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Guinness International Champions Cup: Inter Milan 2-0 AS Roma

Inter Milan defeated Roma in a Guinness International Champions Cup match on Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field. A first half goal from Nemanja Vidic, and a second half strike from Yuto Nagatomo, were enough to see the Milan side run out comfortable winners.

First Half

A conservative first half saw Roma content to let Inter possess the ball for periods, looking to spring the counter when the ball turned over.

Daniele De Rossi slammed a free kick into the wall from 30 yards in the early going for Roma. Inter’s Mauro Icardi looked to get behind the Roma backline a few times, but the service failed to reach him.

Inter would have the first clear cut chance of the match when Icardi was able to flick on a header from Jonathan at the edge of the six yard box. But the striker failed to get much power on the header and the ball bounced straight to Roma goalkeeper Lucasz Skorupski.

Inter that would strike first just before the half. A free kick from just outside the box on the left side was swung in brilliantly by Dodo and Nemanja Vidic met the ball well, flicking into the far corner of the Roma goal.

Second Half

Roma would have a fantastic chance to equalize just minutes into the second half. A ball out to the right found a streaking Alessandro Florenzi who floated up a cross that Mattia Destro headed just wide from six yards. The service was slightly high, but surely the midfielder would have liked to put his header on target from close range.

Juan iturbe would be next up for Roma. After a turnover in the backline from Inter, the ball fell to the Roma striker who hit a first time shot from 20 yards. While the shot had some venom behind it, it was about a foot wide of Samir Handanovic’s goal.

Inter would double their lead in the 69th minute through Yuto Nagatomo. A cross from substitute left back Danino D’Ambrosio was not cleared by the Roma backline and fell to Nagatomo, who was unmarked at the back post. The Inter captain made no mistake and slammed his shot high into the top corner of the Roma goal from 8 yards.

The final 20 minutes of the match played out with few chances for either side.

The announced attendance at the match was a mere 12,169.

Inter will wait on the result of the Real Madrid-Manchester United match, which kicked off in Michigan after the match in Philadelphia, to see whether they qualify for Monday’s Guinness International Champions Cup final in Miami (8 pm, Fox Sports 1, ESPN Deportes, Fox Sports GO).

AS Roma
Skorupski, Florenzi (78′ Balasa), Astori (78′ Calabresi), Castan (13′ Benatia, 72′ Romagnoli), Emanuelson (61′ Cole), Pjanic (61′ Uçan), De Rossi (Keita), Nainggolan (78′ Paredes), Iturbe (72′ Borriello), Destro (61′ Totti), Ljajic (72′ Sanabria)

Inter Milan
Handanovic (64′ Carrizo), Andreolli (76′ Ranocchia), Vicic (81′ Silvestre), Juan Jesus, Nagatomo (76′ Mbaye), Jonathan, M’Vila (64′ Kovacic), Kuzmanovic (64′ Guarin), Dodò (64′ D’Ambrosio), Botta (63′ Laxalt), Icardi (81′ Bonazzoli)

24 Comments

  1. ooof sparse crowd I wanted to go to that….
    But I assumed the tickets were too expensive.

  2. They were. The cheapest was around $65 with fees, etc. That’s why I stayed home.

  3. What a racket. What a racket. What a racket. Just open the flipping doors and charge $10 a head. The stadium makes a few grand. The concessions make a few grand. The kids are happy. What an abysmal showing down there and the ‘Stadium’ has just guaranteed The Who Gives a Shit Cup will not be coming back. There is zero chance anybody from those teams would ever choose Philadelphia as a retirement home from european play.

  4. Pitiful. I just watched a good Man U – Real Madrid match from Ann Arbor. Over 109,000 fans in the Big House. I wonder what tickets cost for that match. Here is what is “pitiful”: I read the Inquirer sports pages almost every day and NEVER saw any advertisements or ANY Sports section coverage (no matter how short the piece). There was NO local English-speaking TV for today’s match at the Linc. All of this in the Summer of Soccer in America, where World Cup matches were watched in record numbers for soccer. This “pre-season” football far exceeds the ridiculous American-football pre-season that is forced down the throats of season ticket holders. Shamefull.

    • Fox Sports2 is an English broadcast and it was on there. Plus I am certain that you could view it on the internet live with a little searching. 😉

  5. I heard a few advertisements for this game. I received e-mails for the LFC vs Man City game. I was interested in that game but not the one at the Linc.

  6. Do you think poor attendance could have been due to two Italian-only teams? Can’t imagine this same turnout with Liverpool, city, or united as one of the opponents

  7. Two teams no one cares about. Tickets waaaay to expensive. Should have just had it at ppl park as bonus game 2

  8. First,the game WAS televised in English on Fox Sports2. Second, the ticket prices were crazy expensive given the fact Italian teams are 1-2 weeks behind in pre-season compared to the English teams. Hence, far more substitutions and secondary players featuring. Third, the general American fan knows little to nothing about Serie A teams so I am not surprised about the lack of people attending. Who’s fault is that? People only know what they see on TV I guess. By the way, no league had more players playing at the World Cup than Serie A.

  9. CharlesMartel says:

    The ticket prices,plus the fact that Philly has become ( like Detroit ) a Politically Correct,3rd World , Idiocracy-hell hole( IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN ), and it’s a miracle even 12 ,000 made it to the stadium.

    • Are you kidding Charles. I have been to a number of international matches at the Linc and the minimum is 45,000. The lack of advertising and assumption that numerous supporters for Series A are in the philly area.
      I was glad to read the CEO of Roma was pleased with 12,000 fans at the game.

    • I have no idea what you mean.
      At all.

  10. I also was not going to the game because of high ticket prices and a lack of enthusiasm for two Serie A teams. I got lots of adverts via the Groupon, Living Social, daily deal emails. At the end the were offering a child’s ticket free with every adult ticket.

    We ended up going because our club got to walk the players out, so my kids were on the field – and we got free tickets. I was very disappointed in the atmosphere – not much enthusiasm from the Italian fans. Way more fun at a Union game. Should’ve been at PPL park.

  11. There’s also a saturation point with these matches. We already had World Cup tuneups at PPL (Nigeria-Greece & Costa Rica-Ireland), the obligatory EPL friendly (Crystal Palace vs. the Union a few days earlier), and this was a much less interesting matchup than in previous years (when teams like Barca or ManU came to the Linc). I share the same lack of enthusiasm for the Serie A as many commentators on this thread, and many better options were in nearby markets. Ann Arbor had a massive crowd because it was an event, soccer at the Big House, with two of the biggest clubs in the world in a market that hasn’t had exposure to these types of matches. I’m a little surprised the attendance was that low, but if wasn’t interested in this match at all and I usually go to any soccer in the area.

  12. The advertising was horrible for this game and relatively high ticket price (Lets be honest, $65 isn’t expensive considering an Arsenal team with no stars vs the freaking Red Bulls were over $200). It is mind boggling that they are even putting this game at the Linc when PPL Park is there waiting for these type of events.

    What a blunder Philly.

  13. Little interesting background to this can be found here:
    http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/thegoalkeeper/Charlie-Stillitano-rises-falls-and-returns-to-prominence-in-American-soccer.html
    .
    They expected 30,000 ‘based on the large Italian population in/near Philly’. This was an error made on their side: most of those Italians are Eagles and Flyer fans! It is obvious that the Greeks are more into soccer than the Italians, based on what I saw at PPL couple months ago.
    .
    The ManU – Madrid game was organized by Charlie as well, as was the Liverpool- AC Milan game played later on Saturday night that drew circa 70,000. So with the money he made off the TV rights he pocketed probably a nice overall profit.

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