Football Italia: Calcio Explained

The Derby and More

signorsignor — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:30:29 +0000

So, I was able to watch the Roma v Lazio derby and I must say I am completely and utterly disappointed. Good for Roma to get the win, but that had to be the most uneventful derby match I’ve seen in a while. There was no drama. Everything just seemed so watered down. Even my sister, who attended the game in person, found it boring and found herself hoping for a dramatic own goal. I predicted something exciting and instead got a scared Lazio and a passive Roma. Baptista the Beast? He looked more like a kitten last night and even a kitten looks scary compared to a mouse. Zarate was just invisible.

So, now on to the player of the week. This week’s player of the week is Catania striker Giuseppe Mascara. He definitely performed the best this matchday bagging a hat trick in a hard fought match with Torino.

Mascara's hat trick puts Catania in sixth behind Udinese

This has been the best season for Catania in a while, catapulting them into the top 10.

See his most dramatic of the goals here.

Our Featured Serie A Youth of this week is Milan youth system product Davide Di Gennaro, co-owned by Milan and Genoa. Di Gennaro has recently received a call-up to the senior Italian national team.

Di Gennaro, now on loan to Reggina, is hailed as one of the most promising Italian CAMs.

A promising Italian CAM, Di Gennaro is currently on loan to Reggina. At the young age of 20, Di Gennaro is already showing the potential to become one of the next big names out of the Milan youth academy. His technique, pace, and awareness is something that to be admired due to his youth and it is expected he will soon return to his home club in a few years as a back-up for current starting CAM Kaka.

A Good Day in Serie A

signorsignor — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 16:28:17 +0000

Though we still have the derby between Lazio and Roma to be played, this matchday has been a day of excellent football for Serie A. Chievo’s keeper (Stefano Sorrentino) redeemed himself after a slew of amazing saves. The guy was pelted with shot after shot, but managed to make the saves, including a flurry in the closing moments of the games where he made a few saves within a minute’s time. They’re one of the small teams that didn’t go into a defensive shell against a big dog like Milan, but that’s not to take away from the Rossoneri, who played a great game with lots of attack and scoring opportunities. Though Pato’s still a bit shaky in front of goal, he troubled Sorrentino a few times. He’s still young, so it’s understandable, but I do expect him to step up by the end of the season. Man of the Match and captain Gennaro Gattuso managed to maintain his infamous temper after having his cheek cut open by the boot of a Chievo player as he made phenomenal plays including a few crosses into the box, great challenges, and crucial runs. Luciano of Chievo’s highlight of the game was a headed flick of the ball off a freekick against Milan that looked to be going in, but Abbiati was there to scoop the ball out of the air and save Milan from a draw. Abbiati also took an elbow to the gut from Kaladze (he landed onto the elbow of Kaladze), but only went down for a few moments. Ronaldinho and Kaka were putting on the style with their dribbling and spinning out of the clutches of Chievo player after Chievo player, with the former showing us that the magic is indeed returning. This game was really a treat for fans and though the scoreline was the result of a soft penalty scored by Kaka, it was definitely match of the day thus far.

The other scores:

Atalanta 3 v 1 Napoli (Pinto 62′, Manfredini 89′, Floccari 90′)(Hamsik 72′)
Cagliari 1 v 0 Fiorentina HAHA (Acquafresca 31′)
Catania 3 v 2 Torino (Mascara hat trick 7, 38, 79′)(Colombo 6′, Amoruso 48′)
Samp 3 v 2 Lecce (Delvecchio 11′, Cassano 14′, Stankevicius 61′) (Tiribocchi 55′, 82′)
Siena 1 v 1 Bologna (Ghezzal 22′) (Di Vaio 45′)
Udinese 0 v 1 Reggina what an upset (Brienza 60′)

This week’s player of the week will be determined once the Roma and Lazio derby has passed.

This week’s upsets against Udinese and Napoli were quite surprising, especially the former who lost to Reggina. Udinese was a team that were just top of the league a few weeks ago and to not be able to hit back against one of the worst performing teams in the leagues is quite shocking. Napoli’s loss against Atalanta could be said to be a bit of karma. Lavezzi, who has spent most of this week running his mouth about Chelsea wanting him, apparently has brought a bit of bad luck to his team. Pride goeth before a fall, Lavezzi. You’re good, kid, but don’t go counting your eggs before they hatch. There are plenty of bigger dogs out there than you and the way Milan neutralised you a couple of weeks back is proof of that.

Mourinho’s not so Special Anymore

signorsignor — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:18:16 +0000

So, as Inter barely scrape to first place with a 1 point lead over my team, Milan, Gazzetta dello Sport reports that Mourinho not only wants to get rid of Adriano come January, but Crespo, Jimenez, and Dacourt as well. Of course, we have those Chelsea supporters that haven’t watched the league and think Mourinho will take it with ease, but I will give you reasons why he won’t:

1.) Italy is far more competitive than England. Any team has a real chance of beating any team. Genoa and Bologna have proven that against the big dogs.

2.) Mourinho’s side couldn’t beat Anorthosis and barely scraped by Udinese. People can blame it on it being his first season, but if he’s so special, it shouldn’t matter! He is supposed to be the Special One after all. The only special thing he’s done this season is rack up fines for Inter.

3.) No harmony within the team. We saw this in the game against Milan (1- 0!!!!!) in which the meltdown of squad members on and off the pitch as well as management was quite obvious with Materazzi being red carded on the bench. A slew of the players are unhappy and if things keep up, Mourinho will have no subs for his starters. If you don’t have a bench, you’ll get nowhere.

He whines and complains about comparisons to Mancini, who is reportedly on a shortlist to replace Real Madrid’s manager, but what does he expect? Every manager is compared to the previous manager, even moreso when they’re not doing as good of a job. The Scudetto winners can’t be determined yet, but do I think Inter will win it when the likes of Milan, Udinese, Napoli, Lazio don’t have Europe to worry about as well and the likes of Juve are rising week by week? No. They have the least chance. I’m not saying this because I hate the paper falsifying scum that is Inter. I’m saying this because the other clubs can give their full attention to Italy, won’t have to rest starters, and have a squad that is on the same page. Adriano’s in lala land. Cruz is more worried about whether he’s getting an extension or not, Ibra is off doing kung fu.

In my opinion, Mourinho is just another manager, no more special than the likes of Ancelotti or Scolari. He came to Italy thinking it’d be all about him and that he could do and say what he wanted, but this isn’t the land of dainty accents and spots of tea, Jose. This is a land where respect isn’t given, it’s earned.

Intro to Signor

signorsignor — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:15:10 +0000

I’ve decided to start this blog to put out the view of Serie A from that of a fan. I’ve been following the league since I was a boy, and quite frankly, I’m tired of hearing people who don’t/can’t even watch the league in its fullness spout off about Italian football when all they can base their opinion on is the biased spews of an old bastard that nuthugs Everton and highlights they happen to catch. How can they even give an informed opinion? Well, they can’t and that’s where I come in.

I’ve come to inform about a league I follow as if it were the Bible itself and I’ll admit, I am a little biased, and don’t tend to water down my opinion. So, for sheer bluntness and strong opinions about everything, you’ve come to the right place.

I’ll set up a system with player of the week and a featured Serie A youth. I feel it’s quite important to honour those that have done a phenomenal job that week, but to also promote the Serie A youth who are sometimes overshadowed by what I call the “FPL” (Foreign Players League) and its overrated young players. You’ll probably learn throughout this blog that I cannot stand English football and everything it represents. I am for the No al Calcio Moderno Movement. I do not believe in making everyone sit down. I do not believe in overpriced seats and making football less a sport and more a pokemon card game for billionaires. I do not believe in players being overpaid and making more money in one year than most people will make in their entire lifetime. The FPL represents that. It denies the home-grown youth their dreams whilst bolstering the dreams of foreigners. It takes away from the identity of a club. A club should represent its area and in intenational competition, its country. Instead, we have the French and Spanish national teams being represented in “English” clubs. Anyways, I’m getting sidetracked and this isn’t about FPL and how it’s killing English football and soon world football.

Our first player of the week will be based on last matchday in both domestic and international competition. That player is Alessando Del Piero, or Alessandro the Great as I like to call him.

Finding a refreshment in form, Alex has taken the Old Lady out of the pot of loss and into the pot of goals.

For all those that thought he was too old, Del Piero has come back and proven otherwise. With three freekicks resulting in goals within a week time-span, how could I not feature him as our first Player of the Week? The guy is a living legend. So many people wrote Juventus off with the loss of Gigi Buffon to injury and some uninspiring results, but Del Piero once again comes to the head of the pack, defeating Real Madrid twice, and working a number over Chievo that left them reeling. To make it better, he scored the freekick against Chievo on his birthday. Talks of a contract extension are in place and if he can keep up his current form, if not get better, his Ballon d’Or dream might just be realised.

This weeks Feature Serie A Youth is Mauro Zarate. Since bursting onto the Italian scene, this kid has been making a name for himself bagging a tonne of goals almost immediately, however, sometimes his skill makes his ego get the best of him.

Lazio starlet Zarate has brought a new spirit of Scudetto hopes to the Biancocelesti

Bursting onto the Italian scene only this season, Zarate is the third top scorer in Serie A with 7 goals in 11 games. His pace and poaching abilities has brought Lazio to a Champions League spot in the table so far this season. Though he’s noted as sometimes being a bit of a ball hog, there’s no denying that this boy has the potential to take Lazio to the top as well as possibly wreak havoc in the UEFA Champions League next season. After a less than stunning season last year, Lazio have emerged with this new starlet as a side to be feared once again and don’t be surprised if you see the bigger clubs trying to get this young Argentine to put pen to paper if Lazio don’t seize the opportunity to sign him at the end of the season.