Inter's 4th pre-season friendly ends in an eventful 0-0 draw against Galatasaray

It was the fourth pre-season summer friendly for Inter yesterday against Turkish side Galatasaray played in the neutral venue of the rewirpowerSTADION in Bochum, Dusseldorf, which is a city of the largest Turkish community in Germany. It wasn't a surprise to see that the stadium had sold out all of it's 20,000 seats to see the Turkish giants take on the World Champions. The weather conditions were hardly perfect, with a temperature slightly above 10 degrees, heavy rain, a slippery pitch and a bothersome wind. It also proved to be that the Turkish team & fans were hardly perfect either with some nasty tackles & an incident involving the Galatasaray throwing flares in the second half. Both their players & fans were a disgrace considering this was supposedly a friendly, there is no need for fans of any club to be throwing flares on to the pitch & the crunching tackles coming from the Galatasaray players were out of order, if I didn't know better I would have thought this game was a UCL knock out match not a pre season friendly & I feel that the Turk club should be fined for the behaviour of their fans.

A salute to Marco Materazzi: "Tutti pazzi per Materazzi"

This summer has seen the end of Marco Materazzi's time as an Inter player & as he leaves as a free agent after 10 years of service to the Nerazzurri , I felt it was fitting to look back at the 37 year old defender's career & pay tribute to not only a great defender but a man who holds Inter in a special place in his heart like all good Interista.  Due to his unpredictable personality & overly aggressive play he is known amongst fans & other players as 'The Matrix' & 'The Butcher'.  So where did it all begin?

His early life & Career

'Matrix' was born on 19th August 1973 in Lecce, where his father Giuseppe played for U.S. Lecce, Giuseppe also was a coach & manager of teams including Pisa, Lazio, Sporting CP & Tianjin Teda, so from a young age football was in Marco's blood.

The perfect Birthday gift for Facchetti- Inter cleared by FIGC

The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) has announced  that Inter Milan will be allowed to keep the 2006 Serie A title, attributed to them in the wake of that year's Calciopoli scandal.

A motion by the FIGC's federal council declaring that there was "no judicial basis for the revocation" of the 2006 Scudetto was passed by 22 votes to one at a meeting in Rome, with two abstentions.

The Calciopoli scandal led to Juventus being stripped of the league titles they had won in 2005 and 2006 after it was discovered that they had been trying to influence referees.

Juve were also relegated to Serie B and deducted nine points, although they did win immediate promotion back to the elite.

The scandal also led to Fiorentina being deducted 15 points, Milan losing eight, and Lazio three points.

It was as a result of these punishments that Inter were retrospectively awarded the title.

However, a report by federal prosecutor Stefano Palazzi, released on July 4, accused Inter of also having "illegal" contacts with referees and said that they might also have been implicated at the time had all wiretaps been examined by police.

It was evidence from these wiretaps that led to the Juventus sporting director Luciano Moggi being banned from all Italian football for life.

Juve had sent a request to the FIGC in May 2010 asking them to leave the 2006 title vacant.

Reports suggest that Juventus may appeal the decision to the high court of justice but as far as the footballing world is concerned the case is now closed on this scandel that has cast a dark cloud over Italian football for the last five years. 

The above report is quoted from the AFP but to sum up i'll end this with a message of my own to all the Juve Scum out there on behalf of the Inter family around the world-

 "Quit crying about the past & face facts that you got caught for being the cheating scum that you are & FC Internazionale is the most honest & talented team in Italy & if you can't live with that fact f*#k off back to Serie B because no one cares what you think!"

Inter's second pre season friendly against Mezzocorona ends 6-1

After a morning training session that included recovery programmes for Ivan Cordoba, Jonathan, Thiago Motta & Nelson Rivas. After the session it was decided that three players weren't 100% and wouldn't be involved in the afternoon friendly against Mezzocorona, missing was Yuto Nagatomo (slight muscle strain in the left thigh which he picked up during the morning session), Giampaolo Pazzini (groin fatigue, is this down to the fact he's still a newly wed? You decide!) & also Walter Samuel (who is still involved in a strength training program after last seasons injury)

So on to the afternoon match which i got to watch on a very grainy & slow live stream that tested my paitence several times by putting adverts on at random times during the match including as Inter scored their first three goals, luckily for me (& the sake of my computer, which i was getting close to throwing out of the window!) it came back on just in time for the replays each time. The fireworks started early before the match when in a mark of respect for the great Giacinto Facchetti who's 69th Birthday it would have been today, the players came onto the pitch all wearing the special 'Grande Inter' shirt with the number 3 on the back, which they then threw in to the crowd as a present for a lucky few Interista.

A week of Interviews for the Nerazzurri

The world's press has been focused on Inter in the last week or so with the Sneijder transfer saga & the Calcioploi accusations against Facchetti, but the squad at the pre season training camp at Pinzolo have been concentrating on building their fitness & adapting to new coach Gasperini's tactics.  Although the main point of the camp is to get the players and staff ready for the upcoming season there has been a very fan friendly feel to the whole thing with Intersta flocking in their thousands to get a glimpse of their heroes training & also there has been various evening events around the camp to entertain and enthrall the fans present including various appearances by Nerazzurri stars & Gasperini it has just emphasised the whole Inter family philosophy that we are so proud of.