Palermo Bits & Pieces

By: lorenzo | August 7th, 2008

Well, it’s been both slow and fast as far as news is concerned. Currently, most of the Palermo players have been training in Levico Terme to get ready for the upcoming season. Like I said, most…

There’s another thing called the “Olympics” going on…and normally, I wouldn’t bat an eye if it weren’t for our boys the Azzurrini going for gold. And of course, the Azzurrini are being led by none other than current Palermo player and CAPITANO for the Azzurrini: Antonio Nocerino!

As you can see, Nocerino is the number four jersey and certainly looks great with the captain’s band around his arm. He and his fellow azzurrini put in a great performance today against Honduras. I know it’s only “Honduras” but they got utterly dominated in every facet of the game. Only after Italia was up 3-0 did the Azzurrini allow Honduras some semblance of possession and attack. We can all look forward to the next opportunity to see Nocerino and the boys play again.

Now, on to the random bits of Palermo news and info…

First and foremost, we learned today that PALERMO will kick off the Serie A season as the opening game against Udinese. The game will feature as the first of two games to be played on Saturday, August 30th. Ragazzi, take note of the date. Palermo will face an immediate test at the Stadio Friuli. Let’s go out and grab a full 3 points off the bat, and have Marco Amelia avoid Jimmy Fontana’s distinction last season as the Bottle of Wine recipient – the first keeper to allow the first goal in the new season receives a bottle of wine for having that “dubious” honor.

Palermo are currently training in Levico Terme where they’ve been taking on local sides in friendlies. They won today/yesterday by a score of 1-0. Jankovic had the decisive goal 31 minutes into the second half. He had a really nice shot off of a free kick that hit the back of the net. Colantuono was satisfied with the performance by the guys and singled out Miccoli, Jankovic and Carrozzieri in particular for their good play.

Palermo will face their “biggest” friendly in 5 days when they face the only Italian side in the Bundesliga. Oh wait a minute, that’s right, Wolfsburg is still a German team that is trying to field an all-Italian side. Nonetheless, two familiar faces will be wearing different colors when the match takes place. That, of course, will be both Andrea Barzagli and Cristian Zaccardo. If you click on Zaccardo’s name, you’ll see a great pic of him in some Wolfsburg get-up. Surprisingly, to me at least, Wolfsburg finished in 5th place last year in the Bundesliga, so they aren’t as bad as I thought they were.

Here are some other tidbits that are worth a mention:

Miccoli says that he could see himself closing out his career in Rosanero. That’s quite the reversal from all that Lecce talk earlier this offseason. Speaking of which, our pal Tommaso over at the Lecce blog seems to have taken offence at Steven’s words regarding the Cassano love affair. He had some interesting things to say in ~~Italian~~, I mean, Italian via Google translator or some crap. Nonetheless, the verbal affirmation of Miccoli’s commitment to Palermo is encouraging.

Ciaramitaro’s stock is rising as of late. He’s apparently being tracked by Brescia, Livorno and Bologna. However, Brescia has denied the link as of late because apparently he earns too much money. Really? What cheapskates…Ciaramitaro really wants to stay with Palermo though.

Cassani is being sought after by the aforementioned Lecce. Apparently, with the confirmation of both Dellafiore and Raggi, there will be little space for him within the squad. It wouldn’t be the biggest loss in the world, but who can forget that screamer that gave us one of the wins of the season against Juve?!

Bresciano and Guana still aren’t gone. With Bresciano, it’s only a matter of time. He’s got teams from the EPL interested in him, and his time at Palermo is all but over. As for Guana, it’s just wishful thinking on our part. The bonehead is being tracked by a ton of Serie A teams – which is utterly baffling in and of itself. What’s even more baffling is the fact that Zamparini has declared him untouchable, not for sale. I am without words.

Speaking of Guana, I have been thinking about this for awhile, and I am going to propose for the upcoming season, an award in his ~~honor~~ dishonor. In fact, it’s going to be named after both him and our other favorite nimrod, Andrea Caracciolo. It shall be known as the “Guaracciolo Award” and it will be given to the biggest bonehead in Serie A for that week. Ha! Knowing that Guana would be the recipient week in and week out if strictly kept to Palermo players, I’ve thought that we could expand it to all of Serie A. If anything, it should provide us with some entertainment throughout the season, as well as allow us to bust the balls of other crappy players on other Serie A teams. Perhaps, we can call upon Steven’s great photoshop skills to take the current photoshop of “Guaracciolo” and turn it into some sort of trophy-like appearance. Maybe in the form of an Oscar? Thoughts?

As the news happens, I’ll try and let you all know. For now, FORZA PALERMO!