Europa stalemate, Catania date
By: Stephen | November 6th, 2010We’re back to Serie A action tomorrow after Thursday’s frustrating encounter with Metalist in the Europa League. The goal simply wouldn’t come despite Samp laying siege to the Ukrainian box – there were goalline clearances, penalty claims denied, slips at crucial moments and, in the end, a 0-0 draw that means the PSV game at the beginning of December will decide whether we advance to the next round or not.
The Cassano saga is rumbling on. Former Samp legend Vincenzo Montella has added in his two cents, suggesting that the simple fact that Cassano has been apologising so genuinely means he’s deserving of a second chance. Samp fans, interestingly, are divided down the middle on this issue. A survey on sampdorianews.net suggests that nearly 37% of the 592 that voted fully support Samp President Riccardo Garrone in his efforts to get Cassano out, whereas about 39%, yours truly included, are with Fant’Antonio. Pop along and share your opinion.
As for Sunday, we’ll be hosting Catania without Franco Semioli and Nicola Pozzi. This is likely to mean a start for young Guido Marilungo, provider of an excellent assist for Pazzini’s late winner at Cesena last week. The Italy U-21 international was on loan at Lecce last season, and his thirteen goals were pivotal in the giallorossi’s promotion from Serie B. Such form comes at a price – attention from Roberto Mancini at Manchester City. Maybe when he finally gets sacked, the constant speculation linking City with just about every in-form Samp player will come to an end.
Guido and Antonio getting to know each other
Our lack of options up front also mean a place in the squad for Bruno Fornaroli. The Uruguayan hasn’t appeared in a Samp shirt for almost two years due to loan spells in Argentina and Spain with San Lorenzo and Recreativo Huelva respectively. Perhaps the semi-regular football he saw back in the Spanish-speaking world will have prepared him for life back in Serie A.
As for Catania, they are winless since September and winless on the road since February. The recent goalfest in the Coppa Italia against Varese aside, their games have been decidedly low-scoring – only sixteen altogether in the nine Serie A games to date. Samp’s recent encounters have been similarly sparse on the goalscoring front – couple that with our depleted strikeforce and you’ve got a game that’s going to be decided by a single goal, if at all.
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Comments
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A survey on sampdorianews.it suggests that nearly 37% of the 592 that voted fully support Samp President Riccardo Garrone in his efforts to get Cassano out, whereas about 39%, yours truly included, are with Fant’Antonio.
By my rough calculations, that’s 76%. What about the rest of the people?
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Sorry Kabir, I had intended to put in a link to the survey – have edited the post. 15% said ‘it seemed like Cassano had changed, but maybe he hasn’t”, and 9% said ‘if things aren’t going well at Samp, maybe it’s time for a change’.
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