Viola: Who Needs a Nap?
(Edy wishes he had 1/4 the love Cesare gets from supporters.)
Based on the highlights I've been able to find and the grades they got from all the papers, Fiorentina were very, very flat yesterday, apart from Mutu (who just had a long rest and ought to be all chipper). They're playing a lot of matches lately -- I can't find the numbers, but I think it's like 12 matches in the last 42 days, or something insane -- and are obviously tired but, as Saint Cesare said (in Italian, and much more eloquently) after the match: So what. A match every three days is what you're gonna get if you get into Europe every season.
So, Napoli were better last night, and Fiorentina made mistakes on both goals (Dainelli on the first, when he totally lost Lavezzi right in front of goal, and Frey on the second, when he was confused by a bounce), which didn't help. La Viola had some chances, most of them through Mutu, but from what I can tell they never really got back into the match after those two quick goals.
Thankfully, Milan lost, too, so the lead on them is still four points.
Napoli 2 - 0 Fiorentina
Lavezzi 23, 31 (N)
Napoli: Gianello; Santacroce, Cannavaro, Domizzi, Mannini, Blasi, Gargano, Hamsik (Pazienza 80), Savini, Lavezzi (Bogliacino 89), Calaiò (Sosa 68)
Fiorentina: Frey; Ujfalusi, Kroldrup, Dainelli (Potenza 64), Pasqual, Kuzmanovic, Donadel, Liverani (Papa Waigo 46), Montolivo, Osvaldo (Cacia 55), Mutu
Cesare was working the pleather, as usual.
(Edy wanted to know where he got it, and if they had baby blue ones there.)
"Gentlemen! TO THE PITCH!" (When they all looked at him and yawned, he knew it was going to be a long night.)
All available evidence indicates Mutu was by far Fiorentina's best player.
MOTM in all five or six papers the fan sites track, though of course it's all relative -- since everyone else was half-dead, Mutu's sort of being damned with faint praise.
But he did hit the bar once with a header.
And also had what looked like a perfectly good goal called back for a phantom foul by Ujfi.
You wouldn't know it from looking at the pictures, but Osvi and his hair started (and were ineffective) alongside Mutu.
Cacia replaced him just before the hour mark, but his only impact seems to have been on Mutu, when they got in one another's way in the Napoli box.
For some reason, Cesare decided to deal with the four in-form midfielders problem by playing all of them, behind only two strikers.
According to what I can find, Monty played in the hole behind Osvi and Mutu, but it's hard to tell how well the system worked, since no one really played.
(Shiny thighs. Is there anyone on this team who isn't totally hairless?)
Midfielder number two was Donadel.
He was pretty much like everyone else: There.
And then there as Liverani, who sits in and tries to open things up for other people.
(It didn't go very well yesterday.)
Papa Waigo came in for Liverani at half and La Viola switched to their usual 4-3-3, but it didn't help things much.
KUZI!!!!
Like everyone else, he was struggling and apparently gave the ball away a lot. *pats him*
Disco!Serb.
Meanwhile, behind the midfield, things really weren't going well.
Pasqual actually got some 4.5s in his scores, so you know it was ugly on the right.
Krol was equally bad, which explains his hiding from the cameras.
Captain Dainelli was totally to blame for Napoli's first goal, and was so bad he was replaced in the second half by Potenza (I assume this means Ujfi moved over to the middle, but I don't know for sure.)
Ujfi who also, yes, was unimpressive.
(I like to think this illicit, mid-match kiss was part of the problem, but I suppose there's a chance it could have been after the whistle.)
All the sleepiness in front of him didn't bode well for poor Seb in the Fiorentina net.
A perfect cross came in from the right (Pasqual was miles behind), and Dainelli had no idea where Lavezzi was, leaving him wide open and alone in front of net.
(Look at Pasqual in the background. Hee.)
On the second goal, Lavezzi just hit a speculative shot from long range, and Seb dove to his left and was beaten by the bounce, which went right over him.
*sigh* Not a good day for anyone. (Though Lavezzi doing a Michael Jackson move is pretty cute.)
(Like Pasqual on the first one, Liverani has NO idea how that happened.)
Cesare does, but doesn't think this is the time or place.
So he just hugged Edy goodbye and called it a night.
Pazzini was on the bench but didn't play because of what Cesare described as a muscle problem, I assume he'll be back for Lazio on the weekend, as should be Semioli, who I think was nearly fit for yesterday's match. Hopefully there will be a lot of Viola goals this weekend, because the thought of Dainelli and Krol against Lazio's hugely confident attack isn't making me feel like a shutout is likely, even at home.
In good news, Frey is in Domenech's (massive) provisional squad for France's friendlies next week, and Osvi's in the Azzurrini team for their upcoming qualifier against Azerbaijan. WOO HOO (x2)!