The secret blitw: Serie A 2013/14

Livorno   0-2  Roma
Roma      3-0  Hellas Verona
Parma     1-3  Roma
Roma      2-0  Lazio
Sampdoria 0-2  Roma
Roma      5-0  Bologna
Inter     0-3  Roma

Because this sequence deserves some attention.

Roma were so sweet last night. Gervinho causing havoc (in a good way). Totti strolling around running tings. Just the one goal conceded which as someone who saw them play under Zeman I find frankly unbelievable. Rudy Garcia ot 'em purring.

Juve-AC Milan tonight, and Napoli on right now but I've already watched 2 games today so might give it a miss.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVhGGbNZtsM

god that is so nice

http://i.imgur.com/kaf7yz2.jpg

The Internazionale president Massimo Moratti has agreed to sell a majority stake in the club to an Indonesian businessman.

Thohir was born on 30 May 1970.[1] His father is Teddy Thohir, co-owner of the automotive group Astra International with William Soeryadjaya.[1][2] His brother, Garibaldi Thohir, is an investment banker; he also has a sister, Rika Thohir.[2]

Roma: De Sanctis, Maicon, Benatia, Castan, Dodo, De Rossi, Strootman, Pjanic, Florenzi, Gervinho, Totti

Napoli: Reina, Maggio, Albiol, Britos, Mesto, Inler, Behrami, Callejòn, Hamsik, Insigne, Pandev.

pjanic

think totti's gone off injured

inchperfect freekick

on the halftimeverge

paolo cannavaro (who gave away that freekick) takes fortyfiveyarder that goes about twentyyardsworth overbar, real contender for dumbshot 2013

paolo cannavaro sentoff (doubleyellow) for ridiculous rugbytackle competing for highball. pjanic slams home resultantpenalty

possibly the worst twentyminute cameoappearance in footballhistory

Weird that, even after this all-time start, Roma could still be only two points clear by the end of the weekend.

Juve just got mugged

ahahahaha

My word what's happened there?

secondhalfcomplacency

Roma now won 9 in a row and have conceded 1 goal so far this season. Last season they conceded 56.

Everything from Torino down is looking like cannon fodder at the moment but that might be a little harsh.

Was a lovely finish from Bradley, very neat considering the pressure.

i feel very foolish for laughing at Roma in the transfer thread. how good are they?
pleased for Bradley, hoping he work his way back to a regualr spot in the team.

I always rated him and thought he could go on to really big things. He might yet.

Not that Roma aren't a big enough thing; I mean more that he could potentially fit in fine at a CL contender, whether Roma or otherwise.

Nov 10 (Reuters) - An Italian third-tier match was called off on Sunday after visiting side Nocerina, having allegedly received death threats from their own fans, were reduced to six men by injuries after only 21 minutes.
The southern derby match at Salernitana had begun 40 minutes late and Nocerina made their three permitted substitutions in the first two minutes.
Over the next 20 minutes, five players went off injured, leaving the team with six players, below the minimum needed to continue the game.

Roma conceded a 94th minute equaliser to Sassuolo. Juve-Napoli on BT Sport tonight.

Pirlo striking home a free kick for 2-0 with 15 mins left. After all that record-breaking run, Roma now lead by only a point :o(

Stunner in off the post from Pogba, 3-0

Roma taking a comprehensive shoeing tonight - 3-0, two men sent off, unbeaten record obliterated, the works. Juventus looked immaculate from the bit I saw, quite how they contrived to get knocked out the CL I have no idea.

yeah, FUCK YOU de Rossi

boy is his face red tonight

Is today a holiday in Italy? Bemused to find Napoli-Samp. on right now. 60 mins gone so must have kicked off at 11.30. Napoli 1-0 up but Gabbiadini has just hit the post for Samp.

Mertens free-kick, poor goalkeeping. 2 nil Naples.

Epiphany, no?

napoli have been rampant these last ten mins.

Reina not in goal. Injured? Dropped?

Ah yes. So it is SV. I know v little about religious holidays.

Pozzi with a curler off both posts and out!

ffs taking a two-on-two into the corner when you're two-nil up in injury time

First half Berardi hat trick for Sassuolo vs Milan. Think that's ten in fourteen since he went there on loan.

Got another one three minutes into the second half.

He is a veritable beast on the new FM, and has an admirably spartan wiki page for such a highly rated talent. Still don't really have any understanding of how the co-ownership system in Italy operates

these will prob be of interest

http://blogs.thescore.com/counterattack/2013/12/05/bandini-meet-the-young-players-with-juventus-future-at-their-feet/

http://blogs.thescore.com/counterattack/2013/07/15/bandini-the-weird-and-wonderful-world-of-player-co-ownership-in-italian-football/

Thanks, those have cleared things up a bit. Would be interested to see some sort of mid-long term analysis of how this plays out for the various parties compared to the system in place in the EPL. Seems like there might be money in it for smaller teams when big clubs take a small punt on a talented player that may not make the grade, but at the expense of denying them the big pay-day that smaller EPL clubs pick up when their stars are acquired by the top teams.

Has anyone seen Nainggolan play? Intrigued after reading this on whoscored

Inter have pulled the plug on a proposed swap deal with Juventus involving Fredy Guarin and Mirko Vucinic because of a backlash from fans - but it could yet be resurrected.

such a classic example of numinous immanence in fitba, like no matter who's in charge over the generations inter will always and forever be guided by the spirit of magically inept transfers

Now, according to Sky Sport Italia, Guarin is looking to push the move through and is refusing to leave Juventus’ offices in the hope that Inter will reconsider and allow him to join the Serie A champions.

It is also thought the Colombian has threatened to refuse to train with Inter should the move collaps

Vidal just wiped out by a psychopathic challenge.

Ooh Inter have bought Hernanes.

Pirlo with a sumptuous pass to Lichsteiner. 1-0. PIRLo my God!

Wait, Napoli lost 3-0 to Atalanta. WTF?

Juve so far above the rest of this league. Bayernesque.

Eh, so Vucinic didn't actually leave in the end. So Juve have Tevez, Llorente, Giovinco, Vucinic, and Dani Osvaldo. How unnecessary.

P sure Pirlo didn't miss a single pass during that 45 mins.

Two points from a possible 9 against Bologna, Chievo and Atalanta. Hope Napoli step it up a bit soon, I'm planning on picking up a ticket tomorrow for the game against Milan next weekend, and they haven't exactly been flying recently either.

Napoli are p exciting to watch this season. V little defence especially considering it's a Rafa team. Reina with a howler today, not sure why he was reinstated to the team.

Ho ho, commentators speculating that Osvaldo has been bought solely for the Europa League. The ignominy!!

Taraabt scored eight minutes into his debut for Milan.

Balotelli

Luca Toni has 13 in 21 appearances this season - one fewer than Tevez, one more than Higuain.

A team that pours players frwd (Napoli) vs a team that's deadly on the counter (Roma). I fancy Roma but as ever will be rooting for Rafa.

Ah man I hope Strootman hasn't done his achilles. Just when down in apparent agony with no other player anywhere near him.

― pandemic, Sunday, March 9, 2014 8:00 PM (0 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

those luca toni stats reflect poorly on serie a, but then he is one of my least favourite players ever

Napoli's transition D is awful, especially on their right side.

Higuin given offside from a throw-in. Seen it all now.

Napoli have been awful so far. Constantly giving the ball away.

Lucky to be 0-0 at half time. Trying to play frwd too quickly. Need to drop Hamsik a little deeper to both work the ball thru midfield better (he's too far apart from Inler atm) and to disrupt Nainggolan some cos he's bossing this so far.

Great header from Callejon. He's been terrific this season.

Napoli have conceded a lot of late equalisers this season, doubtful that they'll see this out.

Napoli hold on for the win.

http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2014/0406/soc_a_destro_kh_576x324.jpg

http://media.tumblr.com/8a43730d6478a1714074f8545f190be9/tumblr_inline_mkwfg5X0b31qz4rgp.jpg
comes to mind

exactly

Roma are getting smashed 4-1 by Catania so Juve will be champions in about ten minutes.

seems legit

The noise in Naples last night was very impressive, don't think I've ever really been in a city on the night their team won something. Shame about the shenanigans before the match though

What are you in Naples for?

Shootings before a game is a pretty bloody terrifying development, but I've half a memory of guns & football not being a new thing in Italy?

Been living here for a bit. Not got along to as many matches as I would have liked tbh, the ones I have been to see weren't very good performances at all. Was skint before the Juve match so couldn't go, fucking 2-0 win and Napoli's best performance of the season, typical.

From the very few people I've spoken to about it today the atmosphere here with regard to the shootings seems to be "I wish someone could control the animals doing this kind of thing" rather than "WTF someone got shot at the football" as the response would be over here. Also this is probably tempered by the fact that the whole city is just buzzing off the win

Not over here. Over there. Was back home over Easter and I've started confusing myself.

https://vine.co/v/Mg5ggPPlwt1

tony fuckin christmas

Retires today. With a hat-trick. Including this goal.

http://i.imgflip.com/10cct.gif

Hold on, that's not from today. The rest is true though. What a player, I wish I'd seen more of him.

very seldom watch serie a now but is goalscoring over the last few years has been absurd, before he was 30 he was reliable, since then he has been prolific to the sort of rvn/shevchenko level

might not retire now? comments a bit vague

102 points and winning 33 out of 38 games is monstrous.

Torino just missed a 93rd minute penalty after a shocking dive that would have put them in Europe next season.

Parma are in, justice is done.

Massimo Maccarone has scored his seventh and eighth league goals of the season, Toni has nine, Di Natale eight. Combined age of 109.

5 teams in the last 16 of the Europa League. Napoli FTW.

Salah has been unbelievable for Fiorentina. Six goals in seven matches, including two vs Juve last night, and a couple of assists.

Another nice goal for Salah this evening.

Luca Toni got his 14th and 15th of the season, putting him one behind Tevez and Menez.

Toni now capocannoniere with one round to play. Assuming Juve rest Tevez it's only Icardi (one behind) who can catch him. He will be 38 on Tuesday.

icardi and toni share it.

amazing game between lazio and napoli: lazio up 2-0 at halftime, napoli comes roaring back higuain scores two then misses a penalty and then lazio score two late goals to win 4-2. two players sent off somewhere in there too.

Juve fifteen minutes away from losing their two opening matches for the first time in history. Excellent Pjanic free kick.

Evra has just been sent off.

Looks like they haven't worked out what to do with Mandzukic.

Dzeko makes it two!

today was a good day

Juve losing again - behind against Chievo inside five minutes.

All four early kick-offs ended 2-2. You could have got odds of about 70,000 to 1 on that. It being Italy, I wouldn't be shocked if someone did.

MATCH-FIXING!

Napoli 2-0. If it stays like this Juve will be 10 points behind Inter, having played one game more.

2-1 immediately though.

Having conceded one goal in the previous five matches, Inter are 3-0 down to Fiorentina at home in the first half.

Two goals from Nikola Kalinic, ex of Blackburn Rovers.

Inter - Sassuolo has been great fun. Sass just nicked it with a 95th minute penalty.

serie a is confusing nowadays.
wee teams like frosinone and sassuolo kicking about that james richardson never talked about while eating a pastry in naples.
milan are terrible
inter were terrible for a couple of seasons but are back this season
napoli top of the league
high scoring games

fu Maurizio Sarri

Genius from nainggolan

i do feel v comforted by inter being inter. eder, soriano, banega, no reasons just keep that numb shopaholic ache ticking

Wonderful goal from El Shaarawy. Pjanic's was pretty sweet too.

Seems absurd that Juve should be back in this at all after the start they had but it's difficult to see anyone stopping them from this point on.

Juve's first ten games of the season - 10 points
Juve's last twelve games of the season - 36 points

Dybala / Morata / Pogba is beautiful to watch.

Should have been 12 from first ten^

maybe overreacting but pjanic to juve seems somehow a worse omen for the competitive health of italian footie than juventus being champs yet again.

Juve are becoming Italian Bayern. Ugh.

£25m is a steal.

De Boer off to a flyer - lost 2-0 at Chievo last week, losing 1-0 at home to Palermo with 25 to go now.

^^^^ sacked

Poor bastard didn't stand a chance tbh.

tbf, he inherited a squad that probably under-performed in finishing 4th last season and spent £112m on players over the summer. I'm not sure why it fell apart so horribly.

It didn't help that he was only brought in mid/late August, but yeah, it's been a spectacular downfall.

anyone gonna be watching this season? i've not paid much attention since i moved back to the UK but i wanna rectify that, seems like things could be heating up at long long last.

watching the Milan game against Cagliari now, the young lad Cutrone just gave Milan the lead converting from a nice Suso delivery - 2nd goal this season having scored one, assisted one and won a penalty in the 3-0 win over Crotone last week. had never heard of him before that. Kalinic and Andre Silva not getting a look in yet. Milan look very exciting this season, so much depth in the squad now. could this be the year?!

all the talk this summer has been about Milan but it's Inter who've put in the most eye-catching performance so far - they came back from 1-0 down to win 3-1 away at Roma last night - Icardi banging in 4 goals in the first 2 games. their transfer window obviously hasn't been eye-catching like Milan's but Borja Valero is a quality signing and Spalletti is a great managerial appointment. big advantage they have on the competition this time is there's no Europe for them again this season. i love Mauro Icardi.

loads of pundits tipping this to be Napoli's season but they haven't really done anything to speak of during the summer and they're currently makin a balls of it at home to Atalanta.

meanwhile Dybala is looking on it and keeps doing stuff like this (his hat-trick goal in a 4-2 win)

https://streamable.com/9esl7

Juve have once again been bringing in players by the bucketload (Bernadeschi, Douglas Costa, Matuidi, De Sciglio) and still have by far the best team and deepest squad in the division and will definitely win the league. unless they don't.

whatever, come one come all, can't say how long the feeling will last but it seems like Serie A might finally be getting slightly more competitive again

watched Inter's first game against Fiorentina the other day and was delighted to see Jordan Veretout and Carlos Sanchez looking something less than useful in the Fiorentina midfield. clearly wasn't just a personal thing against Villa :)

Giovanni Simeone and Federico Chiesa up front for Fiorentina tonight, reminding everyone who grew up watching their parents of our mortality.

Benevento vs Milan is pretty interesting. It’s Gattuso’s first match as Milan manager, Benevento’s record before today was Played 14, Lost 14. Benevento have just equalised. Not sure they are going to hang on for their first point of the season but it’s going to be fun seeing how Gattuso reacts if they do.

Yeeeesssssss they're gonna do it!! :D

The Benevento goalkeeper just scored a diving header to make it 2-2 in the 95th minute!

This is amazing

I’m so pleased for them.

Lololololol what a start for Gattuso. His managerial record is really something, I don't even know how he's ended up here

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2gWeq5abvlM

This warms the heart

Fifteen minutes in to Inter - Juve, Inter were down to 10 men and a goal behind.

20 minutes to go and Inter are 2-1 up. Napoli might actually do this.

Damn them, 3-2 Juve. Two goals in two minutes,

Krzysztof Piatek’s now scored nine goals in seven games in the league (having scored four in one match in the cup), since signing for Genoa. It’s the best start any striker has ever made in Serie A.

Piatek has scored six in four games since joining Milan.

Piatek, the renew of AC Milan⚫️🔴#football #acmilan #acm #MilanAtalanta #MILATA #SerieATIM #SerieA #Italia

pic.twitter.com/5xisLDMUAt

— The Playmakers Culture (@pmkrsculture) February 16, 2019

About as good a bargain as you are going to get for €35m.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhQVoTZEmpQ

In other news: Serie C club Pro Piazenca can only field 8 players (including 6 teens and the masseur) lose 20-0. With 16-0 at half-time, Cuneo should be ashamed of themselves for only scoring four in the second half.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/third-tier-italian-club-fields-six-teens-and-a-masseur-thrashed-20-0-20190218-p50yfp.html

fuuck this shitty league

otm. this takes the fucking cake.

We need to talk about Italy nuke Italy.

A short thread on Italy and racism in 2019.

Italian footballer Mario Balotelli was racially abused during a match in Verona this weekend. The abuse is clearly audible in this video: pic.twitter.com/NO0KXjeIw5

— Alberto Nardelli (@AlbertoNardelli) November 4, 2019

^^ thread. Nardelli doesn't even get around to mentioning the racist abuse Kalidou Koulibaly (Napoli) got this weekend from AS Roma fans. Big surprise coming from them, I know, but he's got it several times before this season. Rampant.

ugh, penalty due to a handball is a rule that can easily be exploited