Phew!

By: Stephen | November 2nd, 2009

Samp 0-0 Bari

This was a tough one to call pre-kickoff. How would Samp react to the demolition at Juve, and what about Bari’s excellent away form (including two draws in the San Siro against Milan’s finest) so far this season?

In the end, Samp were lucky to escape with the point. The last five minutes of the game were everything that the previous eighty-five had not been – pulsating, exciting, eventful, completely and totally dominated by Bari. Castellazzi’s lunge at Barreto should have resulted in a red card for the Samp keeper, but in the end he stayed on the pitch to see the penalty sail wide of his left post as he lay prone on his right side.

And, of course, as the eternal optimist, I had a vision of Cassano picking the ball up straight from the kick-off, jinking around two befuddled Bari defenders before dropping a perfect cross onto Pazzini’s head for Samp to steal a almost barely arguably possibly maybe deserved victory (making slightly more chances means you deserve to win, right?).

Instead, Bari were the ones pushing forward, and Bari were the ones who dropped in a perfect cross and Bari were the ones who stole the points for an almost deserved victory, only for the referee’s assistant to incorrectly raise his flag for offside. It was almost embarrassing.

Either way, definitely a point gained.

Perhaps more worrying than the last minute chaos party in the Sampdoria box were the boos for Cassano at the final whistle. True, he has been a little off colour for the last couple of games, but booing him? The man has done more for this team than anyone else over the last decade, and I don’t just mean on the pitch. He was the first high-profile signing since the return from Serie B and lent us a level of class and glamour at a time when when we needed it most. I have a feeling that he was a little stung by the Bari manager’s comments before the game, claiming that he his not as good a player since he has moved on from his bad-boy act. Cassano’s response to the minority of booing cretins was quite a throwback to those good old days: “Qui si sono abituati troppo bene . Si sono abituati a mangiare la Nutella e appena devono mangiare un po’ di m**** si comportano in questa maniera.” – “They have it too good here. They’re used to eating Nutella and just when they have to eat a little bit of s**t, they behave like that”.

This, coupled with a veiled threat to leave, is slightly worrying business for Samp. Of course, Cassano will leave us sooner rather than later, but having an irritated Cassano on the books certainly would be in no-one’s interests. So, a bit of appeasement for Fant’antonio, please.