Champions League update: Barca 1 - Inter 0

Above: Thiago Motta is about to receive a red card.

Below: Thiago Motta receives a red card.

Yesterday, Inter Milan lost 1-0 to Barcelona. However, they won the two legs of the Champions League semi-final by an aggregate score of 3-2. They will face Bayern Munich in the final on May 22. Here are some random thoughts about the match:

• Thiago Motta's straight red card for pushing Sergio Busquets in the face was probably not deserved. It did not matter in the end, though.
• Pique's goal for Barca was clearly offside. It did not matter in the end, though.
• Inter came to defend their two-goal lead and played even more defensively after going down to ten men. By the second half, Barca goalie Victor Valdes was basically playing up at the halfway line.
• Inter's goalie, Julio Cesar, is very, very good. I hate him, and I hate the fact that he doesn't play for a team I like.
• For a fleeting second, I was filled with admiration for how well Inter were coping with adversity. Then I remembered how much I dislike Inter and was mad at myself for thinking such ridiculous things.
• I am also mad at Barca.
• The current Inter squad are basically the 1990s New York Yankees of European soccer-- merciless, unrelenting robot/bullies who always win when they need to.

Above and below: Inter coach Jose Mourinho and Barca keeper Victor Valdes push each other after the match. (Video can be found below.)

For match highlights, click here.

What I have been reading lately #8

Sparky Lyle wrote The Bronx Zoo in 1978, his last year with the New York Yankees. 1978 was not the year Chris Chambliss hit the home run to win the ALCS against the Kansas City Royals and then barely made it around the bases to score. That was 1976. 1978 also was not the year Lyle won the Cy Young Award and Reggie Jackson hit three home runs on three straight pitches in Game 6 of the World Series against the LA Dodgers. That was 1977. 1978 was the year that the Yankees came back late in the season to catch the collapsing Boston Red Sox and then beat them in a one game playoff. I remember that game well: I was in 5th grade and my History teacher, Mr. Philbrick (who was from Maine), let us listen to the game in class. I heard Bucky Dent's home run in the car on the way home (or maybe it was Reggie Jackson's less-well-remembered HR that I heard), and I saw Yaz pop out to Nettles to end the game at home on the tiny black-and-white television set in the kitchen. It's amazing how times have changed - back then I was devastated by the Red Sox loss but turned around and rooted for the Yankees to beat the squeaky-clean Dodgers in the World Series. Now I can't stand either the Red Sox or the Yankees.

Baseball Playoff Update

It looks as if the New York Yankees, playing their last season in the once-remodelled, "old" Yankee Stadium, will not make the American League playoffs this year. They are 7.5 games behind the Red Sox in the wild card race, in third place behind the Minnesota Twins. The last time Major League Baseball held their playoffs without the Yankees taking part was in 1993. To put it another way, the last time Major League Baseball held their playoffs without the Yankees taking part actor Bill Bixby (of My Favorite Martian, The Incredible Hulk, and The Courtship of Eddie's Father) was still alive.

And, in case you are interested, here's the theme song to The Courtship of Eddie's Father.