Part One: JuventusIn the run-up to the Champions League Second Legs, I’ve decided to devote one post to each team. Not really previews, those will come, but just some thoughts ahead of these matches and their meaning. Since Juve steps to the plate on Tuesday, The Old Lady will get first treatment here.
The ironic thing here is that while I wanted these posts to largely cover what’s at stake for the teams involved, Juve, one would think, are the side with the least amount of pressure. Though they were favored by many when the draw occurred, a rash of injuries and Chelsea’s replacement of Scolari made the Blues, last year’s runners-up, the popular pick. The Italians are in the process of a full recovery from their Calciopoli demotion, finishing in third place last season, winning their Champions League group and making a Scudetto challenge this season. Its difficult to claim on any level that elimination at the hands of Chelsea would be a mark of shame. Ranieri’s men were the lone Italian side to win compliments from the press after a gritty first leg performance which many felt Juve could walk away from with heads held high. Though overturning the result is quite possible, and would represent a boon for the club and its fans, is anything really on the line?
The correct answer is, yes, there is a great deal hanging in the balance. The Italy vs. England storyline takes on added significance in this contest because of the clubs involved. The Bianconeri, though they lack Milan’s European Cup successes, are, and will always be, the standard bearers of Italian football. With either 27 or 29 Scudetti, depending on who you ask, La Vecchia Signora is the history of calcio, symbolizing both its pristine glory and tragic flaws. Its triumphs bridge generations and provide a comforting familiarity: Platini gave way to Zidane and Baggio to Del Piero.
Opposing one of European football’s stalwarts will be one of its new boys. Londoners are quick to discuss Chelsea’s colorful past over a pint, but the club is a newcomer to the highest levels of competition. Going 50 years without a national title, they are the polar opposite of Juve and on Tuesday night, they will be a reminder of the “new” English game: foreign ownership, foreign management, and a foreign identity. This is not at all a slight. Abramovich’s side is a bona fide European power. What took clubs like Juventus a century to craft, though, can now readily be purchased.
Perhaps its fitting that this match takes place not in the cavernous Delle Alpi, the shrine to calcio’s modern mismanagement, but in Juventus’ traditional home, the (albeit remodled) Stadio Comunale. For the hosts, it’s a golden opportunity to show the world that while Juve, and calcio, have a history, they should not be relegated to the past, and Chelsea, and the Premiership, should not, so quickly, be branded the future.
