nerf Posted July 17, 2003 Author Share Posted July 17, 2003 Monday 28th August 2006 During the course of Sunday and today we have been thrashing out some new contract deals for several members of the squad. Alessandro Bonaffini was the first to sign a new deal, extending his contract until 2009. He is well liked, both by the fans and the other players, and is a reliable backup player to have around. He has also agreed to a small pay cut, reflecting his standing as very much a backup option. Simone Tamburro also signed on until 2009, which will take him up to the age of 35. Gaspare Pellegrino and Eddy Baggio were different prospects, both hugely important players in my eyes. Early negotiations did not go entirely to plan and I was starting to get quietly worried, but after some lengthy talks we have finally tempted them into signing new deals that are worth £700 per week each. Eddy's new contract runs until 2009, Gaspare's until 2010, and they are both only trailing behind the surly Georgian as the highest paid at the club. Four other contracts expire next summer. We will be leaving the subject of Daniel Fonseca's contract until closer to expiry date - he is 37 years old now, and although he is well in my plans for this season, we do have Giancarlo Di Nicola coming through and I'm not so sure that Daniel will be required for another season beyond this one. As for Nicolas Cinalli, Antonio Di Giovanni and Manolo Manoni, as things currently stand we are unlikely to renew their contracts and will allow them to leave as free agents next summer. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninjafish Posted July 18, 2003 Share Posted July 18, 2003 more magic stuff from master nerf, just posted so you know Im still reading absolutely religiously(hey, your on my favourites, and I dont have an others) keep it up for a LONG LONG time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 19, 2003 Share Posted July 19, 2003 Hey Nerf,I'm still reading but I didn't post much the last weeks.You surely started quite good this season after two spankings Keep this going Nerf! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted July 20, 2003 Author Share Posted July 20, 2003 Thanks guys, much appreciated Tuesday 29th August 2006 We take the well-trodden route up the west coast of Italy in the direction of Napoli, to make the first of our two visits to Palma Campania this week. Palmese are the hosts for our Serie C Cup fixture today, and also for our Serie C1/B league opener on Sunday, so we'll be seeing a lot of the place in the next few days. Past encounters in this town have been shared evenly, with each team gaining two wins and a draw. Palmese beat Pordenone 4-3 in the group opener, but since then they have lost 0-2 and 0-4 at Gladiator and Thiene respectively. We will be looking to build on our two group victories so far by welcoming back Eddy Baggio, at the expense of the unfortunate Claudio Gallicchio who had done quite well as a replacement. Serie C Cup Group P Palmese v Ragusa Ragusa lineup - van Strattan; Tamburro©, Fumagalli, Attewell, Alderuccio; Mignani, Orlando, Cirillo, Burnadze; Di Nicola, Baggio. Palmese kicked-off but conceded possession of the ball straight away, with disastrous consequences. Pietro Alderuccio's long ball down the right wing was chased by Eddy Baggio, his cross was met by Giancarlo Di Nicola at the near post, and the youngster turned his marker to score the first goal. 1-0 to the visitors in little over 60 seconds. Eddy Baggio almost doubled the lead five minutes later, but his shot was saved and Di Nicola headed a follow up effort narrowly wide of the post. It took until the half hour mark to find the second, started by Luca Orlando getting up well to win a header in midfield, and Di Nicola wriggled free between a defender and the goalkeeper to tap in his fifth goal in two matches. Everything was rosey at half-time so we made no changes. The second half was a non-event, with very few chances for either team. Burnadze faded out as he tired after a satisfactory first half, Orlando started to impose himself and stroked the ball around in midfield, and Palmese were unable to threaten any serious comeback. Final score: Palmese 0 - 2 Ragusa First blood to us then in the private head-to-head this week, and more importantly we have gained the advantage in Group P. We currently stand top with a maximum 9 points from 3 matches, with cup specialists Gladiator in second place with 6 points, so by my understanding we should qualify whatever the result at Gladiator next Wednesday. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted July 20, 2003 Author Share Posted July 20, 2003 Sunday 3rd September 2006 It seems like we have barely returned home before we are back on the stuffy coach and cruising along the western edge of the mainland, to re-visit Palmese. Today marks the beginning of little Ragusa's involvement in Serie C1, and, despite the familiarity of the journey, for many of the passengers on the bus it is a drive forward into unchartered territory. Stefano Fumagalli and Simone Tamburro make the trip only in a plain clothes capacity, as both are suspended for one domestic league match, while Pavel Grznar and Gaspare Pellegrino are back in Sicily concentrating on healing their long term injuries. Teenagers Giancarlo Di Nicola and Luca Orlando have suffered from the pace a little bit and will be rested on the subs bench for this match, with Daniel Fonseca returning from a minor injury to resume his place alongside Eddy Baggio. In the absence of club captain Tamburro and vice-captains Fumagalli and Pellegrino, Marco Cirillo will sport the captain's armband for the first time. Serie C1/B Fixture #01 Palmese v Ragusa Ragusa lineup - van Strattan; Guastella, Attewell, Alderuccio, Sabellini; Mignani, Cirillo©, Gallicchio, Burnadze; Fonseca, Baggio. In front of a larger crowd of 3871 baying for revenge in the Comunale stadium, the red shirted Palmese get the game underway. They have plenty to cheer about as early as the 3rd minute, when a huge gap is allowed to appear in the middle of our defence and Ernesto Verolino strides through to fire in the opener. In the 14th minute a mistake on the ball by Pietro Alderuccio leaves Andrea di Tora with a sight of goal, and his accurate strike doubles the home side's lead. A quarter of an hour gone and we have already conceded our first two goals in Serie C1/B. The back four are looking unsettled without the guidance of Fumagalli or Tamburro to marshall them, and they are not familiar with each other, particularly Guastella filling in at left back. It takes us twice as much time to halve Palmese's advantage, when Daniel Fonseca produces something from nothing by whipping a stunning free-kick around the wall and in off the post. Eddy Baggio and Marco Cirillo have not enjoyed a successful first half, so at the half-time break they are both substituted in favour of Di Nicola and Orlando. The captaincy is switched back to Danilo Sabellini. With the changes things start to pick up in the second half, and in the 65th minute the captain's long ball finds our veteran Uruguayan clear behind the defence to level the match up with a classy low drive into the bottom left corner. Not too happy with relinquishing a two goal headstart, the home crowd begin to urge their side on to regain the lead. Jess van Strattan is forced into a couple of good saves as Palmese start to get back on top, so when the referee blows the full-time whistle we are fairly happy to settle for a draw. Final score: Palmese 2 - 2 Ragusa Aboard the coach and heading back south, head physio Salvatore spent part of the return journey inspecting Alderuccio's twinge of pain in his right ankle. We may have won the battle on Tuesday, but Palmese were not about to let us win the war and today was a different prospect. After being two goals under so early, I guess we can be pleased with recovering for a draw and earning our first Serie C1/B point. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted July 20, 2003 Author Share Posted July 20, 2003 Wednesday 6th September 2006 The path from south Sicily to Napoli is becoming very worn indeed; we're on that same route again for the third time in a week. Santa Maria Capua Vetere is on the northern outskirts of Napoli, a mere few miles further along the track from Palma Campania, and it is host to the familiar Gladiator team. This is the tenth meeting between the two clubs in my four years here, easily our most regular opponent, and we have been fortunate enough to suffer just one defeat in those matchups. That came on our last visit here, during our post-christmas slump back in February of last year. Gladiator have belied their poor Serie C2/C struggles by doing well in the Serie C Cup in recent seasons, and this time is no different, having beaten both Thiene and Palmese 2-0 and only losing when they travelled north to Pordenone. A win for them today will probably be good enough for them to qualify alongside us. Pietro Alderuccio's twisted ankle will keep him out for three weeks, but with Fumagalli and Tamburro returning from suspension he should not be missed in defence. Di Nicola and Orlando also get to start again, and Daniel Fonseca is rested having played a tough 90 minutes at the weekend immediately following an injury. Serie C Cup Group P Gladiator v Ragusa Ragusa lineup - van Strattan; Tamburro©, Fumagalli, Attewell, Sabellini; Mignani, Orlando, Cirillo, Burnadze; Di Nicola, Baggio. There's a belief in Gladiator in the cup matches that they often don't seem to possess in the league. Something that I have learnt in my time here is that superstition can be a powerful thing in Italy. It came as no surprise to the home fans then, that Gladiator took the lead in the 8th minute. Majella did well down the right and dug out a cross from the byline, and teammate Mangia did the rest with a simple sidefoot finish at the far post. As a team we started to regain our footing as the first half progressed, but for some reason Eddy Baggio couldn't put a foot right. After Mignani and Di Nicola had combined effectively down the left, Eddy was left with a simple volley from little more than six yards out, but he managed to hit it weakly straight at the grateful goalkeeper. Later in the half Di Mura saved a 1-on-1 with Baggio, and then Eddy hit another chance wide with only the keeper to beat again. In the dying seconds of the first half, Majella and Mangia connected for Gladiator again and we were two goals down, this time with Mangia returning the favour to set up Majella for a near post header. We went into the half-time break at 0-2 having been made to pay for our missed chances. Temuri Burnadze was once again displaying a lack of commitment and impact on the right, so I risked another tantrum by withdrawing him in favour of Franco Chiavarini. We kicked off the second half and made the first attack, a Tamburro cross from the left was nodded down by Di Nicola... Eddy Baggio was waiting all alone on the penalty spot, the ball dropping perfectly for him, surely this would give us a good start to the second half... but Eddy hooked his volley wide of the post. Is this the same guy? On the hour, Claudio Gallicchio and Massimo Costagliola came on as substitutes for Marco Cirillo and Eddy Baggio - it just wasn't going to happen for Eddy today - and only six minutes later we finally found the net. Gallicchio and Orlando battled hard in midfield, flying into a few fierce tackles, when suddenly Luca Orlando emerged with the ball and was bursting forward to bisect the defence. Clean through on the keeper, the ever-composed Orlando took his time, then lashed the ball past Di Mura for 1-2. It didn't last, and the cup magic kept on flowing for Gladiator. Receiving a throw-in in the 74th minute, Majella cut inside from the right and belted a 20 yard shot impressively into the top corner. There was no coming back from that. Final score: Gladiator 3 - 1 Ragusa It's disappointing to concede three goals in each of our last two visits to this stadium, but we have still qualified from the group and will go into the first round knockout stage for the first time. Gladiator, cup specialists that they are, will also progress from Group P alongside us. Thursday 7th September 2006 The draw for the Serie C Cup 1st Round has presented us with a two leg tie against Serie C1/A's Foggia, who are also former Serie C2/C champions (2003/2004). The first leg will be played at the Aldo Campo Selvaggio on September 20th. The latest big name club to suffer from football's financial crisis is Spanish Primera Liga outfit Real Sociedad. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
veelhousen Posted July 22, 2003 Share Posted July 22, 2003 Keep it going mate. Good stuff. Unlucky about the loss. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted July 22, 2003 Author Share Posted July 22, 2003 Cheers veelhousen Sunday 17th September 2006 Sambenedettese are a well established force in Serie C1/B, having threatened to make the step up to Serie B on several occasions. Unfortunately for them, for the last two seasons straight they have stumbled in the promotion playoff semi-finals and been sent back to square one. They have enjoyed even more success in the Serie C Cup, getting all the way to the final in 2003/2004 but again falling at the last hurdle. They began this season with a 1-0 home victory over Treviso, thanks to a late goal by flamboyant Argentinian forward Juan Martin Turchi, in front of over 12,000 fans. In contrast, the 3,452 in attendance today means that the Aldo Campo Selvaggio is sold out for our first home match in Serie C1. Daniel Fonseca is lacking match fitness so will remain on the bench, and the same eleven that lost at Gladiator a week-and-a-half ago will have the chance to redeem themselves. This includes Temuri Burnadze, who I continue to show lenience to in the hope that he will wake up and start producing. Serie C1/B Fixture #02 Ragusa v Sambenedettese Ragusa lineup - van Strattan; Tamburro©, Fumagalli, Attewell, Sabellini; Mignani, Orlando, Cirillo, Burnadze; Di Nicola, Baggio. The away side made the most of the early play while we made a shakey start, but they were unable to stretch Jess van Strattan or worry him too much. It was somewhat against the run of play that we took the lead in the 20th minute, thanks to an excellent counterattack started by the captain. Tamburro's low ball forward was nudged on to Baggio by Di Nicola, and Baggio ran in on goal chased by defender Vincenzo Masiero. Goalkeeper Stefano Pardini moved off his line and did well to parry the striker's shot, but the ball rolled to Di Nicola following up at the edge of the area and he sent it into the gaping net. 1-0. Sambenedettese kicked-off to resume the game, and attempted to string a few passes together to retain their control of possession. Marco Cirillo and Luca Orlando started to harry and press in midfield, but in his eagerness to win the ball back, Marco went too far and plunged rashly into a challenge on Massimiliano Manni. The inhaled reaction from the crowd reflected my view from the dugout, because as I saw it Marco had gone in dangerously with both feet and hadn't even managed to time it very well. As the poor Sambenedettese left-back rolled in agony on the turf, Cirillo was immediately surrounded by a mob of aggrieved opposing players and had to be hauled to safety by Simone Tamburro grabbing the back of his shirt. Despite Manni being carried off by the Sambenedettese physios, much to Marco's relief - and mine - Signor Girardi took the lenient option and raised the yellow card rather than the red. Manni's teammates got their revenge in the proper way within ten minutes of the incident. From the centre circle Daniele Borone sprayed a pass out to the right wing for Filippo Zacchei, he flicked the ball first time into the box with the outside of his foot, and there Mattia Piras popped up with an over-the-shoulder volley of David Platt proportions, from Bologna in 1990, to hook the equaliser in from a narrow angle. 1-1. A few minutes later Sambenedettese went looking for a quick second goal, again finding Zacchei out wide on the right, whose pass back across into the middle set the ball up for centre back Masiero to try his luck from all of 30 yards. With the ball arrowing towards the top corner, van Strattan dived full length to his left and managed to finger-tip it around the upright. Zacchei lined the corner up and sent it swinging in to the near post, but Marco Cirillo was there to hack a clearance upfield and suddenly a break was on... Eddy Baggio collected the ball just inside our half and floated a perfect crossfield pass out to Giancarlo Di Nicola, who had drifted wide of the substitute left-back. Di Nicola took the ball on the run and advanced into the box, Pardini came out to narrow the angle, but the young forward wasn't fazed and succeeded in hitting the ball high and hard across the goal to crash in off the far post. 2-1, the lead back in our hands. With barely a minute remaining of the 45, Danilo Sabellini read the play well and intercepted to stop Sambenedettese's progress. Nipping in ahead of Poggi, he controlled the ball and laid a simple pass off to Temuri Burnadze on the halfway line, who then sailed an even better crossfield pass than Baggio's over to the left wing. Again Di Nicola had pulled wide on to the shoulder of the fullback, again he got in behind, and this time he swept the ball through the keeper's legs for the hattrick. Sambenedettese must have been seething at half-time, having had the control on possession for much of the half only to find themselves 3-1 down at the break. With three lightning counterattacks we had attempted 4 shots and hit the target with all of them, and all 3 of Di Nicola's efforts had nestled in the back of the net. The finishing might be clinical but there could be improvements elsewhere, so Claudio Gallicchio came on to replace Luca Orlando. The teenager had been pulled out of position on occasion and had been given some physical trouble by Sambenedettese captain Gennaro del Vecchio in the centre, so hopefully Claudio could add a bit more grit and strength. Temuri Burnadze's impressive pass at the end had saved his bacon, otherwise he would have been another player not going out for the second half. In the 62nd minute Di Nicola finally proved that he was human, by lashing a shot wide for the first time in the match. On 73 minutes Sambenedettese did the same at the end, after Turchi had been presented with a good opportunity from a poor wayward pass by Cirillo, but Attewell pressured him and he dragged his shot wide too. The away side were unable to respond to our lethal finishing in the first half, and as time ticked away we had the best chance to add to the scoring. Di Nicola used his head to flick Burnadze's lob on towards Baggio, who twisted inside Claudio Poggi and unleashed a curling left footed shot from 20 yards, only for Pardini to get across his goal and parry it wide impressively. Final score: Ragusa 3 - 1 Sambenedettese The scoreline doesn't tell the whole story and we can hardly claim that we outplayed Sambenedettese, but we put our chances away and man-of-the-match Giancarlo Di Nicola was magically lethal. Both fullbacks performed very well and Marco Cirillo also had a decent game, if he was lucky to have stayed on the pitch. Burnadze and Mignani were both still a little bit too quiet for my liking, but the three points are ours against a strong team and we go into 5th position after 2 matches. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 23, 2003 Share Posted July 23, 2003 Class win Nerf,Samb isn't really the easiest team to beat and trust me,I know everything about it A question,I played much with Rimini (Serie C2B) and I brought them them to Serie B quite few times and still playing now,but the player Di Nicola at Samb,didn't he come from Rimini?Or is he another player?If he's the one from Rimini,maybe you can try to buy him,he's class believe me.Maybe is Ricchiuti from Rimini too better but more expensive.Ricchiuti is equal to proud Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 23, 2003 Share Posted July 23, 2003 Sorry,I mean the Di Nicola of your team,Ragusa! My mistake,you bought him already... You really should search and scout Ricchiuti,believe me! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted July 23, 2003 Author Share Posted July 23, 2003 Thanks Juventinogdt. Actually, this Giancarlo Di Nicola is one of our youth players drafted into the Under-20s, he's Ragusa born and bred Wednesday 20th September 2006 A trip to south-east Italy brings us to the Serie C Cup knockout stages and to Foggia, set slightly inland from the Adriatic sea. Our hosts began the new league season in Serie C1/A with a loss against Spezia and a draw in Monza, but fared better in the cup and therefore line up against us today. The last four meetings between the clubs have provided just one win for Ragusa, with our last visit to the Pino Zaccheria stadium ending in a 0-2 defeat in December 2003, from which Foggia went on to win the Serie C2/C title that season. Carlo Mignani and Luca Orlando are both serving suspensions thanks to yellow cards collected in the group stage of the competition, and their places in midfield will be filled by Franco Chiavarini and Claudio Gallicchio, and Temuri Burnadze moves over to the left to accomodate Franco. I'm willing to try and ease Giancarlo Di Nicola along by resting him every now and then, so Daniel Fonseca makes a return to the team. Serie C Cup Round 1 Leg 1 Foggia v Ragusa Ragusa lineup - van Strattan; Tamburro©, Fumagalli, Attewell, Sabellini; Burnadze, Gallicchio, Cirillo, Chiavarini; Fonseca, Baggio. Foggia raced into an early lead with a strong first 20 minutes, finding the net twice before we had even managed to shake the coach journey from our legs. In the 5th minute Mauro Carretta received a cross from Cristiano in the area, turned, and lashed in his first ever Foggia goal - and what a stunner it was, as the crowd saw the ball crash in off the angle of post and bar. 15 minutes later, Foggia number eight Mario Niedda lunged onto the end of a dangerously dipping free-kick curled into our goalmouth by the left foot of Angelo Iorio, and Niedda got in front of Chiavarini to poke it past Jess van Strattan from six yards. 2-0 Foggia. Our only chance of the first half fell to the feet of Eddy Baggio on 26 minutes, after Marco Cirillo had cleverly played him in with a deft left foot chip, but the out-of-form striker scuffed a weak shot that drifted wide of the far post. At the break I brought Alessandro Bonaffini on to the left of midfield and moved Burnadze back across to the right, removing Chiavarini who had not enjoyed the best of games in the first half. Hopefully Alessandro, in his first appearance since Acireale last May, could put himself about and try to lift the team from their slumber by getting stuck in. The second period began less painfully than the first, but with no improvement on the level of our performance. 10 minutes in I sent youngster Massimo Costagliola on for Daniel Fonseca, who was struggling to keep up with the pace due to lack of match fitness, and we started to gain more possession as Foggia eased off a bit on the comfort of their two goal advantage. Still we couldn't find the breakthrough, despite replacing Baggio with another young forward in Gabriele Catania, and it took all the way until the 89th minute to find a consolation goal. Danilo Sabellini went across to assume responsibility for a corner with the absence of the usual set-piece takers, and Costagliola managed to convert his inswinging ball with a difficult header, moving backwards and getting up to divert it down into the far corner for his first ever senior goal. Massimo retrieved the ball and carried it back to the centre spot, but there was no time for any more attacks never mind an equaliser. Final score: Foggia 2 - 1 Ragusa I suspect the drive home would have been a lot more gloomy, but Massimo Costagliola's first strike has given us an away goal and therefore a lot more hope for the return leg next week. Still, it's abundantly clear to me that we haven't yet been able to shake our poor away form as we were easily second best for 88 minutes of the match, and on Sunday we face coming back this way to Lanciano, a bit further north up the Adriatic coast. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 23, 2003 Share Posted July 23, 2003 Sorry about the loss Ah,Giancarlo...Hot prospect then You really should search after Ricchiuti you know Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted July 25, 2003 Author Share Posted July 25, 2003 Yep, Giancarlo looks very promising. Ricchiuti is currently at Brescia in Serie A, so not much chance of him heading down here! Sunday 24th September 2006 Lanciano are the early leaders of Serie C1/B, having won 1-0 at Avellino after trouncing Pro Vercelli 4-0 here in their opening fixture. We return to eastern Italy without Wednesday's goalscorer Costagliola, who, along with Pietro Alderuccio, is back in Ragusa resting an ankle injury. Daniel Fonseca, Eddy Baggio and Giancarlo Di Nicola are now all considered to be match fit, giving me my first selection headache in attack, but I eventually settle on leaving Di Nicola out. I don't want to rush the lad too much, I think with his energy he can have an impact coming on as substitute, and despite Eddy Baggio enduring a torrid time in front of goal of late it is difficult to turn my back on last season's red hot partnership. Carlo Mignani and Luca Orlando also make do with seats on the bench as the team stays the same. Serie C1/B Fixture #03 Lanciano v Ragusa Ragusa lineup - van Strattan; Tamburro©, Fumagalli, Attewell, Sabellini; Burnadze, Gallicchio, Cirillo, Chiavarini; Fonseca, Baggio. The fans in the Guido Biondi were given an early indication of the mood of their team, when Brazilian midfielder Adriano Mezavilla sent a ridiculous swerving shot thundering off van Strattan's crossbar inside 2 minutes. When the inevitable early goal came it was in much less spectacular fashion, a 13th minute corner by Roberto Izzo glanced in by Maurizio Nassi, who beat Attewell to the header at the near post. 10 minutes later I'm left fuming on the sideline, when Izzo swings in another corner and Simone Palermo gets up above Gallicchio to nod in an almost identical second. For the third away match in a row we had presented the home team with a two goal headstart. On 32 minutes Daniel Fonseca showed his deadball prowess once more by curling a 25 yard free kick around the wall, grabbing a goal back that we had done little to deserve, but Lanciano and their fans were not to be denied. Just two minutes later Mezavilla wound up that right foot again, after turning Gallicchio neatly, and swung an unstoppable long range screamer into the top corner from some distance. On the stroke of half-time the self-destruct button was well and truly pressed by Stefano Fumagalli when he jumped unfairly with Malatesta in the penalty area, and Maurizio Nassi gleefully tucked away his 50th goal for the club by converting from the spot. 4-1 to an upbeat Lanciano at half-time. Jess van Strattan had not stood a chance with any of the goals and Lanciano's shoot-on-sight policy had paid off, not without significant help from our return to our past naivety at defending corners. Giancarlo Di Nicola and Carlo Mignani replaced Baggio and Gallicchio at half-time to see if we could shake things up, but we faced a tall order for the second 45 minutes. With the score deficit and the mood of the on-form home team and their crowd, it looked like another away defeat was imminent. It describes a lot about our performance when I say that fortunately there was just the one goal in the formality of the second period. Stuart Attewell, who was having a shocker at the back and had been run ragged all afternoon by Nassi, was accused by the referee of dragging back Di Girolamo in the box and conceded another penalty. Maurizio Nassi placed the ball confidently and promptly completed his hattrick, before soaking up the adulation of the crowd. Our best effort of the half was restricted to a long range shot by Tamburro which sailed over the bar. Final score: Lanciano 5 - 1 Ragusa Our most miserable performance for some time led to a claustrophobic sombreness in the confinements of the coach, as I passed the drive south by mulling over our heaviest defeat since my arrival. 5 away matches, 1 win, 1 draw, 3 convincing defeats, and the first time we had conceded five goals in a match since Antonio Di Giovanni's nightmare in Tivoli of January 2004. In hindsight, naming the same team that struggled in Foggia was probably an obvious mistake, and perhaps a little optimistic in the face of Lanciano's blistering start to their season. I also wasn't counting on Maurizio Nassi being desperate to score a hattrick against his former club, it turns out he had spent two seasons in the lower divisions with Ragusa between 1997 and 1999, but I think Lanciano could have played any of their other forwards and still won comfortably. To make matters slightly worse, Carlo Mignani fell heavily just before the final whistle and Salvatore suspects that he may have suffered a minor fracture to his wrist. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted July 25, 2003 Author Share Posted July 25, 2003 Wednesday 27th September 2006 Our third fixture in a week brings Foggia down to the Aldo Campo Selvaggio, which contains little over 2000 people today, mostly due to expected low attendances in cup matches rather than disillusionment over recent away defeats, one hopes. With Foggia's 2-1 advantage from the first leg, a 1-0 win for us today would be enough to see us progress to the second round thanks to Costagliola's away goal. Despite my reflections on keeping the same starting eleven at the weekend, there is just one change in personnel again today, with exuberant youth uprooting wily experience as Di Nicola replaces Fonseca. This is not down to a change of heart but is thanks to the presence of Gaspare Pellegrino, Pavel Grznar, Pietro Alderuccio, Massimo Costagliola and Carlo Mignani on the injury list, and how shallow that leaves our options. Serie C Cup Round 1 Leg 2 Ragusa v Foggia Ragusa lineup - van Strattan; Tamburro©, Fumagalli, Attewell, Sabellini; Burnadze, Gallicchio, Cirillo, Chiavarini; Di Nicola, Baggio. The first notable event of the match arrived in the 9th minute, when Danilo Sabellini's quick throw-in sent Franco Chiavarini bursting down the right wing. His ball infield was controlled by Di Nicola, who turned and clipped a clever short pass through to Eddy Baggio racing into the box. Baggio hesitated visibly, you could see a string of recent missed chances rushing through his mind, but as the defender closed in he stabbed the ball past the goalkeeper and finally, mercifully, Eddy had broken his duck for the season. In the 30th minute he should perhaps have been celebrating a double when Gallicchio's header up the middle caught the Foggia defence off-guard, but his sudden lack of confidence dragged him down again and he scuffed a woeful effort that the keeper merely had to bend over and pick up. Our first half performance was not exactly legendary but it was a vast improvement over the shambles on Sunday, and the second goal finally arrived as the clock ticked around to 45. Sabellini's clearing header bounced to Baggio at halfway, and Di Nicola showed maturity beyond his seventeen years to make an intelligent bending run across Foggia's back line. Baggio found him with the through pass as the offside trap was shattered, leaving Di Nicola to jink to his right as goalkeeper Giancarlo Miranda came out to narrow the angle. Unfortunately he was taken too wide, but as the Foggia players got back to close him down and try to block the expected cut-back to Baggio, Di Nicola surprised everyone by having the arrogance to hammer the ball at goal from the tightest of angles, and was rewarded by the ball crashing into the far top corner. 2-0. There was still the matter of added-on time to play in the first half, and it was greeted by a sudden burst of end-to-end action. First Giancarlo Di Nicola latched onto Chiavarini's cross and was denied brilliantly by Miranda, then from Margiotta's long clearance, Michele Desole's cross presented Foggia's number seven Da Silva with a sitter from 14 yards out, but luckily for us he leant back too much and sidefooted a glorious chance embarassingly over the bar. Immediately following van Strattan's goal kick, Claudio Gallicchio sent Di Nicola tearing up the left flank to create an opportunity for Eddy Baggio, but Eddy could only slice a dismally soft volley into Miranda's stomach. The referee signalled an end to the flurry of action with the loud shrill of his whistle, and both sides left the pitch with no further scoring. At 2-0 up we now held a 3-2 advantage in the tie and an away goal to boot, so things were looking good, but of course Foggia only needed one goal to square everything up. And square it up they did, just 10 minutes after the restart. Number eight Mario Niedda found plenty of space behind our midfield to line himself up from 25 yards, and although van Strattan got fingers to it, the ball bounced on into the net. Foggia had returned from the half-time break much revitalised, and the 'equaliser' boosted them with renewed confidence. In the 73rd minute they worked Da Silva in with a chance to shoot but Attewell and Sabellini converged quickly to smother that opportunity, only for the ball to squirm into the path of Massimo Margiotta on the penalty spot. With van Strattan caught wong-footed, the lucky Margiotta had the simple task of stroking in his first of the season to put Foggia 4-3 up on aggregate. In 20 minutes we had gone from second round qualification to elimination, and I needed to make some changes quickly. Gabriele Catania and Luca Orlando came on as fresh legs for Baggio and Cirillo, and I urged Burnadze and Chiavarini to attack more. It almost paid immediate dividends a few minutes later, but Giancarlo Miranda got down low to his right and pulled off a fantastic save from Di Nicola. Not only were we now behind on aggregate, but with Foggia's second away goal we would now need to score twice. Unfortunately, Foggia got behind the ball and stifled our tired efforts, resulting in them seeing the game out to the finish. Final score: Ragusa 2 (3) - (4) 2 Foggia It's easy to say that you are not interested in the cup competition after you have just been knocked out of it, but I can't say I will miss the regular midweek matches at all. Even so, it is still disappointing to throw away a two goal lead at home when we were in the driving seat at half-time, especially after Baggio's three golden chances, and some credit must go reluctantly to manager Gianni Bortoletto for turning his team around. Looking on the bright side, it will give us more time to focus on surviving our first season in Serie C1/B. 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nerf Posted July 26, 2003 Author Share Posted July 26, 2003 Friday 29th September 2006 A frustrated curse echos across the training ground. Coach Leo Pellegrino is officiating a morning 5-a-side session between two groups of players, and the cause of Eddy Baggio's distress is another scuffed shot bobbling wide of Giuseppe Lenea's post. Even on the training pitch Eddy just doesn't seem able to shift the slump that he is in, much to his irritation. It would have been unthinkable 17 months ago, at the height of Eddy's form in our promotion season, that it would even enter my head to consider dropping a fully fit Baggio, but as I stand on the side of the small pitch that is exactly what I am contemplating. For the opposing team of five, I watch Daniel Fonseca instantly kill a pass from Danilo Sabellini, roll his studs over the ball teasingly, then shift his feet and ping the ball in off the post past Jess van Strattan. Giancarlo Di Nicola, who is elsewhere working with Antonio Rannuci and the Under-20s squad, has been touted recently around the club as Fonseca's replacement, but I start to wonder if maybe they should be playing together. With Giancarlo on such good form I think we can afford to give Eddy a short rest. On my right, Jess van Strattan appears to be a little lethargic in the process of retrieving the ball from the downsized net. The big Australian is another one who I am seriously considering leaving out for the coming weekend. He has conceded 10 goals in the last fortnight, and while it would be excessively harsh to criticise him as being personally responsible for any of those individual goals, I am a big believer in confidence playing an important role in a goalkeeper's performance. Just as I did with Nicolas Cinalli back in my first season here, I wonder if perhaps Jess would benefit from a break from the first team. Besides, Giuseppe Lenea has been looking as spritely as he ever has since his injury, and, as if to prove my thoughts, to my left Giuseppe springs across his goalmouth to save and hold a shot by Marco Cirillo. Marco is another who could be described as not being right on top of his game. Since the curse of the captain's armband at Palmese in our league opener, three of his appearances have been cut short by substitutions based on poor performance. With the arrivals of Carlo Mignani and Luca Orlando, and the emergence of Claudio Gallicchio as a capable midfielder in the same way that Marco did 4 years ago, the once-barren central midfield area has become a lot more competitive, even with Gaspare Pellegrino out. Cirillo will need to get away from recent shakey form if he is to retain his standing as a first team regular. As the session starts to wind down, I turn away from the small pitch and begin to head out of the baking sun towards the relative cool of the building. "Rapidamente, buona". I pass physio Guido Ferraris near the precious shade of the line of carob trees, who is encouraging Pietro Alderuccio through some short sharp sprints as part of the defender's final recovery process from an ankle injury. Without even glancing in my direction, Guido gives me a thumbs-up as I pass - that means the ankle is looking good, and Pietro should be ready in time for Sunday. Through the blue door with the paint flaking away around the edges, I progress into glorious shelter and turn left in the direction of the physiotherapy room to see how Salvatore is getting on with Gaspare Pellegrino's injury. As expected we are still at the rest, ice and massage stage, with up to three weeks of build-up still to come, so Gaspare will miss the fixtures with Pro Vercelli, Trento and Avellino; as will Pavel Grznar. Starting with a long, long visit to Vercelli this weekend, we have a tough league season to get stuck into now that the cup competitions are out of the way. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 27, 2003 Share Posted July 27, 2003 Sorry about the losses Adrian at Brescia?Great! In my games he always stays at Rimini,no one cares about this great LLM talent Keep this going Nerf! PS Can you maybe post some pic's again?Thx! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted July 28, 2003 Author Share Posted July 28, 2003 Sunday 1st October 2006 Not only is an away fixture not exactly the ideal situation in which to try and break a slump of three matches without a win, but the distant Vercelli is tucked between Milan and Turin in the far North-East of Italy. Yesterday entailed a coach journey to the East coast of Sicily to board a plane at Aeroporto Fontanarossa Catania, followed by a flight past Mount Etna, across the blue Tyrrhenian Sea and up Italy's West coast to land in Milano itself. A second coach ride took us West through Novara to finally reach Vercelli, where we were kept awake by the locals in a simple hotel situated not far from the 9,500 all-seater Silvio Piola. Pro Vercelli are currently just one place below us in 9th, and have collected a loss, a draw and a win in their last three matches. My training ground musings have stood the test of two nights' sleep - or one and one attempted - so all three of Eddy Baggio, Jess van Strattan and Marco Cirillo find themselves on the bench today, joined by Pietro Alderuccio following his successful recovery. Fonseca partners Di Nicola up front, Orlando and Gallicchio hold the central midfield places, and Giuseppe Lenea gets his first full league start for, shockingly, almost three years. Serie C1/B Fixture #04 Pro Vercelli v Ragusa Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Tamburro©, Fumagalli, Attewell, Sabellini; Burnadze, Orlando, Gallicchio, Chiavarini; Fonseca, Di Nicola. The Silvio Piola is less than half full, and those 4,400 home fans are subjected to an explosive start from the away side. From the kick-off we sprung straight into attack, when Fonseca's one-two with Gallicchio ended up with the Uruguayan playing Di Nicola in, but the teenager's 20 yard effort scorched narrowly over the bar. Pro Vercelli attempted to compose themselves and won a 3rd minute free kick, but Stuart Attewell cleared it heftily up the left wing and we were immediately back on the attack. Di Nicola raced up the flank and sent an early cross in that was just out of reach of Fonseca, so Daniel swerved and chased to keep it in. He turned, slipped the ball cleverly past defender Antonio Pedrocchi, and was then tumbling across the grass of the penalty area. The referee pointed at the spot to penalise Pedrocchi for the trip, and the cool Fonseca shut out the deafening whistles to calmly sidefoot the spot kick into the bottom left corner. The home side were not too thrilled with going a goal down so early, and for the next 10 minutes we were forced onto the back foot. Barely 120 seconds after the penalty, Pro Vercelli were unlucky not find an immediate response when captain Fabio Bellotti crashed a powerful shot against Lenea's right post. Five minutes later Gallovich went close with a free-kick, and then in the 14th minute the same player got down the left wing to good effect and crossed into the area. Romano Tozzi Borsoi controlled the ball in the middle, looked certain to score, but Stefano Fumagalli stuck out a foot at the last second and Lenea was able to collect the loose ball. With the initial fierce backlash narrowly survived, the rest of the half settled into less dramatic routine, until both sides exchanged chances on the stroke of half-time. First Temuri Burnadze drifted in to the edge of the area but was unlucky with a half-volley that curled just over the crossbar, and then up the other end Gallovich tried his luck from 20 yards after beating Sabellini to a long ball. The shot was parried wide by Giuseppe Lenea, and the referee blew the half-time whistle before the corner could be taken. I wasn't too convinced by Franco Chiavarini's performance on the right so far, so Burnadze was asked to move across to the right and youngster Fabio Rossini was given a chance on the left. On 58 minutes the lively Gallovich caused us trouble down the left again, and this time Romano Tozzi Borsoi was able to get across the front of Fumagalli, but Lenea reacted sharply and got down to save and hold. Ten minutes later the Pro Vercelli goalkeeper also had to be on his toes to make a fine stop, after Di Nicola's run had set up Daniel Fonseca with a chance. If that had gone in we would certainly have gone on to win the game, but instead the home side managed to carve out an equaliser in the 82nd minute. Ferro suceeded in getting behind Tamburro to whip in a cross, and the fresh legs of substitute Andrea Cristiano made our tiring defenders look static as he steamed onto the end of it to belt in a volley from ten yards. I made some substitutions of my own after the goal, Baggio and Alderuccio replacing the weary pair of Di Nicola and Attewell, and that was enough to keep Pro Vercelli from trying to go on and win. In the 91st minute, defender Antonio Pedrocchi, who had conceded the penalty in the first half, was shown a second yellow card for a foul on Eddy Baggio but the event came too late to have any impact. Final score: Pro Vercelli 1 - 1 Ragusa An away point is never a bad thing, and it was probably a fair result based on the overall balance of the game, but I still can't help feeling disappointed that we hadn't somehow clung on for the win. Giuseppe Lenea did well for his first league game in such a long time, without really being overstretched by Pro Vercelli, and Luca Orlando also stuck out as having a decent game in midfield. That game also signals the end of our run of away matches, sending us back to Ragusa for the entirity of October, where we will entertain Trento, Avellino, Mantova and Messina in turn. Knowing how our home form is usually significantly superior to our away form, I am hoping that this unbalance in the fixture list will present us with a good opportunity to build some confidence and form during the early part of the season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 29, 2003 Share Posted July 29, 2003 hello i took over brindisi in C2/C in my first season and i won the play off final against gela beating RAGUSA in the semis. i now find myself in 8th in C1/B in my second season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark247 Posted July 29, 2003 Share Posted July 29, 2003 great reading as ever. thanks for the story.. I appreciate it Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted July 29, 2003 Author Share Posted July 29, 2003 bianconeri: Well done, sounds like you're doing well. Brindisi won the Serie C2/C title in my first season but it has been downhill for them ever since, I hope you do better mark247: Thanks very much, I'm glad you're enjoying it Wednesday 4th October 2006 For the last midweek game that we will face for a while, tonight it is Trento's turn to test the Serie C1/B new boys. Trento currently sit bottom of the division with one draw and three losses, so no doubt they will be just as hungry for a win as the fans in the filled-to-capacity Aldo Campo Selvaggio will be. Massimo Costagliola is back from injury but only to take a seat on the bench, and Giancarlo Di Nicola is not yet fit enough to withstand two games in five days, so Eddy Baggio returns to the starting lineup a little earlier than expected. Serie C1/B Fixture #05 Ragusa v Trento Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Tamburro©, Fumagalli, Attewell, Sabellini; Burnadze, Orlando, Gallicchio, Chiavarini; Fonseca, Baggio. Trento had obviously arrived with intentions to turn their poor start around, and made this clear in the 6th minute thanks to a bit of a helping hand from Stuart Attewell. Centre-back Monini hoofed a simple straight ball up the pitch, Stuart managed to miss the ball completely in an embarassing fashion despite being under no pressure at the time, and Cardinali collected the loose ball to set up Pachera for a fierce half-volley that gave Lenea no chance. Daniel Fonseca later went close with a free-kick, and then Temuri Burnadze went even closer when he fizzed a shot narrowly past the far post following some good work by Baggio and Chiavarini. It took until the 31st minute for us to finally grab the equaliser that had been coming, when Fonseca's second attempt at a cross turned out to be a lovely, whipping, dipping ball onto the penalty spot. Eddy Baggio swooped, Eddy Baggio connected with a diving header, Eddy Baggio looked up from the turf to see the ball skip into the far corner. 1-1, a goal for our slumping striker. Then, with barely two minutes left on the first half clock, the old Eddy Baggio struck again. Claudio Gallicchio's ball into space down the right wing sent Chiavarini sprinting, reminding everyone that few people can match the Argentinian in a flat race, and his clipped ball into the area found Baggio. Looking nothing like a striker who had been going through a barren period recently, Eddy calmly rounded the goalkeeper to his right and slid the coolest of sidefoots into the net to give us the lead. The clenched fists in front of the crowd said it all. Sadly it was a lead that we struggled to hang onto. Replacing Attewell with Alderuccio was not a successful attempt at bolstering the defence, and Trento began to get stronger as the second half progressed. Giuseppe Lenea denied Marco Cardinali twice before the hour, then in the 77th minute he produced an impressive fingertip save to disappoint Gilberto Zanoletti, diving to his left to tap the Trento player's shot round the post. Unfortunately just two minutes later revenge was gained, when Cardinali dragged Alderuccio out of position and Martelli's first time pass found Zanoletti wide open in the gap left behind. He had all the time he needed to switch the ball onto his favoured left and sweep it past a helpless Lenea, and Trento earned their second point of the season. Final score: Ragusa 2 - 2 Trento A point today is not quite as easy to be happy with as the one taken from Pro Vercelli, we really should have won this time. Trento did have a good second half to be fair, but not for the first time this season we had led and then allowed ourselves to be dragged back. A fitness issue perhaps? Di Nicola did miss the game because of this, and both Fonseca and Orlando had to be subbed in the second half due to tiring legs, but that's understandable with all the matches we've had in the last few weeks after such a long lay-off. From now on we are back to Sundays only for a few weeks, so hopefully we can begin to pick up some sort of rhythm and end this 5-game streak without a win. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted July 30, 2003 Author Share Posted July 30, 2003 Friday 6th October 2006 Just when it looked like Eddy Baggio was starting to find the net again, he has picked up a shoulder injury from a heavy fall in training and will be out for around a week. Luca Orlando also took a bruising in the accidental collision but he should be fine for Sunday. Mr Chivadze has obviously not been watching Ragusa performances recently, because he has decided to recall Temuri Burnadze to the Georgia squad for the Euro 2008 qualifiers against Holland and Scotland. The disgruntled midfielder has hardly been setting Serie C1 alight so far, so he can consider himself very lucky that his two managers are sticking by him despite the poor form. Sunday 8th October 2006 Avellino have won 2 and lost 3 of their first 5 matches, showing form that is just as erratic as Stuart Attewell's has been recently. I can't recall the last time I dropped Stuart by choice, if ever, but today Pietro Alderuccio will get the chance to partner Stefano Fumagalli in his place. After being rested mid-week, Giancarlo Di Nicola returns to take the place of the injured Baggio. Serie C1/B Fixture #06 Ragusa v Avellino Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Tamburro©, Fumagalli, Alderuccio, Sabellini; Burnadze, Orlando, Gallicchio, Chiavarini; Fonseca, Di Nicola. Another pleasingly full house welcomed the two teams onto the pitch, but witnessed a fairly poor hour of football from their home team. In the 18th minute Avellino took the lead in fortunate fashion when a free-kick was deflected into Giuseppe Morfu's path and he swung a right boot at it, to watch it spin off the charging Tamburro and bobble luckily into the bottom corner. We were barely able to create a glimpse at goal in the first half, and Fonseca should have done better in the opening minutes of the second half from Di Nicola's flick-on, but his effort could be described as dismal at best. Following that, Giuseppe Lenea thrice denied Pignalosa with saves from three headers, before we were let off the hook and handed a life-line in the 75th minute. Stefano Fumagalli trotted upfield to add his height to the cause for a Fonseca set-piece, and when Fumagalli contested the header he was pushed in the back by Molini. Daniel Fonseca was typically relaxed when taking the penalty kick, curling it calmly to the keeper's right. The equaliser infused us with renewed confidence. Ten minutes later, a leaping interception by Sabellini gave Gallicchio the opportunity to look for Di Nicola with a first-time pass down the right channel, who raced after the ball, held off Molini and sprinted into the area. As Avellino substitute Marco Rocchi came across to close him down, the youngster thrashed a right foot shot past goalkeeper Giorgio Esposito only for the ball to smack off the underside of the crossbar and bounce loose in the area. 3,465 supporters held their breath as two players gravitated in slow motion towards the rebound, and then released the breath as a roar when Daniel Fonseca beat Rocchi to it and swivelled to hammer it into the net. Final score: Ragusa 2 - 1 Avellino It didn't look like we would be getting three points today with the way the match was progressing, but we made our chances count and Fonseca's double won the game. The veteran forward could have had a hattrick, had he not spurned the chance just after half-time or if the goalkeeper had not parried his volley impressively in the dying minutes, but it would have been an unfair reflection on Avellino and we are relieved just to have got our only win in the last six matches. Stefano Fumagalli was man of the match for a strong and dominating performance in the air. We now happily welcome a much-needed two week break before Mantova come to town on the 22nd, which should allow time for Carlo Mignani, Pavel Grznar, Gaspare Pellegrino and Eddy Baggio to all heal their injuries... and plenty of time to sustain a few more. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobBev Posted July 30, 2003 Share Posted July 30, 2003 nerf - this continues to be a quality read. I admire your ability to write consistently informative and readable match reports, a skill that I have never mastered. Go Ragusa Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted July 31, 2003 Author Share Posted July 31, 2003 Thank you Mr BobBev, I regard that as high praise indeed. Sunday 22nd October 2006 Predictably we were unable to go the whole fortnight without picking up a knock here or there. Fonseca sat out most of the two weeks of training with a shoulder injury, though is fit to play today, and Giancarlo Di Nicola's sore neck will require at least a further 2 weeks of rest to heal. Better news is that Mignani, Grznar, Pellegrino and Baggio all resumed full training during the break, though Eddy is the only one to start today with the other three likely to be eased back in via the substitutes' bench. Temuri Burnadze reluctantly returned to Sicily having again played no part in either of Georgia's international fixtures, and Alderuccio keeps the centre back spot ahead of Attewell, so Eddy Baggio is the only change from the eleven that sneaked a win over Avellino. A third straight capacity crowd in the Aldo Campo Selvaggio greets Mantova, who stand 4th in the division, having won 4 and lost 2 of their opening matches. Serie C1/B Fixture #07 Ragusa v Mantova Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Tamburro©, Fumagalli, Alderuccio, Sabellini; Burnadze, Orlando, Gallicchio, Chiavarini; Fonseca, Baggio. With both teams fresh from the break and a little higher in confidence, the match started more brightly than the previous one and both goalkeepers were tested in the opening 20 minutes. First Mantova's Mirko Bellodi was called into action when Claudio Gallicchio climbed highest to get his head to Fonseca's corner, and the keeper made a brilliant reaction stop on the line with his right hand. Minutes later Altiner caught Alderuccio in possession, was halted by a great challenge by Sabellini on the edge of the box, but the ball fell for Manfredi who tried to curl a shot around Giuseppe Lenea. The young keeper matched his opposing number by springing to his left and parrying the shot away for a corner, which was cleared by a combination of the two defenders attempting to redeem themselves. A looping pass from right to left was overhit by Franco Chiavarini in the 36th minute, but Daniel Fonseca chased and managed to keep the ball in play. From the corner flag the Uruguayan swung a cross in and Mantova left back Giacomo Domizzi spotted the danger too late, allowing Baggio to jump above him and head home the first goal from close range. That sent us into the half-time break at 1-0, and Carlo Mignani appeared on the left for the second half at the expense of the invisible Burnadze. In the second half we stepped up a notch and started to take control of the match. On 54 minutes, Chiavarini and Domizzi challenged for a Sabellini throw-in and the ball broke for Eddy Baggio, who raced off towards goal. As he cut in from the right and the goalkeeper narrowed the angle, I wondered whether we would see this season's Eddy Baggio or the real Eddy Baggio... the ball flew past Bellodi and crashed in off the far post, his second goal lifting him to a more respectable tally of 5 for the season. He's back. 2-0 proved to be enough to seal the victory, Mantova were offered no reprieve. Claudio Gallicchio was again left cursing his luck after some great work down the left by Mignani, with Claudio's header this time bouncing off the crossbar and staying out. He then followed Tamburro off the pitch in the 70th minute, neither of whom had played badly, just to give Pellegrino and Grznar some match practice following their long term injuries. Stefano Fumagalli took on the captain's armband and saw out the remainder of our second consecutive win. Final score: Ragusa 2 - 0 Mantova A very pleasing victory, particularly encouraging in light of our improved second half performance. For once our wide midfielders got involved more, both Chiavarini and Mignani showing well in the second period, and Luca Orlando was solid and efficient in the middle again. Eddy Baggio of course got the man of the match award for his two goals - dropping him for that match against Pro Vercelli seems to have done him the world of good. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted July 31, 2003 Author Share Posted July 31, 2003 Wednesday 25th October 2006 In the English Nationwide League First Division, Graham Taylor has been sacked from his post as Fulham manager by chairman Mohammed Al Fayed. Taylor narrowly failed to achieve promotion last season, and this season has made such a poor start that the London club lies in 18th position after thirteen matches. Meanwhile, Graham Taylor's former club Aston Villa have made a great start to the new season, standing joint top of the English Premiership with Liverpool. Goals by Darius Vassell and Mika Aaritalo helped the Villans to a deserved 2-1 victory over bitter rivals Birmingham City at Villa Park last weekend. Here in Italy the financial issues continue, with Chievo of Serie A and Prato of Serie C1/A both announcing the arrival of receivers to deal with their financial crises. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted August 2, 2003 Author Share Posted August 2, 2003 Sunday 29th October 2006 Having dispatched 4th-placed Mantova last week, we now entertain 3rd-placed Messina, winners in 5 of their 7 league games so far. Our fellow Sicilians, who hail from the north-eastern most point of the island closest to mainland Italy, were in Serie B as recently as the 2002/2003 season but have been unable to climb back out of Serie C1/B since that relegation. My patience with Temuri Burnadze grows ever more thin, so he will find himself benched today in the wake of Carlo Mignani's commendable second half performance last week. Gaspare Pellegrino is also rushed back into a starting place after Claudio Gallicchio vacated a central midfield spot due to a shoulder injury picked up in training. Massimo Costagliola joins the bench, fresh from scoring both goals in the Under-20s' 2-1 win over Messina Under-20s on Friday, and at the other end of the scale Daniel Fonseca's impending appearance at the age of 37 years and 6 weeks makes him the oldest player ever to play for Ragusa, nudging past Pietro Infantino's record. Serie C1/B Fixture #08 Ragusa v Messina Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Tamburro©, Fumagalli, Alderuccio, Sabellini; Mignani, Orlando, Pellegrino, Chiavarini; Fonseca, Baggio. The Ragusa fans were out in force again and were treated to the sight of their team bossing possession for the entire first half, but unfortunately neither team were able to create any clear-cut opportunities. Baggio headed over the bar, Fonseca's long-range piledriver also flew over, and Pellegrino had a header saved, but these were no more than half-chances. At half-time I resisted making any changes, though I was briefly tempted to give Burnadze a try - Chiavarini had been lively and involved but had not really produced anything incisive enough. It was a disappointment to concede in the 49th minute then, when Di Fausto popped up to put his side in front early in the second half. Messina had hardly created anything of any significance to that point but suddenly we found ourselves a goal down. As the clock ticked round to 75 it was still the same, so Pavel Grznar came on for the tiring Carlo Mignani, and Tamburro moved into midfield with the Czech taking over at left back. It took until the 88th minute for us to finally get the equaliser that we at least deserved, when Daniel Fonseca whipped a corner towards the near post and Eddy Baggio's flick-header sailed across the goal to bounce in off the far post. Baggio then had another half-chance in the dying seconds, but Vincenzo Marruocco stood big and denied us the opportunity to complete a comeback. Final score: Ragusa 1 - 1 Messina It was a relief to get that late equaliser. Messina have started the season well and are probably a team that harbours ambitions of promotion, so a draw is not a disastrous result against them, but there was no way that they would have deserved to win. Eddy Baggio worked very hard up front for little reward so earnt the goal as much as anyone, and I was particularly delighted to see Orlando and Pellegrino fit so well together in the centre of midfield, from where they dominated much of the game. They have not played together much before but it is a partnership that could contain plenty of youth, potential and promise. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted August 3, 2003 Author Share Posted August 3, 2003 Wednesday 1st November 2006 Crunchy underfoot, the dusty gravel road greets me at the gates of the villa's grounds. An old path winds upwards from the gates, through encroaching vegetation and assembled flora, rich pinks on dry greens, indigenous sweet pea and sun-beaten olive tree, to the terracotta tiles and over-sized wooden doors of the porch. There I am welcomed into the Antoci villa by a smiling Lucille Antoci, approaching sixty years, portly, matronly, motherly and faintly moustachioed. Predictably there's the persistent presence of the marigolds on her stubby hands; congenial Lucille seems to always be either gardening or cleaning religiously. The customary crucifix watches from the wall as I cross the threshold. Lucille's squat frame waddles in guidance down the pleasantly cooled hallway, sporting the sort of wide, load-bearing hips that you expect were well-suited to be the bearer of two daughters in years past. The contemplation is provoked by framed photographs proudly arranged on shelves in the hallway, permanently displaying the forced smiles of said offspring. One daughter, Angelina, remains employed in an administrative capacity by the football club, but the older daughter, Lucille tells me endlessly, has long since tired of that world and moved to seek pastures new amongst Catania's Etna-inspired tourism industry. Giuseppe Antoci, aging club chairman, is pleased by my arrival to the veranda at the rear of the house, and we take seat upon the comfortable wicker furniture while Lucille bustles away to arrange beverages. The veranda offers a marvellous panorama across and down the valley, laying out the pencil lines of vineyards and olive groves along the dry terrain, relinquishing glimpses of green-yellow painted oil derricks bobbing in the distance, and even a view of the irregular jumble of faded rooftops where Ragusa Ibla straddles an outcrop of calcareous rock. In the meantime one might naturally be associating a summons from the chairman with representing something ominous, but be reassured that our meetings are a semi-regular event at the behest of Giuseppe, and this particular occasion brings tidings of good news. The month of October brought with it an unusual distribution in the fixture list, presenting us with four consecutive home matches. Significantly, all four matches were effectively complete sell-outs, barely a spare seat to be found among the 3,500 available in the Aldo Campo Selvaggio across the valley. That meant four consecutive piles of gate-receipt cash and the balance sheet for the month was boosted accordingly, resulting in the club making a 'massive' - using the term oh-so-relatively - profit for the first time in years. There is of course the small, meagre matter of a certain £673,000 debt, but at least the club is now actually gaining money rather than leaking it at an alarming rate like we have been doing for the last four years and more. With the clever constriction of the wage bill and the increased attendance figures, the club does appear to be starting to head in the right direction financially, which bodes well for the future. On the pitch, Signor Antoci and I discuss, the signs are also positive. Eight points were obtained from a possible twelve across those home fixtures, conspiring to lift Ragusa to 7th position in Serie C1/B after eight matches. I think that if we had been offered such a start before the season began, chances are we would have gladly taken it. Perhaps even more pleasing is the way that we have held our own in this higher division, where only once in those eight matches can we not claim to have competed on the same level - that being, of course, the disappointing 1-5 loss at Lanciano, aside from which we have usually matched or superseded Serie C1 opposition. The happy meeting is concluded with reflection on the locally produced young talent beginning to emerge, and the offer of a free lunch is gratefully accepted. Who could refuse Lucille's homemade farsumagru? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted August 4, 2003 Author Share Posted August 4, 2003 Friday 3rd November 2006 This evening I was at the stadium to watch Antonio's Under-20s squad take on Viterbese Under-20s, and I have to say I was impressed by Massimo Costagliola's performance. The powerful forward often looks like a man playing amongst boys at this level, and two more fine goals sealed a 2-0 win for our lads whilst taking his tally to 7 goals in 8 appearances. Massimo has great ability in the air, an attribute that is always highly beneficial for an attacker to possess, and looks like he has the potential to follow in the footsteps of Giancarlo Di Nicola and Luca Orlando by making the step up to the senior team. Less pleasing is the two injuries that we have managed to collect this week. At the weekend I had been excited by the prospect of Pellegrino and Orlando forming an intriguing midfield partnership, but after just one tantalising display, Luca has disappointingly emulated Gaspare's groin injury and will have to rest for an entire 3 months. Pietro Alderuccio is the other player to go down with the same affliction, although to a lesser extent and therefore should only miss 4 weeks. I will have to speak to Antonio about looking into adjusting our warm-up routines on Monday. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted August 5, 2003 Author Share Posted August 5, 2003 Sunday 5th November 2006 The walled medieval city of Viterbo, an hour northeast of Rome, beckons for game nine. Viterbese are 15th in the early table after losing 5 of their 8 matches and will be hoping to turn that form around today. Pavel Grznar is still severely lacking in match fitness so remains on the bench, but Stuart Attewell is back in for the injured Alderuccio and Gallicchio takes Orlando's vacated position. Serie C1/B Fixture #09 Viterbese v Ragusa Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Tamburro©, Fumagalli, Attewell, Sabellini; Mignani, Pellegrino, Gallicchio, Chiavarini; Fonseca, Baggio. The home side started very brightly indeed, moving forward immediately from the kick-off and forcing Claudio Gallicchio into a hasty push not far outside his own penalty area. Capable midfielder Davide Faieta, a former teammate of Stefano Fumagalli at Fidelis Andria, stepped up and sent the free-kick inches wide of the upright. Fortunately we are able to repress Viterbese after that early scare, then in the 32nd minute Baggio linked with Chiavarini down the right. Baggio flicked the Argentinian's cross on with his head, Daniel Fonseca arrived in the box with all the time in the world to control the ball and pick his spot, but Alberto Passoni sprang athletically to his left and saved brilliantly. With the first half winding down, Faieta threatened again by dribbling through the midfield and taking a swing from a good 30 yards out, but Giuseppe Lenea was able to beat the ball away and Tamburro cleared. At half-time I asked Pellegrino to play a more defensive role in the midfield, as Viterbese's Faieta-inspired midfield were gradually winning the battle in the middle of the park. Lenea was required to come to the rescue several times throughout the second half, first flinging himself across goal impressively to make a fine fingertip save from Vincenzo Santoruvo, then dealing with a couple of hopeful long range efforts. In the 89th minute a Faieta free-kick was deflected off the wall, and teammate Cioffi got to the rebound to try and cross from the left side. The cut-back cannoned off both Fumagalli and Mignani and fell straight to Faieta in the area, who, far from panicking, coolly prodded the ball to Osvaldo Mannuci who was well placed to sidefoot a curling effort towards the bottom corner. Giuseppe Lenea was unsighted, helpless, disappointed. The fans in the Enrico Rocchi stadium celebrated their last-gasp winner raucously, leaving us only to rue our misfortune. Final score: Viterbese 1 - 0 Ragusa The loss came as a big disappointment, having been convinced that we had done enough to earn a good point. We actually played some good stuff in the second half without ever really threatening to win the game, but the prospect of a satisfying draw was snatched away cruelly in the final minute. Such is football... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninjafish Posted August 7, 2003 Share Posted August 7, 2003 Just came back from holiday and caught up pn the story, it is still fantastic as ever, keep writing! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted August 10, 2003 Author Share Posted August 10, 2003 Thanks Ninjafish, I hope you enjoyed your holiday Wednesday 8th November 2006 A temporary but unwelcome return to midweek football sees us traveling up the East coast of Italy to Teramo, home of the team in 6th position. Daniel Fonseca does not make the journey, having picked up a foot injury in training that will keep him out for much of the coming 3 weeks. Coincidentally neither Di Nicola nor Costagliola are fully fit, meaning that Claudio Gallicchio makes another brief reappearance in a striker's role. This frees a central midfield spot to allow Carlo Mignani to show what he can do in the middle, and Temuri Burnadze is gifted a reprieve to start on the left. Serie C1/B Fixture #10 Teramo v Ragusa Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Tamburro©, Fumagalli, Attewell, Sabellini; Burnadze, Mignani, Pellegrino, Chiavarini; Gallicchio, Baggio. Teramo make most of the pressing in the first half, asking a few tentative questions of our goalkeeper without succeeding in crafting any golden chances. At least they had managed a shot on goal, which was more than we had achieved. On 40 minutes they put together their best move of the match so far, an impressive, flowing concoction involving five Teramo players, stretching our defence until they were able to find Antonio Setaro open at the near post to score. The goal had been coming and 1-0 admittedly offered an accurate reflection of the initial 45 minutes. It was very nearly 2-0, but left-back Danilo Vitali's spectacular 25 yard drive had to settle for almost shattering Lenea's left upright rather than bulging the back of the net. At the break Mignani was moved back over to the left, Gallicchio dropped to central midfield, and a certain Georgian was substituted to make way for Massimo Costagliola's arrival in attack. The alterations transpired to have little effect on the match, as the second half did its best to mirror the first. Teramo dominated, we were unable to get anything going, and we drifted to a second straight away defeat. Final score: Teramo 1 - 0 Ragusa This was one match where we do have to admit to being second best, Teramo were in control from the moment they kicked off and did not allow us to overturn that. Gaspare Pellegrino put himself about resiliently but we missed the calming and creative influences of Orlando and Fonseca, and can complain little about the final result. After 10 games, the Serie C1/B table looks like THIS. Up until a week ago we were one of only two teams, Lanciano being the other at the time, with just a single loss to our names, but unfortunately two consecutive defeats have put paid to that and made our start look less pretty. Overall I'm satisfied with how the first third of the season has progressed, we have not been comprehensively outclassed in every match and therefore can feel fairly positive about our prospects in this division. Assuming the opening stage of the campaign has not been misleading, I think we have shown that we are more than capable of steering well clear of any relegation battle, especially if we can sort out our away form and put a decent run together. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted August 10, 2003 Author Share Posted August 10, 2003 Tuesday 14th November 2006 Taking my early breakfast this morning on the red plastic tables of the Caffè Trieste, a particular article in the local newspaper almost caused me to choke on my food momentarily. It seems that Marco Cirillo had revealed to a local journalist that he is very concerned about his recent omission from the first team, having not played since our exit from the Serie C Cup at the end of September. I called Marco aside after training this afternoon to find out more. Understandably, having been an automatic first team regular for three seasons, he was not too happy about being sat on the bench as an unused substitute every match. I plumped for reassuring him that he would be selected for first-team action again when I thought the time was right, though I don't expect that this was much of a comfort for him. For some reason or other, Marco and I have failed to bond during my time at the club; he is a fairly private person by nature anyway, but I have always felt a distance between us even when he was in the side and playing well. As petty as it undoubtedly sounds, I'm not convinced that Marco has ever forgiven me for not giving him a chance as the striker that he seems to think he was, despite the hidden talent that it unearthed in his midfield ablities. To be perfectly honest, I'm as unsure over Marco's role at the club as he clearly is. Luca Orlando, Gaspare Pellegrino and Carlo Mignani all present tempting and youthful options in the centre of midfield, and even fellow 'striker' Claudio Gallicchio has nudged in front of Marco in the pecking order for that position. I would not dream of suggesting that Marco has no future at the club, it would be disrespectful to his performance record over our three years in Serie C2/C, but he certainly has a fight on his hands. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted August 12, 2003 Author Share Posted August 12, 2003 Sunday 19th November 2006 Our difficult, determined and dramatic drive towards the Serie C2/C title a year and a half ago, will doubtlessly have been less thrilling from the perspective of one team, Varese, who came within a Daniel Fonseca volley and a linesman's flag of pipping us to the trophy. They overcame much of their disappointment by recovering to flounce through the playoffs and follow us in ascendancy to Serie C1/B, and have continued their redemption by making a clearly superior entrance to this higher level than we have. With six wins to their name, the biancorossi from the northern reaches of Italy can be delighted to find themselves up in 5th position. With Fonseca, Alderuccio and Orlando all injured, some changes are afoot. Eddy Baggio is also not entirely match fit, so Claudio Gallicchio starts up front again with Giancarlo Di Nicola. These two linked quite well in pre-season and should present an unexpected combination that Varese could not be predicting. Pavel Grznar finally makes a start at left-back after his injury troubles, pushing captain Simone Tamburro forward into the left side of midfield, and the versatile Carlo Mignani switches over to the right side as Chiavarini and Burnadze are both relegated to the bench. At the risk of encouraging player power, these alterations have incidentally opened up an opportunity for Marco Cirillo to get his wish and start alongside Gaspare Pellegrino in the centre. Serie C1/B Fixture #11 Ragusa v Varese Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Grznar, Fumagalli, Attewell, Sabellini; Tamburro©, Cirillo, Pellegrino, Mignani; Di Nicola, Gallicchio. If Marco Cirillo is intent on proving any points today, he doesn't exactly make a great start about it. All four of his initial passes go astray, and his next misplaced attempt in the 13th minute rolls nicely to Varese's Ragatzu, who promptly turns and thumps a blistering 30 yard screamer into the top corner. It is an unbelievable strike that stuns 3,485 people into temporary silence and delivers an early blow that Varese could only have dreamed of. Fortunately we do not go into shock for very long and gradually recover as the first half progresses. On 33 minutes Simone Tamburro swung a glorious ball from the left extremity of the halfway line to find Carlo Mignani pulling wide right into space. The young midfielder's cross to the near post evaded the bravely onrushing Gallicchio, but as Di Nicola closed in he was flattened in the area when centre-back Pessotto recklessly crashed through him from behind, giving the referee little choice. With neither of the usual penalty takers - Fonseca or Baggio - on the pitch, Carlo Mignani showed courage to assume the responsibility and convincingly found the roof of the net to equalise. Minutes later Giancarlo Di Nicola inflicted more revenge on Pessotto by cheekily nutmegging the hapless defender on the left wing, before sprinting away and cutting in to cross from the byline. Claudio Gallicchio arrived in typical blustering style to connect with a volley from as close as 8 yards, but goalkeeper Michele Tardiolo produced a miracle with a great reaction save to his right. In the 43rd minute another chance was created for Gallicchio, when Pellegrino fed the ball to Mignani and the goalscorer sent in another cross, and this time Claudio's glancing header at the near post eluded Tardiolo to find the net... only for the linesman to disallow it with a wave of his flag. Di Nicola had been lurking behind in case the cross was out of Gallicchio's reach again, and was adjudged to have been offside at the time. In an apparent display of sulking that even our infamous Georgian could only aspire to, the ungrateful Marco Cirillo was having a real stinker of a game in midfield. Unfortunately my reluctance to disturb Carlo Mignani on the right, who was enjoying a decent showing thus far, or remove hard working Gallicchio from attack, meant that I had nobody ideally appropriate to replace Marco with. For that reason alongside my belief that our increasing hold on the game would surely result in more goals to come, he avoided any half-time change and went back out for the second period. The goals do not arrive during the next 20 minutes, so Massimo Costagliola arrives in replacement of the tiring Gallicchio. In the 73rd minute Stuart Attewell stopped a Varese attack with his head and Carlo Mignani picked it up, finding Di Nicola with a chip forward up the centre. Giancarlo headed down for his strike partner and Costagliola was on his toes to react the quickest, beating defenders to collect the knock down and race towards goal. From 20 yards out a ferocious strike departed his right boot and curled into the top corner of Tardiolo's net, to give the young forward his first ever senior Ragusa goal. It was an incisive breakaway, taking barely 12 seconds from the time that Attewell headed the interception to the moment the ball hit the net - it also turned out to be as decisive as it was incisive, with Varese unable to find a response in the final seventeen minutes. Final score: Ragusa 2 - 1 Varese Three points, and a win with an extra bonus of satisfaction due to the identity of our opponents. And deserved I feel, we had the better of the play and looked like the more dangerous side. Both of our centre-backs were very solid today, Pellegrino ensured that he got himself stuck in as usual, Tamburro seemed to enjoy the transition into midfield, and Di Nicola picked up the man-of-the-match award for mercilessly terrorising the right side of the Varese defence whenever the ball was at his feet. Carlo Mignani produced a very respectable first half, and even Marco Cirillo showed signs of getting his act together in the second period after embarassing himself earlier on. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninjafish Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 Di Nicola seems to be a superstar, if it is he who takes you to the next level(and by looking at it, seems he might be the one to do so). That would be really cool that a homegrown star takes you to glory. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Ninjafish: Di Nicola seems to be a superstar, if it is he who takes you to the next level(and by looking at it, seems he might be the one to do so). That would be really cool that a homegrown star takes you to glory.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Reminds me of Totti...Well Di Nicola has the potential to bring Ragusa to riches,let's hope he'll get his chance and his box of luck to perform this task... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
spurzgrrl Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 Just wanted to say I think this is a really sharp piece of writing. Not overdone, yet descriptive and easy to read. Nice work, nerf. <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Our difficult, determined and dramatic drive towards the Serie C2/C title a year and a half ago, will doubtlessly have been less thrilling from the perspective of one team, Varese, who came within a Daniel Fonseca volley and a linesman's flag of pipping us to the trophy. They overcame much of their disappointment by recovering to flounce through the playoffs and follow us in ascendancy to Serie C1/B, and have continued their redemption by making a clearly superior entrance to this higher level than we have. With six wins to their name, the biancorossi from the northern reaches of Italy can be delighted to find themselves up in 5th position. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted August 14, 2003 Author Share Posted August 14, 2003 Ninjafish & Juventinogdt: Yeah, Giancarlo looks okay doesn't he? He's made a great start, I hope we can hang on to him for a long time. Thank you for the very kind compliment spurzgrrl, it is much appreciated. Friday 24th November 2006 60 year old coach Leo Pellegrino, the only remaining member of the backroom team that welcomed me in July 2002, departed this week to take on the role of assistant manager at Sassuolo. I have always got on famously well with old Leo, it is a pity to see him leave, but he wanted the challenge while he still had the time and we will receive £2,000 in compensation. Off the back of his first senior goal at the weekend, Massimo Costagliola put in another dominating display to bag a hat-trick of headers in the Under-20s' convincing 5-1 victory over Crotone Under-20s tonight. I wonder if the strike combination we saw for the last twenty minutes on Sunday will form the future Ragusa attack for years to come? Who knows... at the rate that Giancarlo and Massimo are progressing, it's easy to get carried away. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted August 14, 2003 Author Share Posted August 14, 2003 Sunday 26th November 2006 Crotone is a harbour town on the most southerly coast of Italy, blissfully representing one of our shortest away trips to non-Sicilian clubs in this division. Despite experiencing Serie B in recent years, the football club here have found themselves making a stumbling start to this season, but have begun a mini-revival with two wins on the bounce - including a 4-0 beating of Pro Vercelli - to lift themselves to 12th. Daniel Fonseca and Pietro Alderuccio both made a return to fitness and subsequently the bench, with Luca Orlando now our only injured player in the squad. As competition for places was in full swing for this week at least, I faced the rare task of deciding who actually got a place on the bench and who wouldn't be required to bother gearing up - I'm far more used to searching for bodies to fill the spaces up. The last place eventually came down to a choice between our two right-sided midfielders, Franco Chiavarini and Temuri Burnadze, and on footballing matters I went with Franco. He has looked sharper and in better condition than Temuri of late, and needless to say has been a far more loyal servant to the club than the Georgian. There were no tantrums from Temuri this time, he just disappeared from the moment the team was announced and would not be seen again until Monday morning. Serie C1/B Fixture #12 Crotone v Ragusa Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Grznar, Fumagalli, Attewell, Sabellini; Tamburro©, Cirillo, Pellegrino, Mignani; Di Nicola, Baggio. Not for the first time this season we started off in a less than desirable fashion, though there can be no travel-related excuses for our sluggish start this time. In the 11th minute Stuart Attewell was penalised for shirt-tugging in the area after Galardo had hit the post, and Crotone captain Vito Grieco smashed the spot kick straight down the middle. On 25 minutes we went looking for an equaliser when Mignani and Baggio linked down the right, but the striker's cross was cut out by defender Alberto Cozzi and Volpi completed the clearance with a basic hoof up the pitch. Stefano Fumagalli soared highest to win the aerial challenge with Pagliarini, but his nod down was nowhere near Attewell and the ball bounced nicely into Galardo's path to send the striker clean through on goal. From the edge of the box, with Lenea rushing out to close him down, Galardo calmly swept a left foot shot into the net with plenty of curl, and Crotone were 2-0 up. Giuseppe Lenea denied Vito Grieco with a flying fingertip save from a thumping 33rd minute right-foot drive, then minutes later Tamburro and Cirillo hustled in midfield to win the ball back and play Di Nicola in down the left channel. The young forward dug out a cross for Eddy Baggio to arrive on the penalty spot for the volley, but the imposter appeared again and Eddy somehow sliced it straight at the keeper when he should have done much better. At the half-time break I removed Fumagalli and Baggio for their error-strewn performances and replaced them with Alderuccio and Costagliola - we were going to have to do much better in the next 45 minutes, we had been second best everywhere in the first half. Unfortunately things only got harder in the 51st minute, when Giancarlo Di Nicola uncharacteristically lost the plot. Galardo had just been denied by a great block from Alderuccio and everyone was setting up for the corner, when, out the corner of my eye, I saw Giancarlo inexplicably shove Alberto Cozzi in the chest and the Crotone defender fell backwards across the halfway line. It was completely off the ball but the referee, a linesman and much of the Ezio Scida stadium had spotted it, resulting in the kid being shown his first red card. What followed was even more of a surprise. After Giancarlo had left the pitch, play had resumed and Marco Cirillo had cleared that same corner with a header, Massimo Costagliola picked the ball up in his own half, turned Francesco Rossi and raced most of the length of the pitch with Volpi and Rossi hounding him. Rossi eventually managed to get a foot in as Massimo cut inside, but only at the expense of a corner which was curled in by Sabellini, and Costagliola got up above Cozzi to complete the job by heading in at the near post. Crotone were shocked by the 10-men coming back so quickly and started to look worried. Entering the last 5 minutes, Danilo Sabellini harassed Juric into relinquishing possession deep in his own half and sent a hopeful cross swinging in from the right hand side. Massimo Costagliola, some 16 yards out, climbed above Ivan Francheschini heroically and somehow managed to divert a long, looping header over the keeper and into the net. I don't know how he managed it but we didn't care, we were too busy invading the touchline from the visitor's dugout. Perhaps presumptively. With our backs to the wall in the final minute, Pietro Alderuccio's desperate hack away was immediately sent back into the danger area via Olivieri and Barbisan. Crotone striker Pagliarini managed to slip away from Alderuccio and find himself wide open in the middle of the area, with the ball at his feet 14 yards out... but by some miracle his shot scraped narrowly past the angle of post and bar. It was an absolute sitter; the Crotone dugout had already spilled out ready to celebrate, yet they were left in anguish and a disbelieving Pagliarini buried his face in his hands. Giuseppe Lenea hadn't even moved a muscle, but soon he was punching the air in relief as we escaped with a lucky point. Final score: Crotone 2 - 2 Ragusa Nice one Massimo! We have to be delighted with a draw after being down to ten men and trailing 0-2, although how Pagliarini missed that chance at the death I will never know. Danilo Sabellini deserves a special mention for a tough and gutsy performace at right back, both on the ground and in the air, with two assists thrown in as a bonus. Giancarlo Di Nicola will not be officially disciplined for his unprofessional behaviour, he's still only seventeen and I wouldn't expect any of our batch of young players to go through the early part of their careers without making a mistake or two. Luckily for Giancarlo it didn't cost us anything today, and a word in the ear during training this week should be enough to provide a gentle warning and a reminder about maintaining a more professional attitude. 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Ninjafish Posted August 15, 2003 Share Posted August 15, 2003 You look to have a gorgeous, young, skilful, and, more imprtantly, totally homegrown strikeforce! This is the most fantastic thing I've read in years, I'm including books in that by the way, and i read alot, the drama and concise writing make this absolutely fabulous, I reckon this will go down as one of the finest stories in CMS history when it finally gets the recognition it ******* deserves from all. keep it up nerf! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smiller Posted August 17, 2003 Share Posted August 17, 2003 I've just finished reading all 12 pages of your enthralling and extremely literate account, easily the best and most engaging thread I've encountered in any SI forum. You bring animation to an inanimate game and in so doing enhance the playing experience of readers like myself, and I only hope you keep this story spinning out for a long, long time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted August 17, 2003 Author Share Posted August 17, 2003 Wow, thank you Ninjafish & smiller , I'm delighted that you are both enjoying the story. Your feedback is a great source of encouragement. Monday 27th November 2006 Monday's light training was left in the capable hands of Antonio, as I spent a large portion of the day in talks with Temuri Burnadze and his agent, Roman Tuchkov, with the bonus of a rare appearance by Director of Football Marcello Pitino, who surfaced for once from his extra-curricular duties. Roman, smartly turned out and professional in appearance, though not much older than Temuri himself, had called the meeting after his client's unhappiness with the club was brought to a head by his complete exclusion from the side in Crotone. Neither party was remotely happy with the current situation. Temuri was unhappy because he was not playing regularly, believed that he should be at a higher profile club, and obviously felt that this level of football was beneath him anyway. We were unhappy because, by this club's standards, we were paying relatively high wages to a player who was not only failing to deliver the goods but who also didn't even want to be here. I wanted to know, would Mr Tuchkov's client be willing to knuckle down and work hard at earning his place in the team? Frankly, in so many words, no he wasn't. It was quickly and quite amicably agreed that the entire scenario was a waste of time, resources and expectations, and, in no uncertain terms, both the club and the player would benefit from an early separation. The decision was that Temuri would not be officially transfer listed, something that was neither offered nor requested in the official sense, but Mr Tuchkov had the club's full blessing to tout his client to any potential buyer of his choosing. Quite why Temuri still had faith in his agent after he had managed to bring him to Ragusa in the first place, I'm not sure. Our one strict condition was that the buying club would be expected to come up with Temuri's full estimated valuation, which meant a figure in the region of £65,000 to £75,000. This would mean that the club would make a tidy profit from the free transfer, which could then be used towards a replacement midfielder or to boost our gradual repayment of debt. Roman argued that we would be shedding our highest wage earner and would therefore already be benefitting financially from that angle, but with regards to recompense for wages paid so far and for unfulfilled expectations, Marcello insisted, the full price would need to be matched. Of course the worst thing about all this was that Temuri had yet to prove to me that he was better than this level of football. He clearly possessed some talent, was comfortable on the ball, could pass well and seemed to be a fairly regular name on the fringes of the Georgian national squad. I would, however, secretly call into question his physical fitness, his complete lack of pace, and the poor mental attitude that was there for all to see. In short, we would not be losing a great player and might yet benefit from it if our price was matched. We would hope for an offer to arrive, Temuri would cross his fingers and hope for a move to a bigger club, and until then we would sit and wait. Tuesday 28th November 2006 Taking advantage of the Director of Football's actual presence early this week, arrangements were made to offer young forward Massimo Costagliola a new, full-time, professional contract. The tall seventeen year old, who already has four senior goals to his name and an impressive strike rate with the Under-20s, today signed the deal that will tie him to the club until 2010. In Serie A, Lazio have appointed former Juventus boss Marcello Lippi as their new manager. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted August 17, 2003 Author Share Posted August 17, 2003 Sunday 3rd December 2006 The run-in towards the christmas break begins with a home match against Cittadella in 10th position. Much like Crotone, they are a club who made a poor start but have revived their fortunes of late, currently being on a six game unbeaten streak without conceding a goal for four matches. The powerful combination of Eddy Baggio and Massimo Costagliola will be looking to change that, as they get the nod in attack thanks to Giancarlo Di Nicola's suspension and Daniel Fonseca resting his knee. Serie C1/B Fixture #13 Ragusa v Cittadella Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Grznar, Fumagalli, Attewell, Sabellini; Tamburro©, Cirillo, Pellegrino, Mignani; Baggio, Costagliola. Despite some nice football and several chances, which saw Costagliola go close twice, Cittadella's Alfonso Esposito hit the upright from 25 yards and Giuseppe Lenea produce a superb save to deny Stefano Dell'Acqua, the first half will probably be most remembered for the 13th minute collision that left Marco Cirillo in agony on the turf. Marco had flown into a tackle in midfield and suffered a nasty twist to his right knee as a result, and when he was stretchered off you could see that it was serious by the amount of pain he was in. Claudio Gallicchio immediately went on to take his place. With the first half drawing to a close, Grznar's chip forward towards the edge of the box was chased down by both Costagliola and Cittadella captain Nico Iovino. As the two came into contact Iovino stuck out a leg, which inadvertantly caught Massimo and sent the forward tumbling into the area. The referee, far better placed than I, judged the altercation to have occurred inside the box and awarded a penalty, much to the distress of the protesting Cittadella players. Even though Eddy Baggio was on the pitch Carlo Mignani was granted the task again, and he calmly found the bottom left corner from the spot to put us in front on the stroke of half-time. Everybody knows that is an ideal time to score, allowing us to come out with the mental edge for the second half. Less than five minutes had passed before Sabellini and Mignani caused problems down the right, Danilo's cross was flicked on by Costagliola, and Eddy Baggio swivelled eight yards out to hammer it into the roof of the net, giving Luca Capecchi no chance in goal. At 2-0 much of the fight went out of Cittadella and we cruised for the remainder of the match, enabling me to give Pietro Alderuccio some match practice and even give Under-20s striker Gabriele Catania fifteen minutes of senior experience. Final score: Ragusa 2 - 0 Cittadella Stefano Fumagalli recovered from an unusually dodgy performace in Crotone to put in a solid display, Gaspare Pellegrino shook off a slow start to get better and better as the match progressed, Claudio Gallicchio did well off the bench, and Massimo Costagliola repaid my faith with a man-of-the-match performance and a hand in both goals. That win lifts us back into the top half to 8th position. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted August 17, 2003 Author Share Posted August 17, 2003 Monday 4th December 2006 Marco Cirillo's assessment at the hospital has revealed that the injury is even worse than we thought. The doctors reported that Marco has seriously damaged cruciate ligaments in his right knee, an infliction feared by footballers everywhere. Paul Gascoigne, of course, most famously suffered the same injury in the 1991 FA Cup final at Wembley in his tackle on Gary Charles, and it is most often caused by too much strain on the knee combined with a twisting or turning action to damage the ligaments. A minor pull can heal within a few weeks, a major pull can take as much as three months, but a complete tear can sideline a player for a year. The doctor's report indicates that Marco is likely to be out of action for roughly 9 months. The club has decided that Marco will be sent away for professional rehabilitation, due to the seriousness of the injury. Marco is obviously distraught, not just because of the discomfort, but because of what it might do to the remainder of his career. One could argue that few footballers recover to perform at quite the same level as they did before this type of injury, and at 29 years of age Marco does not have time on his side. By the time he is predicted to return he will have passed the 30 mark. He's obviously very worried about it, understandably so, and already he has even gone so far as to tell me directly that he is not convinced he will stay in my plans. I advised him just to concentrate on starting the long recovery process and we'll see what happens at the other end, but I can see why he feels that way. His place in the team was already under question, and with another nine months of development under their belts the young midfielders that threaten his place will be even stronger competition for a 30 year old with a weak knee. It isn't impossible to recover, as the likes of Ruud van Nistelrooy have proven, but Marco Cirillo faces a tough road ahead. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gino Posted August 18, 2003 Share Posted August 18, 2003 I can only agree nerf. This certainly is a fantastic example of 'bringing the game to life' Keep it up matey Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted August 20, 2003 Author Share Posted August 20, 2003 Cheers Gino Sunday 10th December 2006 An entirely different road leads us high up Italy's Adriatic coastline, almost as far north as Rimini and San Marino, where the sea-side town of Pesaro beckons for our latest attempt at picking up rare away points. Vis Pesaro stand in 12th position, but are only three points behind us and therefore have extra incentive for a win today. Marco Cirillo aside, those not making the trip are Luca Orlando, who remains sidelined with a groin strain, and Pietro Alderuccio, who collected another injury during training this week. Daniel Fonseca is on the bench due to not yet being fully fit, and Giancarlo Di Nicola will join him after I decide to stick with last week's pairing of Baggio and Costagliola up front. At left midfield today, captain Simone Tamburro sets a milestone by becoming the first squad member to reach 100 league appearances for Ragusa. Serie C1/B Fixture #14 Vis Pesaro v Ragusa Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Grznar, Fumagalli, Attewell, Sabellini; Tamburro©, Gallicchio, Pellegrino, Mignani; Baggio, Costagliola. The first half of football failed to set the Tonino Benelli stadium alight, with Lenea dealing comfortably with a couple of long range efforts, and Costagliola's header bringing a save from former Castel Di Sangro goalkeeper Roberto Di Juliis. At the break I brought Baggio off and sent Di Nicola on, urging both of the young forwards to drift wide as we attempted to find more joy down the flanks in the second half. In the 73rd minute Vis Pesaro players Palmieri and Severina combined to find Renzo Nonis in the right channel, whose control was sloppy, but he recovered to suddenly produce a right foot blockbuster that screamed across goal into the far top corner. It took everyone by surprise and left Giuseppe Lenea as a helpless spectator, and would prove to be the deciding moment in the match. We tried to go more attacking but the best we could offer was a Carlo Mignani free-kick that floated wide, and our quest for a Serie C1 away win continues. Final score: Vis Pesaro 1 - 0 Ragusa It's a quest that we never really threatened to complete today, but we were hoping for a satisfactory point until Renzo Nonis pulled that rocket out of his rear-end. Our struggle mainly came from Vis Pesaro's ability to dominate the midfield, an achievement lead by impressive central midfielder Michele Palmieri, a talented 20 year old who I intend to keep an eye on from now on. As a result we were unable to get a grip on the football for any length of time and chances on goal were scarce. That loss drops us down to 11th, and of course Vis Pesaro rise above us on goal difference. After the match a couple of players appear to be carrying knocks that the physios will have to analyse back home. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted August 22, 2003 Author Share Posted August 22, 2003 Sunday 17th December 2006 Carlo Mignani's bruised shin, suffered in Pesaro, cleared up quickly during the week so he is able to start again today, but Eddy Baggio's thigh strain proved more severe and he probably won't return before the christmas hiatus. Daniel Fonseca is still lacking match fitness so Giancarlo Di Nicola gets the nod today to join Massimo Costagliola in attack, forming a partnership with a combined age that is less than Fonseca's age alone. Serie C1/B Fixture #15 Ragusa v Taranto Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Grznar, Fumagalli, Attewell, Sabellini; Tamburro©, Gallicchio, Pellegrino, Mignani; Di Nicola, Costagliola. Taranto arrived in Ragusa with a 3rd position to be proud of, and with spirits boosted by wins in both of their last two matches. They found the net as early as the 17th minute, when Catinali's pacey cross from the left enabled Giovanni Pompei to send a volley goalwards, and the striker turned away to celebrate his 25th goal of the season. Unfortunately for him he was in fact still stuck on 24, because the linesman's flag ruled the goal out by claiming offside. From where I was standing there was indeed a Taranto player offside, but it certainly wasn't Pompei, so we could consider ourselves lucky. Minutes later, Giancarlo Di Nicola brought the crowd of 3,453 to their feet with a bit of magic down the left, drawing three defenders and chipping the ball inside to his strike partner. Costagliola had plenty of time to pick his spot and score, but took far too long about it and then shot wide when under pressure. Taranto goalkeeper Antonio Di Mauro was then the only thing that came between us and the opening goal for the rest of the half, first sparing the blushes of teammate Matteo Sassi by producing a fantastic save when the defender had accidentally headed towards his own goal, and then diving at Di Nicola's feet to smother the ball after it had been played through by Gallicchio. At half-time things stood pretty even; both sides could have had a goal, neither had dominated. Giancarlo Di Nicola was certainly proving to be a handful, though Massimo Costagliola wasn't having a particularly good game and I briefly toyed with the idea of substituting him, before deciding to let him have a little longer. Sixty seconds after the restart that proved to be a good decision. Pellegrino, Gallicchio and Grznar did the donkey work by harassing determinedly to force possession away from Taranto, Di Nicola provided the spark by challenging for the loose ball and racing away up the left to swing a cross in, and Costagliola added the finish by evading his marker and twisting in the air to head home for 1-0. What happened afterwards can only be attributed to someone smiling down on Ragusa from on high. On 59 minutes, some shocking defending allowed Triuzzi to drift completely unmarked to the near post, and when Pompei crossed he had the easy task of tucking it past Lenea. Again the linesman raised his flag, indicating that Triuzzi had been offside at the time of the flick-header before Pompei's cross. Then, in the 85th minute, Taranto substitute De Liguori turned defence into attack with a volleyed ball forward, and Pompei nipped across the front of Fumagalli to direct the ball into the roof of the net with his left foot. Unbelievably the linesman's flag was fluttered once more, again in protest to Triuzzi's wayward positioning off the ball. The entire Taranto contingent were incredulous about the fact that this should happen to them on three occasions in the same match, but the decision stood and we were able to hold them out for the remaining five minutes. Final score: Ragusa 1 - 0 Taranto I'm not sure what we have done to deserve such luck, we certainly had more than our fair share today. Taranto had three goals disallowed, two of which were highly contentious, and are no doubt deeply disappointed that they should have to head back to south-east Italy with nothing to show for their troubles. In truth a draw might have been a fair result based on the overall performances of the two teams, but we got the breaks and are glad for the win against a good side. Franco Chiavarini managed to collect a groin strain that will keep him out of action for four weeks, most likely as a result of failing to warm up properly before he was introduced to the match as a 62nd minute substitute. He limped off a couple of minutes before the final whistle and will not return until mid-January. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 22, 2003 Share Posted August 22, 2003 this is a great story mate its inspiration to all thoe who have never written a CMS before, like me... well... used to be like me! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted August 24, 2003 Author Share Posted August 24, 2003 Thanks very much Paul, good luck with Notts County Saturday 23rd December 2006 Our final match of the calendar year presents a rare Saturday fixture, and a repeat journey up Italy's East coast to Rimini, which gazes out over the Adriatic Sea from a point slightly further North than Pesaro. Rimini were promoted from Serie C2/B in the 2003/2004 season, and are currently 7th following emphatic 4-0 victories in each of their last two matches. For Ragusa, Pietro Alderuccio recovered from his latest injury to take a seat on the bench. Serie C1/B Fixture #16 Rimini v Ragusa Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Grznar, Fumagalli, Attewell, Sabellini; Tamburro©, Gallicchio, Pellegrino, Mignani; Di Nicola, Costagliola. We had been able to avoid it for a few weeks, but our old habit of conceding early away goals appeared again today. In the 8th minute Sergio Floccari delighted the fans in the Romeo Neri, by bending his run onto Lunardini's through ball and striking a low shot that skimmed into the bottom left corner. After that the game settled down to become a fairly dull spectacle, with our best effort being a curling attempt from 25 yards by Di Nicola that flew wide. At half-time Daniel Fonseca replaced the invisible Costagliola, and I urged Pellegrino not to worry about sitting back so much and get more involved in the attack. Rimini, meanwhile, intended to start the second half even better than they began the first, but Giuseppe Lenea was able to parry a long range effort by Bucchi within sixty seconds. In the 53rd minute the young goalkeeper produced another fantastic save, flinging himself to his right to turn away Donvito's attempt. Claudio Gallicchio emerged from the dust of a painful midfield collision winded and wincing, so he was substituted and Carlo Mignani tucked infield to allow want-away Burnadze the right midfield spot. For the next twenty minutes we barely came close to scoring, and then Rimini mounted another attack to try and seal the win in the 90th minute. As Lunardini continued the advance up the left, Pellegrino roared across and dispossessed him in true Gaspare style, before turning and lobbing a high and arguably hopeful punt over the top. Rimini right-back Cristian Galliano was hesitant, visibly worried about the presence of Giancarlo Di Nicola nearby, and in his panic he managed to completely lose the flight of the ball. Giancarlo nipped across the front of the faltering defender to take advantage by latching onto the pass, then, from just inside the area, fired across goalkeeper Marco Casalboni with his left foot. Getting everybody behind the ball proved a sufficient policy to sustain us through injury time and hold on for a stolen draw. Final score: Rimini 1 - 1 Ragusa There's seasonal cheer in Ragusa at least, as we get out of jail for the second game running albeit for slightly different reasons. We didn't look like threatening Rimini's goal very often, but by capitalising on one forced error in the last minute we have nicked a very welcome away point, giving us the satisfaction of a home win and an away draw over possible playoff contenders to take into the christmas break with us. Claudio Gallicchio's withdrawal was precautionary and the chest injury is not serious, certainly nothing that a few days of yuletide rest won't heal. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted August 25, 2003 Author Share Posted August 25, 2003 Friday 29th December 2006 My customary christmas jaunt back home to England is a short one this year, and a mere few days later I'm back in my Ragusa apartment pondering the state of my team's progression through this important season. At the mid-point of the campaign we are 10th in quite a close division, only five points above the relegation playoff zone, yet only three points behind the promotion playoff zone. Our total of 4 defeats from 16 matches is, very surprisingly, the lowest in the division. If we can remain tough to beat, try to keep winning consistently at home and attempt to pick up a point in as many away games as possible, then we have more than a fair chance of finishing much higher than 10th. I am disturbed from my cogitation by the harsh wooden clap of one of the window shutters banging in the light breeze, and leave the paper-strewn table to rectify it. On the pavement down below, a fur-coated female figure totters up the street in the direction of the nearest emporium, and two boys on bicycles weave in the opposite direction down the hill; I lean a short way out into the winter air to track their mazy path down the road, passively enjoying their contempt of oncoming traffic. Signor Nico, Signor Nico! - Beni Giordano, better-known simply by his nickname of "Calogero", pauses during the brushing of his perenially well-swept doorstep to wave a greeting from directly across the street. Old Calogero is always sure to give me a neighbourly nod and wave whenever we cross paths, though he is unshifting from his own personal localised version of my name, which he christened me with when I first arrived in the area. I offer the expected smile and wave in response, and secure the rogue shutter to its metal binding before returning to warmth and contemplation. So, how is the squad of players holding up so far in this division? On the whole, I would say pretty well. In goal, Giuseppe Lenea is taking his chance to regain the number one shirt with gusto, putting in some strong performances. I can't recall any match so far where he hasn't produced some kind of spectacular save in his typical fashion, and I have found no reason as yet to bring Jess van Strattan back in. In defence the fullbacks are solid, with Danilo Sabellini playing particularly well and Pavel Grznar slotting in without much fuss following his injury. I'm more concerned about the centre, where Stefano Fumagalli has started well if certainly not perfectly, but neither Attewell nor Alderuccio have been entirely convincing in their stints alongside him. The story of the midfield has been Luca Orlando's rapid emergence and Temuri Burnadze's almost comprehensive failure. I'm already of the persuasion that the team functions better when Luca is orchestrating the use of possession from the center, and if I can finally get him playing alongside Gaspare Pellegrino regularly then we might see some good things happening. Claudio Gallicchio will no doubt feel with some justification that his inclusion should not be ignored, and Carlo Mignani has shown signs here and there of starting to develop into the player we are hoping he will be. The attacking situation is perhaps the most interesting, where Giancarlo Di Nicola and Massimo Costagliola have both exploded into contention much sooner than expected. With a combined age of 35 years they make Daniel Fonseca feel old; the mercurial Uruguayan has admittedly struggled to some extent with his fitness so far this season, but has invariably shown that he still has more than enough to offer when in full stride. Eddy Baggio, of course, has suffered through unfamiliar frustration for much of the last five months, but appears to have broken through that phase now and I suspect is making a gradual return to the Baggio we know. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted August 26, 2003 Author Share Posted August 26, 2003 Monday 1st January 2007 As tradition dictates, here is the list of FIFA's annual awards: <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> World Player of the Year: Thierry Henry Arsenal World Footballer of the Year: Mancini Real Madrid European Footballer of the Year: Capi Real Betis European Goalkeeper of the Year: Jens Lehmann Borussia Dortmund European Defender of the Year: Jurgen Colin PSV Eindhoven European Midfielder of the Year: Roberto Guana Atletico Madrid European Striker of the Year: Landon Donovan Bayer Leverkusen</pre> Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted August 26, 2003 Author Share Posted August 26, 2003 Sunday 7th January 2007 Standing in 3rd position, Sambenedettese are clearly a team with promotion on their minds. Although they succumbed to Giancarlo Di Nicola's clinical hattrick in our first ever Serie C1 victory back in September, they are currently on a roll of 6 wins in their last 7 matches; add to that the fact that we are playing in front of one of the biggest crowds we have yet experienced, with fans taking up 9,355 of the Riviera delle Palme's 18,000 seats, and Sambenedettese will clearly be a different prospect today. Serie C1/B Fixture #17 Sambenedettese v Ragusa Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Tamburro©, Fumagalli, Attewell, Sabellini; Mignani, Gallicchio, Pellegrino, Burnadze; Di Nicola, Costagliola. The first chance of the game fell our way on 21 minutes, when Di Nicola crossed and Costagliola's header was saved. The home side then made us pay for not making better use of that, as Filippo Zacchei lined up a direct free-kick in the 37th minute and showed that he had the deadball expertise necessary to put his team a goal up. Fonseca and Baggio gave us a more experienced attack when they replaced the two teenagers at half-time, but still we were unable to find that cutting edge. After Giuseppe Lenea had produced another trademark save, he could do little to stop Marco Pedotti's long range drive making it 2-0 in the 76th minute. Eddy Baggio almost snatched a goal back in the dying minutes when this chip over the keeper bounced off the outside of the post, but in truth that was all that Sambenedettese had to worry about. Final score: Sambenedettese 2 - 0 Ragusa Not exactly the most inspiring way to launch the new year, we were unable to threaten much and the better team won. Those three points boost Sambenedettese into 2nd place and leave us in 13th, with the league table looking like THIS. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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