Marassi Mayhem

By: Steven | November 5th, 2007

palenoa

Holy shit, what happened in Genova? It was an awesome game, but I’m still trying to figure out how we were able to survive the second half. All your juicy details after the jump!

First of all, the stats:

Statistiche Genoa – Palermo

Goals:
0-1 8′ Edison Cavani
1-1 59′ Julio Cesar Leon
2-1 66′ Julio Cesar Leon
2-2 76′ Franco ‘Whoop Whoop!’ Brienza
3-2 82′ Marco Borriello
3-3 91′ Amauri

Other:

Possession: 65.5% – 34.5%
Shots: 26 – 3
Corners: 12 – 2
Crosses: 40 – 13
Passes: 371 – 195
Succesful passes: 85% – 69%

Palermo started off great: starting Cavani over Miccoli proved to be a very good decission by Colantuono, and Simplico kicked ass in midfield. We can put his name behind the first goal, because all Cavani had to to was put his foot against that fantastic trough-ball Simplicio delivered. After that, the game was pretty tight: lots of chances on both sides, but no goals. Although I feel Simplicio had to finish off the chance he had when he went one-on-one with Rubinho. (who by the way looks like a 70’s porn-star). Guana was playing a great first half as well, lots of recuperations. Caserta, not bad, but seriously…the dude can’t cross a ball. I don’t know if it’s his hair hanging before his eyes, the remains of that horrifying Catania-air he breathed last year or just his DNA but E-V-E-R-Y single ball this guy try to cross hits an opponent in the head/face/glockenspiel. Private coaching requested!

And then things got ‘Palermo 2007-2008 season’ again…I think Genoa got 6 or 7 corners in about 10 minutes, Jimmy Fontana stopped about a zillion shots from far out and he even threw his old body in front of an onstorming player, twice! Genoa was kickin’ ass, but luckily their crosshairs weren’t well adjusted. Which changed after the break, with two magnificent Julio Cesar Leon-goals. The new Suazo? I believe so, sir. Cavani had the 0-2 on his foot, but was stopped by the Genoa-defense. In a bad way, because it was clearly a penalty. 0-2, we could’ve closed the book there, but instead it was 2-1. Enter Rino Fosschi. I can’t disagree with him: Gervasoni was right on top of it, and refused to blow his whistle. Rino went loco and was sent off. I love the man.

And then…then…then Franco Brienza replaced Aimo Diana. The kid started his 601st professional football game, and six minutes later…booya! 2-2. Get your commemorative Brienza-wallpapers here!

Too bad Borriello scored again, but for the second time in a week, Amauri saved the sinking ship: 3-3. Entertaining game, gained one position, but still…i feel we could’ve achieved more. Colantuono did some great things with the tactics so he isn’t to blame, but I felt like some of our guys looked like they’d had rather stayed home to go to Mondello. And I’m not the only one who feels like that:

“Non ho visto un Palermo spettacolare, ma solo undici giocatori che hanno messo l’anima e il cuore pur di non perdere. Anche contro il Genoa abbiamo recuperato in extremis e così non va bene. Non ho nulla da rimproverare ai giocatori, ma non mi è piaciuta la disposizione della squadra in campo”

Maurizio ‘The Venezian Oracle’ Zamparini has spoken. For all ye non-Italian speaking followers: Zamparini says he hasn’t seen a spectacular Palermo, only 11 players who have shown heart not to lose. He says that we have yet again tied the game in the last minutes, and that that is not a good thing. He also said he wasn’t pleased with the team. And seriously, can you blame him? We played a great first half, but I think that most of us expected to win this game. We haven’t won in 5 games (we also didn’t lose, but i’d rather take 5 wins and 5 losses than 10 draws), and we’re lucky Napoli and Udinese didn’t take advantage to make the gap between them and us bigger. We need to beat Napoli on saturday, or we’ll be losing sight of the European spots. Joe, roll up your sleeves, because it’s gonna be a blast!

Datasport’s Pagelle:

Fontana 7
Diana 5.5
Zaccardo 6
Biava 5
Barzagli 5
Pisano s.v.
Capuano 6
Caserta 5
Guana 5.5
Jankovic s.v.
Simplicio 7
Cavani 6.5
Brienza 6.5
Amauri 6

Man Of The Match:

Tied between Simplicio and Fontana. Fabio gave 3 assists, but Jimmy held almost anything yesterday.