Inter 2- 0 Catania, Surge In Sicily

By: robert | February 10th, 2008

Inter(2)-Catania(0)

It was offsides. There you go, happy? There’s no running from it, and I’m not going to try. All that I care about is that Inter racked up another win and stay eight points ahead of all those basement dwellers. (Yes, I consider second a basement dweller. The whole point of playing is to win. So, if you don’t come in first, the whole season was basically just a big waste of time. Except for the CL spot. Congrats.) There’s nothing we can do about that call, or any calls in the past or future. Also let me remind you, that ref’s have been making mistakes since the cavemen where kicking rocks around. (As I have said many times before.) Nothing will stop it, they will always be human. (Until genetically altered Asians band together to take over our entire planet. Then they’ll wipe out every referee part of the Italian Football Referees Association and replace them with “Super-Collina”, who is actually one referee, but thanks to advanced Asian technology, can be at every game at one time. You may call me crazy now….but just wait….) Whew, now that we go that out of the way, let’s get to the game.

The first half was basically what I said it was going to be. (I’m not saying I told you so or anything.) Sloppy, dirty, and tough. Neither team controlled the ball real well and every time they did seem to gain possession, they lost it right away. The whole pitch just seemed crowded, especially the middle. There was never an opening, so the only option each team had was either to pass it back or try to kick it up and over the defenders. The only true chance in the half came from Catania’s Izco, as his shot in the 35th minute just sailed over the bar. Besides that, there weren’t any other scoring opportunities. It wasn’t necessarily a bad half, both teams tacitly played the shit out of it, it just seemed very unorganized.

The second half started off with most of the same. Both teams seemed as if they were playing for the tie. The defences set back, awaiting for a chance at a counter attack. But when Suazo came on in the 55th minute, his speed seemed to open up the game. Inter then struck in the 64th minute, when a Maxwell cross was deflected back to Zanetti, who headed it back across goal to the wide open Cambiasso, who put in the back of the net. After seeing the replay, Este was offsides. Then, as Catania was still rattled by Inter’s goal, Suazo made it 2-0 on a pass from the The Great One. (Attack when your enemy is off their guard. As true champions do.) TSB almost made it 3-0 in the 88th minute, but all he had to show for it was some paint from the post.

Goal Scorers

Inter:

Esteban Cambiasso (64)
David Suazo (67)

Cards

Inter:

Ivan Ramiro Cordoba (36)(Y)
Vítor Hugo Gomes Paços (69)(y)

Catania:

Juan Vargas (43)(Y)
Gionathan Spinesi (56)(Y)
Giuseppe Mascara (62)(Y)
Cristian Silvestri (90)(Y)

Subsitutions

Inter:

V Gomes Paços for L Jimenez (27)
D Suazo for C Chivu (55)
N Maniche for Z Ibrahimovic (72)

Catania:

J Martinez for G Colucci (67)
P Alvarez for G Sardo (74)
J Inacio Pia’ for G Mascara (83)

Player Ratings

Julio César: 7.0- No shots on goal, and didn’t have to make one save. But he still got the clean sheet.

Nicolas Burdisso: 6.5- He stayed away from the red cards, and that helped, because he was actually on the field. Solid both defensively and offensively.

Maxwell: 5.5- He’s usually one of my favourite players on the pitch. He can attack well, and runs his ass off. However, he seemed “confused” in this one. Didn’t attack as much as he normally does.

Cristian Chivu: 5- Just poor all-around. Maybe because he wasn’t in his strongest position, but that’s not an excuse for losing the ball every time you touch it.

Ivan Ramiro Cordoba (A.K.A.- Beast): 7: The typical strong performance from The Beast. Seems to be that every time he’s on the field, he puts out a solid performance.

The Matrix: 6.5- He and The Beast both held their ground in the middle, but The Matrix just seemed more, fidgety. Basically just kicked the ball every time he got it, but that’s okay because the other team didn’t score.

Esteban Cambiasso: 6.5- Controlled the middle well, not as well as he has been in the past month or so, but well enough. Plus, he scored, onside or not.

Luis Jimenez (A.K.A.- Jimy): 5.5- His 27 minutes were okay. Nothing really stood out.

Javier Zanetti (A.K.A.- Il Capitano): 6- Not the Capitano’s strongest performance, but not his worst either. Much like Este, did a decent job of controlling the middle.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic (A.K.A- The Great One): 6.5- Harassed and was harassed by the entire Catania D all day, mainly Vargas. His assist jumped him up .5 points.

Pele: 6.5- Every time I see him, I like him more. Terrific skill, great vision, and goes in hard on challenges. Plus he’s only 20. With him and Super Mario, the future’s looking bright boys.

David Suazo: 7.5- This man saved us. The game was very “crowded” before he came in. But his speed really opened it up, and allowed us more opportunities to make penetrating runs. He also had a nice goal.

Maniche: 5.5- Meh.

Julio Ricardo Cruz (A.K.A.- The Silent Bomber, TSB): 6- Nothing spectacular, just good. He sort of fell in and out of the game. Almost had one at the end, but he kissed the post instead.

Analysis

A win is a win, no matter how you get it. I’ll say it again, I’m not defending the call, it was offside, but ref’s will always make mistakes. And for anyone who says that Catania dominated the game, hear this, we had 55% of possession, 8 eight shots, five of them which were on goal. They had 45% of possession, 7 shots, none of which were on goal.

Catania handled The Great One much liked I suggested they should, aggressively. They knocked him out of the game, and he really wasn’t a factor. To be fair however, many calls were made against him that weren’t fouls and many calls weren’t made when he was fouled. (Sorry about the wording,. If you don’t like it, sue me.)