nerf Posted June 13, 2005 Author Share Posted June 13, 2005 I hope you're right, Bob Thanks again virtex. I'm happy with the result too, just hope we don't throw it away this time! Oh, and you couldn't make this up; CM spookily immitates reality yet again... Wednesday 27th May 2009 Liverpool are champions of Europe once again, for the first time since 1984 and the fifth time in their history. It comes against the odds, and is a credit to manager Martin O'Neill for dampening unrest in the squad and keeping his disgruntled players together despite their expressed disappointment at a difficult domestic season. Liverpool struggled in midtable for much of the domestic campaign before a late push lifted themselves into a finishing position of 5th, and now, unexpectedly, not only to the Champions League final but also to lift the famous trophy at the end of it. Over 92,000 packed the Estádio da Luz in Lisbon to witness the pinnacle of another season of European competition, with England's Liverpool facing off against current holders Inter Milan of Italy. Exciting Norwegian midfielder Morten Gamst Pedersen slammed home an 18th minute penalty to give Liverpool a dream start, Nicola Ventola was alive in the box to poke in a 24th minute equaliser for Inter, and as each side gave as good as they got, it was left to England's record goalscorer Michael Owen to pounce onto Emile Heskey's layoff with a 73rd minute winner. Scouser and captain Jamie Carragher lifted the trophy for Liverpool, which will now return to Anfield permanently in recognition of the club's achievement. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted June 13, 2005 Author Share Posted June 13, 2005 Friday 29th May 2009 It's my birthday, but Nicola Marino gets the present - a second call-up to the Italy Under-21 squad to face Hungary and Slovenia on the 5th and 9th of June... The Serie C1/B promotion playoff final legs are scheduled for the 6th and 13th of June. After an agonising discussion with Antonio and the lad himself, we decide to withdraw Nicola from the national squad. I can tell the kid is not best pleased, and the decision is made reluctantly, but who can blame him? He's worried that this might hamper his chances of invitation in the future. In our defence, last time Nicola went all the way to Trondheim, Norway, and didn't even get to sit on the bench. The Italian Under-21s are not exactly struggling for more prominent, talented young strikers from bigger clubs. With the biggest games in Ragusa's history coming at the same time, it would be a shame to have one of our most potent players sat on his hands in Eastern Europe. We need his goals, his creativity, his ability to conjure a moment of magic to win a match. It's a selfish decision but one we feel we have to make. We try and soften the blow by making sure Nicola knows our reasoning, making sure he knows how important he is to us at this current time, expressing how pleased we've been with his performances of late, but there's an understandable bit of disgruntlement lingering there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted June 13, 2005 Author Share Posted June 13, 2005 Saturday 30th May 2009 Aside from Marino's morale, the only other worry we have in the run up to the second leg is the fact that Volpe, Mignani, Orlando, Chiavarini and Gallicchio are all one yellow card away from suspension. In the meantime we have a full squad to choose from, and there's a good argument that this is our strongest eleven out today. Gaspare Pellegrino replaces Simone Tamburro for his first start in almost six weeks, the captain's armband passing to Danilo Sabellini. Serie C1/B Promotion Playoffs Semi Final 2nd Leg Ragusa v Spal Ragusa lineup - Van Strattan; Fumagalli, Capuano, Del Prete, Sabellini©; Volpe, Pellegrino, Orlando, Di Nicola; Marino, Costagliola. It was a warm twenty-seven degrees at pitch level as the teams trotted out for the second leg in front of another Aldo Campo full house. Inside the first thirty minutes Spal had been burned. Orlando's 20th minute lob made it 1-0 and gave Luca his first goal since November, then ten minutes later Costagliola's header looped over Fontana to make it 4-0 on aggregate and effectively kill the tie in the first half. The Spal players' heads dropped and there was no fight-back in them, allowing us to cruise out the remainder of the game. For the second half there were runs out for Baggio and Santos, giving Costagliola and Del Prete some rare and well earned rest as we looked ahead to the finals. Final score: Ragusa 2 - 0 Spal This was an odd game in an odd atmosphere. Spal didn't seem to possess the belief that they could overturn the two goal deficit from the 1st leg, while our players are just oozing confidence at the moment. As a result, the game passed by without much to reflect on, aside from my frustration that both Orlando and Volpe picked up yellow cards and will miss the first leg of the final; in light of Spal's capitulation, it seems so unnecessary. Still, the important thing is that we are through to the playoff final that has eluded us in the past two years. Our opponents will be Mantova, who despite being without exciting young leftback and captain Giacomo Domizzi through injury, won their 2nd leg 1-0 over Trento in front of 8,500 home supporters to triumph 3-2 on aggregate. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted June 15, 2005 Author Share Posted June 15, 2005 Wednesday 3rd June 2009 I knew it was too good to be true. After having the extremely rare pleasure of being able to name our strongest eleven on Saturday, we're promptly ripped apart by injury and suspension as we approach the finals. One match suspensions for Alessandro Volpe and Luca Orlando mean that they will miss the first leg, but that's not all. Simone Tamburro's pulled hamstring puts him out of the finals altogether, along with Giancarlo Di Nicola through a fractured wrist. That's two creative midfielders, our captain and our star player. No Giancarlo - again. We've tried and tried to wrap him in cotton wool all season long, easing him back in slowly each time he picked up a knock, often holding him back to his own expressed frustration. In full fitness he makes us so much more of a threat, so the timing of this is a real kick in the teeth. We can just about cover, but we're weakened. Carlo Mignani can fill Volpe's role on the left, though he's a central midfielder at heart, while Franco Chiavarini is a more natural choice for the other flank. In the middle, Claudio Gallicchio is lacking match practice but will need to play. We're not exactly decimated but we'll be without some key, influential players, and my comments after the Arezzo defeat in April come back to haunt me: "Without Di Nicola and Volpe, and to a lesser extent Orlando, it's clear that we lack any sort of creativity whatsoever"... Not the best preparation for our big days out in Milan, where both legs of the final will be hosted by the San Siro. Mantova are a gutsy bunch, they'll be determined and focussed and they've been here before, a year ago in fact; it was only the goalscoring talents of Gianluca Triuzzi that carried Taranto past Mantova in last season's final. We'll have to match that. Spirit remains high - we're on a seven game winning streak, after all - so hopefully we can rely on our confidence to carry us through. I wish I had more of it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted June 15, 2005 Author Share Posted June 15, 2005 <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> Gazzetta Della Sport, Venerdì 5 Giugno 2009 Serie C1/B Promotion Playoff Final Preview It is said that to win a final you have to lose one. Last season Mantova experienced the Serie C1/B Promotion Playoff Final and met their match in powerful Taranto, who defeated them in one of the most exciting playoff ties in recent years by an aggregate score of 8-5. Gaetano Caridi, a goalscorer for the losers last year, believes that this time the outcome will be different. "We're even more confident this time. We know what to expect in the final and we won't make the same mistakes." Neither will they be facing Gianluca Triuzzi, who took advantage of those mistakes to almost single-handedly win the second leg for Taranto last June. Mantova captain Giacomo Domizzi, destined to endure this year's final from the sidelines with injury, shares and embellishes his teammate's confidence with typical gusto. "I believe we will win. This is the bigger club, the better team, we belong in Serie B. Ragusa are a Serie C club, Mantova are better than that. We nearly did it last year and now we'll make it count." This clash is a real north-versus-south battle. Mantova stroll just two hundred kilometres West to visit the San Siro, while Ragusa must make an exhausting journey to northern Italy all the way from the sleepy southern reaches of Sicily. It's not just a physical distance that Ragusa have to overcome, it's also the furthest they have progressed in the playoffs after being cruelly eliminated at the semi-final stage two years in a row. Clearly the divisional runners-up believe that they also have a claim for justified recompense. Consecutive playoff semi-final defeats to Lanciano and Taranto were followed by a push for automatic promotion this season, a quest denied only narrowly by a strong Lecco and their inspirational Marco Delvecchio. "To come so close three times would be too painful to imagine", comments Ragusa captain Simone Tamburro, somberly pondering that which he would rather not. "But we're stronger this year. The team has more quality, it's a year older and a year more experienced." Stronger, and yet weakened. Tamburro himself mirrors Domizzi's absence through injury, damning both sides to compete without their standard bearers, while the Sicilians are also denied the key creative input of a frustrated Giancarlo Di Nicola. More than twenty assists will watch inertly from the stands, able to contribute no better than those sixteen thousand ticket holders around him. Ragusa at least have recent matchups in their favour. A 4-2 away victory in Mantova in late August was followed by a 2-0 home win in January, although in contrast it was Mantova who enjoyed a double triumph the previous season. Little of that will matter when the whistle blows. Attempting to compare and divide these two evenly matched teams is a futile effort, tricky at best, yet nevertheless in eleven day's time one will be a Serie B club and the other Serie C. That is all the division required. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted June 20, 2005 Author Share Posted June 20, 2005 Saturday 6th June 2009 "You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months." - General Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1944 6th of June, D-Day plus sixty-five years. The San Siro is our Normandy; it couldn't look more imposing if it was bristling with barbed wire and machine guns. We've already taken casualties before the craft has hit the shore, now it's time to lower the ramp and brave the beaches. Serie C1/B Promotion Playoffs Final 1st Leg Mantova v Ragusa Ragusa lineup - Van Strattan; Fumagalli, Capuano, Del Prete, Sabellini©; Mignani, Pellegrino, Gallicchio, Chiavarini; Marino, Costagliola. H-Hour... and inside eight minutes we breach the defences. Enrico Capuano's long clearance up the left launched a breakaway led by Nicola Marino, whose early, whipped-in cross was headed down into the near corner by Massimo Costagliola for his 30th of the season. The perfect start. The mistake. We should then have put up the atlantic wall, hunkered down and protected what we had. Instead, just over two minutes later the enemy's tanks rolled through the channels and swept down our left flank, from where Notari launched a dangerous, pacey cross towards the near post. Mantova striker Gaetano Caridi, a scorer in last season's playoff final, ghosted through our lines to meet it and head towards goal, leaving van Strattan helpless. After that mad flurry the match settled down, even became scrappy at times. Van Strattan tipped a long range shot over the bar, Costagliola had a header from a corner held, but otherwise there was a lack of action apart from a couple of bookings. We were fairly comfortable with 1-1 at half-time. That lasted all of three minutes. Early in the second period, Claudio Gallicchio's attempted header towards Pellegrino was sloppy and mis-directed, allowing Mantova's Santin to collect the ball on the right. As he curled it back in behind our defence, we were stepping out... I was convinced that four Mantova players were all offside in a line, before impressive midfielder Andrea Merenda fielded Santin's cross and swept the ball stylishly past the exposed Van Strattan. I looked over to the linesman, but the flag never came. The official waved away our protests and we resumed play a goal behind. As the second half wore on it was tempting to change things, to go all out attack to find an equaliser, but I didn't want to risk it. At 1-2 we still have a great chance in the second leg, whereas the danger of 1-3 would make things much trickier. As such, resolute Mantova were able to fend us off for the rest of the game, overrunning our midfield where the lack of match fitness of Mignani, Chiavarini and particularly Gallicchio was a factor in our inability to create anything going forward. Final score: Mantova 2 - 1 Ragusa Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted June 20, 2005 Author Share Posted June 20, 2005 Sunday 7th June 2009 "Yep, I'll give it some thought, Sid... Yep, 'course... Thanks, we'll need it... Cheers Sid, speak to you soon." Monday 8th June 2009 So here we are again. In my seven years here, how many times has everything seemed to come down to one match? Ninety minutes to decide a season. Acireale '05, Lanciano '07, Taranto '08, Messina '09... Milan '09. It doesn't do the nerves any good, I can tell you. I have mixed feelings about this one. Oh it's do-able, that's for sure. Mantova are tough and resolved, but they're beatable. They're also missing their captain and arguably their star player in left-back Giacomo Domizzi, who has sat out the entire playoffs with injury. We also hold the advantage of the higher league position coming into the playoffs, meaning that victory by a single goal will be enough for us. Our biggest problem in the first leg was a lack of creativity in the side, as had concerned me beforehand. For the second leg we will have both Luca Orlando and Alessandro Volpe back, which should go a long way to solving that. What I wouldn't give to have Giancarlo healthy, mind you. Our biggest problem for the second leg is fear. Nerves. We've been here before, twice, in two years. We go into the second leg of the playoff final a goal behind, those two previous playoff failures annoyingly present in the backs of our minds. All-too-recent, forboding images. One victory between modest Ragusa and Serie B. Now's the time to stand up and be counted, now's the time to discover if we actually are mentally tougher than twelve months ago, to discover if we can collectively overcome the final hurdle that has blocked our passage the past two years. Is this year any different? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 I can't beleive that it is still going on. Well last time I posted it was more that a year and half ago woooow Great job Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pred Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 You have got me absolutely rooting for you nerf. You can do it! Come on Ragusa! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted June 22, 2005 Author Share Posted June 22, 2005 [i[Thanks HZ, and thanks for the support Pred[/i] Saturday 13th June 2009 The names of Carlo Mignani and Franco Chiavarini were assigned to those bookings mentioned in the first leg, excluding both from this final test. Volpe and Orlando slot straight back into midfield, pushing Claudio Gallicchio out as a makeshift right-midfielder. A goal is all we need. Serie C1/B Promotion Playoffs Final 2nd Leg Ragusa v Mantova Ragusa lineup - Van Strattan; Fumagalli, Capuano, Del Prete, Sabellini©; Volpe, Pellegrino, Orlando, Gallicchio; Marino, Costagliola. A goal was all we needed and Mantova were very aware of that fact. Happy to keep it tight, our opponents set out from the start to contain, to nullify. Whether it was their effective defence or our lack of invention, it's hard to say, but we spent the first half looking very blunt. To be fair, Mantova were defending like trojans. Volpe had a man-marker, a player assigned to track him and reduce his space, never allowing him the chance to look up to play a through ball. Red shirts compressed the space between their midfield and their back four, choking Marino's movement. They were here for the nil-nil draw - they were doing a fine job. At half-time, on went the cavalry. With Pellegrino holding behind Volpe and Orlando, I substituted Gallicchio to send on Eddy Baggio and paired him with Costagliola, Marino floating in a free role behind. Time to get aggressive, to stretch the play. With each minute that ticked by, the fear of a repeat grew. Each approach we tried was rebuked by the resolved Mantova. A couple of times it looked like either of the strikers would get in, but first Negrisoli and then Colombo both made crucial interventions. As we entered the last five minutes, Luca Orlando recieved a pass in the centre circle from Capuano, and fed the ball forward along the turf. Costagliola and Negrisoli competed in a shoulder-to-shoulder battle, but Negrisoli held his own and slid in to hook the ball away to safety. Unfortunately for him the ball went straight back to the feet of Orlando, who with quick vision sent it back first-time with interest, to where Eddy Baggio was spinning off his marker into the space left by Negrisoli. He was through. Eddy Baggio, Ragusa's record goalscorer, had the step on his markers and was in on goal. A last chance for promotion, an opportunity to enter Ragusa folklore at his feet... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Get on Teletext! Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 Please Eddy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian of Nazareth Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 ar ya git nerf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
-Xenon- Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 You are the master of cliffhangers! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
virtex Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 LOL, what's the betting we don't get another post for a week! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skiddaw Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 Holey Cows... You sure don't have FM on pause, so just get on with it will ya? Seriosuly mate, this is very bad for your readers' mental health... (Side Note: Eddy Baggio, as you might recall, is Roberto Baggio's brother. Now, we all remember him at USA '94, don't we? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr-nix Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 skiddaw: i think he's playing in CM 01/02 (that or cm 03/04) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted June 23, 2005 Author Share Posted June 23, 2005 Friday 26th June 2009 Long shadows stretch across the turf, the late sun gracefully departing the valley on its journey behind the hills. It gives the empty Aldo Campo Selvaggio an engaging gravitas, surroundings tinted soft ochre. Seven years ago my wandering had led me here, perhaps to this very seat. I wondered then, about how much of it would be filled on match day. Of course, it's filled to overflowing week in, week out these days. I'll miss that. There has been nearly two weeks to reflect on Milan, on Eddy's chance, on Bellodi's fingertips, on Mantova's admirably executed Italian job, on defeat. For a few days my mind has been going back further... Massimo's 92nd minute winner against Martina, that January win over Lecco... and back still further, to the disappointment in Taranto last May, Nicola Marino's debut, Daniel Fonseca's retirement, the pain of Pagano's double, the season that never was, Fonseca's volley in the drama of Acireale, Ferrara's departure, and all the way back to that 3-1 win over Gladiator in my first game in charge. A lot has happened in seven years. For better or worse, the post-mortem to this latest episode of Ragusa theatre will not involve me. I have an early start, a check-in time to meet. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted June 23, 2005 Author Share Posted June 23, 2005 Saturday 27th June 2009 The bags are packed, time for a final check around the old place. Don't get me wrong, I'm not running away. Ragusa are still in Serie C1 and there's work to be done, but it'll be done without me. Over the past couple of months, conversations with an old friend have uncovered a new opportunity, a new direction. Gordon Cowans has recently become Football Academy Director for Aston Villa Football Club, the head of youth development at my boyhood club. There's a place for me on the staff there, now that the Villa academy is being invested in and expanded by the bright new Chairman, Mr R. Davies. The return home, the pay, the new challenge, the opportunities... I've gone through the agonising decision over and over in my mind. My nephews are growing up fast, I've been away for seven years. It's time. I did not ideally wish to leave on a sour note such as the one in Milan, but overall I go with my head held high, with job satisfaction. In seven years Ragusa have been transformed from Serie D standard to a prominent Serie C1 club on the verge of Serie B. The huge debt has been eradicated and the books are very healthy indeed. The squad is stronger year on year and is packed full of youth, including one Italian Under-21 international. I've left my recommendation with Signors Antoci and Pitino. Antonio has been a valuable assistant and already has the respect of the players; he's more than capable of taking Ragusa onwards and upwards. It looks good, so long as he can keep the team together. Nicola Marino is gaining national recognition through his call-up, the rising star of Giancarlo Di Nicola will not be a secret for much longer, and many of the bigger Serie B clubs will be on the lookout for a strong forward like Massimo Costagliola, who came of age with thirty goals this season. More immediately, I noticed that the newspaper I'm taking to read on the plane is already running a story linking Alessandro Volpe with Fiorentina and Udinese. The disturbing toot of a car horn outside takes me to the window, the one with the shutter that has always been loose. It's Gaspare Pellegrino, parked on the road outside. Gaspare insisted that I let him drive me to the Aeroporto Internazionale Fontanarossa in Catania - it will get him out of Saturday morning shopping with the missus, he joked. It's time to move on, though I do so with a heavy heart. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted June 23, 2005 Author Share Posted June 23, 2005 Author's Note: So here's the end I never thought I'd reach. It started off as an interesting project - my first and only CM story - and 26 months later on it seems like a good place to finally close it (smiller read my mind with his post at the bottom of page 23). A huge thank you to anyone who has posted in this thread, it really has been appreciated and kept up my enthusiasm. Thank you for the Southern Europe Story award last year, I hope the tale as a whole has been up to the fine standard of CMS/FMS tradition. Finally, I hope people have enjoyed reading as much as I have enjoyed writing. Grazie e Forza Ragusa! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Get on Teletext! Posted June 23, 2005 Share Posted June 23, 2005 Definately the best CM story I have ever read and I'm actually sad to see it end. But all credit must go to you nerf, I can imagine its quite a burden to take the notes and write the story in such detail and you have done a brilliant job of it. p.s. Roll on your first FM story Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian of Nazareth Posted June 23, 2005 Share Posted June 23, 2005 <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">There's a place for me on the staff there, now that the Villa academy is being invested in and expanded by the bright new Chairman, Mr R. Davies. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> \o/ Bugger about the play offs - again! That is unlucky Still - it's been a wonderful journey - congrats on a superb story Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobBev Posted June 23, 2005 Share Posted June 23, 2005 It's stories ike this that inspire and encourage the rest of us nerf. A great read and, in my opinion at least, a dead cert for the Hall of Fame Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 23, 2005 Share Posted June 23, 2005 I've been reading this since the start, and loved it. Thanks for a great story nerf, i might even do my own reading this. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smiller Posted June 23, 2005 Share Posted June 23, 2005 I was really looking forward to your adventures in Serie B, although I wondered how or if you could expand your stadium. Sadly, I and all the others who faithfully followed Ragusa will never know. It"s been a most enjoyable journey and i hope you might be inspired by the comments posted here to try another with Football Manager. As BobBev already said, your story has had an encouraging influence on your readers. Good luck at your new post. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
emphyrio Posted June 23, 2005 Share Posted June 23, 2005 What a fantastic story! We haven't seen similar depth of characterisation on these boards, and your 'sense of place' is spot-on. Thanks for keeping us entertained for so long. We would all have loved to see Ragusa in Serie B, but some things are not to be. Ciao, ragazzi! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
virtex Posted June 23, 2005 Share Posted June 23, 2005 Brilliant story Nerf. Unlucky not to get promotion. Sad to see it end, look forward to your next one! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skiddaw Posted June 23, 2005 Share Posted June 23, 2005 Good job... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BC5 Posted July 16, 2005 Share Posted July 16, 2005 Great story Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
boGeY Posted July 17, 2005 Share Posted July 17, 2005 Classic. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roelchik Posted October 18, 2005 Share Posted October 18, 2005 Absolutely great story I'm almost crying Professional stuff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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