World Football Challenge – Milan Practice

We continue our coverage of the World Football Challenge with AC Milan’s practice.  Milan spent Saturday afternoon signing autographs for fans at a soccer store outside of Gillette Stadium while Inter were practicing.  One minor thing of note while we waited to see the players of Milan’s autograph session was that while everyone left the team bus wearing their Milan tracksuits, Ronaldinho exited wearing a white polo and black shorts.  Ronaldinho also left the autograph session on his own means and didn’t arrive to the practice with the rest of the team, he showed up using his own method of transportation.  I also received reports from the staff of Gillette stadium that Ronaldinho had food flown in from Milano, Italy that was specially cooked for him.  On their own these little tidbits might just be minor events not worth a second glance, but coupled with his early exit at the practice session makes me wonder how much control young coach Leonardo has over his star player.

On the pitch half of the players including Pirlo, Pato, Ronaldinho, Zambrotta, Flamini and Nesta chose to simply do stretching excercises in preparation for Sunday’s game.  The rest of the players such as new acquisition Onyewu, new captain Ambrosini, Odo, and Gattuso played practice drills and a friendly scrimage.  I kept my eye on Onyewu to see how his physical presence was interacting with the other European players, and to my surprise he was holding his own and completing his passes.  Gattuso is another player I was watching as his poor form in the Confederations Cup from his year long absence due to the knee injury he suffered last season.  Rinho’s fiery spirit and passion was something that shone through throughout the practice, he was one of the first on the field and the last one off the field as he made the tour of the stadium signing autographs and waving to the hundreds of fans who showed up to the practice session.

The vice-captain’s rage in an earlier WFC match versus Club America

I got the feeling that Milan was taking this practice session as more of a publicity deal than a serious game.  Compared to Inter’s practice session I felt that Milan just wasn’t taking it seriously except for select players.  We asked Milan’s newest acquisition Oguchi Onyewu how he felt wearing the Milan jersey; he joked: “[I feel] the same like you wearing your t-shirt.”

I hope for Milan fans everywhere that these players start taking their pre-season training more seriously otherwise there won’t be so many smiling fans waiting for them in Milano.

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Photos taken by Franco Reale, Samy Sood, Arturo Saltarelli & Rick Di Corpo