Cagliari-Juventus..Its Going to get Ugly

By: Jeremy | May 5th, 2012

Are you excited for another year in Serie A Cagliari fans? With another stellar performance midweek against Genoa, combined with some other results, we have achieved mathmatical safety with 42 points. Hooray!! Seriously though it has to be torture for others besides myself to watch this team as it has real talent but a lack of cohesion and team unity which leads to inconsistent results. Atleast when players are getting subbed, they are not insulting the coaches dead family members so things could always be worse.

Not that I have anything against Genoa, but Cagliari really should have done more to put pressure on them to face their relegation fears but instead in an empty stadium they did what they had to do. There could not have been a more perfect opponent then Cagliari for a team like them that needed the win. Check out the highlites……

Bosko Jankovic saved this teams season but they clearly deserved to win as they created more chances. Lets move on.

With the team safe by the skin of their teeth, they get to face Juventus who holds a one point lead over ex Cagliari coach Allegris Milan side. If you think many players were indifferent last week, this week will be even worse as Cagliari has nothing to play for, wouldnt mind seeing their old friend Matri win a Scudetto, and there would be nothing better then seeing Allegri squirm as anything less then a Scudetto will cause Gallani to twist the knife into his almost fired ass. As soon as Juve gets that first goal the flood gates will open and they know they must not allow any hiccups like they did last week against a motivated Lecce. Anything less then two wins in these final two weeks will cause their Scudetto dreams to go down the wayside.

Juventus has been the best team in Serie A from beginning to end and deserve to finish first. However, the team is still prone to too many bouts of indifference against inferior opponents and if Cagliari had something to play for, this could be an interesting and enjoyable game as the first half match was when Cagliari could have easily won.

With the players not motivated and safety achieved, combined with Ficcadenti’s lack of popularity throughout the club, there is simply no reason to watch these last two games. The travel contingent to Trieste for our last home/road game of the year will be minimal and focus will now totally shift to the operational problems of the club and certain personel decisions that must be made. We wont see a mass resting of our top players but with few exceptions the players will be more concerned about making it through the rest of the season without getting injured then impressing the boss to solidify a spot.

While the game will be on TV for us to see in the USA and I likely will watch because I prefer Juve to win the Scudetto, focus must now shift on getting our home venue locked in for next year. We have been very lucky to survive this year despite talent that should indicate a higher finish. While Cellino thinks there are different rules for teams like Juve, he needs to get his own house in order, make nice with the city of Cagliari, and create an environment where the players are valued, the coach is respected, and only then will the wins come. Cellino is so bad right now in his mindset that there is fear that he will exercise his option on Pinilla and then immediately flip him to a bigger club for a profit. Sadly Cellinos mindset about being cheap in the summer and a spender in the winter will not only cost him money this year, but undermine the overall talent level of the club. Pinilla is a player we need but who can be sold for a nice profit so he may go yet Nainggolan is a player whose value has dropped since the winter, but a time when he was trying to improve the club, he failed to make a deal that needed to be made to add to Pinilla giving us a real chance to move into European contention. While the players did not help the situation during their spring performances, the firing of Ballardini ruined any progress the club thought it was making. At a time when everyone was blamed, Cellino should have rallied around everyone and even if it meant no better finish, he would have created the stability and maybe some team unity coming in to the summer. Instead its back to square one and the cheap Cellino appears in the summer and it could cost us big time next year.

For now, lets see if something strange happens in Trieste to throw the Scudetto race into flux. After the game with Genoa, I cant see it.