THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[RomaShield27]

Away to Rubentus, Lupa, Borriello was on the panchina, in favour of Totti and Vucinic. He's also been relatively injury free compared to the other two.

[maro]

Was that the game after which Ranieri said that Borriello would have scored from that cross Menez drove in and hinted strongly that he regretted not starting him and that because he's the only one of our forwards with those sorts of prima punta characteristics he'd be likely to be a fixed point in the attack from then on?

[maro]

Maybe not. All I can find is this:
Non è facile scegliere tra i 4? Borriello è l’unico che ci da la profondità, quando ci manca Vucinic e Menez devono attaccare gli spazi e non sempre lo fanno.

[RomaShield27]

I don't know. Each of our forwards has different characteristics and different abilities and ways of playing, and Borriello is very important as he is the most natural prima punta we've had in quite a while.

[ASR1927]

Probable formation as per Romanews.

Roma (4-3-1-2): 29 Julio Sergio; 77 Cassetti, 5 Mexes, 4 Juan, 17 Riise; 20 Perrotta, 16 De Rossi, 30 Simplicio; 94 Menez; 10 Totti, 22 Borriello.

A disp.: 32 Doni, 29 Burdisso, 2 Cicinho, 33 Greco, 11 Taddei, 23 Greco, 9 Vucinic.

To add to the on going discussion it appears Vucinic will start on the bench.

[maro]

Stop being contentious, Goffredo.

[pocari_fenrir]

wow, im looking out for the highlight on this game. Vucinic was smashing off the bench. btw Shield, what happened to Quick Reply??

[RomaShield27]

Didn't see any of it, what happened, did the Vooch get a hattrick off the bench again? Oh, only two goals? Well, it'll do. Good result. How was the performance? Rusty, I suspect? Quick reply is still there, for me anyway, Pocari, I think sometimes it just takes a while to load (and is maybe the last 'item' on the page to load, I thinks).

[RomaShield27]

No reaction to the Roma game, so? Ok. Haven't seen the highlights, I'm gonna wait to watch the full match later. My lord, what a debut for Okaka, what an occasion to score his first goal for Bari:




EDIT:
Full game here, a small file-size version, will add it in MM thread later:

1st Half:
http://www.fileserve.com/file/EzZk27A

2nd Half:
http://www.fileserve.com/file/FNXBCke

[pocari_fenrir]

Iunno Shield, i woke up at 50min and the score was already 2-2. Checked the shot stat and it looked like Catania were taking shots regardless of whether or not they were on target. Our stats were dismal but promising; 5 shots (all on target) compared to their 13 (only 2 on target). But yah, Vucinic coming off the bench so strongly for us, good showing. Guess we dont have to question his fitness no more. Good by Totti to send him a couple chances. Interesting half-time subs by Ranieri too

Highlight reel shows that we got screwed by Juan's (forgive me for being the only impartial fan towards him) defense on both goals. However, in his defense, the first one was a set piece where Cassetti was out of place and he was forced to mark 2 players. The second one though, totally made to look like a tool. Albeit not a very efficient one. Some dubious calls on our goals too, particularly the 2nd (out of bounds on Riise's assist) and 3rd (Vucinic's offside + his shirt getting tugged). Oh well ~

Also, the Quick Reply is showing up again, but looks slightly different. Nice goal from Okaka too. If he saves Bari from relegation, i swear, we're not signing anymore strikers. The future lies on him.

[pocari_fenrir]

http://www.football-italia.net/jan06r.html

Better watch Ranieri carefully in this transfer window, that last line was a bit unperceptive on his part. Although he could be talking about Loria

[stefano]

Edzo, do you happen to have a link to download the game? If so, I'd like to watch it. Grazie.

[Lupa]

[ASR1927]

Here's a match report from goal.com. Excellent second half performance from our boys! Ranieri made good subs at the half, Greco in particular was very impressive. Two of our goals were dodgey but but hey that's football. You complain if they go against you. You take them if they come you way.
As far as Ranieri's comment above I can't imagine it wasn't mistranslated or taken out of context. It seems a strange thing to say and doesn't seem to match the rest of the article. Maybe someone has seen his comments in Italian and can confirm.
I really hope Carlo is O.K. I miss his daily news updates. Any word Edzo?

Oh yeah we are in fourth place as well!

I am very happy to see Okaka score in his first match for Bari! Hopefully he has a great second half to the season and get's some regular playing time with Roma next season. I don't want to lose him I believe he will come good for us.




Roma 4-2 Catania: Late Double From Vucinic Sinks Elefanti

Roma had Mirko Vucinic to thank after his late double completed a 4-2 comeback victory against Catania at the Stadio Olimpico.

Marco Borriello scored at the beginning of each half for Roma, but sandwiched in between was a header from Matias Silvestre and a Maxi Lopez goal which gave Catania the lead just before half-time. Vucinic then wrapped up all three points with two close range efforts at the death

Roma started the game brightly and took an early lead thanks to Borriello after Daniele De Rossi's 20 yard strike was parried into the striker's path by Mariano Andujar and he made no mistake from close range.

But Catania responded well after going a goal down and had more possession, as well as creating the better chances. They were having a lot of joy down both flanks through Alejandro Gomez and Cristian Llama as Roma sat very deep.

On the half hour the breakthrough for the Elefanti came when Silvestre beat Marco Cassetti in the air from a Llama corner. The ball smacked the post and bounced across the line, where Fabio Simplicio looked to have hooked it clear but the referee correctly deemed it to have crossed the line.

Less than ten minutes later the away side took the lead from a counter attack as Gomez played a lovely through ball for Maxi Lopez, who ended up one-on-one with Julio Sergio.

The goalkeeper did get a hand to the ball as Lopez took it round him, but the Argentine composed himself to finish from a tight angle and give his team a well deserved lead at half time.



The second period started just as the first did with goal for the Giallorossi, as John Arne Riise made an inspired run down the left before crossing for Borriello who headed in to bring his side level.

However, there were protestations from Catania as Riise looked to have taken the ball out of play as he put in the cross.

Clearly given a talking to at half-time by Claudio Ranieri, the home team were transformed and put their opponents under pressure on the rare occasions they lost possession.

Roma did have a couple of good chances from Simone Perrotta. Francesco Totti and a magnificent effort from Borriello who was unmarked in the box but he was denied by Andujar's leg. Though minutes later Roma took the lead.

Totti took the ball inside the box and his deflected shot fell into the path of substitute Mirko Vucinic who poked home from six yards, then in injury time he grabbed another to complete a fantastic comeback by Ranieri's men.

The win takes Roma up to fourth in the standings, while Catania drop to fourteenth.

[maro]

That's pretty much exactly what Ranieri said - and that's what virtually all the transfer round-ups about the club have been saying for the past month. In general, a squad will want about 25 players - 3 keepers, two in each other position, and then 1 or 2 other versatile players. At the moment we have 5 centrebacks rather than four (Loria to go); we have three right backs rather than two (Rosi or Cicinho to go); we have three left backs (itunes to go); we had 6 forwards where now we have four (Okaka and Baptista have gone). In addition, we have three keepers on something like first-team wages when the third keeper should be on much less (they would like Doni to have gone). We probably also have too many central midfielders, but I suspect none of them will go. So, quite clearly the club's hope was to trim the squad by at least five players this January. It is just about possible that one player like Behrami will move in the other direction. The effect will still be a whittling down of the squad. I don't see what's at all controversial or problematic about that - it's good sporting sense as well as good business sense.

[Messinterista]

Pizza is on his way out...

[maro]

Alas, MI, this may well be true, but if it happens it won't have been a move initiated by the club and so doesn't, I think, fit with Ranieri's comments about a deliberate whittling down of the size of the squad, if you see what I mean.

[ASR1927]

[maro]

http://www.forzaroma.info/calciomercato ... entoq.html

'lo "sfoltimento'" might just as well be translated as 'the whittling down'.

[ASR1927]

From the mouth of Bruno Conti... I hope he is right.


Roma director Bruno Conti maintains David Pizarro has a good future in the capital...

Roma midfielder David Pizarro will continue being part of the cut and thrust of life at Trigoria, insists club director Bruno Conti.

The 31-year-old is in Chile recovering from a knee problem. Reports suggested he was no longer part of club plans, despite coach Claudio Ranieri claiming he was on Wednesday.

And Conti has echoed those thoughts.

"Pizarro will never ask to be sold. He always looks at problems in the face. He will be in Rome on January 14 to continue his recovery," Conti told Il Romanista.

The Lupi stormed back to a convincing 4-2 win over Catania on Thursday, but Francesco Totti's goal tally remains on two in 14 games. However, the Italian forward is unfazed.

"I will save goals for the second half of term," he told his official website.

"The win against Catania was important seeing how the game had panned out. We had the right reaction and were able to overturn the result."