Missing Persons Alert

By: Neil | December 22nd, 2008

Torino 1 Napoli 0
SSC Napoli needs your help to find the following members who were not seen anywhere inside the Stadio Olimpico in Turin last Sunday: Marcelo Zalayeta, German Denis, Michele Pazienza, and Leandro Rinaudo. All four names were on the Napoli teamsheet, but went missing at around 3:00 in the afternoon.

Actually, it’s unfair to blame that loss on only four players. Except for Matteo Contini, every single Napoli player, including our three substitutions, played an unsatisfactory game. When that sort of thing happens, the blame goes straight to the Mister. Reja always talks about a lack of experience or maturity, but we’ve seen the same road performance time and time again: the team lacks offensive imagination and seems dull and weak. It’s easy to say that Lavezzi, Hamsik, and Canna would have made a difference, but we should have won that game without them, or at least managed a draw. But after going down 1-0, I can’t remembeer a single scoring chance, other than a Gargano shot and a Vitale header that most Primavera keepers would have saved. For all of Napoli’s possession and territorial advantage, there was no real offensive creativity.

Only two players need to be singled out for an adequate perforamce: Contini, who by playing his regular average game looked quite good, and Iezzo, who couldn’t be faulted for the goal and made a nice diving save from a Rosina free kick. But as captain Iezzo should have done more to light a fire under the rest of the team, and in the end he left something to be desired.

Highlights:

I hate to make such a negative post around Christmas, but it looks like we can say goodbye to the Champions League for next year. Not because Fiorentina just leapfrogged us to move into fourth, but because the team as a whole isn’t consistently good enough, especially on the road. Trying to scapegoat one or two individuals isn’t the answer. The truth is that we’re still behind other teams in terms of overall quality. I’m assuming that Inter, Juve, and Milan are not going to slip up in the second half, so we’re essentially battling Fiorentina, Roma, and maybe even Genoa for 4th place. We need to become more talented in certain areas before we can compete with Fior and Roma for a whole season.

Over the next few days I’m going to do a ‘big picture’ analysis, and also a report card for individual players. There will be no pagelle for this week, but several Torino players need to be recognized for contributing to the victory.

Man of the Match: Alessandro Rosina: Created the decisive goal, and was a threat every time he touched the ball. Napoli could not handle his combination of physical strength and creativity.

Honourable Mentions: Cesare Natali: Led the Torino defence effectively and gave keeper Sereni a farily easy night. Iganzio Abate: Controlled the left side of the field and managed to get forward on occaision.