Long Live Roma!

Posted in: Nun Fa' La Stupida Stasera, Le Sette Sorelle, Call It Football Please @ 2008年04月03日

Roma Roma Roma

Core de esta citta'

l'unico grande amore

de tanta e tanta gente

…

I hereby officially declare myself a Roma fan. Period.

I was very disappointed with the result. On second thought though, Roma didn't play as poorly as what the scoreline reflected. Roma had more chances but too much poor finishing cost us the game. Just when could the Romans learn to finish properly?

What disappointed me the most was that the Romans GAVE UP too damn early after we were 2 goals down. We didn't even have a formation at the last 30 minutes for god's sake, we gave manyoo WAY TOO MUCH SPACES, manyoo could have made the scoreline to 4-nil if they had taken their chances seriously.

Now, onto the individual player…

Our fullbacks: Cassetti was a total disaster tonight and the one to blame for the 2 conceded goals. Defensively he was beaten by CR, offensively he was non-existent. For a while I even wondered whether he was on the pitch.

On the left side, Tonetto was not as bad as Cassetti, at least he did come foward and tried to offer some help in attack, well that is if you don't take into account his poor finishing of course.

The midfield: not functioning at all today. Too many poor passes and crosses and not enough closing down and running. DDR and Aquilani were almost invisible for most of the game.

It broke my heart to see DDR played with the flu, but you couldn't really make that as an excuse for the poor performance. He hasn't played up to his standard for the last couple of matches, and this really worried me, because if you really want to be the future captain you need to step up when your team is struggling.

Aquilani was playing out of position and completely lost himself in the trequartista role. What killed us the most was his inexperience, boy still has a lot to improve on. I expect a better performance from him with Totti back in the away leg.

Pizzaro had an average game, as much as I dislike him. Nevertheless he should've done much better with all those through balls and set pieces could he?

I don't even want to get started on Taddei and Mancini, the two worst players on the pitch. At least I could see Taddei running back to defend, but Mancini? He has been playing shit for most of this season. Didn't he want to get out of Roma? If that's the case, let him GO. I am sick of the rumors he has had with other clubs for all these years. We don't need someone who doesn't give a shit for the club anyway. I would be very happy if he gets himself and his freaking agent out of Rome this summer.

The backline:

I never like Doni, but I think he tried his best tonight. However I still insist that Roma needs a new GK. Go get Amelia or Abbiati please.

Panucci did not do much, well maybe except all those poor long balls and that terrible miss that might have changed the result if the chance was taken properly…

Mexes was pretty solid for the most part. You can't really blame him for the conceded goals. Most importanly, he was the only player besides Vucinic who really put his heart and effort into the game after other players lost their hope. You could often see him bringing the ball forward all the way from the back to help the attack. The scene where he was cheering everyone on at 73 minutes especially moved me. And for this reason I LOVE him.

Last but not least, our only striker - Mirko Vucinic - was probably the only real threat from Roma today. The guy was fighting alone up front with no support and still managed to creat most of the chances Roma had in the game. Sadly though, no one followed up with him. He had done his best already and there was no reason to bash him for the result.

The subs, Cicinho and Esposito tried hard but didn't help much. As for Giuly, I have always had a thing against him since he joined Roma because…well I am still bitter by the fact that his goal kicked Milan out of CL in the semi-final of 05/06. He earned my respect today though, he caused some problem for manyoo defenders as soon as he came on. Why he wasn't given the start over Taddei is beyond me.

I really appreciate what Spaletti has done for Roma all these years, but he still has much to improve on as a coach. He needs to develop an alternative tactics besides the usual 4-6-0. He also should've put more confidence and trust in players like Cicinho and Giuly. And definitely needs to improve his morale boosting skill as well.

Manyoo was actually the defensive team tonight, but they were able to take their few chances right in contrast to the Romans. I gave credit to Rooney's effort, and I don't even like him for god's sake. But that diving drama queen? I hate to say this but he, together with fat Lamp, are the only players that I would not mind seeing them getting a career-ending injury. What a disgusting being in the world.

As painful as it may seem, Roma still needs to play the away leg at OT next Wednesday. Although our chance of qualifying is dim, we as fans can always hope right?

With Totti, Juan, and Perrota returning, I expect Spal to field something like this:

(4-2-3-1)
Doni
Cicinho-Mexes-Juan-Tonetto
DDR-Aquilani
Giuly-Perrota-Vucinic
Totti

Btw, the match is not even about winning manyoo, it's about winning back their pride. I don't expect Roma to beat manyoo, but please…at least play like yourself and keep fighting till the game ends okay? We have nothing to lose anyway.

I can't resist myself, I need to post something to lift my mood so bear with me ok?