SerieAweekly.com

You may have noticed that I have been relatively absent in my writing lately. If you didn't know I have been writing for SerieAweekly.com so my time has been consumed by that and I don't have as much opportunity to write for the blog. I will still be posting articles just not as regularly. Please be sure to check out serieaweekly.com and check back here soon for upcoming articles. Cheers and Merry Christmas

Newcastle's Improbable Run: An English Napoli?

There is no doubt that Newcastle United's run has gained a lot of attention over the last few weeks as they now sit in third place ahead of Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Tottenham. Although it is probable that they don't finish in the top four, it is worth discussing the team's recent rise to the top and the incredible comparison to another team that were a surprise to many; Napoli. Last year Napoli finished third in the Serie A after being promoted to the top flight only three years earlier. Newcastle look like an English version of Napoli as there are a number of comparisons between the two clubs.

As mentioned earlier both teams are finding revivals following promotion to the top flight. Napoli had spent a few more years in the lower levels than Newcastle, falling as far as Serie C, but since promotion they have been steady competitors for a place in Europe. They qualified for the Europa league after two seasons back in the top flight and last year saw them qualify for the Champions League. Seeing as Newcastle have three straight games against the Manchester sides and Chelsea coming up, there is a high possibility they will drop out of the top three. Regardless their terrific start to the season makes them more than a contender for the Europa league. If they can continue to beat the teams they're supposed to while stealing points from some of the top clubs, as they have against Liverpool and Arsenal, they will be playing in Europe next year.

Both teams have found their superstar strikers who, although having found relative success with other teams, have truly come into their own with their current clubs. Edinson Cavani and Demba Ba are both vital for the overall success of the clubs. Cavani has scored almost 40 times in 53 appearances for his club (my numbers may be off a little), Ba has scored 8 times in 9 appearances. Prior to their current clubs, both players had similar success. Cavani scored 34 times for Palermo in 109 appearances prior to moving to Napoli while Demba Ba had 37 goals in 97 appearances for Hoffenheim prior to his move to the Premiership. At the end of last year Cavani was considered one of the top players in the world. At this pace, Demba Ba will be held in the same view by the end of the season.

Outside of how the club has performed both teams' fan bases are strikingly similar. Both teams have some of the best fans in their leagues. Newcastles fans are considered some of the best in England and some of the highest spenders on travel to watch their team on the road. Even when Napoli were in Serie C1, the fans continued to show up for games, boasting better attendance records than many of the Serie A sides (Even if most Serie A clubs get under 20,000 fans, its still impressive seeing as they were two divisions below). Speaking of the city, both are home to a very interesting dialect in comparison to the rest of the country. On the mainland of the country the Napolitano dialect is one of the more unique (Sicilian is essentially its own language). Read the opening line of Erri De Luca's Montedidio, ""A iurnata e' nu morzo," la giornata e' un morso," and one can see the difference between classic Italian and Napolitano. Newcastle has a very distinct dialect, referred to as Geordie, as their form of English has less influence of outside languages thus resulting in a more traditional anglo-english. I'm not well-rehearsed in Geordie literature, instead here is a link for the Geordie Shore, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfduEnl20CY.


It is possible that we are seeing a Premiership version of Napoli and if so it is worth noting because they make for very exciting football. It is good for the sport to see teams like Napoli and Newcastle achieve in a system that usually makes it difficult for outsiders to break the small bubble of top teams. Of course Newcastle have a more difficult task and their season is still long from finish but their start has helped them pave way for at least Europa League next season.

DISCLAIMER: I do not think that the cast of Geordie shore in anyway reflect the people from Newcastle just as the cast of Jersey Shore does not represent Italian-Americans. I would like to apologize to anyone from the Newcastle area I may have offended with the link. Cheers.

Be sure to check out SerieAweekly.com as I started writing for them.

Finally a Win; Matri Once Again on Point

Tuesday's match with Fiorentina was as close to a must win as possible for it being this early in the season. Prior to the match, Juventus had only won a single game in the last five matches. Fortunately they hadn't lost any but many of those ties felt like losses, especially the Genoa clash. Regardless it was vital for Juve to get back to winning and Fiorentina was a perfect opportunity to set the ship right and get the fans excited again. The score line doesn't truly reflect the flow of the game. Although Fiorentina had its chances, Juve dominated this game and it is no surprise that Conte and a few of the players expressed their displeasure with the end result. Juventus owned this match for about 70 percent of the time. The first half was all Juve while a slow start to the second allowed Fiorentina to get back in it.  Juventus had a total of 14 shots on net yet only 2 goals while Fiorentina scored 1 goal on only 2 shots on net. Regardless of how many goals were scored, it is still promising to see so many shots on target as surely some of them will start to make their way past the keeper.

Every match gives a better indication of what players need to play more and what players need to start sitting. Matri carried his form from Sunday bagging his third goal in two games and fourth of the season. He also forced the greatest save of the game as he took a quick shot that curled towards the net, but was met by Boruc's amazing acrobatic effort. One can only wonder how many goals he would have scored had he been given the start each week. Even when Juve switched to a defensive mentality, Matri continued to push forward with conviction and caused the defense loads of trouble on his own.  Located on the wing, Vucinic played decently well and should have had a goal as he rocketed a shot right at the keep. However his lack of goals is still a concern and if he doesn't start finding the back of the net soon then maybe it should be time to give Quaglia a shot. As always Pepe worked hard, as he tries to earn the respect that he may actually deserve. The Matri goal was incredible, not because of the finish but because of Pepe. Somehow he threads a perfect ball to Matri while being harassed by three Fiorentina players. He is always a hard worker and, on Tuesday, he didn't make too many mistakes that usually happen often with him on the pitch. He especially avoided unnecessary challenges up until late in the game when fatigue stepped in. Vidal, Pirlo, and Marchisio all played as expected. Pirlo looked a little more human than normal, playing some balls a little too long and towards the end started showing fatigue but the inclusion of Vidal helps take the pressure of Pirlo.

On the defense, Chiellini didn't look too bad. It wasn't the best of performances but it was still better than the Genoa match. He was almost caught out of position on one cross, but he was able to get a head on the ball pushing it over the Fiorentina player lying in wait. He made some questionable decisions at the end especially not clearing the ball opting to let Storari get it outside the box. He also lacks any skill in the attacking front but that should be expected of a man who was a force as a center back. Stephen Lichtsteiner played well, constantly getting forward which is an important aspect of the Juve attack and was definitely lacking against Genoa. Once again Elia, Del Piero, and Quagliarella failed to get on the pitch. As much as I want these players to be included, Conte was right to make the more defensive subs as with 10 minutes left out came Catenaccio and with it a 5-4-1. Vucinic looked tired and Estigarribia was a great sub. He is a pure soldier; he does what is told of him, doesn't mouth of to anyone (probably because he only knows Spanish), and when he makes a mistake he gets up he works hard to get back. De Ceglie and Pazienza locked up the defense making attack near impossible. As for coaching decisions, my hats off to Mihajlovic. By replacing Cerci with Gilardino, Fiorentina were a whole different team and completely changed the flow of the game. A great win for Juve but I'm not rejoicing yet. The race is too close and any slip of points could be fatal in the long run. That is why it is extremely important they capitalize on an ailing Inter. 

Deadlock broken: Udinese go ahead as Juve Disappoint

In a game that should have been a straight win for Juventus, ended up being one of the most frustrating games of the season. Both teams came in looking to break their recent run of bad results. Juventus came out with a different look than usual with a more traditional 4-4-2 (as opposed to a 4-5-1, or 4-2-3-1 depending on how you look at it). The defense was the same as usual with Storari playing in the net for the injured Buffon. In the midfield, new signing Estigarribia got his debut while Krasic started on the bench. Conte broke away from his normal 4-5-1, opting to play two strikers with Vucinic and Matri. The decision looked good from the start with Matri able to get a header towards goal in the first two minutes, even if it was a very weak header. Juventus looked the better of the two teams for the first 25 minutes creating many opportunities. They broke the deadlock in six minutes with a goal by Alessandro MATATATATRIIII (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atP_NKsqogs) who poked a ball past the unaware Frey. At this point everything seemed to be working well for Juve but as the half went on Genoa started to gain some confidence. Pressing forward, Genoa got a cross from the left hand side that went right over the head of a out of position Chiellini that allowed Marco Rossi to push the ball past Storari. Both teams had their chances and they went into half tied.

Stepping on the field after the break, Conte’s men went back to work with Vucinic breaking down the side earning a free kick in the attacking zone but the ball eventually ended up in Frey’s arms.  Matri did find the back of the net off of a lovely give and go but he was clearly offside and the goal was disallowed. Both sides were threatening and approaching the hour mark it appeared that Juve were going to make an offensive change. Krasic, Quagliarella, and Del Piero were all warming up and a switch seemed to be evident. However in that moment Matri scored a second goal and then the mindset changed. Vucinic sent a low ball across as Pirlo dummied it with confidence as the ball found Matri who then pushed it past Frey. Instead of making offensive subs, Conte changed his mind and put in Pazienza for Estigarribia, moving Vucinic to the wing and Matri lone striker. This was the beginning of the questionable decisions by Conte. Eventually Krasic would come in for Vucinic. On his first few touches, Krasic was terrible, making mistakes and giving away the ball in vital situations. One of those allowed Genoa to set up a cross into the middle where a poorly placed Chiellini allowed his man to get a head on it as Genoa tied it up. By that point, Juve looked tired and didn’t have any answer for Genoa who looked to be pushing for a winner. The final sub of Del Piero came way too late as he was given less than ten minutes to do anything.  The game ended 2-2 in what Tuttosport appropriately described as a nightmare.

Antonio Conte has to come under fire after this performance. Some questionable coaching decisions seemed to allow Genoa back in this game. I would have liked to see him continue with his attacking attitude by putting Del Piero on for Vucinic in the 65^th. It was very disrespectful to have Del Piero warm up for 40 minutes only to use him in the last eight. Estigarribia was taken off instead of a clearly struggling Vucinic. When moved to the wing, Vucinic did nothing and made the left hand side much weaker. Speaking of the left, this will be a game that Chiellini will soon want to forget. Both goals found players that Chiellini should have been marking. His CB mentality is still prevalent and he looks very goofy on the attack. Chiellini may not by ready to play left back yet. This game was definitely a reminder for everyone that Juve are not out of the situation that has plagued us the last two years. The road back to the top is a long one and just because they started out well does not mean they are back on top. They need to beat teams like Genoa or Bologna so it takes pressure of the games against the big teams. This week is more vital than ever, two big games and serious questions about who will play where.

This Sunday showed a problem with creativity in the midfield. Without Vidal, Pirlo is the only person who creates anything. Vidal is in the roster for the Fiorentina clash but it would be best to save him for Inter on the weekend. The central midfielders should also be rested. Conte can’t continue to ask Pirlo to play every game for 90 minutes. He needs to get a rest but whom do you put in that position. Vidal is the best option but as I said earlier he is coming off injury and you want to have him for the San Siro. Who starts at top? Matri gave his reasons to start but Vucinic has not performed that well this year and I still don’t understand why Quagliarella has not gotten a bigger chance. I would like to see Quaglia play Tuesday and rest Matri for Inter. The last big question is what do you do with the left back situation; do you give Chiellini another shot? For Tuesday I think you could see Sorensen and De Ceglie start as the outside backs with Del Piero playing more of a central forward position, with Vidal being rested or used late if necessary. I would also like to see Elia come on and I think it is very possible he start Tuesday. I hope that Tuesday will see Quaglia, Del Piero, and Elia start and somehow someone comes on to give Pirlo a rest. With games against two big rivals coming up, it’s going to be difficult to fix the issues that were so prevalent on Saturday. The forwards need to come up big to help take pressure off of the defense and midfield late in the game. It is extremely important that Juve walk away from these two games with six points or they could find themselves in a hole.

Napoli on the Decline: Are Napoli Showing Signs of a Potential Meltdown?

Yesterday saw Napoli play host to Bundesliga giants, Bayern Munich, in their third game of the Champions League. Thrown into a tough group, Napoli, up to this point, have answered the call with success. They not only were undefeated in the Champions League, with one win and one tie, they also had performed well in Serie A with some big wins against the Milan teams. Coming into this season there were doubts about whether Napoli could handle the pressure of playing in the Champions League and stay competitive in Italy. Napoli are a great team to get behind. They have an extremely loyal fan base, that packs their stadium every weekend and they play a very entertaining brand of football. Success in Europe would not only be great for the city of Naples but also for the country and the sport. Up until this week, there was little doubt about Napoli's chances to compete both domestically and internationally. However this Tuesday has shown that maybe Napoli aren't as ready for the challenge as previous expected.

This past Saturday, Napoli played host to Parma in a game that most Napoli faithful probably expected to win easily. Unfortunately that wasn't the case as a better team lost to an ever persistant Parma 2-1 on a late winner. Score-lines don't always reflect a game as Napoli had dominated possesion and outshot Parma. Napoli fans will certainly look at this game and think how did we not win, but the same will be said from the Munich fans who watched Tuesday's match at the San Paolo. Napoli were very fortunate to walk away with a point in a game that saw them get completely dominated. Napoli were out possessed and completely out shot, only registering 3 shots. The one goal they did score was an own goal on Munich defender Holger Badstuber. Napoli were lucky to hold on when goalkeeper, turned savior,Morgan De Sanctis came up with a massive save against a Mario Gomez pk. Fortunately for Napoli the whistle blew and the teams were all squared, unfortunately, poor defending allowed Manchester City to get all three points from Villarreal, meaning Napoli have only one more point over the Citizens.

Looking at these two results, the question should be asked, are Napoli on the decline? Ok, probably not. For any team that is playing in the Champions League for the first time in a long time, the adjustments are going to be hard. Napoli are trying to perform in both leagues and being drawn into group A doesn't allow them any rest. It would be different if Tuesday saw them play host to Apoel Nicosia (I don't mean to hate on the Cyprus FA, but lets be real) then they would probably play a little differently but instead they face teams that are full of some of the brightest talent in Europe. Furthermore, Munich are the best team in that group. I know about all the talk coming out of Manchester and they are a very talented team who I predicted to be serious competitors in both the EPL and Champions League, but people forgot about Munich early on. This is a team that is two years removed from the final in Madrid and who have consistently made it out of the group stage almost every time they are in the tournament. Napoli may not be as ready for the big games as was previously expected. If one thing this week alluded to, was that Napoli still have some flaws and aren't quite ready to be compared to the elites. Going further, they must find a way to better balance their players to give themselves the best shot at winning.

Serie A Back in Action, Goalless Draws for All.

This weekend saw the return of league action. For all the Juventus fans it was a much-anticipated weekend, just as every weekend is when your team hasn't played in two weeks and sit at the top of the table, however it proved to be a very dull Sunday. Defending Serie A to fans of other leagues, or to the people who watched one Manchester United game and now think they know everything about football, is always a difficult thing to do. This weekend makes it even that much more difficult. The stigma surrounding the Serie A is that teams don't score goals, but as it was brought to my attention by a podcast I listened to, that just isn't true. Unfortunately this weekend was one that hurt the leagues reputation. Comparing the EPL and Serie A from last year, the EPL didn't score that many more goals and the EPL had more 0-0 draws. However, this weekend saw an astonishing FIVE 0-0 draws, all on Sunday. Saturday saw three exciting games. Inter lose to Catania 2-1 and now sit tied with two of three teams in the relegation zone. The unfortunate side of this is that they are only 8 points back of league leaders Juventus and Udinese, so they still have a chance to right the ship and get back in the top, especially with every other team failing to win. Milan thrashed Palermo 3-0 at the Giuseppe Meazza. The upset of the weekend came in Napoli, where the ever persistant Parma took all three points, winning 2-1 on the road, all the while losing possession 65% to 35% and outshot 15 to 8. As good of a day Saturday was, Sunday proved to be the absolute opposite. The derby in the capital proved to be a good game with Lazio coming up on top after Klose scored a late winner for his fourth goal of the season. The only other game that didn't end in a 0-0 draw was Bologna winning 2-0 against Novara. Way up in Verona, Juventus were unable to get one goal in a very frustrating game.

The match started off very slow and it didn't pick up much. It appeared that neither team wanted to push up too hard in fear of leaving themselves exposed on the counterattack. The first half was a chess match, with both coaches trying to get a feel for the other's tactics. This was a very different game then two weeks ago when Juve did nothing but attack against Milan. Juve didn't really do any attacking in the whole first half. The second half started to pick up a little more. Marchisio had a great shot that went just wide of the post. Giaccherini came on for Krasic and added a little spark but the real spark came in the form of the one, the only, the legend, our capitan, Del Piero. Coming on in the 70th minute to a roar of applauses, it took him only a short time to make an impact on the game. In the 73rd minute Del Piero rose up and smashed a header right off the post. He also made a vital clearance off the line, to prevent what surely would have been a goal. However outside of this opportunity and a few others, there weren't many good shots on net and the game ended a 0-0 draw. There were some positives from this game as the defense once again looked solid, although Chievo didn't do much to test them and looked content settling with a draw. I would have really liked to see Quagliarella come on for Vucinic towards the end but the Giaccherini injury prevented a chance of a substitution in the attacking third. It is always good seeing the new faces take the pitch for the first time so I was glad to see Estigaribbia (expect the name to be misspelled) come on but due to time restraint and the overall flow of the game, he wasn't much of an addition. One can't be too mad at a draw because at least they didn't lose but they have really squandered some wonderful opportunities to pad their lead, especially on a week that saw Napoli and Inter (don't count them out yet) drop points.

World Cup 2014 post EURO Qualifiers

There are only four spots remaining for the EURO cup starting June 2012. Germany, Spain, Holland, England, Italy, France, Ukraine, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Greece, and Russia have already locked up a spot for the tournament. In the playoff games, Portugal faces Bosnia, the Czechs will play Montenegro, Estonia sees Ireland, and Croatia will play Turkey. Regardless of what happens in the playoff rounds, the results of the group qualifiers have altered the perception of the World Cup qualifiers coming up. The failures of certain teams to even qualify for the play-offs and the inclusion of a few surprise teams makes the 2014 World Cup qualifiers much different than from four months ago.

One of the biggest changes in appearance comes in the group headed up by Norway. At the time of the draw Norway was ranked by Fifa in the top 8 of all European teams, and were placed as a top spot. Their group also contains Slovenia and Switzerland two teams that were featured in the 2010 World Cup. However not one of those teams even made the knockout rounds. Norway finished third behind Denmark and Portugal in the tightest of the groups. Switzerland finished third one point behind Montenegro and Slovenia finished fourth behind Italy, Estonia, and Serbia. Re-evaluating this group, which was already weak to begin with, it now looks like a joke. Watching this group will be like watching a Champions League group consisting of Genk, Rubin Kazan, APOEL, and BATE.

Looking ahead for some other match ups, Ireland must really be feeling unlucky (again). They are paired up with Sweden and Germany. Germany had one of the best qualifications and Sweden, who finished second only to Netherlands, automatically qualified for the EURO as the best runner up, finishing with more points in the same amount of games as group winners France and Russia. The Czech Republic is another team that could make it to Ukraine and Poland but not Brazil, not that I actually think the Czechs are that good. However, both Ireland and Czech Republic have a chance to qualify for Euro, Ireland more than Czech and then will most likely be at home for the World Cup. Another group that was a weak to begin with that is now looking a little weaker is group A.

Group A may even be weaker than Group E (Norway's group). The group consists of Croatia, Serbia, Belgium, Scotland, Wales, and Macedonia. Croatia ended up second to Greece in a group that saw the next best competition being Israel. Furthermore I see them losing in the Euro playoff to Turkey, who finished second in a much harder group consisting of Germany, Belgium, and Austria. Serbia were highly talked about coming into South Africa having won their qualifying ahead of France but had a disappointing tournament, finishing last in their group. Coming into this Euro many people believed they would finish second and even compete with Italy for the top spot of group C. Somehow they failed to reach the playoff, finishing one point behind Estonia after losing 1-0 in their last decisive game against Slovenia. This is a very big disappointment for a team as talented as Serbia. Belgium are responsible for one of Germany's worst results in the Euro qualifying campaign, a 1-0 win in their first game, the only time Germany was held to only 1 goal. After that start they weren't able to keep up the pace and finished third, definitely regretting the two points they dropped on the 1-1 draw to Azerbaijan. Scotland and Wales were both placed in groups containing five teams and neither one could make the playoff round, Scotland losing out to Czech Republic for second and only finishing above the mighty Lithuania and Liechtenstein. Overall this group is looking to be a real nail bitter with every team having a chance.

Of course there is never going to be a perfect qualifying draw where every group is perfectly constructed. Also there is no transitive property and the teams that qualified for the Euro with stiff competition may not do nearly as well in the WC qualifiers, but it could also be possible to wait until after the Euro Cup qualifying has finished to get a better gage at how teams are performing. That way groups like A and E don't exist and teams like Ireland don't miss a tournament because of outside circumstances.