Mirko the Maestro: Missing Teams Strike Back
Mirko the Maestro: Missing Teams Strike Back
Hi guys and welcome to my inside view of Italian football, or as you may call it, calcio. I’ll be providing you with some insight on the Italian Serie A, and also some cherry-picks from the second division, Serie B, whose most talented players will hopefully join Serie A teams next year.
Let’s start with this past weekend’s games. Remember we still have 14 matches to go before the end of the league campaign. Serie A Champions and leading team Inter FC had a goalless draw against Napoli at the San Paolo stadium: Napoli hit a crossbar in the first half and a post in the second, but Inter had great chances too in the second half with at least one penalty denied by the referee. It is a good point for both of them because Napoli is now 1 point above Juventus and Inter leads by 7 points on second place Roma.
A special mention needs to go to Sampdoria. They have probably the most talented Italian player of the league, Antonio Cassano, who brought them atop of Serie A during the early stages of the season, but now they have only won 4 matches without him. He was put on the bench by coach Del Neri due to some poor performances (Cassano also started arguing with the people on the stands for that). The team was redesigned during the transfer market of last January as prolific striker Giampaolo Pazzini (who is ready to take a spot in Marcello Lippi’s 23 men squad for the World Cup) is now in partnership with a similar striker (ex-Fiorentina boy Nicola Pozzi) and the two offensive players on the sides (Franco Semioli on the right and Simone Guberti on the left) are delivering them a ton of good crosses each game.
As a result, Sampdoria’s football is now enjoyable, and no longer depends on Cassano’s attitude. Now the results are coming as Sampdoria are now sitting in fourth place in the table after Saturday’s 2-0 win at home against Fiorentina.
Roma is also a big surprise: Claudio Ranieri (the Tinkerman, as they named him during his time at Stamford Bridge) has now a rock-solid, reliable, and well-organized team. They won the last nine games they played (6 in the Serie A and 3 in the national cup) and they have done it without the important contribution of their leading player, Francesco Totti.
Ranieri has changed the mindset of the Roma players and he has also added some technical goods to the team. French central full-back Philippe Mexes lost his place in favour of Nicolas Burdisso and Brazilian Juan, Mirko Vucinic finally got back his scoring abilities and Jon Arne Riise took some important goals to send the team ahead of the rivals and reach the second place in the table. Their 4-1 victory against Palermo on saturday is the best advertising for the team’s shape.
During Sunday’s games some of the teams that were doing poorly last week finally came back into form. Bologna, Siena, Lazio and Juventus sealed their victories and got some fresh air to breathe in the league table. Particularly interesting is Siena’s 1-0 against Chievo in Verona and Lazio’s 2-0 at the Tardini stadium in Parma. Siena is now still last in the table but closer to the direct rivals for avoiding relegation: Brazilian striker Reginaldo’s first intention volley gave coach Malesani and his boys something they really deserved for a long time. In the meanwhile in Parma, Lazio sealed a 2-0 victory with a header from Guglielmo Stendardo (it appears to be a mistake from Parma keeper Mirante to be honest) and a short distance kick from Maurito Zarate. New coach Edy Reja, who left Split in Croatia just a week ago, starts with a stunning result and brought back into the team Argentinean midfielder Ledesma.
Three points finally also for Juventus with a comeback over Genoa at the Olympic Stadium: Alessandro Del Piero scored a double, but it appears that the second goal - a penalty - was an absolute mistake by the referee. The foul, if a foul there was (huge doubt across all the media), was at least one metre outside the box. Four months ago, Cagliari and Bari were the two teams playing the best football in Serie A: nowadays, Cagliari is still in good shape (they’re only three points below the Europa League spots) while Bari is having some difficulties. The young boys leaded by coach Ventura lost 3-1 in Cagliari last sunday and are now struggling without Andrea Ranocchia (22), one of the best central full-backs in the championship.
Finally, let me mention the best goal of the week: I’ll definitely pick Giampaolo Pazzini’s header against Fiorentina. It represents everything a striker has to do while heading the ball. It reminds me of Mark Hateley, do ya remember?
