Champions League: What the Hell Was That?
By: Martha | March 6th, 2007
Could someone who speaks Spanish please explain to me what the hell just happened at the end of the Valencia-Inter game? We were about two seconds from a real brawl there, with Burdisso sprinting after some guy in a Valencia track suit. There’d been increasing amounts of argy-bargy late in the game, but the sudden explosion of violence at the close seemed to have nothing to do with anyone who had been pushing and shoving to that point. And, since the game was on ESPN Deportes, I don’t even know what the announcers were saying happened. According to the Football Italia write-up, Cruz and Cordoba chased down a member of the Valencia staff and “gave him flying kicks” off camera, which doesn’t sound good at all; neither does the fact that the fight evidently continued in the tunnel. Ugly, scary stuff.
Anyway, the ugliness very nearly ruined what had been an exciting, if not great, game. Perhaps I’m jaded, but I really wasn’t impressed by either team — both seemed nervous and, though they went through phases of keeping the ball well, were just ask likely to turn around and give it away as complete a pass in the midfield. For their part Inter — until a late flurry — could never find the last ball and really create much of a threat, while Valencia, who got in on goal more often, made a habit of horribly mishitting the ball every time they tried to shoot. I mean, these shots practically went out for throws, half the time.
In the end, though the last 20 minutes or so were insanely tense and awesome, Inter never broke through, and the 0-0 draw (2-2 on aggregate) was enough to put Valencia through on away goals. And to think, I was much more worried about the Roma game. Shows what I know.
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Comments
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Well, we can commiserate on our teams getting knocked out. Misery loves company and all that.
Speaking of knocked out. Whoa, did you see Lyon’s Fred? Have you seen clips yet? What the hell! I mean, how can somebody who looks like Monk take out a guy who’s BEHIND him!?!
Okay, so maybe I’m a little too much of a fan of the bad boy style of play. (See: Zidane, Anelka, etc.) But Fred looks like an angelic little choirboy. And he got away with it, too, since they didn’t have the video replay of the World Cup. What do you think? Suspension after the fact?
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Crazy ending for sure. Undoubtedly someone captured the tunnel fracas with video. The question will be whether any Valencia players get punished next round.
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Martha, the ESPN gamecast (which really only works for baseball) that I was forced to use to follow today’s action clearly did not inform what was happening at the end of that game. Sounds ridiculous. And though I am kinda bummed that Inter lost, hell yeah for Roma. Definately pumped.
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That was horseshit, that’s what that was. Inter flat out stunk today. They gave away so much in the middle, made very bad decisions, didn’t play well as a team or individually (except IBRA). The ref stunk, gave too many calls Valencia’s way that were dives. Missed an easy hand ball call for a penalty….. I didn’t like Mancini’s line up. Figo should have been on to start, Solari should have played. Adriano, hurt or not, would have been better than Crespo and Cruz combined today. I hope they left Cruz in Spain…. How many more easy chances can you get without scoring!? It was collective pile of crap out there today. They didn’t even win the fight at the end….. It was humiliating. Oh, and just to add, if I could, I would have climbed into the TV and drop kicked David Villa so I would not have to see him dive anymore, he was just getting on my nerves…..
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Valencia substitute David Navarro then ran on to the pitch and threw a punch at Burdisso while the scuffles continued in the tunnel and dressing rooms with security guards having to intervene.
‘A Valencia player went mad when he came onto the pitch and hit Burdisso,’ said Inter coach Roberto Mancini. ‘He broke Burdisso’s nose.
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Thanks, Eddie. What I’m trying to figure out is how things started with Burdisso to start with — does he have a history with either Navarro or Valencia that anyone is aware of? There’s no way a guy just randomly ran up and slugged him, right?
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oddest part? materazzi wasn’t (really) invovled.
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my pvr cut out so I missed the brawl however I found a good video for anyone else interested…
http://dailymotion.alice.it/FootballHeaven/video/x1dqa9_inter-vs-valencia-scufflePosted from
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Inter were disappointing. What else is new? They were too tentative. Valencia played well defensively. They have a nice mix of players. Both sides were temper-mental. Inter were very aggressive at times but without point. They should have beaten Valencia. Shoulda, coulda, woulda…I’m just saying. Villa pulled a one-eye open scam. Did anyone see that? That was a handball indeed but that’s soccer.
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Much better video than the youtube Ashley. Nice. Love the shots in the tunnel. Reminiscent of ND-Miami circa ‘87. Catholics vs. Convicts.
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“oddest part? materazzi wasn’t (really) involved”
Exactly what I thought, Issa!
Also about the title, Martha.Posted from
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Thanks, Ashley, that’s excellent.
Two things about the video: First, Figo, of all people, was in the thick of it. What is that about? Whenever there’s conflict on the pitch, he’s far away, as if he’s too old and jaded to care about such stupidity. Second, what the hell is Mancini doing? Why is he just wandering around rather than trying to grab Cambiasso or Figo and stop the fight? His attitude is really, really odd.
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Oh, and I totally agree with you guys on Matrix! I mean, if you’re going to run up and slug someone on Inter, how do you ignore him? Clearly this guy Navarro couldn’t find him, or something, and settled on the nearest target.
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And IBRA was trying to calm things down (before he decided it was a lost cause and started to talk trash. Or whatever it is he does with that nasty smile.
Inter, you never cease to surprise me.
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How crazy was that, roswitha? And when the keeper was in his face in the first half, he really truly WAS innocent, not just acting it — where’d this sudden Ibra maturity come from?
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