During the time of Il Duce, Mussolini cheered his team Lazio and the stadiums throughout the country have had spectators flashing the straight-arm salute ever since.
Canio throws it up after a win for Lazio. 2000's. Source: BBC.
The game on Tuesday in Milan saw more of the twisted same.
Crowd shots of Milan showed folks casting horns at the field (ostensibly at Barça), and straight-arming as their team took a brutal lead. Bad ju-ju afoot... Pedro scored early in the game and got the coveted away goal which counts for more in the series.
But then Inter broke through from Barça's mid-field weaving and cracked the whip. Their strategy was to explode upfield when they got possession deep in their half. Lightning attacks that shot up field in a few short seconds to the goal and scored.
Ibra didn't hit nothing. Messi was shutout. There were glimpses of the attacking wonderment (a late-game bicycle shot that Pedro didn't get by the keeper), and the clever passing play the team throws around like witty reparté--but it was not enough to keep Inter off of them.
Diego Milito (Argentine-Italian citizen) scored a nasty goal that was clearly off-sides and overlooked by the referees. His brother, Gabi, was not a factor in the game for Barcelona's defense against Milan.
And then there was the story of Samuel Eto'o playing against his former squad. Though Ibra was part of the trade with Inter, his narrative is less involved than Eto'o's. This is because everyone sees Ibra as a mercenary prize-horse that is less personally involved in the game and more invested in his own worth. Not a public speaker. Samuel Eto'o, though, was the most outspoken critic of racism in football and Barça's high scorer. Then they switched their play up around Messi and decided to unload Eto'o to Milan for Ibra and 40mil€. Have fun playing at Lazio; See you in the Champion's league.
Eto'o didn't have a great game, and there was little drama around him aside from his punting the ball into the stands after he was disappointed at a call. That earned him a yellow. He caught pressure from Barça and they seemed to have his number. The other boys on the Inter attack were a different matter. They just blasted through at the urging of Mourinho, their coach punching his palms from the sidelines.
Barça got five yellow cards, though they looked to have caught the brunt of the abuse in the match. Fouls overlooked against them. Cold calls. Inter drew only two in the whole game, while they unleashed a battery on the visitors. The Camp Nou would not be like this.
As the Blaugrana boarded their flight to Barcelona after the match, they were no doubt relieved that they didn't have to sit in a bus for 14 hours as they had to get to Italy. Airspace was open as the air was deemed clear to fly while the game was played.
They went home to cook something up. A dream game that will validate their wet grass magic of arcs and lines. That game will be played on the 28th in front of nearly 100,000. I'd love to be there instead of here struggling with my feed to the game. I have some cooking-up to do too.
Straight-Arm Salute
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