Celebration and preparation

By: Rolf | March 7th, 2009

So, it’s been nearly a week since we edged out Milan and three days since we steamrollered Inter.
And not a word from me. Shame. Fact is, I’m over the moon at the moment, seeing as a number of extremely pleasing situations have come into place…
-We’ve beaten Milan.
-We’ve destroyed Inter.
-The goal twins are back.

No Doriani can disagree about the first two, but the third one? Are Pazzini and Cassano really the new Vialli and Mancini. In my eyes, the answer is a resounding YES THEY BLOODY WELL ARE!
When you think about how deadly this partnership as been so far it’s almost scary.
The Goal Twins.2 have so far scored 9 goals, and they seem to get better for every game, their level of understanding culminating in the Interslaughter, and hopefully continuing tomorrow when we face a tough away trip to Bologna.
But first, a little comment on my, oh to hell with it, most Doriani’s dream of a trophy.
Or more precisely, the Coppa trophy. One might say that the Coppa has lost all of it’s earlier prestige, something I partly agree with, and that a Coppa triumph will mean little, which I don’t agree with at all. Trophy is trophy no matter what, and the Coppa Italia is our only way back into the UEFA Cup, but there’s also the sentimental value to consider. We haven’t won anything in over 10 years, and to see this Sampdoria team lift a trophy would be a dream come true.

But, back to Bologna.
Bologna seemed to be on the up after Mihajlovic took over, but have slumped a bit recently, only taking 1 point from their last 5 matches. Time is running out for Bologna and since they’ll go to Juve next week they need a result from this. And so the question is, will they?
Di Vaio seems to have run out of steam, and with him so has the entire Bologna squad.
This will be a game where I dare to say all we have to do is focus like hell and avoid slip-ups to get 3 points. Cassano and Pazzini will do their thing and if the rest of the players can just do their job properly then I can see another victory here.
The only factor that might prove an upset is former Doria man Mihajlovic. Welcome back Sinisa.

Our present “missing players” situation is this: Delvecchio and Lucchini are both out with injuries and Palombo, Padalino and Franceschini are suspended.
Bologna have Cesar, Paonessa (who?) and Osvaldo out(I’m extremely happy he’s out for this game).

Probable line-up: Castellazzi; Raggi, Lucchini, Accardi; Stankevicius, Sammarco, Dessena, Ziegler, Pieri; Pazzini, Cassano

Key battles:
The Goal Twins.2 vs Antonioli and The Mihajlovic Guard = So we have two unstoppable forwards vs a very good keeper and four defenders who knows there will be hell to pay if they fuck this up.
Mihajlovic will need to come up with something extraordinary to inspire/terrify his defenders to prevent us from scoring more than at least one.

Marco Di Vaio vs Sampdoria = Alright Bologna do have some other god players. Really. I just can’t seem to come up with anyone else than Marco Di Vaio. The guy has got 16 goals so far but doesn’t seem to be able to keep it up to the end of the season. Good for us.

Predictions: If Di Vaio and The Goal Twins.2 keeps doing what they’ve been doing over the last 4 weeks then I struggle to see how we can lose this. We might get unlucky and draw but a loss would really require something special.

Game: Bologna 0-1 Sampdoria
Goals: Cassano 64′
MOTM: Cassano

FORZA DORIA PER SEMPRE!