Viola: Week from Hell
(Exasperated but still rocking the purple like few others can.)
I did not see this match, which seems like it was a blessing in disguise: Apart from Liverani and Frey, everyone else was slain in the papers that hand out grades -- people who managed 5.5s were the luck ones.
Obviously, Cagliari have been playing incredibly well and La Viola have struggled away from home all season, so it was never going to be an automatic victory, but it sounds like they were just flat awful. They had chances, most of them created by Liverani, but the strikers (Hi, Princess.) were back to not finishing, and the defense was dangerously soft, as well.
So fourth place is Milan's by a single point, and Fiorentina are basically going to have to win out now, and hope Milan drop points.
Cagliari 2 - 1 Fiorentina
Jeda 21 (C), Conti 52 (C), Santana 53 (F); Sent off: Mutu 91 (F)
Cagliari: Storari; Pisano (Ferri 71), Lopez, Canini, Agostini (Del Grosso 79); Biondini, Conti, Fini; Cossu (Foggia 63); Jeda, Matri
Fiorentina: Frey; Ujfalusi, Gamberini, Kroldrup, Pasqual (Liverani 29); Gobbi, Donadel (Santana 46), Kuzmanovic; Semioli (Osvaldo 60), Pazzini, Mutu
Cesare has a new Viola top.
Do you like? He hopes so. He's frightfully proud of it, you see.
So proud, in fact, that he got all distracted putting the rest his clothes on, and wore very bad shoes by accident.
it was a lovely day away from home on which to ... be very bad at football.
Donadel recovered from the knock he picked up against Rangers, but was only fit enough for 45 minutes.
He wasn't very good, apparently, but then neither was anyone else, and most of them are supposed to be 100% healthy.
Like, you know, this guy.
Who was so bad that, across eight papers and one fan site, I've not yet found a grade over 4.5.
I mean, ouch.
And we just ... won't talk about the sending off. *pats him*
Monty was suspended, so Gobbi moved to the midfield, and Pasqual got his second start in a row at left back.
I assume Pasqual picked up a knock and wasn't subbed just for being bad, but whatever the reason he went off after less than half an hour.
Liverani came on for him and was Fiorentina's best player but, since there are no pictures of him whatsoever, you'll have to imagine his genius.
Including an incredible chip he played to this guy late in the match.
(Needless to say, the Princess failed to even put the resulting shot on goal. *siiiigh*)
Gambit seems to have been pulled into the vortex of suck less than most of his teammates.
It was probably relative, though -- he was playing next to Krol who had a shocker, so of course Gambit looked good.
Poor Krol.
He's not played in so long, and the first notable thing he does is to let a midget score over him on a set play.
NOT a good day at the office.
Gobbi played back there with them, too.
His suck was not spectacular, it doesn't sound like, but it wasn't exactly the sort of performance we've come to expect (either from him or his scruffy facial hair).
HAI KUZI! (Also not good.)
You wouldn't know it from the pictures, but Pubes got his first start since coming back from injury. (He was bad.)
Osvi came on for him for the last 30 minutes or so, and he was better, but only marginally so.
The third sub was Santana.
He only played the second half.
Twas more than enough time for him to score, though, and to get his RAWR on.
And then there was Seb.
He was both awesome (as usual) and hugely annoyed (as is also common).
And ... that's it. See? I told you the pictures sucked. I'm sure there aren't more, or at the very least a few that aren't crappy.
Well, wait, there is this:
It's blurry like a picture of Bigfoot, but someone's naked. Santana?
Home to a very desperate Parma Sunday, which is a frightening prospect. Hopefully the home cooking will sort out some of the recent problems, and the boys will at least give themselves a chance to catch Milan.