THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[Italiamia]

[maro]

[Italiamia]

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[Italiamia]

[red]

[maro]

[maro]

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[Lupa]

[Carlo Romano]

Lupa, Andrew, Tom, Gio: what we find attractive and under which circumstances...

Other than on tv I've never seen Sydney's Manly Beach. Likewise the west coast of the USA, and nor either have I seen dolphins in real life doing what they love to do - play! They are born entertainers and seem to thrive on human attention. I find that fascinating.

As for finding an ideal solitude, a place to gather one's thoughts...

I'll never forget when I was 12 years old, listening to Andy Williams sing about about how it's possible to feel totally alone in a crowd in one of his big hits at the time. When I got older I realised that can also apply even when you know some of the people. I don't mind being alone, having my space to get my act together, in fact there are times I welcome it. Most importantly for me though is the realising that if I'm alone through my own choice, then I also know that when I'm ready to rejoin the human race I will have have people in my life who will be pleased to see me. I need that to make my solitude therapeutic.

But...though I can take some pleasure from being on a deserted beach, having been a night owl all my life I'll choose this buzzing metropolis any time! The city by night has a unique magic and this being a coastal city has the proverbial icing on the cake.





btw, I was watching the Roma Uno channel earlier and they were showing film clips from Brunico.

Totti seemed preoccupied, Taddei was doing some pretty nifty party tricks with a ball for the camera, and various others just seemed to be going about their excercises in a relaxed fashion.

Adriano however worries me. Football Italia said today he has dropped 5 kilos in weight and he still has another five to lose before being at an acceptable weight. I don't know where those five kilos were lost from but the guy looks every bit as bad now as he did on his first day at Trigoria. If he really wants to he will get there, but it will be further away than the target of the start of the new season which is what the club medical staff want us to believe.

[vtec]

[loazzi]

I saw a good part of the friendly today (anybody else see it?). Very difficult to draw any conclusions against such a weak side but one positive is that I saw a very motivated Adriano. Yes, there is still a lot of him to be seen, but if he stays motivated, he should be able to get pretty close to being in shape by the start of Serie A.

The more I'm thinking about it, the more I think a 4-3-3 could be a devastating formation for this Roma. We have 5 guys that I would rotate as the 3 forwards (Totti, Adriano, Vucinic, Menez and Okaka). Take a combination of any of those three and imagine the headaches they would cause opposing defenses (especially when Totti and Adriano are fully fit). At least one of these guys is going to have some serious freedom/space, depending on whom the defense focuses. In the midfield, we would have to choose 3 from DDR, Pizarro, Simplicio, Perrotta, Brighi and Taddei. Again, I can see some pretty nice/balanced combination possibilities there. We get Burdisso back, and get a decent vice-Riise and I think the sky could be the limit.

[maro]

[Deini]

[Carlo Romano]

'Tec, it isn't really a yarn my friend, it's a part of my attitude to life!



loazzi, I wasn't expecting that game against Riscone di Brunico to be televised so I only caught the last 35 or so minutes. The Roma Uno channel is going to show our next friendly so I'll have to hope I have time to see it!

I saw highlights of all the goals even though I missed over half of the match, and my pick of them was Vuci's dramatic high swerving volley into the roof of the net which reminded me very much of Diego Forlan's beautiful free kick in the World Cup...the difference being Vučinić was on the move and scored from open play. Okaka has to stay, enough of this loan business. With the rotation system, surely he can be given playing time? Young Greco really impressed me too, a very promising attacking midfielder and I hope we don't let him go! We've made enough mistakes along those lines already! Cerci always seems busy but doesn't achieve all you hope he will. Saying that, he did fine even though we were only playing the local skidmarks...

Adri still looks too much more like Smokin' Joe Frazier than a footballer for my liking. But I can't deny he seems to want to make progress.

The trouble with these matches is they are more like exhibitions for the fans and therefore you can't get a completely accurate assessment of what actually is as opposed to what appears to be. Don't get me wrong, I think there is an amount of pleasure to be had in watching our players show more of their individual skills because they have that split second longer on the ball that they wouldn't get against better opposition but it will never replace, for me at least, the fascination of a chess match type technical and tactical battle.



Tommaso, the Radio Radio tv channel showed that interview. I couldn't belive my luck in seeing two of my life's heroes, Pruzzo and Conti actually discussing current Roma affairs, even if it was in light hearted fashion and little more than stating the obvious. Conti as we know hardly seems to have aged at all. Getting used to Roberto Pruzzo's grey image with his goatee beard after the dark and menacing looks of his younger years when he was our star bomber takes an amount of doing by comparison!



Deini, I hope that is just a rumour. Angelucci? Hell, that could be like going back to the days of Ciarrapico.

[arthurfonzarelli]

[loazzi]

[maro]

[Giacomo]