Viola: Oops.
(God dammit.)
I think there are about 194 Tuscan derbies every season, give or take, and Fiorentina had won all of theirs to this point in the season, so of course it was inevitable that things would fall apart this weekend. I was out of town and haven't watched the match yet, but from what I can tell La Viola didn't play particularly badly, they just didn't finish (including, as usual, Pazzini, who missed the goal entirely from about four yards), and went down to an absolutely stunning free kick by Baldy Maccarone.
So now, rather than being a point out of third, Fiorentina are just a point ahead of Milan for fourth. The good news is that no one else got hurt yesterday (yes, I'm grasping at straws), and Mutu is chomping at the bit to get back on the pitch -- it sounds like he could start training again later this week.
Siena 1 - 0 Fiorentina
Maccarone 80 (S)
Siena: Manninger; Rossettini, Portanova, Loria, De Ceglie; Kharja, Codrea (Galloppa 8); Coppola, Locatelli (Vergassola 57); Maccarone, Frick (Rigano 85)
Fiorentina: Frey; Potenza, Gamberini, Dainelli, Pasqual (Kuzmanovic 66); Montolivo, Donadel, Gobbi; Santana, Pazzini (Cacia 73), Papa Waigo (Jorgensen 46)
Despite the away game and wet weather, the tifosi were out in force.
There was polite hand-shaking, and then it was on.
Cesare had a new beanie for the occasion, and was hoping the power of purple pleather who bring his boys three points.
With Osvi suspended, Papa Waigo got the start.
(Check it out, he's already got his own banners!)
He didn't set the world on fire, but did continue his trend of setting Pazzini up for a perfect shot in every match, only to have the princess miss.
Jorgy came on at the half, because Papa Waigo picked up sort of a minor knock.
Santana started opposite Papa Waigo, in the Semioli spot.
Even though he excused Pazzini's awful miss, Cesare was not real happy with Santana's performance.
(See?)
He said he would have taken him off early, had Papa Waigo not been injured and needed replacing. Ouch.
(From a personal perspective, I don't like when Santana, Gobbi and Potenza all play together. From certain angles, they're REALLY hard to tell apart.)
Potenza. (Ok, this doesn't really help my case, but try to picture him from a different angle.)
Gobbi. See? In small, weird angle pictures, one can get confused. Seriously!
(Cesare agrees with me, so shut up.)
So, Pazzini.
Based on the pictures, he spent a lot of time bouncing off Loria in and around the Siena box.
Well, Loria and others.
To be fair, early in the match he was lively, and created a lot of chances.
Look at the prancing!
The problem was that the chances inevitably ended this way.
Or this way.
(Or this way.)
To deal with his frustration, the princess tried to get all aggro, but was denied by the meddling official. (Thank god.)
He ended up standing alone, fretting.
"Don't cry, Giampaolo. I got your back, I really do."
Ok, the combination of this, and the fact that after the game he said he wasn't going to sleep for several days makes me feel guilty for mocking. *sigh* But, seriously. COME ON, MAN. Hit the freaking goal!
(Cacia came on for Pazzini and didn't really have time to make an impression, but he still looks like a pretty bird.)
Donadel, on the other hand, made a MOTM-sized impression on most of the papers.
Granted, his performance was maybe the best of a bunch of average ones, but still.
"Go, Ariel! GO!"
He's really, really playing well lately -- and yesterday it was even without Kuzi for most of the match.
(Gobbi started for Kuzi, who only played about 25 minutes, presumably to give the Serb some rest before Everton.)
Word on the street is that Monty was pretty good, as well.
Hopefully he can keep up this new trend of actually paying attention once Mutu comes back.
If he can get it together, a midfield of Monty, Kuzi and Donadel is potentially pretty awesome.
Imagine all the shooting from long range he and Kuzi will get up to if they're both confident at the same time!
As far as I've been able to find out, Dainelli did NOT trying to kill Seb with any backpasses yesterday. Woo hoo!
I don't know what was going on with the backs during that match, but there are a lot of alarming crotch close-ups in the pictures.
SEE?!
Pasqual, reassuringly, kept his junk to himself.
He was apparently too busy working a new, Ruby-approved look with his socks to get excited.
"Oi, Pasqual! You've been hurt too much this season. Get up, dammit."
Sometimes Frey looks really, really French to me.
Then, at other times, he looks like Wolverine. What's up with your hair, Seb?
The goal was amazing.
Seb actually got his hand to it, but it was bending, and was moving so freaking fast there was really nothing he could do.
*sigh*
The good news is that Maccarone pulled an Osvaldo and got sent off from taking his shirt off, but 10 minutes of playing a man up weren't enough for La Viola.
They coped by taking off their clothes.
(Notice that Jorgy has the Hot!Clapping thing down just as well as Ujfi. I wonder if they practice.)
And, of course, there were tifosi to thank.
And players to comfort. Oh, Cesare. &hearts
Next match is Everton away on Thursday, probably without Mutu still, but Liverani will probably be back for the trip. It sounds like Mutu is fighting to be back for Genoa on Sunday, which would be a huge lift for the team, whether they admit it for not. A decision will be made early this week -- fingers ceremonially crossed, please.