time to exhale

By: Joe | February 4th, 2008

Napoli haven’t won a match in their last seven matches (including the flameout in the Coppa Italia against Lazio). Coach Edy Reja was called out on the carpet by our President twice. A second loss against bottom-dwellers Cagliari has upset a once promising start. The tifosi are booing Reja when he takes his garbage out and they’re disappointed in potentially losing out on Marcelo Lippi (it’ll never happen).

The Azzurri needed the three points badly. More importantly, they needed to play well and play as a cohesive unit for the first time in over a month. Napoli came through on Saturday and squashed any talk of a Udinese getting revenge for the 5-0 drubbing earlier this year by beating the bianconeri 3-1 at the Stadio San Paolo in this weeks anticipo.

Reja trotted out his typical 3-5-2 (he does know different formations are allowed, right?) but Napoli were shorthanded without starting keeper Genarro Iezzo, defenders Maurizio Domizzi and Andrea Cupi as they faced an Udinese side whose table position has fallen and their Champions League position has given way to hanging on for UEFA Cup spot. Nothing like a matchup of desperate sides to get the blood going.

Napoli were dangerous from the first minute. In particular, Marcelo Zalayeta caused the fruilani defense all sorts of problems. El Panteron has effectively taken Emmanuele Calaio’s spot in the lineup and despite his seven goals he’s has had long stretches where he has done nothing to add to Napoli’s attack. Zalayeta had his shot cleared off the line by Columbian defender Cristian Zapata in the first minute and then had a rocket shot drill the crossbar in the 3rd. All that pressure proved fruitful in the 5th when Zapata attempted to clear a low cross from Ezequiel Lavezzi but instead redirected it into the back of his own net. Things wouldn’t be so easy however as Udinese leveled in the 8th minute when FW Simone Pepe scored his first goal of the campaign. Pepe got on the end of a 40-yard cross and hit a beautiful one timer into the top corner past a helpless Matteo Gianello (filling in for Iezzo).

The Udinese goal seemed to settle Napoli down as they effectively controlled possession and locked down Fabio Quagliarella and Antonio Di Natale who rarely figured in the attack. Credit for keeping down the native Napoletani pair of attackers goes to the entire squad who limited the pair to two shots (neither on target) but especially Matteo Contini who may have played his best match of the season. The golden chance of the match for the pair came in the 32nd when Quagliarella made a fantastic counterattacking run but he played a poor ball to Di Natale and the chance went begging.

Captain Paolo Cannavaro was sent off in the 36th when Udinese launched a counterattack and Zapata outran the Napoli defense. Cannavaro and Zapata had their legs tangle inside the 18-yard box and Canna was given the red for taking down an attacker as the last man back. There’s little doubt the sending off was harsh but from the refs point of view, you can argue it was justified. In the few years I’ve been closely following Napoli, they have proved to be incredibly tough and resilient when they’re down to 10. This would prove no different. Napoli kept up the pressure despite being a man down and had some decent looks at goal but weren’t able to stick one in the back of the net.

The second half started without any changes for either side (grrrrr….Reja!) and Udinese looked to capitalize on their man advantage. Brazilian defender Felipe came closest to scoring in the 49th when his dangerous header was blocked from going on frame by Quagliarella. Napoli survived the onslaught and the worm turned when Pepe capped an eventful evening by getting a red for diving after a Marek Hamsik challenge. While it was close, it was a dive. Now perhaps Ayroldi (the ref) was trying to even things up as the Cannavaro red was no sure expulsion but a judgment call. Who knows? Who cares! Napoli had their break.

Ezequiel Lavezzi would lead the way as he has so often this year. A minute after Pepe’s red, Lavezzi had a dangerous shot which just missed geting on frame. All hell broke loose in the 74th as Lavezzi drilled a wicked right-footer from well outside the 18-yard box past Samir Handanovic to give Napoli the lead. The tifosi hardly had a chance to stop screaming before Riccardo Colombo inexplicably tapped a ball back into his own box which Lavezzi easily scooped up and chipped over Handanovic to give Napoli the commanding lead.

Udinese were effectively done after the second goal and phoned the rest of the match in. So Napoli won for the first time since the Parma match so very long ago and sit 11th in the table. While the victory was certainly welcome there’s a great deal of work left to do as Napoli will travel to Genova to take a very tough Sampdoria team who have a tremendous home record.

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS

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Genarro Iezzo will have minor arthroscopic surgery on his left knee on Wednesday and will be out of action for at least a month. Reja better get the young Argentinean in there for at least a few matches before then. We won’t hold onto all three guys next year and Del Guidice from the Primavera squad is a promising keeper so…c’mon Reja get one of the kids in there.

And I apologize for the lack of consistent posts but I’ve been working 80-90 hour weeks since the beginning of the year. Relief will come in late February. FORZA NAPOLI!