nerf Posted November 17, 2003 Author Share Posted November 17, 2003 - Coppa Italia - Group H preview - Teams: Florentia Viola - Serie B Citta di Palermo - Serie B Ragusa - Serie C1/B Venezia - Serie C1/A Florentia Viola finished in 8th position in Serie B last season, but of course the city of Florence has witnessed greater achievements in the past. As Fiorentina they had no less than six Coppa Italia trophies to their name, the last one arriving as recently as 2001, and they were also runner-up in this competition on three occasions. Despite having a lesser standing nowadays, they look comfortable favourites to top Group H. Citta di Palermo, from the capital of Sicily, have established themselves as no more and no less than a solid midtable Serie B outfit in recent years. An outside bet for group winners. Ragusa make their first foray into the Coppa Italia off the back of a surprising season in Serie C1/B, where they managed to push all the way to the promotion playoffs despite being fresh out of Serie C2. Their form in cup competitions is not of the highest pedigree however, and they are more likely to have their eyes fixed firmly on the coming league campaign. Venezia last won the Coppa Italia in 1941, although they were able to triumph in the Serie C Cup as recently as 2004. In the last few seasons they have yo-yo'd between Serie B and Serie C1/A with regularity. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted November 17, 2003 Author Share Posted November 17, 2003 Sunday 19th August 2007 A surprise awaits us as kick-off approaches in the Pierluigi Penzo stadium, home of Venezia. No less than 10,500 of the 13,500 seats have been filled for this Coppa Italia group stage fixture, making this one of the largest crowds that much of our team has ever been subjected to. It remains to be seen how the increased atmosphere will affect us mentally, and the Venezia team itself is somewhat unknown to us as well. Giancarlo Di Nicola's shoulder has only just about healed but he will start today, as he needs the match fitness if he wants to be ready for the start of the league. We do have Costagliola and Marino on the bench if he starts to feel uncomfortable. Pavel Grznar is also in a similar situation after shaking off the knee injury that he picked up in Paterno, so he gets the nod at left back. Coppa Italia Group H Venezia v Ragusa Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Grznar, Fumagalli, Attewell, Sabellini; Tamburro©, Mignani, Orlando, Chiavarini; Di Nicola, Baggio. The home side kicked off, and soon attempted a pass forward which was cut out by Sabellini's header. The ball looped across the pitch, dropped into the path of Venezia's Sanchez in the D on the edge of our box, and he promptly thrashed it into the roof of the net. Welcome to the Coppa Italia. A goal down inside a minute, and things did not improve a great deal after that. With the impressive crowd livened up so early on, Venezia were swept forward on their wave of support and soon added to their advantage. In the 19th minute, Cantarini's pass carved open a huge gap in the middle of our desperate defence, and Iacobelli ran through to curl the second goal past Lenea from sixteen yards. Oh dear. Our best effort of the entire half was Carlo Mignani's hopeful 25 yarder that sailed over the bar, and the players came off at the break feeling quite demoralised. However, Costagliola replaced Baggio and immediately helped us to pull a goal back in the early stages of the second half... or so we thought, but after Di Nicola had latched onto Massimo's flick and danced round the keeper, he was flagged as offside. We would have had a genuine goal in the net in the 68th minute, but when Di Nicola caught Orlando's pass sweetly with a powerful first-time strike from near the penalty spot, Venezia goalkeeper Francesco Benussi earned himself a standing ovation with a quite remarkable reflex save. How did he stop that? A goal clawed back at that point just might have spurred us on to chase an equaliser in the remaining twenty minutes, but as it was, it was left to the ruthless Iacobelli to kill everything off five minutes later when he turned Stuart Attewell and smashed a terrific strike into the top corner of our net. Final score: Venezia 3 - 0 Ragusa We were definitely second best today, no doubts about that. Di Nicola's shoulder held up and he was arguably our best player, and Luca Orlando also did okay, but the rest of the team were distinctly average at best. Combine that with a lively home crowd and some clinical finishing on Venezia's part, and it's not too difficult to see why we received a second straight three-goal defeat. Lets hope that we are just getting it out of our system before the league gets underway. On a more positive note, Nicola Marino's second half substitute appearance at the age of 15 years and 10 months makes him the youngest player ever to appear for Ragusa in official competition. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted November 17, 2003 Author Share Posted November 17, 2003 Monday 20th August 2007 The disappointment of our failure to sign a single player this summer, youth recruitment aside, has been eating away at me lately. Because of this, with the Chairman's permission - and presumably the permission of the Director of Football if he was around to be asked - I have moved to revamp our scouting set-up. Two young and highly enthusiastic English scouts will be arriving in Ragusa later this week; Simon Clifford, aged 28, and Tim Davies, aged 29, have both agreed to become our new scouting team until the year 2010, and hopefully beyond, with my intention being to improve communication and breathe new life into our lethargic scouting network. 51 year old scout Vincenzo Barbieri will remain at the club until his contract expires next summer. Premiership club Middlesbrough have continued their summer spending by bringing 26 year old striker Francis Jeffers back to England for £6,250,000. The former Everton youngster moved abroad to join Real Betis from Arsenal for £10,250,000 during the 2006/2007 season, but he was unable to find a regular place in the side with the La Liga champions and the Spanish dream soon turned sour. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted November 17, 2003 Author Share Posted November 17, 2003 Friday 24th August 2007 If we are incapable of bringing new players in, I supposed the least we should do is make sure that we hang onto the ones that we do have. To this end, a string of negotiations this week has successfully resulted in several players renewing contracts that were destined to expire at the completion of this coming season. Pavel Grznar and Franco Chiavarini accepted new deals running until 2010, Stefano Fumagalli and Pietro Alderuccio have done likewise until 2011, and goalkeeper Giuseppe Lenea was happy to put pen to paper on a new contract that keeps him in Ragusa until 2012. One player who appears to be intent on making things awkward is Claudio Gallicchio, who seems to think that he is worth wages of £1,100 per week. As much as I like Claudio, I'm afraid that a demand like that on a club with our budget, particularly for a player who isn't even guaranteed a first team slot, is laughable. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted November 17, 2003 Author Share Posted November 17, 2003 Sunday 26th August 2007 There's a full house at the Aldo Campo, a bigger crowd than there had been for the Tornei della Sicilia final earlier this month, to see if we can gain revenge on Citta di Palermo. Even though we were not at our best against Venezia, I decide to keep faith with the same eleven for our second Coppa Italia match. Coppa Italia Group H Ragusa v Palermo Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Grznar, Fumagalli, Attewell, Sabellini; Tamburro©, Mignani, Orlando, Chiavarini; Di Nicola, Baggio. In a dull game desperately lacking in goal mouth action, one incident dominated the match. Following an uneventful first half, during which we had fashioned the best of the scarce opportunities when Baggio had crossed only for Di Nicola to head straight at the keeper, the second half brought with it the only genuinely noteworthy moment. In the 73rd minute, Palermo midfielder Fina slid a pass into our penalty area looking for the run of Abate, who latched onto the end of it and turned, but Franco Chiavarini darted in and defused the dangerous situation with an inch-perfect sliding tackle. The referee blew his whistle, and to the amazement of almost 3,500 pairs of eyes, signalled for a penalty kick while flashing a yellow card in the direction of flabbergasted Franco. Okay, so the melodramatic Abate had to hobble off and be substituted, but anyone with any idea could see that Chiavarini had cleanly taken the ball before the man. Palermo striker Marco Vianello lined himself up with the penalty spot, took a hefty swing with his right boot, and as Giuseppe Lenea sprawled, the ball crashed down and out off the underside of the bar with a resounding thunk. Watching from the sideline, in a split-second my rising hopes were being dashed as I saw the bouncing ball spin back into the path of Vianello with the goal gaping, only for Lenea to spring back up off the turf and fingertip the rebound effort around the post. It was an amazing piece of recovery by the young keeper, and in the explosion of admiration that rippled around the stadium, nobody seemed to mind - referee included - that Vianello had illegally struck the ball twice in succession without another player intervening. Danilo Sabellini cleared the corner safely and I kept that to myself. Final score: Ragusa 0 - 0 Palermo Giuseppe Lenea's miracle aside, it had been a poor match with a severe shortage of attempts on goal. Two of the local boys, Giancarlo Di Nicola and Luca Orlando, again stood out as they had done at Venezia, but as a team it had been a third straight performance where we had lacked any sharpness or creativity going forward. I'm particularly concerned with our options in wide positions; Chiavarini works hard but rarely contributes significant output, and I'm not convinced that Simone Tamburro is our best option for left midfield. Now that Carlo Mignani has made it clear that he much prefers to play in the centre, I might consider trying Pavel Grznar out there in the next match. In the meantime, our new scouts have been sent out to see what our options might be externally. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
veelhousen Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 See i wanna see this go to story of the week. Great stuff. Has 03/04 sucked you in yet? has me. finished my stories because of it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted November 25, 2003 Author Share Posted November 25, 2003 Thanks veelhousen . I haven't trusted myself to go near 03/04 yet, so no it hasn't. I really should get my finger out and start writing this more often though. Thursday 30th August 2007 As the deadline for the summer transfer window draws ever nearer, there has been plenty of transfer action going on this week in the Premiership. Tottenham's tabled offer of £10,000,000, plus 26 year old former Leeds striker Alan Smith, is deemed sufficient for Aston Villa to release their grip on 21 year old starlet Luke Moore, and both players were delighted to agree terms with their new clubs. On Tottenham's behalf it is a lot of money for talent that is still yet to be proven, but the younger Moore brother clearly has potential worth gambling on. In another deal involving a player swap with a cash leveller, Nicolas Anelka has made a third trip back to the Premiership to join Newcastle United. The 28 year old striker arrives at St James' Park in exchange for £14,250,000 and talented Italian fullback Cristian Zaccardo, following two-and-a-half successful seasons with Real Betis where the moody Frenchman scored 58 goals in 90 appearances. The Geordie fans were out in force to celebrate a double swoop, as manager Claudio Ranieri also announced the capture of Chelsea's highly rated German defender Arne Friedrich, who had been chased by Leverkusen and Roma before he decided to join the Magpies for £4,600,000. Another player leaving Spain to rejoin the ranks of the Premiership is 28 year old English defender Matthew Upson, who makes a proud return to the club that released him five years ago. Upson departed Arsenal for Birmingham in 2002, then impressed in two seasons at Everton after a £6,750,000 move in 2004, and finally signed for mighty Barcelona for £5,000,000 in 2006. Unfortunately he fell out of favour in his second season at the Nou Camp and has now been snapped up by Arsenal to complete the circle. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted November 25, 2003 Author Share Posted November 25, 2003 Sunday 2nd September 2007 Our opening match of the new league season brings Cittadella down to Ragusa, to face an Aldo Campo that is full to overflowing without a spare seat to be found. The visiting team finished a mediocre eleventh in last season's Serie C1/B standings, and we were able to complete the double over them by nicking a stealthy away win in April. The first meeting last December had been the occasion when Marco Cirillo had damaged the cruciate ligaments in his right knee, an incident that sadly transpired to terminate his career. Serie C1/B Fixture #01 Ragusa v Cittadella Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Tamburro©, Fumagalli, Attewell, Sabellini; Grznar, Mignani, Orlando, Chiavarini; Di Nicola, Baggio. Boosted by the opening roar of a full home stadium, we raced into an early lead thanks to a bit of a helping hand from Cittadella captain Marco Esposito. Di Nicola's 12th minute corner from the right was an outswinger towards the edge of the area, where Esposito was penalised for shoving Carlo Mignani in the back, and Eddy Baggio gladly swept the penalty kick confidently into the right-hand corner. The rest of the half passed with relatively little event, until right-back Danilo Sabellini picked his moment two minutes before the break to net his first ever goal for Ragusa. Cittadella goalkeeper Luca Capecchi had just produced a brilliant save to turn aside Fumagalli's thumping long range drive, but he could do nothing when Danilo leapt high in the air above Andrea Turato and connected with Di Nicola's deep corner to send a strong header into the roof of the net. A complete stranger to goalscoring, Danilo was delighted, and received a deserved pat on the back from his manager as he returned downfield. Two goals to the good at the halfway stage and looking in control, I withdrew Giancarlo Di Nicola and unleashed young Nicola Marino for the second period. On 67 minutes the teenager drifted unattended into the left channel and immaculately brought down Sabellini's high crossfield pass, before dribbling towards the byline as the Cittadella defence scrambled to readjust. From the left side of the area he whipped in a low ball across the area, and suddenly Carlo Mignani arrived to complete a lung-bursting effort to get forward by stabbing a volley high into the net for number three. With the game well and truly settled, Costagliola and Matera were both introduced to see more playing time. Final score: Ragusa 3 - 0 Cittadella <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> </pre> Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agathron Posted November 25, 2003 Share Posted November 25, 2003 Keep up the good work Nerf, still loving the story, just spent the past two hours catching up on all i've missed. Sorry about the disappointing summer. Any plans on switching to CM 03/04? Agathron Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted November 26, 2003 Author Share Posted November 26, 2003 Thanks Agathron, glad you're still following . No plans on switching to CM 03/04 at the moment. Friday 7th September 2007 A good performance, a solid victory, a pleasing start to the league campaign, a glut of injuries. Which is the odd one out? The upbeat mood generated by a winning start has been tempered slightly with some inflictions suffered during training this week. Luca Orlando is sidelined for two weeks, while midfielders Antonio Matera and Carlo Mignani could both miss an entire month with a pulled hamstring and fractured ribs respectively. To top all that up with some even worse news, Giancarlo Di Nicola's freshly dislocated shoulder is predicted to be serious enough to put him out of action for two whole months. Fortunately we have a weekend of rest ahead of us, but losing three important players for the near future could be a significant blow. Meanwhile, Barcelona have pounced on Anfield again, exploiting Liverpool's attempts to clear their debt by snapping up another player. Hot on the heels of the capture of John Arne Riise this summer, the Spaniards have brought defender Alberto Lupo back to his home country for £5,750,000. The 27 year old is formerly of Espanyol and Malaga and returns home after little over one full season in the Premiership. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted November 26, 2003 Author Share Posted November 26, 2003 Wednesday 12th September 2007 Florentia Viola are in their third season in Serie B, having breezed their way out of Serie C quicker than you can say "Vittorio Cecchi Gori". The demise of the once great club has been well documented, but since AC Fiorentina ceased to exist in the summer of 2002, La Viola are determined to make a return to where they belong - the top flight of Italian football. In the meantime however, they must leave Tuscany and stomach a midweek Coppa Italia trip south through Sicily to lowly Ragusa, where they will be welcomed by yet another full house at the Aldo Campo Selvaggio. The six-time former winners of this competition are hindered by having four members of their squad absent through international duty, one of whom is former Varese midfielder Srdjan Novkovic, but we are not without problems of our own as we are missing no less than six players due to injury. The culmination of this is that Alessandro Bonaffini will start a match for the first time since February 2005, over two and a half years ago. Coppa Italia Group H Ragusa v Florentia Viola Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Tamburro©, Fumagalli, Attewell, Sabellini; Grznar, Bonaffini, Gallicchio, Chiavarini; Marino, Baggio. Sadly, the excitement of last Sunday failed to linger and we were unable to get out of first gear this evening. It took us 54 minutes to register a single shot on target, an effort from Baggio's half-time replacement Massimo Costagliola that was saved, and in the meantime the purple-clad visitors had gone in front. Spinesi had decided that scoring a debut goal for his club could easily be done from a good thirty yards, and Florentia Viola had taken a lead into the break. We never recovered from that and lethargy gripped our performance. In the 67th minute, Dionigi twice beat the uncharacteristically shakey Stefano Fumagalli, first in the air to the flick on, and then, from the resultant Spinesi cross from the left, he got across the front of the defender to divert home a tidy finish. Two nil, bottom of the group. Final score: Ragusa 0 - 2 Florentia Viola It was a poor home performance, even considering the advantage that the former giants possessed on paper, and means that we do indeed hold up the rest of the group on one point, while Florentia Viola soar highest to progress with seven points. Just when you thought the pesky cup competitions were safely out of the way however, our exit from the Coppa Italia merely bumps us down into the first knockout stage of the Serie C Cup, where we are nominated to meet Serie C1/A outfit Vicenza on our reluctant travels next on Wednesday. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted November 27, 2003 Author Share Posted November 27, 2003 Thursday 13th September 2007 Situated an ideal distance back across the cobbled piazza from the road, it is a purveyor of polite service and a warm sun-trap on the more pleasant late-summer mornings such as this one. You probably wouldn't have to stay long in Ragusa to discover that the Caffè Trieste, or more specifically the red furniture on the cobbles in front of it, can be considered as good a place as any from which to enjoy breakfast, watch people's lives go by, and muse over what's right and wrong in the world... of Ragusa calcio. Perusing the customary morning newspaper spread over my usual table, I take a sip of my coffee and turn the page to read that respected defender Rafael Marquez, a footballer capped eighty-five times by Mexico and whose stock has risen considerably in Europe during his time with Monaco, Arsenal and Deportivo, has just seen the ink dry on the contract that seals his £11,750,000 dream move to the famed Real Madrid. Clearly the most successful club in history were unwilling to let rival Barcelona's various new acquisitions dominate the transfer limelight, and scooped a few million Euros in Deportivo's direction to get themselves a big name for big money. If only it were that simple in Serie C. There's nothing quite like peeking over the fence to see how the other half live, to tumble into the prÃckly hedge of your own shortcomings. The transfer market has been a big black hole of frustrating nothingness for Ragusa for over a year now, ever since the disappointing Temuri Burnadze walked in through the door in June 2006. Although money has been tight as you would expect, it hasn't really been the main issue. Finding the right players has been difficult enough, but then successfully persuading those players to sign on the dotted line is another obstacle entirely, and an even bigger one. We managed to shift some of the unwanted players from the squad this summer, but if it wasn't for the three new youngsters we would not have added to last year's team, and with Daniel Fonseca's retirement one could argue that we have in fact stepped backwards. Equalling last season's performance is always a bare minimum in my eyes, but it will only be tougher this year because we no longer possess the element of surprise nor the fire of the underdog. We may not have moved forward since the defeat in the heat of Lanciano, and to stand still is just asking to be burned. Unfortunately these fears have not exactly been quelled by our rocky recent form, which has produced one win in our last five. Still, it would perhaps be unwise to become unduly worried. We gained the maximum yield from that oh-so-important opening league fixture, and our recent losses have come from Serie B teams or clubs that can claim to be Serie B standard. There is also the burgeoning talent of young mister Marino to tempt the eye with, a footballer whose early appearances have already planted a seed of excitement and anticipation amongst the Aldo Campo regulars. I just cross my fingers that the locals can keep manufacturing more Giancarlo Di Nicolas and fewer Fabio Rossinis. If we are going to push for the heights of last year again, it should certainly be interesting. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted November 27, 2003 Author Share Posted November 27, 2003 Sunday 16th September 2007 Two of the opening day victors meet in southern Sicily for league fixture number two, as Avellino arrive in Ragusa after a goal in each half from striker Raffaele Biancolino presented them with a 2-0 win from their first match. As we prepare an attempt to halt Avellino's run before it starts, local boy Luca Orlando is straight back into the team following his recovery from injury, and Massimo Costagliola gains a starting place at the expense of Marino after being the most threatening of our forwards in the cup. Serie C1/B Fixture #02 Ragusa v Avellino Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Tamburro©, Fumagalli, Attewell, Sabellini; Grznar, Orlando, Gallicchio, Chiavarini; Costagliola, Baggio. Our four midfielders were sent out onto the pitch with fresh instructions to be more aggressive and more tenacious without the ball than they had shown in recent games, and early on Pavel Grznar proved that he was intent on fulfilling those requirements. When the Czech player harried and battled to win two challenges in quick succession on the halfway line, the ball fell for Costagliola and he held off Avellino centre-back Ignoffo before striking the inside off the post with a left foot shot from the edge of the box. Baggio chased for the rebound, but goalkeeper Domeico Cecere made it across to parry the second effort to safety. The rest of the first half revealed a much more upbeat and dominating Ragusa than we had displayed in the Coppa Italia, with Orlando and Gallicchio dominating the midfield and finding feet with every pass. Just before half-time Costagliola flashed a shot wide from Baggio's flick on, but we were to find more success after the break. In the 51st minute Avellino partially cleared a corner only for the ball to be swung back into the danger area by Fumgalli, and with Baggio making himself a nuisance in the six yard box, Cecere lost the flight of the ball amongst the crowd of players and could only manage a panicked flap at it. As the ball bounced free and bobbled towards the byline, Eddy Baggio gave chase and pounced earliest to stab the opening goal into the net at the far post. The goal brought a wave of confidence to our attacking play and suddenly we were in no mood to let Avellino off lightly. Eight minutes later Massimo Costagliola doubled our lead, getting onto the end of Baggio's return pass to lash the ball home with gusto into the roof of the net. By the 69th minute Massimo had made it three, again aided by a deft Baggio assist, and this time the finish was more delicate as he chipped the keeper with precision. And to think I had almost substituted the young forward at half-time. With the points all but secured, Locatelli and Marino both arrived to gain twenty more minutes of first team experience. There was also still time for a fourth. Luca Orlando had embodied every syllable of a my pre-match request and was still admirably battling away into stoppage time, when he pounced on a sloppy Avellino mistake to make the ball his own and then distribute it out to Costagliola on the left. Massimo took the ball on and waited for Pavel Grznar's diagonal supporting run before slipping a pass into his path, and the Czech midfielder slotted a calm and accurate finish into the far corner for his first ever Ragusa goal. Final score: Ragusa 4 - 0 Avellino Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted December 2, 2003 Author Share Posted December 2, 2003 Wednesday 19th September 2007 The inescapable pull of the Serie C Cup drags us to Vicenza for the first leg, where the Romeo Menti stadium awaits with over 8,000 home fans scattered across its over-sized bulk. I'm not a fan of midweek fixtures at all, but I can draw consolation from the fact that the players that came through the weekend's match have benefitted from a testing pre-season and are all looking in good shape and ready to go this evening. Serie C Cup First Round 1st Leg Vicenza v Ragusa Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Tamburro©, Fumagalli, Attewell, Sabellini; Grznar, Orlando, Gallicchio, Chiavarini; Costagliola, Baggio. I started to feel even better about being lumbered with an unimportant midweek match just six minutes into it, when Massimo Costagliola raced onto the end of Eddy Baggio's volleyed pass and tucked a firm shot under the sprawling goalkeeper. The rising optimism was quickly suppressed a couple of minutes afterwards however, as Franco Chiavarini hobbled off the pitch with his socks rolled down and had to retire to the bench to nurse the sort of injury that we could do without. YOung Marco Locatelli was sent on at left back and Simone Tamburro pushed forward into midfield. Vicenza managed to get a few shots on target without really creating anything like a golden chance. Alessandro Sgrigna struck one effort over the bar and Lenea held comfortably onto a couple of others, but the aforementioned striker was to make no such mistake early in the second half. Mirroring our opening goal by taking six minutes from kick-off to find it, Sgrigna equalised for the home team when the Ragusa defence conspired to lay it on a plate for him. First Gallicchio's misplaced pass wrongfooted Orlando, and Moscardi collected the careless ball to clip a low pass diagonally into our box for Scapini to run on to. Nobody cared to pick up the runner nor move to intercept the ball, so Scapini got onto the end of something that he should have never been allowed to reach, yet his ill-aimed poke towards goal ricocheted wildly off Stuart Attewell and promptly bounced directly to the feet of a wide open Sgrigna at the far post. Lenea was helpless as the ball was thrashed past him; one-all. Alessandro Bonaffini appeared again to replace a struggling Pavel Grznar, as the Czech had failed to find a blue shirt with even the most simple of passes all evening. We started to get back on top of the game as the second half progressed, but Orlando and Baggio were both denied opportunities by well-timed tackles in the Vicenza area, and we were unable to test the home keeper significantly enough to regain our lead. Final score: Vicenza 1 - 1 Ragusa The draw was probably a fair result on balance of play. A small amount of good news comes in the form of Franco's injury, which is not as serious as feared and should not prevent him from resuming normal service come the weekend. Much less pleasing is that Stuart Attewell received an accidental fractured jaw in an aerial challenge right on the final whistle and will have to avoid strong contact for two weeks, and Danilo Sabellini's yellow card earns our regular right-back a suspension for the return leg next week. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted December 2, 2003 Author Share Posted December 2, 2003 Sunday 23rd September 2007 Back on the road again and back to the league, where our third fixture of the season lures us to Taranto. Boasting a capacity just shy of 30,000, the Erasmo Jacovone stadium makes the Romeo Menti look small, but 'only' yields 9,331 spectators for today's match. As the arriving home supporters spread out in their expansive arena, they might be surprised to see Danilo Sabellini setting up at centre back for the away side, a situation that we have been forced into by the loss of both Attewell and Alderuccio to injury. Marco Locatelli, a substitute midweek, will play from the start today with Tamburro shifting across to the right hand side. Serie C1/B Fixture #03 Taranto v Ragusa Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Locatelli, Fumagalli, Sabellini, Tamburro©; Grznar, Orlando, Gallicchio, Chiavarini; Costagliola, Baggio. Once again we were quickest out of the traps, and on sixteen minutes Luca Orlando pounced to win possession in midfield and send a ball over the top for Eddy Baggio to chase. Goalkeeper Antonio Di Mauro came out to narrow the angle and did well to block Baggio's shot, but Massimo Costagliola was eagerly following up for the easiest of his four goals in as many games. If we started to get any visions of a third straight victory and an unbeaten start to the season, Taranto swiftly put paid to that and went on to extinguish any further hopes. Less than five minutes after the opening goal we fell asleep when defending a corner, allowing Taranto forward Pompei to rise from the ashes above Gallicchio for a simple near post header to level the scores. From then on the home team gradually established a grip on the game, slow and steady as lava, and when the inevitable late winner eventually arrived you could have seen it coming. When a basic 86th minute free-kick sailed into our penalty area and was nodded down at the far post, there was Pompei to complete the comeback with his second of the game. Final score: Taranto 2 - 1 Ragusa Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
veelhousen Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 Voting for you in the cms thing. disappointed you weren't nominated for the story of the year. glaringly bad omission. southern europe at least though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobBev Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by veelhousen: Voting for you in the cms thing. disappointed you weren't nominated for the story of the year. glaringly bad omission. southern europe at least though.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> veelhousen - I believe that any story can be voted for SOTY. There are some that only qualify in that category mainly 'cause they don't fit anywhere else. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peacemaker7 Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 Yes Bobs right, any story that hasnt previously won SOTY is eligible, its just there no point in listing all the stories again. Im sure Raptor will clear that up for the confused Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted December 4, 2003 Author Share Posted December 4, 2003 Thank you veelhousen, that is most kind. And thanks Bob/PM for clearing that up Wednesday 26th September 2007 My personal lack of interest in the Serie C cup appears to be shared by the locals, as less than 2,000 have turned up on a midweek night for the home leg of our first round tie with Vicenza. While the average attendance decreases, my impatience is only increased by the fact that injuries and suspensions in this competition have reduced us to our second makeshift centre back. Attewell and Alderuccio are both injured, stand-in central defender Danilo Sabellini is banned for one match, and so it is left to captain Simone Tamburro to take the responsibility of filling in the gap tonight. Marco Locatelli is feeling the strain of being unfamiliar with such regular matches, but we have little option available so the youngster must start at left back despite not being 100% fit, and there's also a rare opportunity for Stefano Guastella on the opposite flank. Serie C Cup First Round 2nd Leg Ragusa v Vicenza Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Locatelli, Fumagalli, Tamburro©, Guastella; Grznar, Orlando, Gallicchio, Chiavarini; Costagliola, Baggio. For the fourth game in a row we made the better start and continued the pleasant habit of getting on the scoresheet first. Tamburro's corner from the right was a good one and Claudio Gallicchio made sure that his head was the one that connected with the ball at the near post. 1-0 on the night, 2-1 on aggregate. Sadly, we also continued our habit of taking our foot off the pedal and becoming complacent. We had been doing fine until half-time, with Luca Orlando directing things impressively from the centre and Vicenza failing to get any of their three first-half attempts on target. On 63 minutes a freak occurance resulted in Alessandro Sgrigna getting his second goal of the tie, when the ball ricocheted off a couple of blue-shirted defenders and the lucky striker's scuffed shot cartwheeled in off the post, and from then on it was downhill. Costagliola was having one of those days that strikers sometimes suffer when he looked like he wouldn't score if we tied the opposing keeper to the goalpost, and Eddy Baggio's aging legs were rapidly tiring, so the baby-faced pairing of Marino and Catania came on to try and freshen up an increasingly lethargic performance. It was Vicenza who came closest to breaking the deadlock however, when Sgrigna had a rare moment of bad fortune and saw his 79th minute drive flash wide of the far post. We were lucky to make it into extra-time still level, though I'm not sure lucky is the right word. 120 minutes of cup football is not the sort of midweek tonic required when we're trying to focus on getting the league campaign off on the right foot, but that's what we got. Bonaffini replaced the exhausted Locatelli, and at least we made the best of a bad situation by pushing for the late win. In the first period Gabriele Catania found himself through on goal but was denied by some strong goalkeeping, and then when the ball fell to him in the box a second time his overexcitement got the better of him and he failed to bring it under control, passing up a decent chance. Things didn't get much better for our youthful strikeforce in the second period, when Nicola Marino slipped between two defenders to meet Pavel Grznar's diagonal pass, only to see Silvano Guerra tip his effort over the crossbar. So penalties it was. I had not previously had the dubious pleasure of overseeing a penalty shootout in my short career as a manager, and I confess that a lack of preparation had led to me not having a list prepared in anticipation. I left it up to volunteers. I won't be doing that again. While the cultured left foot of 22 year old Parma loanee Thomas Martini swept the perfect penalty past Lenea to open the shootout, and teammates Sgrigna and Vendrame added to his tally with almost equal efficiency, weak penalties by Simone Tamburro and Stefano Fumagalli enabled Guerra to make two heroic saves and Stefano Guastella's inexperience sent the ball into orbit above the crossbar. Credit to the three defenders for having the courage to volunteer first, but in hindsight we might have been better off with players more familiar with the notion of finding the net... Final score: Ragusa 1 - 1 Vicenza (2-2 aggregate, Vicenza advance 3-0 on penalties) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted December 4, 2003 Author Share Posted December 4, 2003 Sunday 30th September 2007 Serie C1/B Fixture #04 Fano v Ragusa Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Guastella, Fumagalli, Tamburro©, Sabellini; Grznar, Orlando, Gallicchio, Chiavarini; Costagliola, Baggio. There are some games that are instantly forgettable, played in an eerie atmosphere that suggests nobody involved really knows what they are experiencing. Legs lethargic, brains numb, eyes dim, goals zero. This was the dreariest of dreary matches and begs to question why we even bothered to make the journey up the east coast of Italy almost as far as San Marino. Neither team fashioned a clear sight of goal; Costagliola saw our best half-chance saved. Eddy Baggio at least worked hard up front with little reward, though the unfamiliar partnership of Guastella and Grznar on our left side stood out - as having the worst of nightmares. We were thus very weak indeed down our entire left flank, a fact that Fano seemed oblivious to nor appeared interested in exploiting. I almost felt like informing my counterpart of the situation just for a bit of sport. Both sides departed the field, wondering dazily where the last ninety minutes had gone, and discovered an extra point each had magically appeared on the league table from somewhere. It was one of those. Final score: Fano 0 - 0 Ragusa Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted December 4, 2003 Author Share Posted December 4, 2003 Wednesday 3rd October 2007 Wednesday evening brings yet another midweek fixture and our seventh match in three weeks. The blow is softened somewhat by at least having home comfort and a full house of fans backing us, and Lecco enter the Aldo Campo having lost four of their first five matches. They did manage a three goal victory over Trento on Sunday, but then Trento are bottom. Further cheer is gained from the return of Gaspare Pellegrino from rehabilitation early this week. The specialist that treated Gaspare is 'optimistic' that the player has recovered fully from his injury. I would have preferred 'certain' or 'confident' over 'optimistic', but at this stage I'll accept anything to have our midfield terrier back. I won't be hurling him straight back into the fight tonight however. Stuart Attewell has also resumed training alongside Gaspare, but I'm going to handle both with kid gloves. Get at least a week's training into them, then maybe join the Under-20s squad for a warm-up game to get them up to speed. In the meantime, Tamburro continues at centre back in Attewell's absence and Locatelli is reinstalled to try and strengthen that left side. Serie C1/B Fixture #05 Ragusa v Lecco Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Locatelli, Fumagalli, Tamburro©, Sabellini; Grznar, Orlando, Gallicchio, Chiavarini; Costagliola, Baggio. There was no early strike this time, and in fact no first half lead for us; Musetti's fifth goal of the season saw to it that the visitors drew first blood in the 31st minute and held onto the advantage through to half-time. To make matters worse, Luca Orlando had picked up a knock during the opening sparring, and in accordance with my cotton-wool approach I immediately withdrew the limping young midfielder and sent Bonaffini on in his place. Come the break our injury ravaged team was dull, lifeless and lacking in creativity, despite a lion's share of possession. It therefore came as a much needed shot in the arm that we somehow managed to bludgeon our passage into the second half by snatching an equaliser on 51 minutes, when Massimo Costagliola returned Baggio's header and Eddy was left wide open to provide a convincing finish. It didn't get a great deal better than that, as both strikers saw headers saved or drift wide, and more significantly Lecco midfielder Francesco Cardillo rattled Lenea's upright from long range. Final score: Ragusa 1 - 1 Lecco Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted December 4, 2003 Author Share Posted December 4, 2003 Thursday 4th October 2007 Four goals and four draws from five matches, no victory since the rout of Avellino. Okay, we didn't lose yesterday, but the likes of Fano and Lecco shouldn't be reducing us to such low grade performances. In these sorts of fixtures we should be creating chances, scoring goals and taking the points, not stumbling through bore draws. It only goes to show how little depth we have in the squad, and how important certain players are to the team. We're desperately missing Gaspare Pellegrino's bite, Carlo Mignani's industry, Giancarlo Di Nicola's flair... Daniel Fonseca's magic. We are certainly missing a presence on the left of midfield, a position that has been a problem for a long time now. In fact, any sort of ability on either wing would be beneficial, as not only has Franco Chiavarini been made a decidedly average start to the season - not that he is alone - but he has also reported in today with strained knee ligaments and will be sidelined for at least the next week. One or two creative wide midfielders could add another dimension to our attack, open up the pitch for us and give opponents another weapon to worry about. Fortunately Luca Orlando's knock proved to be nothing to worry about and the centre of midfield is locked down, but a bit of width to our play would do us a power of good. Not least because Eddy, Massimo and Giancarlo are all very capable in the air and possess the necessary nuance to get onto the end of crosses. A quick memo to the new scouts is in order - stop me before I start bemoaning the transfer market again... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted December 4, 2003 Author Share Posted December 4, 2003 Sunday 7th October 2007 The fixtures keep on a-rolling in. The third match of the week and the eighth in twenty-four days has carved our squad to the bare bones, with Alessandro Bonaffini gifted another start on the right of midfield thanks to Franco's knee. The rest just have to suck it up and carry on as normal, though I'm hoping for an improved 'normal' over recent exhibitions. Ternana won't make that easy, as they have won four of their six league matches so far and stand second in the early table. Serie C1/B Fixture #06 Ragusa v Ternana Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Locatelli, Fumagalli, Tamburro©, Sabellini; Grznar, Orlando, Gallicchio, Bonaffini; Costagliola, Baggio. Perhaps it is solid pre-season preparation, perhaps it is successful pre-match pep talks, perhaps it's a modicum of hitherto hidden mental strength through adversity. Despite the same group of players toiling fruitlessly through some heel-dragging Ragusa performances recently, they still managed to find the spark required to get back on the early goal trail. Admittedly there was some luck involved, as Stefano Fumagalli's 14th minute interception of Edusei's attempted pass was performed with little more intention than to clear the lines and play for territory by hoofing the ball at distance towards the visitor's goal, but the hefty clearance fell perfectly for Eddy Baggio racing through the centre, and from just inside the area there was the more practised and clinical matter of a sweet, first-time, low finish into the bottom left hand corner. It was almost a two goal lead within half an hour, but goalkeeper Sergio Marcon saved Costagliola's header well following Baggio's cross. Five minutes later, Ternana then produced a far more attractive first goal than ours had been. A quite lovely move began with a throw-in in their own half, initialising a smooth passing movement that flowed through no less than six Ternana players, and around several helpless defenders, before Davide Sinigaglia turned in the area and slotted home accurately. An excellent and impressive goal sent the teams into the break all square. Blissfully we were to witness no such capitulation on this occasion, and after a rousing bit of half-time self-ecouragement, the second half belonged to the home side. Massimo Costagliola's fifth of the season arrived courtesy of Orlando's tenacity to win the ball, Fumagalli's early vision and quick distribution, Eddy Baggio's skill on the right wing to beat fullback Antonio Gennari, and finally Massimo's own strength and guile fully employed to hold off two defenders to turn to clip the ball past Marcon. Although our improvement over the second period arguably gave us the edge and a good claim for the three points, a third goal would probably flatter us, but a third goal we did indeed get. Eddy Baggio evidently decided that this game needed killing off twelve minutes prematurely, and swung in a thirty yard effort that caught Marcon completely wrong footed to nestle high in the net. Final score: Ragusa 3 - 1 Ternana Better, much better - at least in the second half - and Ternana's start to the season shows that they are no pushovers either. The three goals were mainly thanks to the fact that both strikers were in bullient mood and strong when it counted, though Claudio Gallicchio and Luca Orlando, two players who have soldiered on more credibly than others during our rocky form, were typically very good in the centre of midfield. A final bright note was Stuart Attewell's late subsitute appearance to aid his bid for fitness. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted December 5, 2003 Author Share Posted December 5, 2003 Wednesday 10th October 2007 No rest for the encumbered; draw breath, consign the previous match to history, and get on the road to Gubbio. Where? Deep in the heart of central Italy it seems, a steep and dramatic hill-side city housing imposing medieval and roman architecture, and a football team with two victories on the trot and a five goal demolition of Messina to boast. Carlo Mignani is back from injury and Stuart Attewell insists that he is now fit enough, but neither will start in the San Biagio today. The same players that have borne the brunt of the past month must face one final onslaught in anticipation of an enticing ten day rest. Serie C1/B Fixture #07 Gubbio v Ragusa Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Locatelli, Fumagalli, Tamburro©, Sabellini; Grznar, Orlando, Gallicchio, Bonaffini; Costagliola, Baggio. The first half went the way of the Fano's. Costagliola had the best of our opportunities but dragged the shot wide, while up the other end Giuseppe Lenea was called upon to make a couple of saves. The most significant moment of the half occurred seconds before the referee's long whistle, and passed unbeknown to almost everybody in the stadium. It was my quiet contemplation on how best to incorporate Nicola Marino for the next forty-five. The arrival of the teenager changed the path of an otherwise soulless match. Freshly sixteen as recently as Sunday, the diminutive young forward dragged historical Gubbio into the 21st century for at least twenty minutes. His first ever league goal for Ragusa displayed all the precociousness of brilliant, arrogant youth, when he instantly killed Eddy Baggio's immaculate pass, left two defenders for dead and tricked goalkeeper Claudio Giustolisi into next week, before firing the ball into an empty net. His second ever league goal for Ragusa naturally went a step further, after Gallicchio had done well to play a one-two with Baggio and find Marino cutting into the centre, and a flash of the heels and a twinkle of the toes enabled Nicola to breeze past De Pascale with ease, before a jink to the left allowed the finish to be neatly applied under a rushing goalkeeper. Final score: Gubbio 0 - 2 Ragusa Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted December 5, 2003 Author Share Posted December 5, 2003 Friday 12th October 2007 Word travels fast, even in relaxed Ragusa. We don't have the luxury of taking many fans to away matches with us, but even so the news has spread and for the last couple of mornings the whispers around the bakeries, the cafés and the school yards is that there's something new in the town's rising football club. The words I'm catching are the same as the ones I picked up from the front-row Gubbio supporters behind the San Biagio visitor's dugout; what a goal, magical, who is this kid... did you see that? Forget recent inconsistent form, it's a minor inconvenience when there's a rising star to latch on to. The topic of conversation is of course Nicola Marino, who changed Wednesday's match so dramatically in the second half with a display of skills rarely seen at this level of football. And just sixteen years old to boot. Oh the potential for over-hyping! Yet the scary thing is, it only matches the potential of the player. Here's one tricky little blighter with a left foot that could open a can of beans, and here's many years of development to look forward to. Such a buzz of excitement is just what the fans need, and hopefully it will carry the team into a run of good form now that we have produced two consecutive wins and are able to rest some weary legs before the next fixture. At the other end of the scale and some distance from Ragusa, the reputation of Brazilian star Denilson is heading in the opposite direction. Once the darling of the Manuel Ruiz de Lopera crowd, he was expected to emerge as the returning hero when he rode back into Seville to rejoin Real Betis, following three years in Madrid and Liverpool. That has not been the case. Denilson's form during the beginning of the season has been so poor that his manager has lost patience, and those same fans who used to worship him have now turned their backs. In a recent online poll, more than 75% of the Betis faithful declared that the disgruntled Brazilian no longer had the right to a first team place. His team don't need him - the former Liga champions are second in the table, trailing only surprise leaders Malaga after six matches. Denilson is rumoured to be regretting his decision to pull the green shirt on once more, and at the wrong side of thirty years old, the former World Cup winner's career is already in danger of fading. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted December 7, 2003 Author Share Posted December 7, 2003 Sunday 21st October 2007 Clouds are gathering over Trento. The home side are rock bottom of Serie C1/B with just one victory to celebrate in the opening two months, and the chilly afternoon rain sweeping across the Briamasco echoes an ill wind of change since the warmth of the spring. Last season, Trento maintained a resilient pursuit of champions Sambenedettese right up until the final day, but sadly found the heat of the summer playoffs too much to bear and joined us in painful exit, failing to do justice to the rest of their campaign. Perhaps after-effects linger. For once all the good news is on our side, as the week-and-a-half rest has healed a few cuts and bruises. Stuart Attewell returns to the starting lineup today while Pietro Alderuccio and Franco Chiavarini get as far as the bench, and I was pleased to see both Gaspare Pellegrino and Carlo Mignani come unscathed through ninety minute guest spots in the Under-20's draw this week. Giancarlo Di Nicola, still missing with a dislocated shoulder, is now the only one occupying a shrunken injury list. Serie C1/B Fixture #08 Trento v Ragusa Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Tamburro©, Fumagalli, Attewell, Sabellini; Grznar, Orlando, Gallicchio, Bonaffini; Marino, Baggio. With the balance of confidence tipping in our direction it was no huge surprise that we sprinted into an early lead, and if you had listened to the Gubbio gossip then the identity of the goalscorer would not be unexpected. Barely three minutes had elapsed when Tamburro broke up play and Baggio sprayed a pass across the wet grass to Marino wide on the left, who cut infield and dug the ball out of the soggy turf to lob a stranded goalkeeper. Sadly that was the youngster's only impact on this match, as he went crashing down into a puddle of water under a robust challenge and came out limping midway through the first half. Unwilling to risk any damage, I hauled him off straight away into the safety of the dugout and sent Massimo Costagliola on in his place, and now that we had Massimo and Eddy in attack we could start getting the ball up off the drenched pitch and into the air. This suited Baggio - ironically - down to the ground, who then went on to help himself to two goals. The first arrived before half-time when he got his head onto Sabellini's dipping corner, and then early in the second half a loose pass by a Trento defender skipped off the wet surface to allow Baggio to run on and curl number three past an exposed goalkeeper. Pachera pulled a consolation goal back for the beleaguered home side later in the second half, shortly before a rash tackle by substitute fullback Lazzarini sparked a moment of controversy in a dying game. Under his high, crunching blow, Pavel Grznar went down in pain clutching his right shoulder, and a melee ensued involving most of the cold and ill-tempered players on the pitch. For the most part it was just the usual jostling and shouting as our lads tried to remonstrate with Lazzarini, until Trento's Magnani took it too far by collaring Alessandro Bonaffini and roughly shoving him backwards into the mud, and was probably quite happy to trudge in for a premature warm bath when the red card was flashed. Having restored some order, referee Cesare Di Cintio then did his popularity no favours by insisting on proceeding with the full four minutes of stoppage time despite the ever worsening weather conditions. Final score: Trento 1 - 3 Ragusa Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted December 7, 2003 Author Share Posted December 7, 2003 Sunday 28th October 2007 Three consecutive wins have cast our start to the season in a much better light by lifting us up to second position, just a point behind early leaders Taranto. Our hosts this weekend, Vis Pesaro, have also benefitted from an upturn in results and are hot on our heels in third, a fact reflected by the 5,200 capacity crowd packed into the Tonino Benelli this afternoon for a top of the table clash. Frustratingly, our preparations for this match have been interrupted by a fresh influx of injuries. Marino's knock in last week's rain soaked encounter proved to be inconsequential, but Grznar was not as lucky and his shoulder injury should sideline him for the best part of a month. More crucially, the rigours of midweek training have caused Simone Tamburro to be out for a similar period with fractured ribs, and Luca Orlando's torn groin muscle could deprive us of our midfield conductor for twice as long. Vis Pesaro are not without their own difficulties in that regard though, because star midfielder Michele Palmieri will play no part today either. With Tamburro and Grznar injured and Marco Locatelli showing further signs of tiredness, Stefano Guastella will fill in as a makeshift left back while Carlo Mignani and Gaspare Pellegrino make a timely return to the starting eleven. Serie C1/B Fixture #09 Vis Pesaro v Ragusa Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Guastella, Fumagalli©, Attewell, Sabellini; Mignani, Pellegrino, Gallicchio, Bonaffini; Marino, Baggio. He did it last weekend, and what do you know, he's done it again. Nicola Marino's fourth goal in four matches arrived courtesy of Segarelli's sloppy fifth minute pass that eluded teammate Ischia, and the teenager raced in on goal to lash a shot spectacularly in off the underside of the crossbar for an early lead. Vis Pesaro's only effort on target in the first half was a hopeful 25 yard attempt by Segarelli's search for redemption, and at half-time things were not looking to good for the home side. That all changed immediately after the break. In the first minute of the second period, Gentili got to the corner flag and saw his cross headed out by Bonaffini, but it dropped nicely for Nicola Rostellato to hit first time hard and low through a crowd, and Lenea saw it too late to stop it squirming under his body and into the net. The equaliser encouraged the home team and their support, and the longer the match went on the happier we were becoming to settle for a point. Disturbingly, when the late winner arrived it was another one of those that you can see coming from a mile off. Vis Pesaro's attacks were increasing in tempo and we were looking ever more static and leaden of foot, so much so that when Martini flounced up the left wing in space and crossed into the box, Renzo Nonis found it easy to evade a shocking lack of marking and sneak in at the far post for a tap in. It was a poor goal to concede; there had been plenty of blue shirts back but none were alert enough to track the runner, and rather deservedly it sent us home empty handed. Final score: Vis Pesaro 2 - 1 Ragusa Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Get on Teletext! Posted December 16, 2003 Share Posted December 16, 2003 I hope we havent lost another great story due to the lure of CM 03-04? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted December 16, 2003 Author Share Posted December 16, 2003 No, not yet . It's just slackness on my part I'm afraid. I've been very busy at work recently, but I've got some time off over Christmas so I'll try to get some more typed up soon. Sorry for the delay! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Get on Teletext! Posted December 17, 2003 Share Posted December 17, 2003 Well I'll forgive you then Looking forward to the next update, still as good as ever! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted December 20, 2003 Author Share Posted December 20, 2003 Thanks GoT . Booked it, packed up... Sunday 4th November 2007 After three consecutive away matches we are back to the Aldo Campo to host inconsistent Teramo, a team that has made an average start to the season and managed to concede three goals in a defeat at Fano last weekend. Claudio Gallicchio has added his name to the injury list with a groin strain, though his is far less serious than Orlando's and a bit of rest should see him back within a fortnight. Serie C1/B Fixture #10 Ragusa v Teramo Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Locatelli, Fumagalli©, Attewell, Sabellini; Bonaffini, Pellegrino, Mignani, Chiavarini; Marino, Baggio. A fairly lackadaisical first half yielded little more than a couple of wayward Teramo shots off target and a couple of Marino efforts saved, though Carlo Mignani, restored to the centre of midfield in Claudio's absence and intent on making an impression in his preferred position, was unlucky not to get closer with a long range curler that scythed narrowly over the crossbar. In a match that seemed destined for a draw, our defence suddenly decided to conspire again to throw it away as we had done last week. On 72 minutes Stuart Attewell stuck a foot out at the wrong time and tripped a Teramo attacker in the penalty area, but we were let off by the over-confident penalty taker Setaro hooking the ball high and wide over the goalpost. Clearly insistent on making sure that we were going to gift the home side all three points, barely a minute later we stood back and encouraged Setaro to have another go, as the defence parted like the red sea to allow the striker a second clear sight on goal, and he made no mistake this time. Final score: Teramo 1 - 0 Ragusa Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted December 20, 2003 Author Share Posted December 20, 2003 Tuesday 13th November 2007 After talking with Stephen Cooke on the phone, it looks like he will soon be getting a permanent move away from Villa Park. Cambridge United made a £375,000 offer for the player, which is little more than half his valuation but may still be enough for Villa to accept, and Stephen's hometown club Walsall quickly intervened with an identical bid. I wouldn't mind having the lad back on loan here again, as our midfield has been further hampered by sudden injuries. This week's bad news comes in the form of a calf strain for Gaspare Pellegrino, who has been advised by the physio team to rest for two weeks. I hope this isn't a sign of Gaspare's injury proneness continuing in the same vein of disruption that he endured last season. On a slightly lighter note, physio Guido Ferraris offers his optimism that Claudio Gallicchio will win his race to be fit for the trip to Viterbo this coming Sunday. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted December 20, 2003 Author Share Posted December 20, 2003 Sunday 18th November 2007 Viterbese only managed a lowly 12th placed finish last season and have started the new campaign with even less success, where two straight losses prior to today have anchored them down in 16th. Almost exactly a year ago, a Davide-Faieta-inspired Viterbese stole our hard-earned point with a last minute winner here in the Enricho Rocchi stadium, but we were to get our revenge in March thanks to Eddy Baggio's 49th and 50th league goals for Ragusa. Claudio Gallicchio has indeed recovered and will start in Pellegrino's absence, and we have been further boosted by the return of Giancarlo Di Nicola from the shoulder injury that has sidelined him for almost ten weeks. Rushing him back to full action may be risky however, so he will reintegrate via the bench this afternoon. Serie C1/B Fixture #11 Viterbese v Ragusa Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Locatelli, Fumagalli©, Attewell, Sabellini; Bonaffini, Mignani, Gallicchio, Chiavarini; Costagliola, Baggio. On a fairly chilly afternoon in Viterbo, the visiting team found themselves a goal down before they even had time to warm up, when inside two minutes midfielder Paolo De Luca waltzed through a static defence that seemed unwilling to tackle him. Our fabulous start was compounded three minutes later when Carlo Mignani collapsed clutching his shin and had to limp off the field with Guido's aid, not to return. Alessandro Bonaffini moved into the centre and sixteen year old Antonio Matera joined in at left midfield. Entirely unimpressed by our display over the first 27 minutes, I was ready to implode when yet again Paolo De Luca was allowed to saunter through our back line with ease, only to slice his shot wide. Barely sixty seconds later however, young Matera advanced down the left wing and became the architecht for Massimo Costagliola's towering headed equaliser at the near post, and suddenly things were looking up. In truth we were very lucky to be level at half-time; during the second period, that luck expired and our reliance on fortune was exposed. In the 64th minute Viterbese overweighted us on our left and Santoruvo, who had earlier forced a difficult save from Lenea, took advantage of some slack marking to fire the ball past the goalkeeper this time. My cries of "Wake the hell up" seemed to fall on deaf ears, as little over five minutes later Paolo De Luca grabbed his second of the match, by calmly firing home from the edge of the area when a deflected cross rolled into his path. The result was sealed at that point; all that remained was for Baggio to waste a good chance for a consolation goal, Di Nicola arrived late for five minutes of fitness, and both wingers went under the magic sponge for knocks to ankle and groin. When the final whistle sounded we seemed all too glad to get it over with. Final score: Viterbese 3 - 1 Ragusa Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted December 20, 2003 Author Share Posted December 20, 2003 Monday 19th November 2007 It is in foul mood that I oversee the first of a sequence of tough training sessions. There is no post-match day off this week - yesterday's result and display put paid to that. Three consecutive defeats is unacceptable, and what makes the losses even harder to stomach is the disgraceful, lifeless performances that we put in to deserve them. There will be more energy and effort expended on the training ground this week... the coaching staff and I intend to make sure of it. There are, however, no less than eight faces that have been spared the rigorous start to the week, though not through leniency. Pavel Grznar, Simone Tamburro, Luca Orlando and Gaspare Pellegrino were already laid up on the treatment table prior to the weekend, and the physio room has since become more crowded with the addition of Franco Chiavarini (torn groin muscle, three months) and Antonio Matera (strained ankle ligaments, four weeks). The two remaining absentees are Carlo Mignani and Giancarlo Di Nicola, but their exoneration is only temporary and both will be eased back in with a low-risk session later this afternoon. Mounting injuries could perhaps be partially blamed for our drastic dip in form, but I'm not convinced. In fact, I would almost declare my surprise that we are capable of straining so many bodies when we hardly look to be exerting the effort required to do so! The last three matches have been riddled by loss of focus and an unwillingness to work with the kind of energy that I would expect from this team. We are certainly going to have to find some consistency if we want to equal or better last season's achievements, and consistency is exactly what has been lacking from our start to the season. A barren end to September left us with no wins in five matches, and only two victories from our previous eleven. October brought better fortune and we set off on a run of three straight wins, which suddenly lifted us to second position in the table and gave us confidence by not having lost for five matches, but we then followed that up with three consecutive miserable defeats. Which is the real Ragusa? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted December 20, 2003 Author Share Posted December 20, 2003 Tuesday 20th November 2007 Stephen Cooke is reported to be very happy to agree terms with Norwich City. The young Aston Villa midfielder, now 24 years old, looked all set to drop into the second division with hometown club Walsall, until Norwich City stepped in with an eleventh hour bid and Stephen's mind was quickly made up. Knowing the lad from his time on loan here in Ragusa, I know how desperately he wanted to make it at the Premiership club, but at this stage of his career a move to a first division club is ideal, particularly to a nurturing place like Carrow Road where he will be welcomed with enthusiasm into a young and upcoming squad. Not to mention the fact that his new contract will see him earn around six times the amount that his terms as a Villa reserve were bringing him. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted December 20, 2003 Author Share Posted December 20, 2003 Sunday 25th November 2007 Messina will be making the trip down from the northern tip of Sicily, no doubt expecting to find a Ragusa team low on confidence and playing the same system that they have for a while. Instead, they'll find eleven blue shirts lining up in a new formation and hopefully determined to prove their coaches wrong after the grilling they have received in training all week. I realise the need to change something after those three lacklustre losses, so today brings some experimentation in the form of 4-3-3; we will get the ball forwards quickly to the twin towers of Baggio and Costagliola, while Marino buzzes around their feet, or so the plan goes. Serie C1/B Fixture #12 Ragusa v Messina Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Locatelli, Fumagalli©, Attewell, Sabellini; Mignani, Gallicchio, Bonaffini; Marino, Baggio, Costagliola. Understandably it took some time for the team to settle into the new system, but that all-important first goal did go our way in the end. Fumagalli's deep free kick on 28 minutes was aimed towards Eddy Baggio, who held his man off, let the ball pass over his shoulder, and turned to volley into the net from just inside the area. Unfortunately Messina wasted no time with their reply, and we had barely finished celebrating when the away side got the ball downfield to Morelli, whose shot took a lucky deflection off Mignani to wrong foot Lenea for an instant equaliser. For once though we did not just sit around and lick our wounds, and instead got back up onto our feet and straight back into the fray. Five minutes later a corner was forced, and when Danilo Sabellini floated the dead ball across, it was Massimo Costagliola who clawed highest amongst a bunch of players to direct the header goalwards. We finished the half with the edge at 2-1, but Eddy Baggio finished the half with an injury through over-stretching and had to be replaced during the break. Gaspare Pellegrino, who had been rushed back into action through an appearance with the Under-20s on Friday, came on to expand the midfield back to four players. The second half continued the theme of contrasting fortunes. First Massimo Costagliola notched his second of the game, again from a lofted assist by right-back Sabellini, but then Alessandro Bonaffini talked his way into a second yellow card after being incensed by the referee's decision to whistle Pellegrino for what Alessandro viewed as a perfectly good tackle. He had already been booked in the first half, and Lorenzo Ferrandini wasn't about to show our player any leniency after his verbal outburst. We had a two goal lead, but now we were facing almost thirty minutes with ten men... the midfield was restricted to three again. Any worries were soon relieved by the arrival of Nicola Marino's fifth goal of the season. Sabellini had a hand in it yet again by finding Gaspare Pellegrino in the centre, the midfielder's ball over the top was aimed for Costagliola but found its way through to the smaller half of our strikeforce, and Marino made no mistake by lashing the ball powerfully just under the crossbar. I breathed a sigh of relief... too early. In keeping with the way things have been going lately, Marino's joy was quickly followed two minutes later by a painful landing and he came off the pitch clutching his wrist. A three goal lead in favour of the home team looked to have finally killed the topsy-turvy game off, but we were pegged back once more when Carlo Mignani rashly tugged a shirt in the area, and no-nonsense Messina defender Portanova smashed the 83rd minute penalty straight down the middle. Fortunately the last word would belong to us, when deep into stoppage time Giancarlo Di Nicola, the substitute for Marino, opened his account for the season by getting onto Costagliola's clever pass and rounding the goalkeeper to clip the ball in off the far post. Final score: Ragusa 5 - 2 Messina Five goals scored in front of a home crowd, an end to our run of defeats, and, by far the most important factor, a much livelier and more energetic performance than we have shown for a while. Despite his involvement in Messina's goals Carlo Mignani actually had a very good game in midfield, as did Claudio Gallicchio alongside him, and Gaspare Pellegrino showed he is well on the way back to normality with a good second half display. Massimo Costagliola walked away with the man of the match award for his two goals and an assist, but he had to suffer a knock to his shoulder along the way that will restrict him for most of the coming week. Eddy Baggio's is worse and the slight groin strain will need at least a fortnight to heal, though Nicola Marino's injury was not serious and should leave no lasting damage. Phew, today has had far too many ups and downs for my liking... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
veelhousen Posted December 22, 2003 Share Posted December 22, 2003 Congrats on the award nerf. VERY VERY WELL DESERVED. excellent as always!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
McRob Posted December 22, 2003 Share Posted December 22, 2003 <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by veelhousen: Congrats on the award nerf. VERY VERY WELL DESERVED. excellent as always!!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> *...echoes the words of previous speaker* Still only a few pages in, but this is already one of my absolute favorites on the board! KUTGW! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Get on Teletext! Posted December 22, 2003 Share Posted December 22, 2003 Very well deserved, glad to see your finally getting recognition! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian of Nazareth Posted January 9, 2004 Share Posted January 9, 2004 Damn fine way of ending that little run there, if a little painful. Nice update on Cookie too! Luke Moore owns Alan Smith though Congrats on the award - very well deserved and hopefully we'll be seeing Ragusa firing back up the table. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted January 12, 2004 Author Share Posted January 12, 2004 Thanks guys, you're too kind . And thanks for the Southern Europe award CMS - most humbling and much appreaciated. I almost feel like I should apologise for not updating this recently. I'm extremely busy with work at the moment and have not been able to find much time to write, but I shall try and post here and there. Hopefully when things calm down a little in a few months time I can get back on track with this. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted January 12, 2004 Author Share Posted January 12, 2004 Sunday 2nd December 2007 The San Siro is a majestic sight; a thumbprint of green, girded in red, contrasting the dull grey cement surroundings. At least, it looks nice from up here, as our plane passes over it on the journey to Meda. The Citta di Meda stadium, just on the outskirts of Milano, is a much more modest structure capable of matching about five percent of the Giuseppe Meazza's capacity. Meda's standing is equally diminutive in the shadow of the great Milan sides. Sat at the foot of the Serie C1/B table, Meda have lost seven on the trot and have very much become the leader in the relegation stakes. Hopefully we can give them another nudge downwards as we attempt to spring onwards and upwards from sixth position. Serie C1/B Fixture #13 Meda v Ragusa Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Locatelli, Fumagalli©, Attewell, Sabellini; Grznar, Pellegrino, Gallicchio, Mignani; Marino, Costagliola. Spring we did indeed - into an eighth minute lead. Danilo Sabellini, setting a new club record for league appearances today, took a throw-in near the corner flag and Carlo Mignani's attempted cross deflected into the path of Marino in the area. He turned and pulled the trigger only to see Thomas Berretta make a fantastic diving save, but Pavel Grznar was quickest to the rebound at the far post and we had the edge. The advantage should have been doubled ten minutes later, but Marino opted for power and fizzed an over-struck effort above the crossbar when a more accurate approach would surely have found the large expanse of goal to the keeper's left. During a midfield scramble in the 25th minute, Claudio Gallicchio stretched too far and had to be helped gingerly off the pitch. With the squad already decimated by injuries, my hand was forced and I reluctantly sent young Fabio Rossini on as a replacement. The lad had barely been on for five minutes when Meda found an equaliser, though there was nothing he, nor anyone else, could do about Luca Scicchitano's thirty yard effort that screamed like a torpedo into the bottom corner. At half time Gabriele Catania replaced a tiring Costagliola, but the second half proved to be an anti-climax. We could have nicked it, if Nicola Marino's audacious lob from nearly forty yards had just dipped late enough to evade backtracking Berretta's desperately stretching fingertips, but neither side really did enough to warrant the victory. A draw was disappointing considering Meda's circumstances, but on the bright side an away point is still an away point. Final score: Meda 1 - 1 Ragusa There seems to be no bright side to our expansive injury list at the moment however. Claudio's withdrawal was due to a groin strain, an infliction that looks set to deny us his services for a good three weeks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted January 12, 2004 Author Share Posted January 12, 2004 Sunday 9th December 2007 The fixture list has sent a small package of generosity our way, which arrives in the form of another struggling side. Pro Vercelli's 11th position is not something to be ashamed of, but they will not exactly be dancing for joy about conceding eight goals and two defeats in their last two outings. Another welcome gift on our doorstep this morning is the late confirmation that Giancarlo Di Nicola is finally ready to return to full first team action. I don't often throw players straight back into the fray after long term injuries, particularly ones as delicately important as him, but with the amount of casualties we are carrying at the moment I have little choice. Giancarlo lines up on the right side of midfield, while at least I can afford to rest the overworked Costagliola by reinstating Eddy Baggio up front. Serie C1/B Fixture #14 Ragusa v Pro Vercelli Ragusa lineup - Locatelli, Fumagalli©, Attewell, Sabellini; Grznar, Pellegrino, Mignani, Di Nicola; Marino, Baggio Another packed home crowd watched their boys in blue race off to a dominating start. Eddy Baggio saw an effort on goal saved inside the opening sixty seconds, Marino and Mignani were also denied by tackles or saves, and as we steamrollered over the visitors in the first ten minutes we were suddenly playing with the sort of energy that had been recently repressed. Ten minutes of resistance was all that the away side could manage. A neat through ball by Pellegrino gave Baggio a chance to succeed where he had failed earlier, and Eddy obliged with a right-footed curler past the exposed goalkeeper. He didn't stop there. When Nicola Marino roasted the Pro Vercelli full back and whipped the ball into the danger area, the experienced striker was there to direct his second goal into the net at the near post. Someone had turned the volume up a notch in the Aldo Campo; Pro Vercelli wore leaden boots, we were flying. Baggio was in the thick of the action again on 35 minutes, in a move initiated by a strong tackle from seventeen year old full-back Marco Locatelli. Baggio received Marco's lofted pass in the right channel and clipped the ball inside to Marino, who slid a perfectly weighted ball back into his partners path. Smelling a hat-trick, Eddy let fly from just inside the area, but Federico Marchetti got down well to parry the low shot, only for Nicola Marino to reach the bobbling ball and nonchalantly tap home the easiest goal he could wish for. It could have been four, it could have been more. Marchetti continued to deny Baggio a hattrick by parrying a shot round the post, then had to save twice from Marino before the referee's whistle gave him and his beleaguered defenders some respite. It brought an end to our best forty-five minutes of the season, arguably our best forty-five minutes for a long time. There wasn't much for me to add at the half-time break - both forwards could and perhaps should have been sitting pretty on first half hattricks apiece, but we had hit the target with all eleven of our attempts so I wasn't about to reprimand them for that. We stepped off the gas and took it easy in the second half, consolidating our lead and keeping the ball, and as such the goalmouth action was reduced. Costagliola, Tamburro and Rossini all came on for a ten minute workout late in the game, and there was still time for Massimo to add his name to the scoresheet with the fourth. The other two subs combined to supply Carlo Mignani, who turned and chipped an exquisite pass into Massimo's feet on the edge of the area, and the big striker spun into the box to stab the ball through Marchetti's legs. Final score: Ragusa 4 - 0 Pro Vercelli Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted January 12, 2004 Author Share Posted January 12, 2004 Monday 10th December 2007 The reward for an encouraging display, alongside those well earned three points, is the first Monday off for a few weeks. Which means the manager gets to put his feet up too! A bit of time to reflect, especially on the tail of a confidence booster, is no bad thing in a fluctuating season. Yesterday was a satisfying rediscovery of the sort of energy and panache that I know we are capable of, that I have seen us play with before - if only we could do that every week. Carlo Mignani and Gaspare Pellegrino grasped hold of the reins and controlled the centre of midfield like we all know they can, particularly Gaspare. It's great to have him back to full fitness in the middle, and most of what we created in the first half had started through him, but he's not the only player who seems to make a massive difference to our team. Giancarlo Di Nicola's man-of-the-match display on the right wing did not go unnoticed. If you only caught the highlights of the match then you would have missed his contribution, but he brings so much invaluable attacking vibrance and dynamism to our midfield and beyond. The fact that his return from injury coincided with our best performance of the season so far could not seriously be labelled a mere accident. Sometimes it's almost as if the other players are infused by his energy when he's out on the pitch. In the air, on the ground, running at defenders, creating chances for others from open play and set pieces... he's starting to look like the most vital individual on the team. Not that it wasn't an excellent team performance. Eddy Baggio ran Pro Vercelli's downcast defence ragged in the first half, and like other Serie C1/B rearguards this season they could never quite get to grips with the wily Marino. When our foremost players can put in performances like that, it's perplexing quite why we often find ourselves struggling to damage teams away from home. Nine goals in two home games, three goals in four away matches. Still, it's not goals that matter on the road, it's points, and if we can get something from an upbeat Arezzo on Sunday then perhaps we can start to put a run together. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted January 20, 2004 Author Share Posted January 20, 2004 Sunday 16th December 2007 Arezzo hold eighth spot in the table, with an air of confidence gained from emerging victorious in both of their last two fixtures. Our similarly upbeat side is unchanged from the one that bewildered Pro Vercelli, in the hope that we can carry such home form with us on our travels. Serie C1/B Fixture #15 Arezzo v Ragusa Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Locatelli, Fumagalli©, Attewell, Sabellini; Grznar, Pellegrino, Mignani, Di Nicola; Marino, Baggio Unfortunately it was Arezzo who had the better start on this occasion. Shortly after Vigna had sent a good opportunity wide of Lenea's post in the 17th minute, Belluci and Menchetti combined with some short passes through the centre to find Matteo Serafini. From the trivial distance of about thirty yards, Serafini ripped a curling right footed strike into the roof of the net - a scorching opener. Seemingly undaunted by the setback, we slowly forced our influence onto the game as the first half progressed. Without even so much as briefly scraping the heights of last weekend's performance, by our usual away-day standards we were not that bad, and arguably did not deserve to go into half-time a goal behind. Pavel Grznar was desperately unlucky not to emulate and match Serafini's strike, when Baggio nodded Sabellini's pass down and the Czech took a swing from twenty-five yards, but he watched his effort ping off the top-right angle of post and bar. At half-time Massimo Costagliola and Simone Tamburro replaced two of our strugglers - Baggio and Locatelli - and Costagliola in particular was intent on making an impact. Shortly before the hour mark we forced a corner and capitalised on it, when Di Nicola's inswinger found the substitute swooping at the near post for an airborne equaliser. Seven minutes later, things improved even further. There are two areas of expertise that can come in very handy when attempting to score away from home - one, some height and threat at set pieces as Massimo had provided, and two, a propensity for the sort of individual brilliance that can steal a goal out of the blue. Giancarlo Di Nicola's scuffed corner was initially headed comfortably clear by the Arezzo defence, and when his second attempted centre was charged down and deflected there appeared to be relatively little danger, but when the ball falls at the feet of Nicola Marino some surprising things can happen. The left boot flickered even before most of the stadium's inhabitants had figured out where the deflected cross was travelling to, and in a blink of an eye and a thunk of the post, the back of the net was rippling. As ever, there are further and more important attributes that we have yet to develop on the road. One would be to defend solidly and protect a lead, but today Arezzo were not even willing to give us so much as practice. From the kick-off following Marino's strike, the home side worked the ball wide right and forced a corner when Fumagalli headed Vigna's cross behind. The same player took the corner and this time an Arezzo head was highest; Lenea got down quickly and blocked Guarrasi's glancer, but Biscaro Parrini slammed the rebound home from close range and we were back to all square. The lead had been shortlived but we were still on course for a point that I believed our performance deserved. Arezzo, on the other hand, felt that they were in position to push for more and attempted to up the tempo for the final quarter of an hour. In the 79th minute Vigna trotted over to take another corner and swung it into the near post, but Giuseppe Lenea stepped forth and came to claim it... he never got there. The ball passed through his reaching hands and Parrini was again sharp enough to direct the ball towards the vacated goal, for his second and Arezzo's match-winning third. Final score: Arezzo 3 - 2 Ragusa Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted January 20, 2004 Author Share Posted January 20, 2004 Monday 17th December 2007 Giuseppe Lenea was downcast on the journey home yesterday, feeling that he was to blame for our capitulation. It was the young keeper's mistake that cost us the third goal, but I hardly think it was his fault that we came from behind only to let the game drift away from us again, and I'm sure we can forgive one error after all the saves he has pulled off in the Ragusa jersey. On a more positive note, at least Carlo Mignani and Nicola Marino came out of the game with credit for their commendable individual performances. Back in Ragusa there is a loose contract to tie up. Claudio Gallicchio, whose deal expires in the coming summer, originally rejected the offer laid out to him back in August. Despite several other players signing on at reasonable salaries at the same time, Claudio had somehow got it into his head that he was entitled to become the highest paid player in the squad, or indeed in the club's history. We were obviously forced to laugh off his extortionate claims, and after the best part of four months to think about it, Claudio has come to his senses and settled on something much more realistic. The new deal will keep him in Ragusa until 2010. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted January 20, 2004 Author Share Posted January 20, 2004 Monday 24th December 2007 There was I, believing that the English were the only ones crazy enough to be playing football over Christmas. Unusually, we find ourselves preparing for a league fixture on Christmas Eve, despite the rest of the division featuring yesterday as normal. Prior to this game-in-hand, our opponents Crotone lie in 9th position just one point behind ourselves, with a win today sufficient to elevate us to 5th on the basis of goal difference. A rare selection headache today; I'm experiencing growing temptation to reinstate Massimo Costagliola ahead of Eddy Baggio, not least due to the eighteen year old's five goals in five matches. The two have played together several times this season, but since Marino's arrival it has tended to be either one or the other, and in the last couple of games that one has been Baggio. After much agonising I decide to show a bit of faith in Eddy, and so the team remains unchanged. Serie C1/B Fixture #16 Ragusa v Crotone Ragusa lineup - Lenea; Locatelli, Fumagalli©, Attewell, Sabellini; Grznar, Pellegrino, Mignani, Di Nicola; Marino, Baggio Crotone were clearly fired up and determined to have themselves a Merry Christmas, ploughing straight onto the attack from the moment of kick-off. Morena Longo blasted impetuously over the bar within seconds, and inside two minutes the same player had fed the ball to teammate Daniele Di Marino, who glided into the penalty area and shot hard into the net. Not the sort of seasonal cheer that a capacity home crowd was hoping for. It took us almost the entirity of the first half to find a reply, and when it arrived, after all our hustle and bustle for a good forty minutes, it arrived in that most simple of forms - a Giancarlo Di Nicola corner, an Eddy Baggio near post header. Surely you'd have to be crazy to consider dropping the proven forward... Ten minutes after half-time, when Tamburro had arrived to bolster us at left back in Locatelli's place, Eddy managed to turn himself from hero to laughing stock with a moment of misfortune. Pavel Grznar triumphed in a midfield tussle and chipped a hopeful ball over the top, which initially looked like it would be swept up easily by the on-rushing goalkeeper, but little Marino somehow nipped in ahead of Silvestro Proto and glanced the ball into his strike-partner's path. Baggio collected the ball in so much open space that he was permitted to get away with making a slack first touch, but his second was even worse as he - unbelievably - dragged a left footed effort wide of the open, gaping, vacant net. Eddy would then have plenty of time to replay the horror over in his mind, as he took a seat on the bench when Costagliola arrived into the match. As far as effective substitutions go, hindsight supports the theory that this was not a bad one, but first Nicola Marino had his moment. The ball was transferred out to the left wing again via Pellegrino and Tamburro, and from Pavel Grznar's 68th minute cross, Marino produced a delightful piece of footwork and close control to bewilder Battisti and Bartoli, and smuggled the ball round Proto to give us the lead. After that it was left to substitute Costagliola to round things off. Two goals in six minutes, the first made possible by a gargantuan leap to beat the opposing goalkeeper to Fumagalli's high chip, and the second delivered by a conclusive far post volley, after Pellegrino's clever pass had sent Marino scurrying to the byline. Surely you'd have to be crazy to consider not starting this young forward... Final score: Ragusa 4 - 1 Crotone The match had been starting to look like a struggle that was destined to end badly, but everything changed for the last half hour and we blew Crotone away with the three goals. After sixteen fixtures are complete, the Serie C1/B table looks like THIS. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninjafish Posted February 9, 2004 Share Posted February 9, 2004 hey nerf you okay, this stuff is like golddust, incredibly valueble but its very rare. We all miss this nerf, its fantastic, reads like a novel not like those stupid "match report" games with people just boasting. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted February 10, 2004 Author Share Posted February 10, 2004 Hi Ninjafish . I'm okay but very busy, so finding the time to write is difficult. I'll try and grind something out soon. Nice to hear from you. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted March 4, 2004 Author Share Posted March 4, 2004 It has been far too long! Sunday 30th December 2007 I push open the wooden shutters to be met by comforting sunlight and a soft, warm morning breeze, which rustles the tree leaves in greeting. Ah... now this is how weather should be everywhere in late December. Sun, mild temperatures... it's a pleasant contrast from the bitter chill that welcomed me to the ice-gripped Midlands in the past few days. Now, however, I'm back in Ragusa and back to work, as we resume training today following the short christmas break. There's plenty of time to reflect on the weather over a leisurely breakfast, ahead of the short trip to the patch of parched land that we grandiosely title a training ground; yet as I eat, my mind drifts inevitably to more important matters. What will the second half of the season hold for us? One thing to draw from the first half of the season is the emergence of a rare selection headache. Despite our small squad and general lack of depth, there are two areas that nowadays boast strong competition for places. The first is the centre of midfield, where Gaspare, Luca, Carlo and Claudio are scrapping it out for the two slots. Unfortunately this particular decision is usually sorted out by who is not injured, as Fate rarely deigns to provide me with more than two or three healthy bodies at once. The other is less easily sorted. Excepting Giancarlo Di Nicola's annoyingly persistant injury troubles, there are three other players submitting strong claims for the two forward spots this year. New boy Nicola Marino is doing his best to narrow those two positions to one, by attempting to make himself an automatic choice in Giancarlo's absence with some sparkling contributions since his usurping arrival. The teenager has that special something that can often prove capable of changing a game, and he is also an almost-ideal foil for a big target man. Which brings us nicely to Eddy Baggio and Massimo Costagliola. The pair are, well, not a pair - in my eyes at least. Both strikers are big, strong and dominant in the air, though Eddy brings more experience and a more vocal approach to his teammates. Massimo, however, is a yard quicker and arguably possesses even greater spring. Although we have attained some success with both target men on the field together, most notably in rain-lashed Trento in October, I'm still not convinced that as a partnership they click quite as effectively as our other options. When Di Nicola or Marino are available, I'm far more likely to pair them up with one of these bigger forwards, especially since Massimo and Giancarlo are proven to share an intuitive understanding on the pitch. Eddy, of course, is the club's leading goalscorer and has been our number one striker pretty much since he arrived from Catania. The reign of the king is drawing gradually to a close and his natural heir is still just emerging in comparison, yet for now their timelines overlap. Eddy has been hitting the net consistently for us for nigh-on four years now, but Massimo has produced more consistently this season - he leads his more experienced teammate in the scoring charts, and has done so on fewer starting opportunities. Indeed, that's exactly what we require. All over the pitch, the most striking thing about the first half of our season has been consistency, or the glaring lack thereof. We have bounced from bad spells to good spells and back again, and it is this sort of fluctuation in form that we need to stabilise if we want to get back into the playoffs this year. It's surprising that we are still in 5th position considering that we have already conceded five defeats - that's only two less than in the whole of last season. I'm confident that we will benefit from a relatively relaxed calendar for the rest of the season, compared to our hectic schedule during the early part, easing the strain on our small squad which might, fingers crossed, bring a consistent upturn in results. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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