Napoli-Palermo

Napoli host Palermo on Sunday night for the posticipo match of Giornata 31. The rosanero come up north winless in their last five and losers of three consecutive matches. The stretch cost coach Francesco Guidolin his job for the 39th time and Palermo President Maurizio Zamperini rehired Stefano Colantuano. All Guidolin did was oversee the rosanero divebomb from a UEFA Cup spot to their current 12th position (1 point below Napoli). I seem to remember the same thing happening last year when Guidolin’s side was poised for a Champions League spot before Francesco went into his Edy Reja-mode and started playing for draws and being overly protective. Tsk-tsk.

Colantuano, who left Atalanta last year for greener pastures (?), has already put his stamp on the team. He’s abandoned the 3-5-2 in favor of a  4-2-3-1. Because really who would ever think to play three in the back without really good solid wingers who can both contribute to the attack and are excellent at tracking back?…oh, wait. I know the answer to that question. Colantuano has also put Roberto Guana, the rosanero answer to Gianluca Grava, back where he belongs: on the bench fetching water and telling jokes to keep everyone loose.

To be sure Palermo is a talented squad capable of scoring goals in bunches and the ageless Alberto Fontana is certainly capable of saving a game all by himself. In fact, he’s done that on multiple occasions in his Palermo career. With players like Amauri, Mark Bresciano, Fabio Caserta, Bosko Jankovic, Fabrizio Miccoli, Edison Cavani and Fabio Simplicio (when he’s on) Palermo can pour in goals with the best of Serie A. Somehow, they simply have difficulty establishing any consistency throughout the side. Couldn’t have anything to do with the merry-go-round of coaches and Zampareni telling the squad and the coach they suck, could it? What promised to be a hopeful campaign has turned into mid-table mediocrity. Hey, I’m not knocking it. It’s where we’re at as a club. The difference is I believe Palermo have much more talent and should, by all rights, be battling with Sampdoria and Udinese for a UEFA Cup spot. Not that they’d take the UEFA Cup seriously as they’ve eliminated themselves from the competition the past two years with the crap lineup they’ve thrown out.

As normal for this time of year, Napoli have their share of injuries and suspensions. 1st team keeper Genarro Iezzo and defender Andrea Cupi returned to training this week but won’t feature Sunday night as they work to get back into game shape. Additionally Walter Gargano and Daniele Mannini are out suspended. Mannini will be done serving his inane 15 day suspension for being late for a drug test after the Palermo match. Not that he failed it. He was late for the test. Nice. (Someone correct me if my understanding of the Mannini suspension is wrong.)

The key matchup of the game for the partenopei will be holding off Amauri. The Brazilian/Italian striker is surely gone from Palermo this season as he continues getting overtures from all the top European clubs. Amauri has the strength and size to hold up the ball but it’s his ability to see the field and make that decisive final pass that’ll have Napoli’s backline scrambling Sunday night. It’d sure be nice if Donadoni would call him up and we could end the drama around whether he’ll play for Brazil or the Azzurri. He and Toni up top would sure be sweet, but I digress.

The rosanero have a fair share of injuries and suspensions of their own with Miccoli, Cavani and Ciro Capuano out injured and Giuseppe Biava and Leandro Rinaudo suspended.

Neither team has played fantastic in anything but brief stretches in 2008. Napoli’s actually had the edge with fantastic recent victories against Inter and Fiorentina but coupled with disappointing loses against Cagliari and several dismal outings. Palermo has just been sluggish and out of sorts since Colantuano left. For Napoli’s sake, I just hope they don’t pick this week to pull it all together. For what it’s worth Zamperini says Napoli has a 90% chance of winning because of Palermo’s form and Napoli’s crowd at the San Paolo. Now that’s confidence.

Recent form:
Napoli (L-L-L-W-D) 3 Goals, 5 Goals allowed
Palermo (D-D-L-L-L) 4 Goals, 8 Goals allowed

Napoli home record: 8-3-4 21 Goals, 15 Goals allowed
Palermo road record:  3-3-9 18 Goals, 31 Goals allowed (!)

Diffidati: Palermo (Amauri, Bresciano, Capuano, Caserta, Cassani, Cavani, Guana)
Napoli: (Garics, Contini, Santacroce, Pazienza, Blasi, Cannavaro)

It’s a Napoli home match so there’s no TV coverage outside of Italy…can’t wait for next year when that madness ends. Radio Marte is always the best bet for live radio broadcasts.

Head on over to the Palermo-Offside to view Steven’s preview.

Forza Napoli!!!

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Gyorgy Garics (Austria), Marek Hamsik (Slovakia) and Ezequiel Lavezzi (Argentina) all returned from national team duty. Garics and Hamsik played the full 90 while Lavezzi rode the pines in Cairo in their match against Egypt.

Category: match previews

Tags: match preview, match previews

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