A Point and Palermo

By: Jeremy | April 27th, 2009

So what do you prefer? Boring tightly played football where we seem to manage wins or the wide open entertaining games with plenty of goals that can result in great feelings of joy or frustration. While its all about the result, for the first time in years, we seem to have a club that can play both styles and we continue to show we are one of the more exciting teams in Serie A and by far the surprise team of the season.

What can you say about the match with Sampdoria yesterday. It was highly enjoyable with all the goals well deserved. While getting a point after falling down 2-0 on the road, the team has to be frustrated it could not hold on for a win after coming all the way back to lead 3-2 with less then ten minutes left. How about that header from Conti? This is clearly a team full of players that enjoy playing with each other and with one of the hottest coaches in Europe locked in for atleast another year, we can only go up, even if we are going to lose Acquafresca in the offseason.

For all the positivity you can take out of that game, we failed to get the three points needed to make Europe a real possibility. Like the Genoa result, this result and the loss of two points make our european chances an outside one at best. We can be happy at how the team responded going down two goals, and how fun the team is to watch, but finishing top six in Serie A is tough and you cannot have let downs. Simply put we needed a win but I am still excited for the opportunities that lie ahead and so glad we are talking about something besides relegation this time of year.

A win at Samp really would have allowed us to go to Palermo, earn a draw, and be happy. This would allow for a win at home against Roma(no easy task) and look at the real possibility that an away win to Udinese earns us a spot in Europe. Its certainly still a lot to ask consdering we have by far and away the toughest schedule between us, Palermo, and Roma to finish out the season.

I will get into further discussion about Palermo later in the week, but the Milan game might effect them in a way mentally that could help us. While I didnt think they were going to beat Milan, an iffy call giving Milan a gift penalty pretty much ended their day. Palermo is such a tough team to figure out. They can play great one week and look really flat the next week and seem to let bad calls get to them more then other teams. Either way, we now sit even with them at 59 points, three behind a Roma team that seems to have quit on themselves. The winner of the Palermo/Cagliari match will really be in a great spot to finish in the top six.

Cagliari will need a win in Palermo and at home to Roma to have decent chance at Europe. The Sampdoria game, while exciting to watch, was one we needed to get the full three points. By allowing that last minute goal to Cassano, we force ourselves to get results against better teams including an Inter team that may not have the Scudetto wrapped up as anticipated by week 37 when we get them at home. We really need them to put out a B lineup because they have already won the league.

Add Sampdoria to the Genoa game as ones where the results really could have or should have been different. Either way we must still be proud of our position and have to enjoy watching our team show they can play some exciting football. No matter the results the rest of the year, we have laid a foundation that with the right moves over the summer, we could even be better next year.

For now we must start to focus on Palermo and hope that our current positive mental outlook combined with their frustrations could lead to a win in Sicily next weekend. It wont be easy, but we have been underdogs all year so they better not take us lightly because we are coming up there to get the three points.