to Inter's tactics. As we could see from the data above, (as well as from the match itself), Barcelona utterly dominated the game from the start to finish. But the question is, why out of the 20 shots by Barca, only 4 were on target? This lies in the aforementioned “Foosball” tactic. Inter's defence really resembled a unity of a white bus convoy. They simply follow and closing on to whoever is holding the ball and whoever are around the penalty area, as Inter committed at least 6-7 players at the back at any one time. Besides trying to win the ball back and to prevent the Barca strikeforce to be nowhere near the penalty box, they also forced them to resort to long range shots. Even then, the shooting angle is severely limited by Inter's players. It was totally hell for Barcelona's strikers. Even If Barcelona's players, such as Messi and Pedro who managed to do so quite a few times, are able to go through the sturdy Inter wall, there was always Julio Cesar to save the long range shots (which are actually not that strong due to the aforementioned angle limiting by the Inter defense)

But just like how shooting buses with machine guns would eventually destroy the bus, Inter's defense was no exception. They were really attacked from the start to finish and we have to commend Inter's players, including their strikers to defend themselves in such a disciplined manner throughout the match (Motta's red card didn't matter as they simply just withdraw one more man from the front) but eventually they crumbled at the 83^rd minute.

To be fair to Inter's defense, the goal they conceded was an absolutely offside goal and I was surprised by how the referee was able to miss that. I mean, the goalscorer, Gerard Pique was in an offside position, but another Barca player at the far right side of the pitch was absolutely and totally offside, but the ref awarded the goal anyways. An interesting point about this offside goal was that, the goalscorer, Gerard Pique really showed the world such a Zidanesque dribble past Julio Cesar and an Inter defender that many would have forgotten the fact that Gerard “Zidane” Pique was actually a central defender. At this rate, Barcelona started to believe in themselves that they were able to get the one goal they needed to advance. Barcelona continued to dominate, but Inter continued to hold firm for the last 7 minutes of the match.

However, Nou Camp was absolutely rocked when Bojan Krkic “scored” an apparently the second goal that would have sent Barca all the way to the Bernabeu to face Bayern Munich. But it wasn't to be although it was a beautiful goal set up by none other than Gerard “Zidane” Pique. There was a handball by Yaya Toure from Pique's pass and the referee ruled the goal out, it must have hurt for Barcelona, it had to be, but in any case, the referee had made up for his earlier mistake in allowing Pique's offside goal to stand.

After the final whistle, Inter went through to the final. There was also an interesting incident at the end when Mourinho, who was on the pitch celebrating with the Inter fans in the stadium was involved in some sort of wrestling match with a clearly frustrated Victor Valdes who wasn't able to stomach the defeat and seemingly took offence with Mourinho's gestures on the pitch somewhat.

All in all, like what Mourinho himself have said, “no matter the result, I don't care, we win”. Thus, no matter how he has won this tie, whether through aggregate, away goals rule, parking the team bus, or anything else, a win is a win, and the Special One is now ready for the final battle against a resurgence Bayern Munich at Santiago Bernabeu. Something to look forward to! By the way, it is also interesting to note that since Barcelona, the defending champion has been knocked out, then the fact that since the conception of the current format of the Champions League, no team has managed to retain the trophy.