Ancelotti emulates Sacchi

Former player now in charge Milan's rossoneri as team's coach

One of Milan's most successful former players is now in charge of the Rossoneri. Carlo Ancelotti embarked on a coaching career in 1992 as assistant to Arrigo Sacchi for the Italian national side. Spells at Reggiana, Parma and Juventus followed before moving to Milan in 2002 where he's using all of his experiences to produce a team capable of winning its sixth European Cup.
"I believe that soccer is a team sport where the job of the coach is to make the players understand his ideas and give the right tools to the players, so they can transmit his ideas. This is a little bit of my philosophy on the game, but the most difficult thing is actually this process of trying to get people to understand your ideas," said Carlo Ancelotti.
Milan have impressed both domestically and in Europe. It was evident when they played the holders Real Madrid in the second group stage at the San Siro. The rest of Europe found out that this Milan team could be a real threat. Carlo Ancelotti is blessed with a number of world-class players at the club - Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Nesta in defence, Rui Costa, Clarence Seedorf and Fernando Redondo in midfield and two top strikers in the shape of Filippo Inzaghi and Andriy Shevchenko, not forgetting Rivaldo.
"In the Champions League we won all the games that we had to win. We won four games in a row in the first group stage and four consecutive matches in the second group stage. Then in the next few games there was a bit of a dip in form, which we first saw affect our domestic league and then the champions league," explained Ancelotti. "The team in the month of March went through a drop in form, why that was, I don't really know. Probably it was to do with a few injuries that we had at the time and this affected the selection of the team, but now the team's doing well again."
Which is good news for Ancelotti. Italy has a chance of getting three teams into the UEFA Champions League semi-finals after the Serie A giants avoided each other in the draw for the last eight. Italian champions Juventus face Barcelona, whilst Inter are up against Valencia. Milan will tackle Ajax for the first time in competitive action since the 1995 final.
"I think overall the draw turned out well for everyone because to play against a team from the same nation in the European Cup, I don't think that's a good thing. The European Cup is important because it gives you an opportunity to play against teams from other countries. It's for that reason that I believe it was a good draw for everyone. Ajax is probably the surprise team in the Champions League this season, a young team that has a lot of quality," elaborated Ancelotti.
Despite a young squad boasting some of Europe's rising stars, this latest Ajax team has proved they can live with the best. They won the double in the Netherlands last season and came through Group B, a pool that featured Valencia, Arsenal and Roma. A lack of experience at the quarterfinal stage of the competition could be a key factor. But Ancelotti also knows that youth has no boundaries.
"I believe that experience in a European Cup especially in the quarter-finals is important. Just as is the enthusiasm to compete in this competition, and for a young player despite being young it's a great feeling experiencing such important games, which can actually give you strength and confidence," added Ancelotti
Ancelotti's establishing himself as one of Italy's top coaches, frequently nominated for awards in the game. As a player he won two European Cups with that great Milan side of the late 1980's. Now he's putting the lessons learned into practice.
"The most important thing is to express yourself, to express your game rather than trying to stop the opposition from playing their game. That's Milan's philosophy to play our game whether it's against Inter, Juve or Ajax," boasted Ancelotti.
It's that philosophy that saw Milan dominate European soccer for many years. A new era was started when media billionaire Silvio Berlusconi took over and brought coach Arrigo Sacchi to the club, whose innovative style of soccer was implemented by great players like Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard, Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi and Carlo Ancelotti. So does he feel they can emulate that great Milan team?
"Can this team get better? I think it can. Can it reach those levels set by that great Milan side? Only time will tell. It's clear that it will be one of the objectives of this team to achieve important aims. We did great things for many years and it was difficult," said Ancelotti.
"I believe that in Europe - at the moment - there's more competition than last year. Therefore to be the best for many years will be very difficult. This Milan team is capable of doing it and I think it will do it," concluded Ancelotti.
Italian football is on the up. This Milan side under the guidance of Ancelotti might just be in a position to recapture former glories. But they suffered a setback in Serie A last weekend when they dropped a 1-0 decision in Parma.
The defeat widened the gap between the third-place Milan and Serie A leaders Juventus, 2-0 winners over Serie B bound Torino - to eight points and with seven games remaining, it is safe to assume that Milan can ditch all their scudetto ambitions and concentrate solely on their Champions League campaign.
Inter Milan's title hopes suffered a serious blow last Sunday as well. They let slip a two-goal lead to draw 3-3 at home to AS Roma and leave leaders Juventus five points clear.
After falling behind to an Antonio Cassano goal just seconds after the restart of what was to be an action-packed second half, Inter equalised through Christian Vieri and then took the lead with a brilliant solo goal from Alvaro Recoba in the 59th minute.
When Turkish midfielder Emre made it 3-1 in the 77th minute, the three points looked in the bag for Hector Cuper's side, who are searching for their first Italian league title since 1989.
But an own goal from Luigi Di Biagio in the 83rd minute gave Fabio Capello's side some hope and a minute later the home crowd were stunned as substitute Vincenzo Montella curled a beautiful shot over a sprawling Francesco Toldo and into the top corner to make it 3-3.
Inter, who face AC Milan in the derby this weekend must now hope that Juve slip up at least twice in the remaining seven games to have any hope of winning the 'scudetto'.
At the foot of the table, Reggina climbed out of the bottom four with a 54th minute penalty from Japanese playmaker Shansuke Nakamura defeating fellow strugglers Empoli.
Atalanta suffered a 3-0 loss at Brescia with former European Player of the Year Roberto Baggio on target. Atalanta had midfielder Damiano Zenoni sent off in the 36th minute of the Lombardian derby.
Piacenza's chances of Serie A survival still look slim but they will take some heart from an injury time equaliser from Enzo Maresca that gave them a 3-3 draw with Modena.

Publication Date: 2003-04-13
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=2605