Bari Spam 2.0
(The new job of Fiorentina's captain: Standing around while the opposition celebrates.)
Hey, guess who didn't turn up, went behind before half, and spent the rest of the game not bothering! No prizes for saying "Fiorentina," since it's what they've been doing for a couple months now. In good news, Vlada was apparently awesome (!), and Carraro and Agyei both made their Serie A debuts and played fairly substantial time, with the latter particularly impressing the fans sites. So hurrah for old Serbs and babies!
BARI 2-0 FIORENTINA [highlights|Gazzetta pagelle|ratings table|season pagelle]
Marcatori: 36' Stellini, 50'st Rivas
Bari: Gillet; A.Masiello, Stellini, Bonucci, Parisi; Alvarez, Almiron (24' st Donati), Gazzi, S.Masiello; Barreto (38'st Rivas), Castillo (47' st Kamata).
Fiorentina: Avramov; De Silvestri, Natali, Felipe, Gobbi (30' Gamberini); Montolivo, Bolatti, Donadel (2' st Agyei); Marchionni, Jovetic, Ljajic (20' st Carraro).
Cesare was looking resigned from the moment he turned up.
The man knows nothing is going to go well anymore.
Cesare: *sits and prepares himself for the fail*
Look, Viola babies! Or, at least, the babies who weren't on the bench.
Not looking so happy to be there. (They're not stupid, they know this is going to be an en exercise in futility.)
32 traveling fans: *make half-hearted noises of encouragement*
Bari fans: *do magnificent things*
Jojo: *is blown away*
Check out MOTM Vlada, everyone!
He was blameless for the goals, and made some great saves -- I dunno what got into the guy, but he's going to spend all summer feeling awesome.
LDS and his tongue were on the right by default, what with Comotto being old and broken and all.
(For the record, the shitty quality pictures are from the fan site that usually has good ones. Apparently they've quit trying, too.)
According to most of the fan sites, he was not so good.
Neither, unsurprisingly, was Felipe.
The poor guy got to start in his proper position, for once, but Gobbi got hurt early, and Felipe ended up having to move back out to the left.
It sounds like Gobbi was actually doing well while he was on the pitch, but then he got broken and Gambit came in for him.
Gambit to whom more than one fan site gave a four -- I think getting sent off for dissent (and ref-touching) was the last straw in a shitty match.
You know a match is awful when Bolatti is one of the few Viola players about whom the fan sites have anything good to say.
(Why is everyone on this team apart from Vargas, Seb, and Natali so damn thin?)
Donadel started in the three-man midfield, and was apparently back to his worst.
According to one fan site, he easily could have had a red in the first half. Fabulous.
So Agyei replaced him very early in the second half, and did many good things. Go, babies!
With no target man on the pitch, Cesare played a 4-3-3, and Marco was one of the front three.
He was less shitty than some of this friends, and also set Jojo up for his best chance of the match.
Also, he did this.
Which, as far as ideas go, isn't bad, really. It's just not very useful when it comes to footballing success.
Adem got another start up top.
The fan sites want him to get tougher and more aggressive -- after yesterday, they were comparing him unfavorably to Agyei.
Call me crazy, but I think if his hair was less feathered, he's be tougher. It's hard to kick ass when you look like Andrew McCarthy.
Carraro replaced him with about 25 minutes left, played well, and promptly fractured his shoulder. DOH!
Has anyone seen Deconstructing Harry? You know when Robin Williams goes out of focus?
That's what these pictures make me think has happened to all of Fiorentina. Which would explain a lot, actually.
He's Jojo, so of course he tried.
But he put his best chance right at the keeper, and all the trying came to very little.
Damn, look at that hair.
Do you think he goes in and gets it cut once the season is over? Maybe? He and Adem can make it a date!
Poor Cesare. Look at him, he even got sorta dressed up, too.
(Final proof he and Mourinho really do share shoes: Jose had the brown suede on yesterday, so Cesare had to haul on his special, fancy pair.)
*pats* It's alright, Mister, your pain is over. Go take a nice, long nap.
There is one little bit of happy news to go with all the injuries and the two-game suspension with which Gambit will start the new season: Krol's signed a new contract so, rather than running off this summer, he will stay on through June 2012. Woo hoo!
The team are now heading out on a North American tour, after which they'll all go to sleep until training starts again on 15 July.