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Post by coffers on Nov 4, 2008 10:05:04 GMT
I would have said, Batman.
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Post by Boony on Jan 26, 2009 12:24:06 GMT
September 2012 The biggest news in early September was the announcement of the 2012 Olympics squad. You may remember that we sent Evangelisti back in 2008; this year we're sending three players. Daniele La Rosa, Cristiano Carboni, and Salvatore Ferrari had all been on the fringes of the first team squad last season; La Rosa playing the most with 18 appearances. An interesting selection - I could think of a few other youngsters in our squad more deserving of selection: Chianese, Sannino, Lauriola, for example. Anyway, best of luck to these guys when they join the squad. We were drawn against Bari in the first round of the Italian Cup; no byes to the second round this year. The first game would take place later in September. Continuing our policy of only signing players from youth searches, we grabbed a decent prospect at left-back, a position in which we needed some backup, in the shape of 18 year old Maurizion Lorieri. And then the first game of September came; a home match against Pescara. Miceli was unavailble, to be replaced by Dardonelli, while Pedretti came in for Di Giuseppe, who was suffering from low morale. Just two minutes into the game, we conjured up a fantastic team move: Pedretti played a one-two with Chianese before passing back to Abbate; our left-back pinged the ball down his flank to Evangelisti. Our star winger then popped the ball inside to Chianese, who struck home with fury. The rest of the first half was fairly quiet, but things picked up in the second. Chianese fouled De Rossi in the box, and Pescara levelled with the resulting penalty. Then Pedretti was fouled, giving Evangelisti a chance to restore our lead with a trademark freekick. Chianese was involved again when his pass to Sotgiu was good enough for the little magician to put us 3-1 up, but two minutes later, in the 67th minute, Pescara halved the lead when Iaquinta ran past both full-backs before planting a shot past our keeper into the corner of the net. Right-back Vado made amends, though, scoring with an 81st minute freekick after young striker Schiavon had been fouled. 4-2 to Meda, and just time left in the game for our ex-striker Vitali to earn a red card after arguing with the referee about his own booking... Our next game was a visit to early league leaders Fiorentina. We held them at bay during the first half, but conceded the first goal as a Di Stefano freekick deflected off our wall. On the hour mark, Pedretti took off on a run which resulted in our equaliser, and we came away with a share of the points; a result I was very happy with to be perfectly honest. The only bad news was a groin strain for Sannino, who would miss the next month. In the Olympics, Meda midfielder La Rosa came on for the last minute of the last group game, a game which Italy won 3-0 against South Korea, confirming their qualification to the next round. This had been the only involvement of any of our players so far... Up next was the first leg of the Italian Cup game against Serie B side Bari. I brought in Di Giuseppe, Basso and Montella for the game. The only goal came in the 12th minute, as Di Giuseppe passed a Sotgiu cross to full-back Vado, who headed home. We received €130,761 in gate receipts, a new club record. Two more games rounded off September. A home tie against Udinese resulted in a 1-0 win; Chianese scoring from an Evangelisti cross, while youngster Morini played a blinder in goal to hang onto the three points. Then we made a trip to Milan, to continue our local rivalry. Our young strikers combined well in the ninth minute, as Di Giuseppe picked up a pass from Schiavon, ran past two men and wrong-footed the keeper with a left-footed effort. Morini kept us in this game as well, picking up the Man of the Match award as we took another three points off a disappointing Milan. We finished the month sat third in the league, two points off leaders Piacenza.
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Post by Boony on Jan 26, 2009 14:27:44 GMT
October 2012 September was a cracking month, about as good as they get at this level as far as we're concerned. I hoped things would continue in this vein; I had plenty of confidence in the squad after such a good start to the season. More international news; the Olympics had finished and the U21 season had started; La Rosa came on as a sub in a 1-0 loss to Turkey, before starting in a 4-1 win against Slovenia. We signed 18 year old AM/FR Giulio Bacci; right wing was another position where we needed some depth, and this fella looked okay. On to the games. We went to Lecce for our sixth game of the season, the only change being Brescia in for a tired Abbate at left-back. This was the game in which we finally got found out for not scoring enough goals. Lecce took the lead on 52, before Sotgiu crossed for Di Giuseppe to equalise on 69. Not enough, though, as the Di Giuseppe playing for Lecce took the lead with just four mintues left. After five games in a row in which we'd scored just one goal, it was time for another blitz. Calgliari were the unlucky visitors, coming up against our newly unveiled 4-4-1-1 formation. Schiavon had not scored yet this year, despite his promise, and I thought he might revel in a withdrawn position. I also pulled in Sannino for Basso, and Abbate came back in to replace Brescia. In the 11th minute, Evangelisti passed to Sannino, who hit the ball out wide for Sotgiu to cross back in; Sannino duly dispatched his shot goalwards and we'd taken the lead. Calgliari equalised on the stroke of half-time, whipping our boys into a fervour. Schiavon's shot rebounded for Di Giuseppe to score, and the Di Giuseppe added his second, latching onto a pass from Sannino. Schiavon had a goal disallowed, but Sotgiu converted a corner from Evangelisti in the final minute to seal a 4-1 scoreline. We either score one, or four... Next up was the second leg of the Italian Cup tie against Bari, into which we took a 1-0 lead from our home leg. The first half was quiet, the second less so as Bari took the lead... We expected a goal, but it wasn't forthcoming. Not even in extra time, so penalties decided the tie. We weren't helped by misses from Vado, Evangelisti and Sannino, and were sent tumbling out of the cup at the first hurdle. I hate the Italian Cup... We've only got past the first stage once in my career, and that's back when we won the bloody thing. Anyway, cups are for girls, and we need to concentrate on the league, etc etc. I'd love to qualify for Europe again this season; I'm missing the UEFA Cup... Once more game in October, a visit to Brescia. We outshot them by plenty, but apart from the Calgliari humping, we're struggling to score goals at the moment. We ended up losing 1-0. Sannino turned 24, and was told he was an important first team player. We finished the month in fifth place, five points behind leaders Fiorentina.
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Post by Boony on Jan 26, 2009 16:58:55 GMT
November 2012 With our early exit from the Italian Cup, we had only the league to concentrate on this year. After a fantastic start to the campaign, we'd flagged a little during October, picking up just three points from a possible nine. Our first game in November was a home match against Salernitana, sitting 15th in the table. Fabris and Pedretti came into the starting lineup, to raise morale amongst the players. Neither side could make any kind of breakthrough during the game, with Meda fans wondering if we'd used up all our goals in the Calgliari massacre early last month... 0-0 it finished, the visitors much happier with the result than our lot. Our next visitors were the mighty Roma, currently a less-than-mighty 13th in the league. Kallon scored early to give the visitors the lead, but we slowly edged ourselves back into contention, finally scoring an equaliser with ten minutes to go; Sannino following up his own shot to tuck in the rebound. At this point, perhaps I should have pulled our guys back and settle for a point, but I was pushing on to try and steal a winner. Roma had other ideas, though, and scored on 88 and 90 to run away with the points. A couple of bad results, and I decided we didn't quite have the players to play 4-4-1-1, so I gave the shape another rethink, falling back to a traditional 4-4-2. Meanwhile, La Rosa played for the U21s again, and Evangelisti played four minutes of a senior game to earn his sixth cap. Sannino, our other member of the full Italian squad, wasn't even being picked as a bench warmer. Another home game followed, as we hosted fourth-placed Perugia. I recalled Diamanti to replace Pedretti in our 4-4-2, with Schiavon moving further forward to partner the veteran, while Basso came in for the suspended Chianese. We put up a great fight in this game, only to be superkeepered, and we lost to a 74th minute goal from the Perugians. Since our victory against Milan, we've won one from six, and have lost three of the last four. One more game in November didn't help matters much, as we visited Bologna; Diamanti found the net from a Chianese knockdown, but the midfielder had been offside and the goal was ruled out. Our defence held firm, but we struggled to put our chances away, and we walked away with a 0-0 draw. Two points from 12 in November saw us slip to 11th in the table, two points above Milan in 15th, and two points off sixth place.
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