Inter Repeat As Champions

A brace from Zlatan Ibrahimović just after the hour mark sealed a 2-0 win over Parma and third consecutive scudetto (second on the field) for Inter Milan on Sunday, giving the Nerrazzuri their 16^th title overall. Inter had blown two other chances to wrap up the title in losing to AC Milan at the beginning of the month and drawing 2-2 with Siena at home the week before and bringing up painful memories of the 2002 collapse, but all was forgotten after Ibrahimović- who returned from a knee injury and came on as a substitute- fired Inter Milan home and condemned the once powerful Parma to a spell in Italy’s Serie B.

This title victory went differently than it did last season. Last season, Inter sewed up the title with five games remaining and wound up winning by 22 points, but despite the impressive display (and the fact the title would have stood without the Calciopoli-imposed point deductions), pundits found reason to complain about the title because Juventus was forced to spend the season in Serie B and Milan started the year docked eight points. This season, Juventus was back in Serie A and no one started the year with point penalties, so none of the complaints from last year would have any merit. If Inter’s success last year raised any doubts, this season’s victory would completely dispel them.

It certainly wasn’t easy and for a while it did look like 2002 would rear its ugly head again. On February 16, a 2-1 win against Livorno gave Inter an 11-point edge over second-place AS Roma in the standings, but a series of reverses (including losses to Napoli, Milan and Juventus and draws against Siena and Genoa) saw Inter pick up only 22 points over their next 14 games and reduce the margin to one point before the victory over Parma. The collapse was shocking but it wasn’t completely unexpected- Inter was hit with a barrage of injuries to a number of key players late in the season (Walter Samuel, Luis Figo, Ivan Cordoba, Luis Figo, Ibrahimović), and nor was the ultimate margin of victory and Roma (who were second last season) had considerably improved themselves from last season and should have been figured for a tighter race with Inter. It was also not a race without controversy. In two games Inter benefited from penalties, both for handball offences- one to Parma’s Fernando Couto late in the reverse fixture (that one deserved) and one to Empoli’s Ighli Vannuchi (undeserved, albeit close and that mistake was down to sightlines)- plus a pro-Juventus publication put their team (surprise, surprise) on top of Serie A after all the “refereeing corrections”; but any complaints about refereeing bias ignored the fact Empoli was also awarded a penalty against Inter and the fact Inter played a man down for five games during this season (including against both Parma and Empoli). The complaints bore a not-so-subtle hint of jealousy and perhaps the cries of conspiracy were expected in the wake of Calciopoli, but there’s no reason to think Inter got an undue advantage from the referees.

The race was one of several great storylines for 2007-08. There was Napoli, back in Serie A after a lengthy absence, finishing in a respectable ninth and posting impressive wins over Inter and Milan in the process. Then there was Fiorentina, who would have qualified for the Champions’ League last season had it not been for the point penalties, managing to qualify for the CL despite losing Luca Toni in the offseason (because, peculiarly enough, he wanted to play in the CL). Following that was Roma, staying right with Inter through the final stages despite having less than half the star power Inter (and several other Serie A sides) had. The rise of those two teams suggests that Serie A is once again reaching the level of parity it had seen in the era of the Six Sisters (Inter, Lazio, Milan, Juventus, Roma and Parma) from the turn of the millennium and can no longer be said to be dominated by a few teams (unlike in England where it is firmly in the hands of either Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United or Chelsea). Finally- once you look past the bitter fanbase- there was Juventus, who had the roughest of stretches in 2006 and 2007, playing with the kind of heart and determination that was downright inspirational. The team may have had a disappointing summer in failing to acquire any high profile players but they more than made up for it with their dogged work ethic and overachieving with a team that was a shell of their pre-Calciopoli selves. Here’s hoping La Vecchia Signora can restore the pride in the team their previous administration so wrongly took away from them.

As for the disappointments, one can’t help but start with Milan, the defending CL champions but bottoming out in the Round of 16 to Arsenal and falling to fifth in Serie A after a 3-1 thumping at the hands of upstart Napoli. The result was shocking but those in the know saw a Milan team whose defence was now firmly over the hill and is in desperate need of rebuilding. Empoli, the small-market story of 2006-07 (finishing sixth with a club from a city of only 45,000), never quite got anything going this season and slumped badly to the relegation zone. Palermo and Lazio, who had been Serie A powers a year before, did not suffer similar fates but similarly slumped, dropping to 11^th and 12^th respectively after incredibly inconsistent years. Last but not least on the team side is Sampdoria, a side who could have been tagged as a sleeper outfit after acquiring the talented (but temperamental) striker Antonio Cassano, who stayed true to form with 10 goals in 22 games and receiving a five-game ban after throwing his shirt at the referee after being sent off against Torino. The rest of the team struggled to maintain their form (especially early in the season) and although they did nail down a UEFA Cup berth, Sampdoria could have achieved much more. Key to their struggles was their record against the top five teams, as Sampdoria managed only eight points in ten games (1-4-5, winning only against Milan). There is plenty to build on still, but the pressure is on the 1991 scudetto winners to prove that they can be contenders and not pretenders. Finally, chief among all the disappointments is the death of Gabriele Sandri, a DJ and Lazio fan caught by a stray bullet from a police officer trying to break up a fight with Juventus ultras. The death cast a pall on an otherwise great season and brought up scary reminders of Filippo Raciti’s death just months before, showing that anti-hooliganism in Italian soccer still has some work to do. Hopefully Sandri’s death can serve as a reminder that it is “just a game” and one hopes that the relative quiet one saw in the 2008 portion of the schedule is a sign of things to come.

In the end, this was Inter Milan’s year to shine, but theirs wasn’t the only story. If last year was dull and marred by the Calciopoli penalties, this year proved that the sizzle is back in Italian soccer and that there is- finally- a lot of positives to look forward to in the coming years. See you in 2008-09.

-DG