Last year Napoli lost at this phase of the competition to Serie A side Parma. Not the Claudio Ranieri-Giuseppe Rossi heroic Parma. But the can’t get out of their own way, in danger of relegation in October, Stephen Fiore-led Parma. Despite the fact Napoli was in Serie B at the time, we had a rock-solid backline, Genarro Iezzo playing out of his mind and we were able to rattle off 1-0 victories like Liverpool in the Champions League. Our esteemed coach, decided to play almost his entire reserve side in the return leg at Parma, despite the fact we had a 1 goal advantage and had kept Parma from scoring a crucial road goal. The result was a predictable 3-1 loss and we were “free to concentrate on the league.” Yipee! Color me unimpressed.

It seems this time, Reja made his lineup mistakes all in the first leg at the Stadio Olimpico. Reja decided on starting Ruben Maldonado, after he’s only played a total of two matches all year long and he’s played bad. I mean bad like you look at him and you’re sure there’s some kind of joke at play here…bad like you wonder why is Enzo the truck driver playing center back kind of bad. If you didn’t catch the first leg of the Lazio match, you saw a Lazio side that, despite playing at home, looked listless and dull and like they’d rather be in bed sleeping.

Playing your primavera squad or emptying out your reserves for the Coppa Italia seems to be in fashion in Italy. Milan just went out of the competition playing Alberto Gilardino, Andrea Pirlo, Cafu and the reincarnated ghosts of Billy Costacurta, Marco Van Basten and a bunch of guys I’ve never seen before for God’s sake…and I watch a fair number of Milan matches. However, after watching Matteo Gianello spill at least four balls in the match, you’d think Reja would’ve perhaps seen that he’s just not up for the challenge. After claiming Napoli would have fire in their eyes and play this match like it was a Champions League night, Reja played Gianello once again.

Napoli’s second-string keeper played a decent match, and Reja put out a fairly decent side for today’s match, but it was too little, too late. In a home-and-away tie, you have to seize the day in the first fixture and then hang on for dear life in the second. Instead, we gave hope to a Lazio side that were close to firing their coach, in danger of getting relegated and have no funds or hope. What are we the freaking Salvation Army? We just gave Lazio some hope and another home date in the Coppa Italia quarter finals.

I hate you, Reja. I hate you, Reja. I hate….

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My apologies for not posting at all this week. I’ve been working upwards of 12 hours a day and have literally just come home from work and gone to bed. Things should slow down for me soon. 

Super Lavezzi shoots Napoli into the 3rd round of the Coppa Italia. A hat-trick from the Argentinean at San Paolo decided the game [3-1] against Ventura’s team. Napoli came from behind, overcoming the Tuscans, thanks to the first official goals from the Argentinean, Lavezzi.

Coach Edy Reja underestimated the opponents, sending onto the field a formation overloaded with mid-fielders. In the first 45 minutes of play the difference in the leagues status of the two teams was not evident. In fact, Pisa were quicker than the Azzurri and they surprisingly they went into the lead in the 18th minute; Cerci passed to Kutuzov whose centre caught Gianello by surprise. Napoli missed the quick play of Hamsik and the tempo of the game showed that they missed his decisive play. Play was predictable, only one shot on target and a free kick from Domizzi in the 24th minute which was punched clear by Padella. At the start of the second half, Lavezzi came on for Gatti and on his own he decided the outcome of the game, the 25,000 spectators were enthralled. In the 4th minute of the second half, Lavezzi from outside the area, let fly with a shot that bounced one metre before the goalkeeper and caught Padella by surprise. The equaliser brought the crowd to life, but this was not enough to take the game during the 90 minutes.

In the 13th minute of extra time Sosa passed from deep in his own half, Lavezzi hit the ball on the volley from inside the penalty area. The goal brought hope to the crowd. Three minutes from time, Lavezzi received the ball from De Zerbi and secured the result with a shot from 10 meters that went in off the post.

Napoletanos have begun to love this team. Reja’s team next play in the third round of the Cup at home to Livorno on the 29th August. Three days after the game against Cesena [4-0], Reja started the game against Pisa without any of the new acquisitions, bringing on Lavezzi for the second half was wonderful. The Argentinean has become the new idol of San Paolo, when he arrived he was overweight and he had to work hard to be fit enough to play. We knew he was good and capable of beat opponents and to dribble well, but up to now he had shown little of this ability. He has silenced everybody the way he played and scored his hat trick against Pisa.

The third round of the Cup has seen two good teams go out – Genoa lost against Ascoli [2-3] after extra time and Bologna lost at home to Trieste on penalties [4-5].

Translation by Roland Whittaker.

Napoli – Pisa 3-1
Napoli: (3-5-2) Gianello, Maldonado, Cannavaro, Domizzi, Garics, Savini, Montervino (35? Hamsik) , Bogliacino, Gatti (1? st Lavezzi), Calaiò (13? De Zerbi), Sosa.
Pisa: Padella, Zoppetti, Raimondi, Trevisan, Zavagno, Cerci, (41? st D’Anna)Pastiglia, Genevier, Carrozza (12? Tiboni), Kutuzov (6? st Ciotola), Castillo.

Referee: Pinzani
Goals: 18? pt Kutuzov, 49? Lavezzi, 13? 1st extra-time Lavezzi, 13? 2nd
extra-time Lavezzi

After being down 1-0 at the start of the half, Reja regained consciousness and inserted Lavezzi into the lineup for Gatti and El Pocho paid immediate dividends. Lavezzi scored a wonder goal from roughly 30 metres beating Pisa keeper Daniele Padelli (on loan from Sampdoria). The match was still in doubt and went into extra time when the young Argentine bagged two more for Napoli’s first hat trick in 14 years when Daniel Fonseca put three past Reggina.

Lavezzi’s brilliance salvaged Napoli from an embarrassing home defeat, kept alive the 2+ year home unbeaten streak and avoided the fate suffered by Bologna and Genoa both of whom bowed out early in this year’s Coppa Italia. Napoli will face Livorno at the San Paolo three short days after Napoli’s first Serie A match in seven years against Cagliari.

The last of the single-elimination Coppa Italia matches occur on the 29th and include the lower seeded Serie A teams. A win past this fixture will secure the winner a spot in the round of 16 where Serie A’s big boys are introduced. The format switches to home-road ties until the final which this year will be a single match to determine the Coppa Italia winner. A date with Lazio is in the cards for Napoli if it can navigate a positive result from the Livorno match…and Reja can get his head removed from his rectum.

YouTube highlights 

Schedule of 3rd round elimination matches:  

Rimini-Torino
Cagliari-Siena
Bari-Udinese
Triestina-Catania
Napoli-Livorno
Ascoli-Atalanta
Juventus-Parma
Piacenza-Reggina

Other results:

Bologna 4-5 Triestina (pk’s) Scorers: Mingazzin 20 (B), Graffiedi 73 (T)

Ascoli 3-2 Genoa (aet) Scorers: Soncin 32 (A), Di Vaio 53 (G), Melucci 86 (A), Papa Waigo 88 (G), Centi 111 (A)

Bari 2-0 Vicenza Scorers: Lanzafame 40 (B), Santoruvo 56 (B)

Rimini 4-0 Treviso Scorers: Valiani 7 (R), Ricchiuti 29 (R), Pagano 42 (R), Cristiano og 94 (T)

Ravenna 1-2 Piacenza Scorers: Aloe 38 (R), Wolf 48 (P), Guzman pen 60 (P)

Giampiero Ventura brings his side into San Paolo fresh off their exciting victory over Brescia on Wednesday. After falling behind early in the game, Pisa scored two late goals in the games final eight minutes to eliminate Sersi Cosmi’s Brescia side. 

While their defense was noteworthy, Pisa’s goal scoring clip, especially on the road, was anorexically thin. Pisa managed to only score 9 goals while conceding 12 in 17 road matches. I can’t make a single claim about knowing any of the Pisa players, but they have very high aspirations and are looking to return to Italy’s top flight after a 17 year absence. The great majority of their players have experience in only the lower levels of Italian calcio. A victory over Napoli would be a great start to their campaign and provide confidence to this relatively veteran squad.

Pisa has twice won the Mitropa Cup. The tournament is a predescor of the European Cup and Champions League. It was last played in 1992. Squads such as A.C. Fiorentina, Red Star Belgrade, Udinese and A.C. Milan have also won the competition.

Napoli come into the match fresh off a 4-0 drubbing of Cesena. The squad completely controlled the pace of play and should be able to exert their will upon a Pisa side who will have their hands full dealing with the likes of Hamsik and Bogliacino crossing balls into Calaio and Lavezzi. Additionally, Gyorgy Garics will be able to play in this match after serving his suspension. Anything less than a victory will be an absolute disaster for Napoli. At stake is a tricky August 29 elimination match against Livorno. If Napoli can get past….nah, I can’t jinx it. Let’s get past Pisa and reasess our prospects.

* Looks like the writing is on the wall for two of Napoli’s forwards. Cristian Bucchi will be riding the pines for Siena this campaign and Inacio Pia may actually get some playing time with Treviso. Pia wasn’t even on the roster for the Cesena match and Bucchi wasn’t on the roster for the Pisa match. Looks like Marino will have to sign at least one above-average striker as with those two gone we’d only have three legitimate point men (Calaio, Lavezzi and Sosa). De Zerbi can of course play up front, but he’s more a distributor than a target forward.

Napoli kicked off their campaign in spectacular fashion by crushing Cesena 4-0 in the 1st elimination match of the Coppa Italia. To put that result into perspective, Napoli hadn’t scored four goals since the first match of last year against Treviso.  In fact, in 33 of last years 47 matches (including Coppa Italia ties) Napoli scored less than two goals. An offensive juggernaut we are not.  More important than the quantity of goals, however, was the quality of play by Napoli’s youngsters.

Through this year’s friendlies, Coach Edy Reja has shown a willingness to incorporate the youngsters acquired by Pier Paulo Marino into the lineup. The average age of the starting XI was a little over 26 and even this figure is skewed by Napoletano keeper “San” Genarro Iezzo who just turned 34 this summer. Napoli featured three MF’s in their early 20’s (Marik Hamsik – 20, Walter Gargano – 23 & Erminio Rullo – 23) and a strike force of Emanuele Calaiò (25) and Ezequiel Lavezzi (22).

The goalscorers were the Calaiò (Napoli’s capocannonieri), Hamsik (the kid), De Zerbi (Garfield) and Domizzi (the gladiator). Four goals to celebrate Ferragosto . Marik Hamsik created the opening goal on a cross which was headed in by Calaio and then scored the second himself with the inside of his right foot. Cesena went down to 10 men following Luiz Gabriel Sacilotto’s late challenge on Rullo and substitute Roberto De Zerbi took advantage by smashing an unbelievable left-foot drive into the top corner for Napoli’s third. Domizzi completed the rout in stoppage time by nodding home the 4th. Napoli will host Pisa on Saturday for the second elimination match of the Coppa Italia.

Lineup/subsitutions: (3-5-2): Iezzo; Cupi (De Zerbi ‘68), Cannavaro, Domizzi; Grava, Hamsik, Gargano, Bogliacino (Montervino ‘74), Rullo; Lavezzi, Calaiò (Sosa 82′).

More Coppa Italia breakdowns after the jump.

Things were a little less free and easy in Genoa’s 2-1 win over newly promoted B team Grosseto at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris. It all seemed to be Genoa’s way when Omar Milanetto curled in one of his trademark free kicks and soon after Marco Di Vaio provided the assist for Ndiaye Papa Waigo. There was a scare from former Genoa star Marco Carparelli, who got Grosseto back into it with a precise header. Even after Bega was shown a straight red card for hacking down Dell’Acqua, Gian Piero Gasperini’s men held on for the win. Chievo’s year goes from bad to worse, as they were relegated to Serie B and today knocked out of the Coppa Italia in the first round by Ravenna. They survived a scare when Succi slammed his spot-kick on to the post, but in the final minutes Fofanà doomed the Flying Donkeys.

Serse Cosmi’s Brescia were kicking themselves after going from 1-0 up to 2-1 losers in stoppage time. Davide Possanzini thought the Serie C team had been dispatched, but Ciotola and Castillo completed a remarkable comeback to set up a dream Second Round clash with Napoli.

Mantova crashed out at the first hurdle in a surprise defeat at Triestina. Massimo Allegretti secured the victory with the only goal, but the visitors had a great chance to equalise when Kyriazis was sent off, only for Lucenti to fire the resulting 85th-minute penalty off target.

 There was never any doubt at the Stadio Romeo Neri, as Rimini thrashed fellow Serie B side Frosinone 6-0! Jeda was the star of the show with a hat-trick, although the scoreline only really began to pile up after Argilli’s 37th-minute dismissal.

Ascoli swept through with a 2-0 victory away to Avellino, as Stefano Guberti snatched a brace to set up their date in the Second Round with Genoa.

A goal from summer signing Mariano Martin Donda was enough to see Bari past Albinoleffe. Treviso downed Lecce on PK’s after the sides were level after 120 minutes of play.

Results and Goal scorers Bari 1-0 Albinoleffe
Scorers: Donda 76 (B)Triestina 1-0 Mantova
Scorers: Allegretti 72 (T)
Missed penalty: Lucenti 85 (M)
Sent off: Kyriazis 84 (T)

Rimini 6-0 Frosinone
Scorers: Jeda 12, 49, pen 54 (R),
Vitiello 38 (R), Moscardelli 67 (R), Valiani 73 (R)
Sent off: Argilli 37 (F)

Pisa 2-1 Brescia
Scorers: Possanzini 56 (B), Ciotola 85 (P), Castillo 93 (P)

Napoli 4-0 Cesena
Scorers: Calaiò 21 (N), Hamsik 40 (N), De Zerbi 75 (N), Domizzi 92 (N)
Sent off: Sacilotto 53 (C)

Avellino 0-2 Ascoli
Scorers: Guberti 23, 31 (As)

Genoa 2-1 Grosseto
Scorers: Milanetto 3 (Ge), Papa Waigo 16 (Ge), Carparelli 32 (Gr)
Sent off: Bega 89 (Ge)

Ravenna 1-0 Chievo
Scorers: Fofanà 87 (R) Missed penalty: Succi 61 (R)

Treviso 2-2 (4-3 pk’s) Lecce
Scorers: Scaglia 55 (T), Valdes 61 (L), Tiribocchi 91 (L), Smit 115 (T)

Thanks to Elio and the fine folks at Calcio Napoli for collaborating on this game story.

Napoli host Cesena on Wednesday, August 15 at the Stadio San Paolo. The match is the first round of the Coppa Italia. If Napoli advance they will play in three more days and face the winner of the Brescia-Pisa match. While you’d be hard pressed to call any match between Napoli and Juventus or Inter Milan a “friendly,” the fact is this will be the first ball that is kicked in anger this season. We’ll get an opportunity to see the new, younger Napoli take shape under the watchful eyes of an enthusiastic but skeptical Napoli tifosi who have alternatively been excited by the young signings (Hamsik, Gargano & Lavezzi) and disappointed at the talent that has slipped through Pier Paulo Marino’s hands (Nocerino, Bianchi, Miccoli and Rossi).

It would seem likely Reja will start with a lineup similar to the one featured in the Juventus match of the Trofeo Birra Moretti. Napoli lined up with the following (3-5-2) formation: Iezzo; Maldonado, Cannavaro, Domizzi; Garics, Hamsik, Gargano, Dalla Bona, Savini; Lavezzi, Calaiò. Reja has made noise about playing with three forwards but I just don’t see Roberto Sosa, Inacio Pia or Christian Bucchi breaking into the starting XI at this point. Bucchi and Pia appear on their way out but Napoli can’t risk letting them go until Marino executes on De Laurentis’ claim that Napoli will pick up three more players. Calaiò trained with the squad today after sustaining a knock so he should be ready to go Wednesday. The only injury of note is Bogliacino who hasn’t played since the second friendly in Austria. Calaiò and Lavezzi would really benefit from the service and creativity the Uruguayan midfielder can provide. Bogliacino’s status for Wednesday is still unknown.

 A.C. Cesena, or the Cavallucci Marini as they’re called, are coming off a disappointing campaign. Two years ago Cesena challenged for promotion to Serie A but lost in the playoffs to Torino. However, last year Cesena had a 10 game winless streak at the end of the season which almost dragged them to a playout and relegation Serie C1 (Hellas Verona had that dubious distinction). Moment of silence for the bastardi brigate of Verona.

Thank you very much.

Fabrizio Castori’s side will have a very different look this year for Cesena. Gone are the young and potent strikeforce from last year. Senegalese forward Papa Waigo (Genoa) and Graziano Pelle (Alkmaar Zaanstreek) combined to score 25 goals last season and have left a vacancy in Cesena’s attack. Cesena replaced these two attackers with Salvatore Aurelio (Genoa) and Cristian Cristea (Le Mans). Cesena will be hard pressed to slip a goal past Napoli at the San Paolo. Napoli finished last season with the least goals allowed in Serie B (29) and only surrenderred 12 at home. From this formidable defense Napoli returns their two keepers (Iezzo & Gianello) and three-man backline (Domizzi, Cannavarro & Maldonado).

Napoli will be looking to keep alive their undefeated home mark which has now stretched over two and a half seasons. If they’re able to get past Cesena, their next match will also be at the San Paolo. Livorno would then be waiting Napoli for the final single knockout game on August 29. The rest of the Coppa Italia ties would be home and away matchups (except for the final to be held on May 28).

 Napoli have won this competition three times (1962, 1976, 1987).  They are also the only team from Southern Italy to win the competition. Napoli’s record in the 58 years they’ve participated in the competition is:

291 matches

151 wins

62 draws

78 losses

420 goals

271 goals allowed

Match starts at 8:45 local time on Wednesday. Game on, baby. Game on.