INTER-nationals Round-up
This week saw yet another international break. I am not a fan of these matches as they disrupt the club's continuity and increase the risk of injury for the players. At the very least these games fatigue the players, who in some cases have to travel long distances away from their clubs just to play in a meaningless friendly.
I realise the national teams need to have some playing time together, but it would make more sense to have a 4-6 week break at some point in the season where all these international matches can be played together in a set period. This would minimise the disruption to both the clubs and the players.
Of course I doubt FIFA are likely to listen to my suggestion, so we just have to grit our teeth and put up with these annoyances throughout the season. This particular break saw eight Nerazzurro take to the pitch for their respective countries.
The only game that saw an Inter player in a competitive match was Yuto Nagatomo's Japan team. Japan managed a 2-1 win against Oman in their 2014 World Cup qualifier. Nagatomo played for the entire 90 minutes and this win sees Japan top their group with 13 points, now only requiring a draw in the match against Jordan in March to secure their place in the finals. Judging by their performances these last few years, I can see Japan being the surprise package in the Brazil finals making it further than anyone might expect.
The rest of the matches involving Inter players were the meaningless friendlies I mentioned. The most pointless of these was Marko Livaja's Croatia team playing against a Croatia XI team. Livaja came into the game at half-time and played well, providing the assist that levelled the score and claimed a draw.
Super Samir's Slovenia team visited Macedonia. Unfortunately it wasn't a great game for Handanovic who let three shots past him into the back of the net, leaving the visitors to face a 3-2 defeat.
Surprisingly in their friendly against Saudia Arabia, favourites Argentina could only manage a goalless draw against the Middle East side. Even though they were called up to the squad for this match neither Rodrigo Palacio nor Ricky Alvarez were used by head coach Alejandro Sabella. Not using Alvarez who isn't quite match fit, I can understand, but to not use the in-form Palacio seems ridiculous to me! Even if it had just been off the bench.
Uruguay convincingly beat Poland 3-1 with Inter stars Walter Gargano and Alvaro Pereira both coming on from the bench in the second half. Gargano came on in the 60th minute and then his club team-mate joined him on the pitch 18 minutes later.
The highlight was seeing Inter's promising young midfielder Alfred Duncan making his senior international debut. Duncan played for 45 minutes as Ghana beat Cape Verde at Lisbon's Estadio Universitario. This is also the game I have least issue with in regards to disrupting Inter, as the youngster isn't yet part of the Nerazzurri starting line-up.
So with this latest international break out of the way, the Inter players can now return to Appiano Gentile to get back to the important business of Inter's season, and the upcoming home game against Cagliari on Sunday afternoon.
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