Spoilt for choice

I don’t think there was any room for any withdrawal symptoms for sport lovers this summer. The European Championships, the F1 races and the Olympic Games offered enthusiasts action and reasons to discuss what they’re passionate about. The continuous rumours and announcements which are normally associated with the football transfer market weren’t lacking this year either.

But I still think that nothing replaces the action and drama that are associated with the English Premier League (which started off last week) and the Italian Serie A (to start next week).

The start of the various domestic leagues is a sign that I will soon be enjoying Winter. I look forward for those Saturday and Sunday afternoons when I’ll be zapping the TV to be updated with what’s going on in Italy and England.

The first day of the English Premiership confirmed that Chelsea is a force to be reckoned with. The team’s resounding 4-0 victory against Portsmouth was a warning to Manchester United, that Chelsea’s dull period could be over. If the team manage to secure the services of Robinho, then I think that Scolari’s debut season will be victorious. We’re still at the beginning of the season, however Scolari looks like to have injected the Brazilian flair in his side.

The champions, on the other side, started on a rather low note. Again we’re still at the initial outings, yet Manchester United failed to impress. This weekend Liverpool (who also started their campaign with a victory) will host Middlesbrough in what I believe should be the match of the day. Portsmouth will have the chance to make up for their dismal start by playing Manchester United on Monday. We’ll see if this weekend will determine if Chelsea will be setting the pace for the season to come.

Italia

Roma and Inter will give life to another fixed feature of the Italian season. The Italian Super Cup will once again see these two teams battling each other. Roma and Inter have have featured in many finals in Italian football and no real supremacy has been established by any. Although Inter have failed to impress me so far, and I am not being biased, we have to watch out for the highly emotive reasons which drive the Giallorossi in their encounter.

The death of the Roma’s president Franco Sensi would provide additional motivation to Roma which has, by far, been the best Italian club in the past two years.

International encounters

Just in case one didn’t have enough of football this summer, during the past seven days, we had a series of international friendly matches. Italy saw the return of Marcello Lippi. Whoever watched the match on the Italian channel could not but notice the pathetic commentary which focused on how good Lippi was, that if Italy lost it would not be a tragedy, as after all Lippi started his previous campaign with a loss against Iceland and then guided the team to the World Cup victory.

The English media wasn’t very kind to Fabio Capello. There was a lot of criticism on his team’s performance. Sometimes, I think that the term ‘friendly’ is wrong. There are no more friendly matches. Each team wants to win, to avoid media criticism. At the end of the day, the friendly matches are there to try schemes, players and tactics.

I guess 2010, though not far, is still a long way and as such there should be enough time for coaches to build up teams which win the prestigious awards rather than the summer friendly games.