and what a night it was…

By: Alberico | September 19th, 2008

My daydreams turned into a reality. I dreamed for Bonazzoli to wake up from his hibernation and he did scoring two typical striker goals. I dreamed of Cassano having one of those nights that you always want from your superstar on European playing grounds, and he did, as he owned the field moving through, around, and any other way past defenders and scoring two wonderful goals. I have been dreaming of Fornaroli getting his chance, and he got, and boy did he take advantage of it as he “wow-ed” the fans, scoring a goal, and having the entire stadium chant his name. This is what i hope the first of many nights like this and there will be more, as this 5-0 thrashing of Kaunas basically guarantees our passage to the group stage barring a disaster on October 2nd in Lithuania, such as a civil war or stomach viruses to every single Samp player.

Let me talk a little about the actual game. First I start with the end of the game as Mazzarri’s first words were “This team [Kaunas] is the team that knocked out Rangers.” This was not supposed to end 5-0. This was supposed to be a tense match from a physical Lithuanian team that is deadly on the counter. However Sampdoria had different intentions. We were looking for our first win of the season, plus the fact we were at home, plus the fact that we wanted this European experience so bad. Within the first 10 minutes you knew that if Samp could grab the early lead, the game would be theirs. After Palombo’s crossbar, Bonazzoli’s goal came and he finally broke out of the slump. After that, Kaunas still today doesn’t know what happened. Sampdoria just dominated on all aspects of the game and in all areas of the pitch. The whole team deserved this victory and it showed.

What i was most happy about was that all three forwards scored. Bonazzoli got the goals he needed and should be more confident (despite having to sit down at practice today after getting a knock to the thigh mid way through the training), Cassano was himself again, and Fornaroli showed more touches of his youthful talent and brilliance, he definitely has a future here. This team can go places and it will take less time than last year. Last year was Mazzarri’s first at the helm and the players needed to learn his philosophy and tactics and the fruit of the tree was finally seen in the second half of the season. This season, we have alot of returning players and some new ones therefore it will take much less time which is good. We are definitely one of the top7 best sides in Italy, we just need that one elusive ingredient…CONSISTENCY! Mazzarri will get it.

But for today, I will keep enjoying this win and morale should be high and Chievo hopefully will be trounced and squashed like an insect. This was the win we needed to jumpstart these next few weeks were we play like 7 games in 22 days, our first tour de force! BRING IT ON. And as always, hats off to the ultras in the SUD, what a show they put on every game.
FORZA MAGICA DORIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! See you on Sunday after SAMP wins 3-0!

ENJOY THE HIGHLIGHTS

Sampdoria 5
Kaunas 0
GOALS: 14th and 22nd Bonazzoli, 36th and 56th Cassano; 91st Fornaroli.

Sampdoria (3-5-2): Mirante; Lucchini, Gastaldello, Bottinelli; Stankevicius, Delvecchio, Palombo (79th Dessena), Sammarco, Pieri (46th. Ziegler); Cassano (59th Fornaroli), Bonazzoli. RESERVES: Castellazzi, Franceschini, Mustacchio, Marilungo. COACH: Walter Mazzarri.

Kaunas (4-5-1): Dreer; Radzius, Baguzis (46th Rikmevicius), Kancelskis, Manchkhava; Zubavicius, Ivaskevicius (79th Arouri), Mendy, Zelmikas, Luksa; Ledesma. RESERVES: Vertelis, Valskis, Fridikas, Cinikas, Mamic. COACH: José Couceiro.
Referee: Tannerq (ENG).

Notes: RED CARD 86th Luksa (KAU); YELLOW CARDS: 16th Mendy (KAU), 44th Luksa (KAU), 54th Dreer (KAU), 85th Sammarco (SAM)
ATTENDANCE– 18.000