THE ITALIAN DERBY (This article is in English and Españo)

After the friendly games of the national teams last Wednesday, the National Leagues return with a big game next Saturday at 20.30 c.e.t at San Siro, the Italian derby between Inter Milan and Juventus of Turin. After 2 years in which Juventus has suffered the effects of the "Moggigate", finally this classical game returns to what was usual, with both teams showing a good level and fighting for the top position of the Italian standing, since Inter is the leader of the Scudetto with 27 points and Juventus is in the third position with 24 points. So, it presents a thrilling derby between 2 teams whose level is perfect at this moment.

On the one hand, Inter Milan arrives to this game being the Italian team with the best goal average(it is the second Serie A´s top scorer team with 19 goals-only 2 goals unless than SS Lazio of the magnificent duo Zarate-Pandev- and it is the Italian team with less goals received-only 7 goals in 12 games-) and it also arrives with good results in the Italian league: 8 wins, 3 draws and only 1 defeat-this defeat was painful, because Inter, although it finished the game with only 9 players(Marcos Materazzi and Nicolás Burdisso were sent off), played a bad game and besides it was a game against its eternal rival, AC Milan-.Anyway, we should point out that although the Inter's numbers are good -or very good-, the Interista fans and the Italian medias are not very happy with the José Mourinho´s job and inexplicably-for me-, they are criticizing many Mourinho´s aspects and especially the tactics used, since they think that an Italian team can not use the 4-3-3 and it is obligatory to play with 4 midfielders and they think that the Mancini´s Inter was better….In short, I suppose that in the following days we will heard that José Mourinho does not have any idea about football, since for example he was a simple Bobby Robson´s translator during his FC Barcelona´s period(this absurd argument is used sometimes by the Spanish medias when they speak about Mou) ... well, nonsense, because José Mourinho has amply demonstrated that he knows a lot about football, being a great strategist, with a winning mentality and being a great knowledgeable about both the different rivals and the potential of the players, who are in the Jose Mourinho´s squad-for example the best moment of players such as Carlos Alberto and Derlei was when they coincided with José Mourinho during their FC Porto´s period-. So, it is clear that if I had a football team, no doubt, Mou would be the coach and I would have full confidence in his decisions and if he decides to use the 4-3-3, it is because there is an important reason to use-anyway I did not heard any critic after the Inter´s recital at the Olympic of Roma when it humiliated AS Roma (0-4 ), I say this because Mourinho used in that game, the criticized 4-3-3 (Julio Cesar; Maicon, Cordoba, Chivu, Zanetti; Cambiasso, Muntari, Stankovic; Quaresma, Obinna, Ibrahimovic) and of course AS Roma is an Italian team and it plays in Serie A, so it is false that the 4-3-3 does not serve for the Italian league-. If we set aside the controversy about Mou and we speak about this derby, we can say that the coach of Setubal almost can count on with his favourite team, since he has ready all the players except the suspended Ivan Ramiro Cordoba and the injured Luis Figo-he has not any presence in the team until this moment-, Luis Jimenez-he has played only 19 minutes this season against Sampdoria-, Cristian Chivu and Nelson Rivas. Therefore it is very likely that we will see a team with these player: the secure Julio Cesar as goalkeeper; 4 defenders: the fast and offensive Maicon as right back, the experienced and versatile Javier Zanetti as left back- perhaps this year is not to be too good for him and he is already beginning to suffer the consequences of his age (he is 35 year´s old and he has a professional career of 16 years with more than 500 games played!)-and two phenomenal and hard central defender: Marco Materazzi and Walter Samuel-ok, he did not play in Spain during his Real Madrid´s period, but he is a different player in Italy and he plays with a great confidence and level-; as midfielders, Mou will bet on very hard and experienced Esteban Cambiasso, Sulley Ali Muntari- he is very good! - Patrick Vieira and Dejan Stankovic; finally alongside the superb and decisive Zlatan Ibrahimovic, we will see if Mourinho opts for Amantino Mancini, Ricardo Quaresma –he has started horrible the season, playing without confidence…we will see if he improves, because if he continues with this line, we can have another Alberto Gilardino´s case-Gilardino only played well when he did not play at San Siro, since he could not endure the San Siro´s pressure during his AC Milan´s period-, Ricardo Cruz, who is always synonym of goal and opportunism or the talented Mario Balotelli-although his inclusion in the squad since the first minute of the game would be a surprise-.

On the other hand, Juventus of Turin arrived to the game in its best moment of the season, because it started October with poor results-it drew the games played Bate Borisov and Catania Calcio and it lost the games played against SCC Napoli and US Palermo-, but since the victory at Torino over Real Madrid in a Champions League´s game, it has obtained spectacular results with 7 consecutive victories- including the Bernabeu´s victory in the game played against that horrible Real Madrid of Drenthe-, being the main man a superb Alex Del Piero, who is living a second youth, since he is showing an incredible level and being a determinant player, scoring 5 goals in the last 6 games played- however, it is not surprised for me, because for example Del Piero scored 21 goals in 37 games played last season-. The truth is that this victorious period has merit because many Juve´s player are suffering injuries and for example Claudio Ranieri could not use during this last month players like: the superb goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, who will not return until January, the unlucky Jorge Andrade-he has only been able to play 4 games since he arrived to Juventus from Deportivo la Coruña-, the French back Jonathan Zebina-he had an operation during this week and he is in a hospital-, Cristiano Zanetti, Christian Poulsen-he needs to rest some more days to be ready to play again-and the determinant French striker David Trezeguet. Moreover, Claudio Ranieri will have the absences of the Croatian central defender Dario Knezevic and the hard and competitive Bosnian midfielder Hasan Salihamidzic. So, this last Juve´s month is meritorious and it has been achieved thanks to the order and an excellent defensive work-it has only received 3 goals in the last 7 games played-, showing a great level players like the central defender Giorgio Chiellini, the left back Cristian Molinaro, the powerful and sacrificed-they are always in the correct place- Tiago and Momo Sissoko- the truth is that he has improved during the season, since he started very bad, showing a poor level, but now he is a different player, playing with a great confidence and he recalls a bit to Patrick Vieira-, the competitive Pavel Nevded or the “authentic killers”: Alex Del Piero and the powerful Amauri-excellent with head and how he protects the ball with his body! and of course he has goal since he has scored 8 goals between the Serie A and Champions League´s games (he scored all the goals in different games, which is very important), being on the bench players like the experienced striker Vincenzo Iaquinta and the incredible Sebastiano Giovinco (for me, the Claudio Ranieri´s Big Mistake of this season is the situation of Giovinco, since I can not understand why is this phenomenon on the bench? Why does he have any option to play a lot of minutes during the games? Since I think that this player has to play without discussion, because he has a lot of quality, ability, speed, vision of the game, he assists perfectly to the strikers ....So, I think it is a big sin to see him on the bench, where unfortunately he is often lately, since he did not start a game in the field since last October, the 5th and since this game ha has only played 58!! minutes with Juventus-if we do not count the miserable 3 minutes played on November, the 13th against FC Genoa, the "atomic ant" do not play since last October, the 29th during the FC Bologna-Juventus-. We hope that Ranieri change his opinion about Giovinco and he can have more minutes, because if this situation continues, the football´s fans could lose a future star, which would be a pity. In principle at San Siro, Claudio Ranieri will use a 4-4-2 :Alex Manninger as goalkeeper-he is showing a correct level and he is playing much better than I expected-; Grygera as the right back, Molinaro as left back, 2 central defenders: the mentioned Chiellini and the experienced Nicola Legrottaglie; 4 tough and competitive midfielders: Pavel Nevded, Mauro Camoranesi, Tiago and Momo Sissoko; and as strikers the lethal duo Del Piero and Amauri.

Anyway, so we will have a very open game and now it is time to enjoy it an of course the best and powerful team will win the match, we will see who will be.

Cheers,

J&F