Viola: Doom! Gloom!
(Screwed.)
All things considered, the match actually went pretty well. The Viola had a great start but cooled off eventually and had fairly limited chances -- Roma were always the better team and pretty dominant even before Mutu went off, but without his little bursts of creativity, it was going to take something pretty special/lucky to break through. They never did, but they also never quit, and a 0-1 result is definitely nothing to be ashamed of.
Kuzi was absolutely fantastic, which was a huge bonus -- he hit the bar once, went close a coupled times, and just never stopped running. (Dear Monty: Plz to be learning from the youngster's game-length attention span. Thank you.)
[Also check out Marie's mega-spam of the match. As you might expect, there's a bit overlap.]
Roma 1 - 0 Fiorentina
Cicinho 54 (R)
Roma: Doni; Cicinho, Ferrari, Mexes, Tonetto; De Rossi, Aquilani; Taddei (Perrotta 62), Vucinic (Cassetti 67), Giuly (Pizarro 79); Totti
Fiorentina: Frey; Kroldrup, Ujfalusi, Gamberini, Gobbi; Kuzmanovic, Jorgensen, Montolivo (Cacia 68); Semioli, Vieri, Mutu (Papa Waigo 43)
Tifosi. (My favorite is the purple strawberry banner. WTF?)
[If anyone from Roma-Addict is around here and wants these down, like me know and I'll remove them.]
Ex-Roma gaffer/current Roma gaffer love.
Look, Bobo!
You could tell he'd been out with injury for a few weeks -- the old boy was a bit rusty.
Is that Roman punk laughing at Bobo?!
Check it out, he can still jump!
He had a great shot on the turn in the first half, and settled in a bit more in the second.
Yeah, TI. Nice try.
Oh, Bobo. *pats the bad haircut*
[Imploring.]
Mutu was an odd sort of lively, until he got hurt. (DDR felt threatened.)
He wasn't finishing anything, but he was on fire with the ball at his feet, beat people right and left.
Yes, even this one.
(God he looks tall here. Matty must be really far away.)
Thinking/checking out someone's ass.
And then this happened.
His knee bent the wrong way, screwing up his MCL enough that he'll miss about a month.
Yeah, he knew it was bad.
Cesare was resigned.
Papa Waigo came on for Mutu, and made his first appearance for the club.
He's fast as hell.
And definitely had some threatening moments, despite not being that sharp.
Ujfi becoming very sure that Totti is a prick.
Ujfi struggled a bit -- he's not so fast, and Vucinic rather is.
And, apparently, very strong despite being half his size.
Successfully getting in his way!
(Doing his best pigeon impression. Can't you just see him, tottering from side to side?)
Gamberini, meanwhile, was quite good.
And he definitely had to be, what with Gobbi being a sieve on the left, and Ujfi being troublesome on the right.
(The sieve.)
Gambit and Kroldrop spent a lot of time covering for their friends.
(Or, in the case of Krol, sniffing Totti. Gross.)
Kuzi was freaking awesome.
He's only 20, you know. I may have mentioned that a time or two.
(Surveying his domain.)
Such a pimp -- look how scared Ferrari is.
(And how intrigued Taddei is. Ech.)
Beating the pint-sized Frenchie.
*sigh* Monty.
Monty continues to have the urgency and attention span of a gnat.
(On of the moments in which he paid slightly attention.)
Pubes!
He had a good first half but was quieter in the second with Mutu gone. (Still managed to touch Aquilani a lot, though. That's something.)
Jorgy!
(He was Liverani on the day. Not sure why Liverani wasn't Liverani, but there you go.)
Aw, Cacia! (He came on late as a second out-and-out striker. Totally didn't work.)
Coolest. Keeper. Ever.
Nothing at all he could do about the goal, it went off about four different people in the box.
And he made this great save on Totti, who was in alone.
Yeah, that's what I thought.
Thanking the tifosi. Notice Frey's bright yellow boots, following Mexes from what he thinks is a discrete distance.
Home to Livorno Wednesday, hopefully with Osvaldo in Mutu's position, assuming Osvi can get healthy by then. After that comes the week from hell: Juve and Everton, without the guy who has scored all the goals. Time to earn your money, Princess!