In light of tonight’s majestic performance and result I declare this happy hour for bandwagoners.
I think Totti’s performance tonight was one of the greatest I’ve ever seen. We’ve quite a small squad so hopefully the injuries aren’t too serious.
Dodo, Balzaretti, Bradley and De Rossi now on the injury list and Osvaldo suspended for our next game.
James Richardson is brilliant - Lee Harvey Osvaldo. :lol:
Inter fans with a banner saluting our Zeman. 
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/405853_10151069281815852_70418796_n.jpg
In dedication to Mr. Zeman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC2ZY2loo74
His stony faced expression after Osvaldo’s wonder goal was a joy to behold. Nice gesture from the Inter fans.
Missed the second half of that tonight, just following it on twitter. Terrific stuff.
Reports are circulating that Mexican centre back Hiram Mier will join us in January. Didn’t see much of the Olympics football during the summer but thought this lad had a good game against Brazil in the final.
Great article on Mr. Zeman.
[font=Georgia]The Return of Soccer’s Jedi[/font]
[font=Georgia]Zeman Earns Another Shot at the Big Time; Inside the Mind of a Maverick[/font]
[font=Georgia]Zdenek Zeman, a soccer maverick, a little over two years ago, Zdenek Zeman sat at an outdoor table at a bar in a residential Rome neighborhood and did something he’s probably done tens of millions of times in his life. He took a long, hard drag of his cigarette and stared right through the person to whom he was talking.[/font]
[font=Georgia]“Do you enjoy watching soccer?” he asked in a low monotone.[/font]
[font=Georgia]Another drag, followed by the kind of pause that made you think he was done talking. But then he started again.[/font]
[font=Georgia]“I rarely do anymore,” he said. “I still watch because I can’t help it. I’m addicted… but it’s not the same.” Another drag. “It’s not my world anymore.”[/font]
[font=Georgia]Eleven seasons will have passed since the last time he was at a major club in a major league. They were 11 years in which soccer fans were denied the sight of one of the most original, innovative and maverick minds in the history of the game breaking taboos, defying convention and, above all, entertaining.[/font]
[font=Georgia]“We did say we wanted to play an attractive style. Well, [Zeman] fits that, right?” said Franco Baldini, Roma’s general director.[/font]
[font=Georgia]He certainly does. Zeman’s philosophy is predicated on a high-energy 4-3-3 system that’s unlike anything you’re bound to see today, mainly because it is played at a breakneck pace with wave after wave of attackers streaming forward.[/font]
[font=Georgia]Zeman illustrated his vision a few years ago: “Whenever we attack, all three forwards have to be in the penalty area while two of the three midfielders come forward as well. That way the opponent is pinned back. Then you put the ball in the box, and because you have more men, you have more chances of scoring. It’s not rocket science. It’s simple math.” Of course, put like that, it’s simple to the point of suicidal. But the simplicity hides a complexity based on two things: fitness and movement.[/font]
[font=Georgia]Zeman’s teams play at a higher pace than their opponents, mainly because they train harder and longer. And they play with a stunning synchronicity of movement. Players don’t pass to teammates; they pass to where they know their teammates will be, because they’re always on the move.[/font]
[font=Georgia]Zeman’s critics say he wears players out, an accusation he disputes. “My training sessions may be long, repetitive and intense, but they’re fun,” he said. “And when you’re having fun, you don’t get tired. Have you ever seen little kids running around all day long? Do they get tired?”[/font]
[font=Georgia]Everything about Zeman is unconventional. He’s both bohemian and Bohemian. Born in Prague in 1947, he moved to Italy—where his uncle, Cestmir Vycpalek, was a soccer coach—shortly after Russian tanks rolled in back in 1968. Armed with a degree in sports medicine and little else—he had given up playing organized soccer at the age of 16, though he was a competitive handball player—he began coaching amateur teams in dusty Sicilian backwaters.[/font]
[font=Georgia]Thus began an incredible ascent through Italian soccer’s food chain that saw him reach Serie A in 1991. He stuck around in the top flight for seven seasons, first at Foggia, then at Lazio and Roma, winning plaudits for his exciting run-and-gun style. In the traditionally conservative world of Italian soccer, he also annoyed the fundamentalists for being a little too iconoclastic. This applied both to his playing philosophy and to some of his public statements, like when he suggested some clubs misused prescription drugs to gain an edge on the pitch, or when he talked about the game’s “old-boy network” of favors and back-scratching.[/font]
[font=Georgia]By the turn of the millennium, Zeman had developed a reputation as someone who was more trouble than he was worth: a bright coach, but one who was so fixated with certain ideas that he took unnecessary risks. He was also seen as a loose cannon whose frequent barbs were no less dangerous because they were delivered in his trademark deliberate, slow staccato.[/font]
[font=Georgia]Zeman seemingly became persona non grata in the game’s higher echelons. He bounced around smaller clubs with even smaller budgets, never staying more than a season. Last summer, he took over Pescara in Italy’s second tier, and the magic returned. The club won Serie B and was promoted back to the big time. And Zeman was offered the Roma gig. All of a sudden, it’s the mid-1990s again.[/font]
[font=Georgia]Zeman, who turned 65 last month, admits this is probably his “last chance at a top club.” Roma, of course, is also rolling the dice. Since a U.S.-based consortium acquired a controlling share in the club in April 2011, the emphasis has been on entertainment and long-term growth. The new owners appointed Luis Enrique, a former Barcelona reserve-team coach, in the hope of replicating its model. It only worked to a point, and he resigned at the end of the season, citing stress and burnout.[/font]
[font=Georgia]Zeman is an equally bold move. The fear is that this will end up like Zeman-coached teams of the past: pretty soccer, plenty of entertainment and a great big goose egg when it comes to results.[/font]
[font=Georgia]“But playing for results is not the same as playing soccer—my teams play soccer,” he said in 2009.[/font]
[font=Georgia]“The way some so-called winning teams play today, it’s all about the players. The managers just focus on not conceding and leave everything up to the players. Guys like [Fabio] Capello and [Jose] Mourinho are hailed as geniuses because they win. Well, they win because they have the best players, not because of what they do. I could put my dead grandfather in charge of their teams and they would still win.”[/font]
[font=Georgia]Whatever happens—as always when Zeman is involved—it won’t be dull.[/font]
What a pleasure it is to watch Francesco Totti play football
Roma are going to hand Florenzi a new contract - he’s only on €30k a year. :o :o :o :o :o
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/sep/03/roma-zdenek-zeman-inter
A lot can happen in 13 years. In the gap between Zdenek Zeman’s 1999 dismissal by Roma[/url] and his return to that club this summer, DVDs have replaced VHS tapes, Blu-Ray discs have replaced DVDs and the internet has rendered all three mediums obsolete. Palermo have gone through more than 25 managerial changes and Antonio Cassano through more than [url=“http://english.gazzetta.it/Football/Primo_Piano/2008/11/12/acssano.shtml”]600 sexual partners – still having time after that to settle down, get married and have a child.
Watching Zeman’s team take on Internazionale at San Siro on Sunday night, though, you may have come to the conclusion that some things had not changed at all. In only his second competitive game back in charge, the manager had his team pressing, chasing and attacking their opponents just like they had in the best moments of his previous tenure. And there, pulling the strings, was the same player Zeman had always rated most highly of all.
“Totti, Totti and Totti,” was Zeman’s famous reply when asked to name the three best players in the country some time after his departure from Roma. Reminded of those words during an interview in 2010, Zeman remained convinced of the player’s merits. “Physically he is not what he was before,” he said. “But with the ball at his feet he is still the best.”
Another two years on, Totti is approaching his 36th birthday and believed by many to have endured a significant erosion of his powers in the interim. “Il caso Totti” – the Totti issue – has been a regular discussion point ever since his signing of a new five-year playing contract in November 2009, reporters and fans debating how best Roma could manage his enduring prominence within the team but diminishing ability to influence a match.
By the end of Sunday night, such conversations had been made to feel rather silly. Totti had provided two assists in a 3-1 victory – Roma’s first over Inter at San Siro since 2007 – but even that did not begin to tell the story of an evening in which he had been simply sublime: a masterclass of fabulous feints, crafty flicks and slick passing that left Inter chasing shadows.
It was Totti who had first unpicked the Inter defence after 15 minutes, whisking over a cross from the left to be glanced into the far corner of Luca Castellazzi’s net by Alessandro Florenzi, the latter making his first ever start for the senior team. After Cassano had levelled the scores with a fortuitous deflected strike before half-time, it was Totti again who released Pablo Daniel Osvaldo with a brilliant 30-yard through ball that allowed the latter to restore their lead.
“For that assist he will have to buy me dinner,” Totti said of his team-mate – who had later been sent off for a second booking. “Before the second half began we made an agreement: either he or I was going to have to score a goal.”
Such conversations reflect the mindset of Zeman’s team, a core belief that the best route to victory is always to keep on attacking. Roma had suffered injuries to two key players – Daniele De Rossi and Federico Balzaretti – during the game yet even once they had restored their lead continued to pour forward, earning their reward when the substitute Marquinho crashed their third home from a tight angle.
The starting lineup, indeed, had told you everything you would need to know about the manager’s approach – Totti and Osvaldo starting alongside another would-be centre-forward, Mattia Destro, up front. What was nominally 4-3-3 became something rather more nuanced as Totti drifted deep and inside from his starting position on the left.
Indeed, from a tactical standpoint this was not classic Zeman – his team lacking the consistent width he would usually seek – but the fundamental premise was the same. Right from kick-off, his team sought to press Inter high up the pitch, the youthful energy of Florenzi and Panagiotis Tachtsidis helping to pin their hosts in. In possession, Roma were quick and direct – showing far less of the “pointless” sideways passing that so infuriated Zeman during their draw with Catania last week.
Totti was quick to play down the significance of the result, calling for a level-headed assessment of his team’s start. “Let’s wait before saying that something new is being born because in Rome we are quick to celebrate and also to get down on ourselves, and these ups and downs don’t do us any good,” he said. “We need to keep our feet on the ground and try to play like this in every match. It won’t be easy, but we’ll try.”
Zeman, though, was in no mood to temper anybody’s enthusiasm. “No, it makes me happy,” he replied when asked whether he feared the sense of euphoria generated by such a win. “I always want more people to come out and support the team. We play football for them.” In response to a further question about whether his team had earned the right to dream big this year, he said: “We should not dream. We should work hard so we can let others dream.”
It is this belief in football as a public good which is perhaps what renders Zeman and his teams so exciting. His outspoken commitment to fair play has made him popular with supporters of many teams he has never coached, and on Sunday Inter supporters in the Curva Nord revealed a banner reading: “Honour to Zeman: an icon of clean football.” Zeman said: “It makes me very happy. But I hope they could write that banner without my name too.”
Inter’s own manager, Andrea Stramaccioni, counts himself among Zeman’s admirers – having himself grown up in Rome as a fan of the Giallorossi, eventually building his reputation as a coach in the team’s youth setup. His time there had coincided with Florenzi’s rise through the ranks. “He’s a good player and that was a nice goal. I want a cut,” observed Stramaccioni with a wry smile.
Inter had been outplayed by their visitors but Stramaccioni insisted that the issue was a psychological one – suggesting they had allowed their heads to drop after Roma’s second goal. It had not been an awful performance, by any means, and, though there was much that could have been improved, the debut of the new signing Alvaro Pereira on the left of midfield was encouraging. It did not go unnoticed that Roma’s second arrived immediately after he had been substituted.
The one great concern for the Nerazzurri is their home form. Early days it may be, but thus far between Serie A and the Europa League, Inter have won all three of their away games this season – scoring eight goals and conceding none. At home they have drawn one and lost two, conceding seven goals and scoring just three.
They are a team still finding their identity under Stramaccioni, something that is perhaps to be expected with such a new coach in charge of a team that underwent significant turnover in its playing staff over the summer. Unlike with Zeman and Totti at Roma, there are no relationships here which have been over a decade in the making
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Roma: Stekelenburg; Piris, Burdisso, Castan, Balzaretti; Florenzi, Tachtsidis, Pjanic; Lamela, Destro, Totti[/size][/font]
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Roma bench: Goicoechea, Svedkauskas, Marquinhos, Romagnoli, Taddei, Lucca, Marquinho, Lopez, Tallo[/size][/font]
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Bologna: Agliardi; Motta, Antonsson, Cherubin, Morleo; Taider, Perez, Guarente; Kone, Diamanti; Gilardino[/size][/font]
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Bologna bench: Curci, Lombardi, Garics, Carvalho, Abero, Sorensen, Pasquato, Pulzetti, Gimenez, Acquafresca, Gabbiadini, Pazienza[/size][/font]
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Think Marquinho can feel hard done by not getting the nod today. I’m expecting big things from Destro in a more natural position for him.[/size][/font]
Florenzi heads Roma in front after following in on a Totti drive.
Another great effort from our captain.
Superb goal from Lamela!!!
any links?
do bet365 still have this?
I’m watching it on bet365 mate. I really enjoy Richard Whittle’s commentary, Totti has been superb early on here.
Elsewhere, Immobile has given Genoa the lead against Juve.