A Difficult First Half...

You know one of the main reasons I want Venezia to get promoted? So I can actually watch them on TV. I mean, sure, I want them to get promoted so they play better teams, sign better players, maybe fight occasionally for the dream of Serie A...but right now, mainly I want them to get promoted so I don't have to try and follow them the way I did on Saturday.

What am I talking about? The game was meant to be on Rai Tre - but only in the Tuscany area. I still had a (perhaps foolish) hope that it would be on dad's satellite as he got his box and card in Tuscany...but he phoned me at lunchtime to say it didn't look like it would be. So I told him to check out a channel called 50 Canale, a local Pisa channel that somehow he picks up and which had shown the last game of the regular season. He phoned me 15 minutes before kick off to say it appeared to be on - they were live from the Stadio Penzo, interviewing the Pisa President on TV. I jumped in the car and drove across. By the time I got there, it was clear he was wrong. Well, kind of.

50 Canale was showing the game...or rather, not the game, but the crowd. Yes, that's right, the crowd. And their commentators occasionally. It was something that could only happen in Italy, but the camera was live, filming mainly the Pisa end, occasionally zooming in as it swung round to avoid showing any of the game, leaving us looking at their commentators.

More farcical was the fact that they would occasionally cut to a young guy wearing a jacket and tie in a studio in Pisa, clearly watching the game on Rai 3. Despite the commentator being at the game, he would sometimes pick up his mobile (I'm not kidding) and phone the studio to speak to this young guy for a technical analysis. He would proceed to talk, his sentences pausing as he watched the game, his hand covering his mouth when Venezia attacked. It was comical. But worse than that, it was like watching the game (or not watching the game) with a bunch of mad Pisa fans.

All we got from kick off was how Pisa were better, Venezia were rubbish etc etc. Obviously I couldn't see the game, so I kind of had to take their word for it - except that even through their nerazzurro-tinted glasses it sounded like we were all over them (I have since read unbiased reports to say that we were). But the first half ended 0-0 despite that pressure, our best chance coming from Poggi in the very first minute when he contrived to scuff a shot from a yard out to allow a defender to clear off the line.

After some more bias analysis at half time, we kicked off the second half, Marco Moro (an attacker) on for Taccucci (our right back). Just as we were back in the studio with jacket-and-tie man in Pisa analysing the substitution. Suddenly his face crumpled though and I knew before he had said it - we had scored! MARCO MORO!!!! What a start to the second half!

After that, according to our Pisan friends, it was all pressure from Pisa. The unbiased reports don't quite agree - we had chances to score the second, but they did push on more, that much is true. However, just when the game was almost done, disaster. The 88th minute and as we attack, they hit us on a classic counter attack - 1-1. Cue the biased prats on 50 Canale celebrating as if they had scored the goals themselves. Impartial commentary this was not - I almost put my fist through the TV screen. They then get a man and their manager sent off as they struggle to hold on, but they manage it.

Advantage Pisa - because of the rules of the playoffs, we must win this weekend in Pisa, as they finished above us in the regular season. However, I am not too despondent. True, we've one one game away all season, and that was away to Pizzighettone (17th), but by all accounts (apart from 50 Canale) we were the better team on Saturday. It will be tough, but I think we could just about do it. They're without their best defender as well, which helps. Mister Di Costanzo says that 1-1 is better than 1-0, because we now know we have to attack. True, but I'm not sure I would have felt as gutted on Saturday had we won!

Anyway, the next report will hopefully be a first hand one - my flight to Pisa is booked, but the ticket for the Venezia end is still up in the air. I have my best people on it though, so hopefully I will be amongst the 950 arancioneroverdi supporters in Pisa on Sunday. I admit, I go more in hope than expectation, but something in me believes we can do it.

Remember that famous Tuscan saying: "Meglio un morto in casa che un Pisano alla porta!"

FORZA VENEZIA!