Monday, February 19, 2007

Another Away Defeat

Pistoiese 2-1 Venezia

This is getting tiresome now. Every time we play a team in trouble away from home, we seem to end up helping them out.

Mayer gave away a stupid penalty after 15 minutes, and after that we struggled to do anything - we didn't even manage a shot on target in the second half, even though we scored (an amazing own goal by Pistoiese's Gheller). By all accounts everyone had a poor match, not least il Mister, Di Costanzo, whose changes were perplexing - taking off our best player in the first half, Scantamburlo (our left back) for Pradolin (our left winger - who should have started anyway).

I don't understand how we can be good at home and so awful away from home. It has clearly turned into a bit of a mental block, which is a worrying thing as we surely cannot win the league if we can't pick up 3 points away from home occasionally.

The dismay was tempered somewhat by the other results, which saw Pisa losing and Grosseto only drawing with Lucchese, but it just means the league is now closer than ever. Next up is another away game to a struggling team, this time Pavia, followed by a home game against Pizzighettone. If we don't pick up 6 points from those two games, I think our hopes of winning the league will be sinking faster than a gondola with some very large holes in it.

Serie C1/A:

1. Grosseto P 22 W 9 D 10 L 3 GF 30 GA 20 Pts 37
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2. Sassuolo P 22 W 10 D 7 L 5 GF 27 GA 17 Pts 37
3. Venezia P 22 W 10 D 7 L 5 GF 28 GA 19 Pts 37
4. Pisa P 22 W 9 D 10 L 3 GF 18 GA 10 Pts 37
5. Cittadella P 22 W 9 D 9 L 4 GF 28 GA 19 Pts 36
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6. Lucchese P 22 W 9 D 8 L 5 GF 30 GA 16 Pts 35
7. Monza P 22 W 8 D 9 L 5 GF 25 GA 20 Pts 33
8. Novara P 22 W 8 D 6 L 8 GF 25 GA 27 Pts 30
9. Padova P 22 W 8 D 5 L 9 GF 23 GA 20 Pts 29
10. Sangiovannese P 22 W 7 D 7 L 8 GF 28 GA 33 Pts 28
11. Pistoiese P 22 W 6 D 9 L 7 GF 18 GA 20 Pts 27
12. Pro Sesto P 22 W 7 D 6 L 9 GF 14 GA 16 Pts 27
13. Massese P 22 W 5 D 11 L 6 GF 21 GA 22 Pts 26
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14. Cremonese P 22 W 6 D 7 L 9 GF 23 GA 26 Pts 25
15. Pro Patria P 22 W 5 D 8 L 9 GF 18 GA 30 Pts 23
16. Ivrea P 22 W 6 D 4 L 12 GF 16 GA 27 Pts 22
17. Pavia P 22 W 4 D 6 L 12 GF 20 GA 34 Pts 18
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18. Pizzighettone P 22 W 3 D 9 L 10 GF 14 GA 30 Pts 18

Monday, February 12, 2007

And Then There Were Two...

Venezia 2-1 Sangiovannese

Okay, the title isn't particularly accurate - This league is still as close as ever, but for now, it's just us and Pisa sitting at the top of the tree.

Before I get to the match report, I should mention the events in Italy over the past couple of weeks. As some noticed (martinobhoy, I'm looking at you), I haven't posted since the last match. After the events in Catania I was going to put up a post with my thoughts on the matter, but decided against it for the simple reason that everyone has written and commented on it. I'll therefore limit my comments to this: It good change finally seems to be happening, and it is unfortunate that it took Raciti's death for this to happen, but I do think there is a danger in getting carried away with the whole thing. Every country has their problems with this, and every country needs to try and deal with it in their own way. As Ginkers said in his blog, the sanctimonious crap that much of the media over here has been spouting is not helpful, not to mention downright irritating. Here's hoping that we can actually make big strides to dealing with our own problem so the English media need to look elsewhere for their digs at foreigners.

Sorry, rant over! Anyway, back to the game - and by the sounds of things, I think it was the best performance since the new year. In particular, Romondini seems to make a big difference to the team with his creativity, having a hand in both goals (scored in each half by Moro and Pradolin). Sangiovannese grabbed a late goal back from the penalty spot, but we had a third disallowed shortly after, supposedly for a foul on the keeper.

Encouraging signs, then. But we could certainly do with going on a run to try and put some daylight between us and the other promotion contenders. I say this because I have again just looked at our run in at the end of the season, when we play Grosseto (currently the form team, with 5 wins out their last 5 matches), Lucchese, Sassuolo and Pisa in the last four weeks of the season; all of them our direct rivals for promotion. If we've not got a bit of a buffer between us and at least some of them, it will be a nervy four weeks! Next up, and away game at Pistoia - a game we should be looking at winning, although given our recent away form, I hope that is not asking too much!

Serie C1/A:

1. Venezia P 21 W 10 D 7 L 3 GF 27 GA 17 Pts 37
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2. Pisa P 21 W 9 D 10 L 2 GF 17 GA 8 Pts 37
3. Grosseto P 21 W 9 D 9 L 3 GF 28 GA 18 Pts 36
4. Lucchese P 21 W 9 D 7 L 5 GF 28 GA 14 Pts 34
5. Sassuolo P 21 W 9 D 7 L 5 GF 26 GA 17 Pts 34
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6. Cittadella P 21 W 8 D 9 L 4 GF 27 GA 19 Pts 33
7. Monza P 21 W 8 D 8 L 5 GF 24 GA 19 Pts 32
8. Novara P 21 W 8 D 6 L 7 GF 25 GA 26 Pts 30
9. Pro Sesto P 20 W 7 D 6 L 8 GF 14 GA 15 Pts 27
10. Sangiovannese P 21 W 7 D 6 L 8 GF 27 GA 32 Pts 27
11. Padova P 21 W 7 D 5 L 9 GF 21 GA 19 Pts 26
12. Massese P 21 W 5 D 10 L 6 GF 20 GA 21 Pts 25
13. Pistoiese P 21 W 5 D 9 L 7 GF 16 GA 19 Pts 24
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14. Cremonese P 21 W 5 D 7 L 9 GF 22 GA 26 Pts 22
15. Pro Patria P 21 W 5 D 7 L 9 GF 17 GA 29 Pts 22
16. Ivrea P 21 W 6 D 3 L 12 GF 15 GA 26 Pts 21
17. Pavia P 21 W 4 D 6 L 11 GF 20 GA 33 Pts 18
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18. Pizzighettone P 21 W 3 D 8 L 10 GF 13 GA 29 Pts 17