Decade in Review: 2008/2009

By: Francesco | March 18th, 2010

mourinhointer

And so the Decade in Review has arrived at the final chapter: 2008/2009. Which seems pretty close but when you think about it is already far away into the archives. I’ve enjoyed reliving the past 10 years each week and going back into calcio history. But we have reached the end. Here’s to another great 10 years of our beloved Italian calcio. The 2008/2009 season was fairly interesting. As you can see by the picture, Italy had the pleasure of meeting a man named Jose Mourinho, who would bring much controversy with his outspokenness and supreme self-confidence, a mix of things never seen by any manager before in Serie A history. Milan had to go through a year without their beloved Champions League, while Roma and Juventus wanted to try and fight for the Scudetto. This would also be the last time Italian fans got to admire the play of Kaka and Ibrahimovic, and the managerial ability of Carlo Ancelotti. Review after the jump.

SUMMER TRANSFERS AND SUCH

Inter, defending champions, decided to relieve Roberto Mancini of his duties and hire Jose Mourinho to try and conquer Europe. Inter didn’t make big signings, but signed Sulley Muntari from Portsmouth and winger Mancini from Roma. Ricardo Quaresma was brought in from Porto (after a summer’s long transfer saga), Luis Jimenez was brought back to base, and Vitor Obinna was signed on a free transfer. Roma sold Mancini, Giuly and Matteo Ferrari and signed Jon Arne Riise from Liverpool, promising young fantasista Jeremy Menez from Monaco and versatile Brazilian striker Julio Baptista from Real Madrid. Juventus were said to have made the signing of the summer with Brazilian striker Amauri, and they also decided to bring Paolo De Ceglie, Sebastian Giovinco and Claudio Marchisio after impressive seasons. Also signed was Danish midfielder Christian Poulsen and Austrian goalkeeper Alex Manninger. Milan, without the Champions League, decided it was time to change. Old players retired (Cafu, Fiori, Serginho), Oddo was sent to Bayern on loan, and Gilardino and Gourcuff left after failing to meet expectations. The reinforcements were pretty much up front: Marco Borriello, after an excellent year with Genoa where he scored 19 goals and went to Euro 2008 was brought back to base. After years of Berlusconi proclaiming his love for Ronaldinho, the Brazilian fantasista was finally signed. Andriy Shevchenko, disappointing at Chelsea, was brought back to Milan on loan. Other changes were made as well: Christian Abbiati, Luca Antonini, Gianluca Zambrotta, and Philippe Senderos were all brought in to try and improve the defense, and to improve the midfield Frenchman Mathieu Flamini was signed on a free transfer. Fiorentina, participating in the Champions League, signed Alberto Gilardino as well as Juan Manuel Vargas and Felipe Melo. They brought in an unknown Montenegrin talent named Stevan Jovetic. Genoa brought Diego Milito back to Italy after 3 seasons in Spain, Bologna got Marco Di Vaio on loan, and Lazio signed Mauro Zarate. Cagliari decided to appoint a debutant as manager: Massimiliano Allegri.

THE SEASON

The season started with many teams amassed together at the top, with Reja’s Napoli, Marino’s Udinese, Prandelli’s Fiorentina, and Rossi’s Lazio obatining a series of positive results that allowed them to keep pace with Inter, Milan, and Juventus, who all started a little slow. Roma started the season badly, losing 6 games in the first 10 weeks. Mourinho’s Inter reached the top of the standings twice: on the 4th giornata, beating Lecce (then losing the derby to Milan) and on the 7th giornata, beating Roma at the Stadio Olimpico. But because of two draws vs. Genoa and Fiorentina they were caught by Napoli and Udinese. On the 10th giornata Milan led the table by defeating Napoli and taking advantage of a draw between Udinese and Genoa, but a week later Inter surpassed them by beating Udinese with Milan getting a draw with Lecce. From there on it seemed as if this championship would go on like the last two: Inter strung together 6 consecutive wins and arrived at the Christmas break +6 on Juventus and +9 on Milan. The Bianconeri, after losing to both Palermo and Napoli, collected win after win, except for the loss to Inter at the San Siro. Milan lost to Juventus and also Palermo, suffering a dip in form.

After the break it was Inter’s turn to dip in form, who drew at home to Cagliari and losing to Atalanta, reducing their advantage to only 3 points over Milan and Juve who didn’t completely take advantage of Inter’s missteps. The race for 4th place and UEFA Cup spots started to become a fierce battle between Genoa, Cagliari, Napoli, Lazio, Fiorentina, Palermo (who beat Juventus, Roma and Milan) and Roma, who started to pickup after a disastrous start. The Cagliari case is interesting. After losing their first 5 games, many thought Allegri would get the sack. Surprisingly Cellino left the Serie A newbie in charge and he turned things around with fantastic results. With a roster of average players, Allegri was making Cagliari play beautiful, attacking football, something you rarely see from the small sides.

Roma were starting to pickup and play well again while their crosstown rivals Lazio started to slow down, getting a series of negative results. Udinese went into crisi mode: after losing at the San Siro against Inter, the Friuliani recorded six losses and two draws, distancing themselves from the UEFA Cup zone. It was a negative first part of the season for Bologna, who after surprisingly defeating Milan on the first day of the season, recorded 8 losses and 1 win, but after sacking Daniele Arrigoni and hiring Sinisa Mihajlovic, the Rossoblu turned things around, getting 7 draws and 2 wins. Regarding the relegation race, the teams involved in the first part of the season were Bologna, Torino (who despite having a good squad never got going), Reggina, Lecce, and Chievo, who decided to change manager in November.

In the second half of the season Inter remained steadily in first place and never looked like losing it, winning the Scudetto with 2 games to go (4th consecutive Scudetto). Inter were helped by the super season of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who dominated every Serie A defense he was faced with throughout the season, scoring 25 goals. The Champions League race was more interesting: Juventus and Milan fought for second place, while Fiorentina and the surprising Genoa aiming for the 4th spot. Juventus made a surprising decision, sacking Claudio Ranieri with 2 games to go and putting Ciro Ferrara on the bench for the remaining two matches. In the end, both Juventus and Milan finished even on points and both Fiorentina and Genoa finished even on points. Juventus and Fiorentina won the head to head match-up with Milan and Genoa so Juventus finished second, Milan third, Fiorentina fourth, and Genoa fifth. Genoa missed a historic Champions League qualification all thanks to head to head. On the last day after Fiorentina-Milan, Milan announced they would part ways with Carlo Ancelotti after 8 years together. Fiorentina-Milan would also be Kaka’s last Serie A game.

Joining Genoa in the new Europa League would be Roma who after a long comeback finished ahead of their main competitors for the final Europa League spot: Ballardini’s Palermo and Allegri’s Cagliari (most definitely the surprise of the season). Udinese, putting in a valiant effort with 6 consecutive wins at the end, couldn’t catch Roma in 6th. Napoli, after an excellent start, went into a mini-crisis and Reja was sacked, making way for Roberto Donadoni returning to a bench after his Euro 2008 failure. Sampdoria, despite Cassano having arguably the best season of his career, had a disappointing season but managed to reach the Coppa Italia final. They also found a new hero in Giampaolo Pazzini. Lazio, after a very inconsistent season, were admitted to the Europa League thanks to their Coppa Italia victory. At the bottom of the table the most surprising team was Chievo, led by Mimmo Di Carlo, who managed to get impressive results (draws against Juventus and Inter and wins against Lazio, Atalanta, Palermo and Reggina) and achieving salvation on the second to last day. On the last day Bologna won and Torino lost, meaning relegation for the Granata. It was a big hit for the club, who had a good roster capable of achieving high objectives but just couldn’t get anything right. Joining Torino in B would be the Southern duo of Lecce and Reggina, who were only separated by one point at the bottom.

Final Table: Inter 84, Juventus 74, Milan 74, Fiorentina 68, Genoa 68, Roma 63, Udinese 58, Palermo 57, Cagliari 53, Lazio 50, Atalanta 47, Napoli 46, Sampdoria 46, Siena 44, Catania 43, Chievo 38, Bologna 37, Torino 34, Reggina 31, Lecce 30

Top Scorers: Zlatan Ibrahimovic 25, Marco Di Vaio 24, Diego Milito 24

Here is Inter’s Scudetto-winning roster:

12 Júlio César
13 Maicon
25 Walter Samuel
2 Iván Córdoba
39 Davide Santon
4 Javier Zanetti
19 Esteban Cambiasso
11 Sulley Muntari
5 Dejan Stanković
45 Mario Balotelli
8 Zlatan Ibrahimović

Manager: Josè Mourinho

Substitutes

1 Francesco Toldo, 26 Christian Chivu, 16 Nicolas Burdisso, 24 Nelson Rivas, 23 Marco Materazzi, 6 Maxwell, 45 Mario Balotelli , 10 Adriano, 18 Hernán Crespo, 22 Paolo Orlandoni, 33 Mancini, 21 Victor Obinna, 11 Luis Antonio Jiménez, 9 Julio Ricardo Cruz, 77 Ricardo Quaresma, 15 Olivier Dacourt

COPPA ITALIA

The format of the Coppa Italia was changed yet again, with teams from Serie C and D being included again and now every game would be single-elimination except for the semi-final, which would be two legs. The final wasn’t Roma-Inter (Thank God!) but Lazio-Sampdoria, a nice surprise after years of Roma-Inter. After the game finished 1-1 in regular time, the game went to penalties, and Lazio prevailed 6-5. It was Lazio’s 5th Coppa Italia title.

ITALIAN TEAMS IN EUROPE

Representing Italy in the re-branded “Europa League” would be Napoli (through the Intertoto Cup), Udinese, Sampdoria, and Milan. Napoli started from the second qualifying round and beat Albanian club Vllaznia 8-0 on aggregate. In the first round, Milan surpassed Zurich 4-1 on aggregate, Sampdoria got by Kaunas 5-1 on aggregate, Udinese defeated Borussia Dortmund on penalties, but Napoli fell to Benfica 4-3 on aggregate. In the group phase, Sampdoria qualified third from their group, even defeating Sevilla. Udinese topped their group ahead of Tottenham. Milan finished second in their group behind Wolfsburg. In the Round of 32 the Italian sides were joined by Fiorentina, who dropped down from the Champions League. Sampdoria were shockingly eliminated by Ukrainian side Metalist Kharkiv, Fiorentina fell to Ajax 2-1 on aggregate, and Milan were eliminated by Werder Bremen on away goals. Udinese flew the flag, surpassing Lech Poznan. In the Round of 16 Udinese defeated reigning champions Zenit St. Petesburg 2-1 on aggregate. In the quarter-final they were matched with Werder Bremen and put in a valiant effort but fell to the eventual finalists 6-4 on aggregate.

In the Champions League, Inter and Roma were in the group stage and Juventus and Fiorentina would have to go through qualifying. Juventus didn’t have any trouble, defeating Slovakian side Artmedia Petrzalka 5-1 on aggregate. Fiorentina got by Slavia Prague 2-0 on aggregate. In the group stage, Roma surprisingly topped their group with Chelsea, Bordeaux, and Cluj. Inter finished second in their group behind Panathinaikos but ahead of Werder Bremen. Fiorentina couldn’t deal with Lyon and Bayern Munich and finished third, dropping down to the Europa League. Juventus finished equal on points with Real Madrid in their group but qualified thanks to their superior head to head record. However in the Round of 16 all Italian clubs were eliminated thanks to English clubs. Juventus fell to Chelsea 3-2 on aggregate, Inter fell to eventual finalists Manchester United 2-0 on aggregate, and Roma lost to Arsenal on penalties. It was a year to forget for Italian teams in Europe.

NATIONAL TEAM

Lippi was back. In his inaugural press conference, he said he regretted ever leaving and was excited to be back at the helm to try and defend Italy’s World Cup title. He refused to answer questions about specific players, only saying his famous quote: “All players aged 18-40 have a chance to be called to the national team” (which would turn out to be a big fat lie). In the summer friendly, Lippi started with a 2-2 draw vs. Austria. Italy had to start qualifying, and started away to Cyprus (without Cassano and Del Piero). It was a poor performance, with Cyprus dominating and Italy needing a stoppage time winner from Di Natale to save the day. In the second qualifier a brace from De Rossi defeated Georgia. Italy then played Bulgaria and Montenegro in October. The match away to Bulgaria was a very dull 0-0 and the match vs. Montenegro featured another midfielder brace: this time Alberto Aquilani. Italy drew Greece 1-1 in a friendly in November. This was a different Lippi than the one we saw in 2004-2006. After being a hero and loved by fans everywhere, many fans were starting to change their opinion about the World Cup winning tactician. He seemed very arrogant, and it was like he thought everything he did was right because he won the World Cup. He again focused on creating a tight knit group of players, but made dubious selections that had everyone scratching their heads. In February Italy lost to Brazil 2-0 in a friendly, ending Lippi’s unbeaten run. Italy then defeated Montenegro away and last minute Robbie Keane goal meant a draw with Ireland in Bari (where fans shouted “Antonio Cassano” for 90 minutes). In a friendly vs. Northern Ireland in early June, Lippi decided to experiment and reward players who played well during the season (but players like Cassano and Miccoli were left home). Italy got an easy 3-0 win. Then came the Confederations Cup. I guess it was a bad sign going into it that Italy struggled to defeat New Zealand in a pre-tournament friendly 4-3. After an ok start vs. the USA where great goals from Rossi and De Rossi saved our butts, the remaining two games vs. Egypt and Brazil were utter disasters. Italy were eliminated in the group stage and Lippi knew he had to change some things.

PREVIOUS REVIEWS

2007/2008: Inter champions again, Euro 2008
2006/2007: Inter Domination
2005/2006: Calciopoli, Campioni del Mondo

2004/2005: Capello’s Juventus reign supreme

2003/2004: Milan champions of Italy, Euro 2004 delusion

2002/2003: Italy dominates Europe
2001/2002: 5 Maggio, World Cup delusion
2000/2001: Scudetto Giallorosso
1999/2000: Lazio tastes glory/Italy almost champions of Europe