Cagliari-Chievo

By: Jeremy | October 23rd, 2008

First I want to give a big shout out to Mario and the rest of the Cagliari fans in Malta. I know finding a Cagliari fan outside Sardinia is pretty rare, but there seems to be pockets of fans all over the place even if they are kind of silent. My grandmother on my mothers side was Sardinian and although she died before I was old enough to know her that well, it was clear to me as a kid that she showed strength in her passions and beliefs without having to say much. As for Malta, while I have never been to that country, I only hear positive things and I hope to visit someday. It seems like many Americans are looking to Malta as a place to retire so that says a lot about the country.

Now back to the football……

As we enter this weekends games, Cagliari is feeling the push of Uncle Mo, even if it is just a small push for now. Momentum is a huge thing to have in your favor, especially if you are a small club constantly facing relegation. Once things start going your way whether its via a well played game against Milan or a lucky win at Torino, streaks like this can continue and results can come in waves that can take you away from the relegation zone, or has been the case with this club recently, in contention to avoid the relegation zone. Ask last years team what momentum did for them. It is contagious.

With momentum in your favor, games like this can and must be won. Chievo just came up from Serie B and while they are on 6 points and doing about as expected, they are not sitting on a load of talent and have not won a game on the road this year. They do have former Cagliari heroes Antonio Langella and Mauro Esposito, so if for no other reason, the game is worth watching to see if they get to play and how the home crowd reacts. Langella should be in the starting lineup and Espositio is slowly recovering from an injury but I would expect if he is slightly healthy, he will see some action in Cagliari.

Allegri seems to have shifted his attacking lineup in order to generate some more goals. He is putting a strike partnership of Jeda and Acquafresca together thinking they are the best offensive players might work well together to score more. He is right that they are the most talented offensive players as evidenced by last weeks results with Jeda almost hitting home a nice volley and Acquafresca scoring the game winner. He may be on to something, but he may be fixing his attack at the sacrifice of the midfield.

There is no doubt Jeda and Acquafresca need to be on the field at all times. But with Conti out this week, the midfield might need Jedas support. I have just always seen him as an attacking midfielder but with Acquafresca not working well with Larrivey or Matri, moving Jeda to attack may be the way to go. This weekends game will give us further indication if this partnership is for real and if we have the man power in midfield to make it work. I would almost like to see Matri in midifield for atleast a half. Maybe his support from just behind the strikers can help, but either way, we cannot hope to continue getting the necessary points with 0-0 or 1-0 games. We need to score more so I applaud the coaches efforts to change things up.

I have really come to like Marchetti as a goalie and even if Canini wont play this weekend, he and Argentinian new boy Matheu should eventually help Lopez continue to improve the back line giving Marchetti even more confidence. All the improvement in the back is great but if we cannot score, the pressure on the back will be too much to get many positive results.

This being a relegation battle is obvious with each club feeling they should win the game while also needing to win this game more then others they might play against better teams. The home team always has the pressure so while Cagliari cant be satisfied with anything less then a win, if Chievo draws, they should be happy assuming they win the return match at home.

After previous bad results against lower level Serie A clubs, I might not think Cagliari can get points even against a mediocre Chievo team. However with a little bit of momentum in our favor combined with being at home, I think we take the game this weekend. However a loss will be tragic as it kills momentum, takes away one more game against a winnable opponents, and forces us to look for results against better clubs in following weeks when it becomes even more obvious we are hurting for points.

Lets hope the momentum continues to build and a win this weekend puts us in a spot where our really bad start can almost be forgotten. It would be nice to see some other clubs in crisis besides us. Chievo is one of those clubs so lets get a win this weekend boys!!!

Prediction

Cagliari 1-0 Chievo