Inter 0 - Siena 2

I know that this game is going to spawn a whole lot of negative comments and gnashing of teeth, but none of it's going to come from me. Why, because I am a homer? A superfan? A delusional fanatic of the team? Yeah, okay, some of that might be true. A lot of people are going to declare that Inter shouldn't lose to a team like Siena, ever. A lot of people are going to declare that Strama doesn't have a plan or that he's too young or that in this first month he should have a better record. A lot of people are going to say that we are too defensive or too attacking.

But I am not going to do that. I declared where I stood at the beginning of this season: I want improvement of the team over last season. I am going to be patient and I am not going to over react. Am I disappointed by the loss? You bet. Do I think that it's an organizational fault, that is, do I think it's the coached fault? Nope, I do not.

And that's why I can't get too broken up. I don't think that Inter is a good enough team to win all the games it should. I don't think Inter is experienced - individually or as a team - enough to be so consistent that I can accurately expect the big time performance that most others seem to be expecting. How can people be surprised that this team is having a hard time communicating or linking up? One third of the team is brand new this season. One third of this team has been injured for the first few games. This isn't even the same guy that was the coach last September!

I know that It's not in our nature as fans to be patient. I get it. I want the team to win. But looking at this game, it's hard not think that inter deserved to get a lot more from it than they got. Strama's game plan gave the team dominance in every phase of the game except the score, and if Inter did score in the first half when it looked like Inter was really all over Siena, I think this game might have gone radically different. I don't think this team would have stopped at one. There were plenty of chances - near and far, plenty of shots and possession in the other team's half. All that was missing was the shot... there were even plenty of "last passes" that could have been goals. It was just one of those games.

I am not going to do a grade for each player today, but it really doesn't matter. Everyone is going to get somewhere in the 5.5-6.5 range with the exception of Cassano who I think really went above and beyond by making 2 or 3 really great passes that others just ate. I don't think anyone had a really bad game. I don't think that the coach had a bad game plan. If I had to question anything, it would have been taking Guarin off for Ricky - just because it didn't work. I understand what Strama was trying to do. Look, if the ball just wasn't going to go in, I might have just played the stalemate and salvaged a point. If there was any "inexperience" on Strama's part that might have been it.