Il – ista 1

By: Michele | February 22nd, 2009

No Daniele does not mean no Danielista.

So after a miserable loss last week and just before a Champions League quarter final Roma was faced with Siena.
My prediction for this game was 0-0. It is the sort of game Roma loves to draw, it had all the elements;
A clash with a compact, well organized team which had beaten them in their last encounter, several key players out, an up-coming International clash and last but not least, a Roman inbetween the sticks on the other side of the pitch.
My prediction for MOTM was Curci.

Fortunately I was wrong (but not by much).

Roma 1 Siena 0

The First Half
A very, very slow start. Siena closed Roma down whenever they had the ball and Roma helped them out by playing some horrible passes. A midfield made up of Pizzaro, Brighi and Motta lacked muscle, confidence and drive – in short Daniele.
But there was more to Siena’s game plan; they also put a lot of effort into keeping the ball away from Totti. Baptista forced Curci to make a couple of smart saves and Motta whacked every cross he put into the area into the face of whoever was covering him. Riise made many forward runs down the left but was (justifiably?) ignored by his colleagues – Not good for his self esteem.
The whistle blew and now it was up to Spal to motivate the troops.
Things were looking bad.
In fact my last note reads -
11 men behind the ball, Totti nowhere,long balls to the ghost of Mirko, Motta looks out of position, no one going up……..

The Second Half
Shockingly it didn’t look like Spal had hyped them up.
On top of that 2 Brazilians went down – Juan and Cici – and Mexes looked in some pain (shoulder) after an awkward landing.
So we are treated to two cameos; Diamoutene and Filipe. First appearance for both.
(How must Loria have felt? Facing his former club and not ever 3rd choice center back… The shame.)
Then Taddei popped up and scored a beautiful goal. God bless you Rodrigo.
The rest of the game was very tense with Roma looking as over run as a sandcastle at high tide.
Mexes saved Roma twice with some world-starting-XL tackles and Filipe went on a bit of a nice run.
Then Montella came on and we had one youth team player, one brand new defender and one passed his best veteran.
Hollywood ending with Montella fighting hard up front (looking better than Totti had) and Doni making some saves at the back.
3 Points!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MOTM - ~~Curci~~ Mexes

Interviews-

Spal - Is happy, it doesn’t take much.

Fighting words from Er Pupone.

Other -
The end of that other -ista.
Hope their back soon.

How goal thinks Curci did.
Curci – 8.0: An outstanding performance by the former Roma keeper in this match, as he single handedly kept his side in it with a number of stunning saves. He brilliantly denied Baptista on 26 and 28 minutes in the first half, and there was nothing he could do to prevent the goal. His world class save to deny Montella after 85 minutes gave his side one last chance in the closing stages.
He wasn’t that good but he was good.

All in all a very man u style victory for the team but who cares.
Next up arse-anal (feel free to use that) and the return of Daniele, who with Juan out will have to be at his defensive best.
Should Panucci have been left on the list?

FORZA ROMA

Michele