A famous man once said that two wounded is better than one dead and that’s what we had in the second half of this game. As the draw went longer and Palermo started losing both sides realized that a stalemate hurt no one. Points have been in short supple for both teams and 1 point shared was better than nothing.

This isn’t to say that the game was worthless. There was a ton of Inter youth out on display. Kovacic, who just turned 19 a week ago, just made his 17^th appearance for Inter since his joining the team at the crack of February. Simone Pasa just completed his fifth appearance and logged 90+ of his 277 minutes played for the senior team this season to rave reviews from all corners. Benassi came in as a sub to make his 12^th appearance this season. Making his debut was Lukas Spendlhofer.

Cuchu was masterful playing the mentor for Pasa in the back line. All game long it was obvious that Cambiasso was organizing the back and bossing the novice around. For his part, the novice was smart enough to take his direction and play fearless on the tackle.

Also there was the return of some of the injured. Nagatomo didn’t set the world on fire but he displayed some of his tenacity and speed. He looked like he spent time on the training ground and didn’t look too cold when he came on. Cassano looked like he was out for blood when he came on the field again, but at some point he realized that no one else was playing too hard so he eased up.

Handanovic looked like he might have proved the supposed €30 million transfer fee too little. The Borriello save was the best of the night, but there were probably 2 more good saves for the keeper. At some point the guys in the back thought that Naga on Borriello at the end of crosses was a poor idea. Pasa was much better on him.

Ranocchia has been playing on one knee for a while and yesterday was the last straw for it. Lukas came on and did a very credible job for 15 minutes. Interesting fact – both Spendlhofer and Pasa are converted midfielders who have very decent foot skills but unknown are how these guys can handle things when the ball is in the air.

Perhaps taking a step back this game was Alvarez. This wasn’t like the last game when he missed open chances. There just wasn’t any push or insidious dribbling or passing. And considering that is his job description this is a problem – remember the first half was still considered to be fair game as the Palermo game was 0-0 until the 40something minute. Sharing a little less of the apathy was Guarin. When he wasn’t shooting footballs onto the moon, he actually had a shot or two look interesting and he probably ran more than Ricky did.

Rocchi was on the field but he looked like he completely phoned it in all game long.

I do think that the young guys were only too happy to play for Andrea. They were very conscience about doing what he wanted and stay in their zones. Cuchu looked like he wanted to do well because he is him. Kuzmanovic looked like he’s carrying too much weight. If he can find the motivation to lose it so that he can be more effective, I will think much more highly of his desire if nothing else. I didn’t see to much to impress from Schelotto. He probably wasn’t the worst player on the field but he was in the contest to win that title.

FORZA INTER