Notes from a sporting week – 12/05/08

Manninger the unlikely hero:

It is not just the English Premier League that has come down to the final weekend to decide who will win the title. A week ago Italy’s Serie A should have been done and dusted. Season-long leaders Inter were ‘away’ to city rivals Milan at San Siro and a win would have sewn up the championship with two weeks to go. Despite Inter’s protestations before the match that they were the underdogs it was still some surprise that a Milan team that has long been off colour ran out 2-1 winners. It thus left Roma, who beat Sampdoria, three points behind, when it appeared they had thrown away their chance of overhauling Inter a couple of weeks ago with a 1-0 defeat away to Livorno.

So to this weekend when Inter were at home to Siena, whilst Roma hosted Atlanta at Stadio Olimpico knowing that all Inter had to do (again) was take maximum points to leave whatever Roma did as irrelevant. That said Siena have taken great delight in being a thorn in the bigger team’s ambitions, having defeated Roma and Juventus in previous weeks.

Things began as planned when Patrick Viera opened the scoring for Inter early on. Ten minutes later in the capital Christian Pannucci was popping up with yet another important goal for the giallorossi to keep up their part of the bargain. At the half hour mark things took a twist when one-time Middlesbrough striker Massimo Macaroni drew Siena level. It wasn’t to last till half time though, when Inter’s 17 year-old sensation Mario Balotelli put Inter back in the lead. With the goal coming just before half time and despite Danielle de Rossi putting Roma 2-0 ahead, few would have argued with that being that.

The Tuscans are made of sterner stuff though and two minutes after de Rossi’s freekick found the net, Houssine Kharja brought Siena back on level terms with a low shot past Inter keeper Julio Cesar. Having done well to draw level once, fantastically to do it twice most Roma fans would have been preying to their gods that they wouldn’t let it slip again.

For a while though it appeared that they would. As ever with most controversial incidents in Italian football it involved Marco Materazzi, Zinedine Zidane’s bete noire from the 2006 World Cup final. This time he was involved with a game of pushy-shovey with Christian Rigano in the Siena penalty area in the build up to a corner that resulted in both men falling to the ground and the referee inexplicably pointing to the penalty spot.

Having dusted himself down Materazzi could only watch in horror as poetic justice came round quicker than expected when Alex Manninger got down low to block the shot and then got to his feet in enough time to catch the resulting cross. The ex-Arsenal keeper has been off Anglo-Saxon radars for a number of years having left Highbury to join Fiorentina in 2001 and was an unlikely protagonist in shaping the title’s destiny. He will head home to Austria once the season ends for the European Championships and will be hoping to help his country end fears that they could be the worst tournament hosts ever.

And there it remained till fulltime, despite a late Atalanta goal giving Roma a few nervous moments before the final whistle and meant that one point is all that separates the two teams going into the final whistle.

At San Siro the TV cameras kept zooming onto Inter owner Massimo Moratti and with good reason. The Pirelli tyre tycoon has pumped millions upon millions of Euro into the nerazzurri and has precious few trophies to show for it. They may have won the last two scudetti, but the first was only after Juventus had it stripped from them following the calciopoli match-fixing scandal, then 2007 was tainted by Juve not being present in Serie A, whilst likely challengers Milan, had points docked from the start of the season after their involvement in calciopoli.

This year was the season in which Inter were to show the world that they hadn’t won the last two titles by default. At one point they led the table by 11 points, but Roma have stuck to their task doggedly. Even when they lost their talisman and captain, Francesco Totti through injury they have held on. Now though it is Inter that will be worried over one of their key players after Esteban Cambiasso, the tigerish Argentinian midfielder who has been talked of as a future captain was helped from the field at the final whistle. Nerves are taking hold in the Inter camp, but they know all they have to do is win their next match, away to Parma, to be crowned champions. If only it was a simple as that.

Sinbad leaving selectors few excuses:

There was one name that stood out during the Gloucester versus Bath match that decided who finished top of rugby union’s Premiership before the playoffs begin next weekend. That James Simpson-Daniel who finished as man of the match, scored the only try and made a number of important tackles.

With the summer tour to New Zealand approaching new England coach Martin Johnston will have to find a pretty good reason why Simpson-Daniel won’t be on the plane to Auckland such is the Gloucester man’s form not only this season, but over a number of years.

Having impressed in his international debut in 2002 he was injured and missed the 2003 World Cup. There has been a sprinkling of appearances in a white shirt since then, but further injury and selection policies have meant he has missed out more often than not.

Now though he is yet again showing what he is able to do and with the ability to impress on the wing and in the centres and bring speed and creativity to a side he should have earned more than just the 10 caps to his name.

By the time of the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand he will be 29 and around his peak. There is a lot of talk at the moment about England’s young starts: Toby Flood, Matthew Tait, Danny Cipriani and the like have been earning rave reviews week in week out. However, whilst they may keep learning and developing these next few years, most teams need a core of players around the 30 year-old mark to add the steadying hand to youthful exuberance.

Johnston should get him in his team now and allow him time to bed in because a player like him should not be allowed to miss out an opportunity to demonstrate his abilities to the world, yet alone miss out on a World Cup for a third time.
JI 12/05/08