Preview: Palermo – Not Hellas

By: Steven | October 31st, 2008

Sunday, November 2nd, 2008 15.00
Stadio La Favorità, Palermo

Palermo Boys, we are here. We beat your women and drink their beer, Palermo Boys, we are here.

Preview

Question. What’s the difference between Lecce and Chievo? Nothing. They both have yellow in their team colors, both got promoted last year and both will be relegated when the season comes to an end. That said, this won’t be an easy game. Yet again. After the Lecce-debacle of last Wednesday, the team really needs to refind their balls and grinta. Only bringing home one point from Puglia after you played a relegation contender isn’t good. And it sure isn’t good considering they were only with 10 for a quarter of the game.

Things have to be better on Sunday. Why? Not because of any possible loss of reputation. Losing against Chievo might result in flocks of Romanisti coming over here for some fun, but that doesn’t matter. Even if we lose, we’re still miles ahead of them. Even if one of the 1.142 Chievo-fans around the world finds his way to this blog, I still won’t mind his comments. Why not? Because Chievo is a team without history. Win the battle, lose the war seems to be Chievo’s motto.

Still, a loss won’t be accepted. Hell, even a tie won’t be accepted. Ballardini knows what he has to do. Beating the Clivensi, not playing Guana and Liverani and picking up his slack. It’s either that, or the train to Sacksville coming awfully close.

Squad Status

Palermo

After the bad news, here’s the good news. Liverani is suspended. That’s right, the dressing rooms at the Barbera won’t be smelling of kebab, cous-cous and hummus for once. The rest we know: muscle problems for Amelia, Sneeze and Bovo are out and Capuano won’t be around either. Too bad Guana will.

I don’t see Guana or Raggi participating in this game after last weeks joke, and I think HDF will get the start over Kjaer.

Probable Lineup:
Fontana – Cassani, Dellafiore, Carrozzieri, Balzaretti – Bresciano, Nocerino, Migliaccio, Simplico – Miccoli, Cavani.

Chievo

As there is no Chievo-blogger on The Offside, I’ll do the honours. Vincenzo Italiano is out, and Langella and Pinzi will most likely be out to after picking up a knock against Cagliari. A game Chievo lost. To Cagliari. Haha. Ha.

Probable Lineup:
Sorrentino – Frey, Mandelli, Yepes, Mantovani –Marcolini, Bentivoglio, Patrascu, Luciano – Bogdani, Pellisier.

Categorical Match up

Grande Jimmy! vs. Sucker: Palermo. Sorrentino is a joke. I’ve seen him play at Recreativo, and the dude isn’t worthy of a starting spot. While Jimmy remains Jimmy.

The Hole in the Maze vs. The Other Hole: Palermo. Our defense has been worse than Chievo’s, but with Moris and HDF back in place, I can see this game ending in a 0 for the Clivensi.

Simpliciooooooh! vs. Who That?: Palermo. I think we just might field our strongest midfield for this game. Chievo, don’t know any of them.

He scored! vs. They Can’t: Palermo. Cavani finally found the net again, and we scored twice as much as Chievo did.

Final Analysis

Oh boy, Oh boy. This is dangerous. We don’t perform well against teams that are sure to be relegated 4 matches before the end of the season, so this might be the most dangerous game of the season so far. We picked up one point in the last three games, so to say that we are not ‘on a roll’ is a small underestimation. But hey, it’s not as if Chievo is doing great. One win, on day one. Since then: crap.

Form Guide

Palermo
W W L L D

Chievo
D L D L L

Past Encounters

18/02/2007 Palermo Chievo 1-1 Serie A
01/10/2006 Chievo Palermo 0-1 Serie A
19/02/2006 Chievo Palermo 0-0 Serie A
16/10/2005 Palermo Chievo 2-2 Serie A
01/05/2005 Palermo Chievo 2-2 Serie A
12/12/2004 Chievo Palermo 2-1 Serie A

Prediction

Win. Won’t be happy with anything else.

8-1. All Cavani.

MOTM

Me. For predicting the right score.

Remembering the good times