Stuck in the Middle

By: Jeremy | December 1st, 2008

With all that has gone on this year, Cagliari and its fans have to be thrilled at our current position in the standings. A tough win over a strong, but tired, Sampdoria, further helped us move away from the relegation zone, but can this win, added with strong results against teams like Fiorentina and Napoli, make us look at the season beyond doing what it takes to survive?

The win this weekend against an in form Sampdoria club continues to solidfy our Serie A status. While I thought we could win, what should have been a more enjoyable game was probably slowed by a tired Sampdoria team coming off a tough midweek UEFA Cup game. Again we catch another team at the best time. While Sampdoria had a strong beginning, once the game entered half time 0-0, Cagliari had to feel pretty good. Jeda finished a nice cross in minute 48 to give us a 1-0 lead, and while we had other chances, including a goal called back because of a foul, it was clear that Sampdoria was not a club in full strength and despite some late flurries, really didnt have many strong chances on goal. As with all teams who play in Europe, they want to do well without hurting their domestic position. All the factors were against them this week and we did just enough to win.

Any well trained Cagliari fan knows that survival is the first goal. We now sit on 17 points and twelfth in the table. Our relegation rivals are not that far behind with wins by Chievo and points earned by Bologna tightening the bottom by the week. While there are teams that have more worries about their overall performance then we do, we cannot be so confident to think that we are safe and will not be in the fight. It still seems like everyone from Siena on down is a relegation candidate although Roma and Sampdoria should move up and eliminate their worries as they are not really in the relegation struggles like the rest of us.

That being said, lets look at the teams above us for once and while we are six points from relegation, we are basically the same amount of points from UEFA Cup qualification. Showing that we can get points against some of the better teams in the league, combined with the bad start making our current position even much more impressive, looking above us and what could possibly be is not such a fantasy.

There are teams above us that could drop which includes Catania, Genoa, and even Udinese who has fallen on tough times. While Napoli is better then expected, their loss yesterday to Inter showed that they can play with the better teams in the league even if I think they are still 8th or 9th place quality. Atalanta is an enigma and next weeks opponent Palermo is a team I am afraid of, but these teams are still just mid table. The top teams are going to seperate themselves but there is going to be a strong middle group from sixth to twelfth where UEFA Cup qualification beckons. Why cant we be in that mix? Our recent performance shows that is possible, but as we can see, the results have to keep coming or we are back in serious relegation worries. This is the difficulty of Serie A.

If we truly want to take that next step, our ability to do so will be shown next week at home against Palermo. Both teams are coming off great wins, Ballardini returns and we will want to prove we are not going to be an easy three points for them. Palermo has to feel they are better then their current position, but a loss to Cagliari will only drive their crazy chairman even closer to the nut house. They will probably be more upset if they lose the game then we do. While we must get points at home, Palermo sees this game as a huge step back with a loss in the same way we will see the game as huge step forward if we win.

At this point in the season we have to be happy. The results are coming in many different ways which has helped us overcome such a bad start. For the first time in forever, we can realistically look at moving up instead of worrying about how far down we are. This makes the games that much more interesting and as we get closer to the break, if we can hold our position and pull off a win against Palermo, we might see Cellino spend some money in the winter.

Its good to be a Cagliari fan right now. Lets hope the results continue.
Have a great week everyone.