What Football Is

By: Neil | April 6th, 2009

Sampdoria 2 Napoli 2
I didn’t see this game, so I can’t do a full summary. But from watching the highlights, I saw something beautiful that I don’t see too often. In the 90th minute, with Napoli seconds away from losing their first game under Donadoni, Marek Hamsik threaded a perfect pass through a small maze of defenders for Denis to score an equalizer. At first glance it looks like an ordinary pass, but its genius lies in the fact that nobody was really expecting it, except Denis. The weight and accuracy of the pass was also perfect, which it had to be or else it would not have been completed. Hamsik’s moment of brilliance single-handedly earned Napoli a point, and I think that is what football is all about: Finding that one moment of magic when you produce a piece of skill that nobody else is expecting. The pass reminded me a little of Pirlo’s pass to Grosso in the semi-finals of the 2006 World Cup. Hamsik’s pass was on a smaller stage with much less at stake, but he still managed to outsmart a defence late in the game. It’s moments like those that keep me watching football time and time again.

For all I know, maybe Hamsik did nothing else all game. But players with his vision and skill don’t come along every day. Napoli cannot sell Hamsik, except for crazy money. We can buy two or three really good players with the money from selling him, but we just can’t replace his quality. DeLa is right: you don’t become a winning team by selling your champions for money.

As usual there were plenty of talking points in this game. Did anyone see the Santacroce tackles that should have got him sent off according to Mazzarri? None of the highlight packages I checked showed any of the challenges, including the one that got Santacroce a yellow. Here are the post-match comments from Mazzarri. But if I was Mazzarri, I would be more upset with how Samp defended. On Napoli’s two goals, players were left unmarked and balls into the box weren’t effectively dealt with. That has nothing to do with the referee. Plus, Samp’s two goals came from goalkeeper error rather than some really good attacking play. I have to admit, Palombo knows how to strike a ball. I’ve been a fan of Palombo for a while now, and I’m glad he’s finally broken into the Italy squad. I had no idea he could take free kicks like that. If Navarro had done his homework he would have known that Palombo doesn’t bend it, but hits it hard with a lot of swerve.

But back to Mazzarri. Again, I didn’t see the game, but it looks like the duo of Cassano and Pazzini were shut down most of the game. As a manager, I’d be more concerned with Samp’s play than with the ref’s decision not to send off a player. Mazzarri claims the ref “should have stuck by the rules”, but he also admits “it wasn’t easy to play such a tough and physical match.” It sounds like Napoli was able to dictate the style of play, and that isn’t the ref’s fault.

Here are the extended highlights:

And here is a postgame interview with DeLa and Donadoni. Really good picture quality on this one:

What else to say about the game? Well, our forwards are starting to get on the score sheet again. In Donadoni’s three games, Napoli has scored three goals, one each from Lavezzi, Zalayeta, and Denis. This is a big turnaround from earlier in the year when we needed our midfielders to find the back of the net. Notice that the Don is still playing the 3-5-2, but players are less likely to go on the kind of long and mazy runs that compromise the structure of the team. Now when Napoli loses the ball there are fewer spaces for the other team to exploit in the counterattack.

I was also happy to see Inacio Pia and Nicolas Amodio get a start. And there’s also talk of Samuele Dalla Bona returning to Napoli. It seems like between now and the end of the season everyone will get a chance. Players like Grava, Pia, and Amodio had no chance of playing under Reja. Donadoni is already doing a good job of using his bench, and the team is undefeated in three games since he took over. Even though Napoli are stuck in 11th place, seven points behind Cagliari and Palermo, I have the same amount of excitement as when the team was in the top three earlier in the season.

Hopefully there will be a few more pieces of sublime skill, from Hamsik or someone else, and the team can begin a climb up the standings to finish the year on a high.