Cagliari-Udinese Preview

If there was ever a team that was happier to see the winter break and the January transfer window, it was the men from Sardinia. After such a promising start to the season with a road win over Napoli and a what should have been a win over Juventus, the team has performed the past 15 weeks as poorly as a Serie A team can play. In addition to the poor play, the Foggia-Marchini row, the teams best players begging for their hometown clubs to buy them, and the revolving coaching door have made a bad situation almost impossible to look at with any kind of positivity. It also does not help that when you return from break, you will be facing the 4th place club in Udinese.

While all of the above seems to suggest another result similar to Fiorentina, if we look at things a little closer and put some positive spin on it, a win on Sunday at home is not out of the question.

With the January transfer window came two new players, the goalie Storari and the Serie B goal scoring machine Jeda. Even more important is the fact Foggia and Acquafresca are still around and likely to play on Sunday. Storari seems to be a little flamboyant which is what you need in a goalie. He also seemed to want to play in Cagliari and gave up offers of more money elsewhere to come to town. He also shed some light on what seems to be a surprisingly positive group of players in the dressing room which made him think that maybe Cagliari isnt the worst team in Serie A. The bottom line is he cant be any worse then the current lard ass goalie and if he shows the spirit on the field that he seems to have about joining his new team, he might make a few great saves and give the field players some needed confidence. I do understand that the positivity is also coming from a guy who wasnt being paid at his old club and that club has more of a chance of being relegated then Cagliari. Either way, he seems to have some pride and wants to help his new team which hopefully rubs off on the players whose minds are on other shirts.

Recent form suggest Udinese can be beaten. They havent performed well their last two games and this matchup seems to favor the home team based on the result of the past few years. Either way Cagliari still has to put the ball in the net or the crowd will turn on them quickly. If Cagliari can score the first goal, I think they will win this match.

Hopefully Jeda will get some action and Foggia can ignore the slurs of the home crowd and control the midfield giving Acquafresca and others some real scoring chances. However there is no denying the form of Udinese throughout the year and Antonio Di Natale is a fine young player who could easily score a brace and prevent this game from even being close.

You hate to think that there are games that are must wins in the first half of the season and next weeks game against Reggina is one of those matches. The game this weekend will go along way in determining if the team is ready to face the challenges that will be more important each week or if they will bury themselves so far down in last place that morale cannot be saved and any result achieved as too little too late.

It begins now and I think all of the above factors tilt the game in Cagliaris favor. I see the new players giving the club a lift and some late heroics leading to a shocking 2-1 home win. If a result can be obtained then a win next week can get the team right back into the fight for 17th place.

Lets go Rossoblu!!!

Category: Cagliari, Serie A

Tags: Cagliari, Serie A

Subscribe   The Offside RSS Feeds

Print

Share