Gervinho scores shortly after somehow hitting the post from a few yards out. 4-0.
FT: Roma 4-0 Catania.
Played 17
Won 12
Drew 5
Lost 0
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my fellow Roma supporters.
A little break now and we resume with the critical clash against Juventus on January 5th.
It’s quite incredible that we’re 5 points behind them given our own record as outlined above.
Daniele in todays Corriere dello Sport “Thank goodness I didn’t go to Man United, otherwise right now I’d be killing myself”
I see our officials were actually in England over Christmas looking to identify a feeder club. Perhaps Manchester United could be an option?
All set for Juve on Sunday night, pal?
[quote=“Bandage, post: 881436, member: 9”]
I see our officials were actually in England over Christmas looking to identify a feeder club. Perhaps Manchester United could be an option?
All set for Juve on Sunday night, pal?[/quote]
Yes, it plans to be a great Sunday with a top of the table Serie a clash and then NFL playoffs to look forward to
#coolasmustard
[quote=“chewy louie, post: 881437, member: 1137”]Yes, it plans to be a great Sunday with a top of the table Serie a clash and then NFL playoffs to look forward to
#coolasmustard[/quote]
Do you know much about Capoue (spelling?) at Spurs? I understand we’re monitoring him closely and we’ve also been offered Johnny Heitinga. I’d have no interest in Heitinga.
My only full viewing of Capoue this season was the Liverpool game where he played centre half and was terrible. Heitinga is shit as well. The last thing we need is a couple of BPL thumpers in the squad
I’ll take your word on Capoue and your general point is astute as ever.
Actually did you see Totti’s quotes in Il Messaggero today about Gervinho? Says he’s brilliant and compares him to Ronaldo.
[SIZE=6]Juventus-Roma: A clash of Serie A’s best two midfielders – neither of them Italian[/SIZE]
1 hour ago
Michael Cox
Serie A is back with a bang this weekend as leaders Juventus host second-placed Roma. It’s [U]live on Stats Zone[/U], and Michael Cox has been comparing the two brilliant midfielders at the heart of the sides’ seasons…
Serie A resumes after its winter break with the biggest fixture of the season so far, as Juventus host Roma on Sunday evening. Antonio Conte’s league leaders have won the last two titles and their last nine league matches, while Rudi Garcia’s visitors remain unbeaten in 2013/14. It’s a genuinely fascinating clash between two extremely exciting sides.
There will be intriguing battles across the pitch, but the most interesting contest will be in the centre of midfield, where the two best midfielders of the Serie A season will face off for the first time. [B][U]Arturo Vidal[/U][/B][/URL] has grown into the best all-rounder in Italy, and perhaps the world, while Roma’s [URL=‘http://www.fourfourtwo.com/kevin-strootman’][B][U]Kevin Strootman[/U][/B] is arguably the signing of the season, following his move from PSV.
Both men have been linked with Manchester United recently, despite [U]Vidal signing a new Juve contract[/U][/URL] and [URL=‘http://www.fourfourtwo.com/news/strootman-staying-roma’][U]Strootman’s agent denying any interest[/U], and you can see why David Moyes would love either player at Old Trafford: they neatly summarise the dominant style of football at this moment. Whereas the previous half-decade was defined by neat, intricate possession football, and ball-hoarding was considered more important than ever before, over the past couple of years we’ve witnessed a slight decline of the ‘Barça school’ and the emergence of more physical, combative football. Bayern Munich summarise it perfectly – they’re superb technical footballers, but can turn up the heat and become powerful when needed.
http://images.cdn.fourfourtwo.com/sites/fourfourtwo.com/files/styles/inline-image/public/vidalscores.jpg?itok=5-dg0vBO
Chilean Vidal has bagged a dozen goals this season
[SIZE=4]ARTURO VIDAL[/SIZE]
[LIST]
[]Born 22 May 1987, Santiago, Chile
[]Height 5ft 11in
[]Club Juventus (81 games, 24 goals)
[]Previous clubs Colo Colo, Bayer Leverkusen
[]National team Chile (52 caps, 8 goals)
[/LIST]
Vidal and Strootman would fit in nicely at Bayern. Both are technically marvellous footballers – Vidal dispatches penalties into the top corner with unerring accuracy, while Strootman has a wonderful left foot and the type of vision you expect from a Dutchman. Yet both are incredibly imposing in a physical sense: Vidal is the most terrifyingly relentless midfield worker you’ll ever see, while Strootman is 6ft 1in, broad-shouldered and strong in the tackle.
Opponents are never entirely sure what type of battle they’ll be up against – both players have the guile to dictate the flow of the game, or the power to batter the opposition into submission. Their battle – and with Strootman playing left-of-centre, and Vidal right-of-centre, it should be a direct clash – could be the most fascinating battle of the European season.
http://images.cdn.fourfourtwo.com/sites/fourfourtwo.com/files/styles/inline-image/public/strootmancreates.jpg?itok=8VGX9c5S
Strootman in typical Dutch style: on the ball, looking up
[SIZE=4]KEVIN STROOTMAN[/SIZE]
[LIST]
[]Born 13 Feb 1990, Ridderkerk, Netherlands
[]Height 6ft 1in
[]Club Roma (15 games, 4 goals)
[]Previous clubs Sparta Rotterdam, Utrecht, PSV
[]National team Netherlands (24 caps, 3 goals)
[/LIST]
So how do they compare? In terms of energy, both are extremely impressive. Describing his style, Strootman says “I like to play from one side to the other…I do both phases of play, attack and defence, without a particular preference.”
In other words, he’s a box-to-box midfielder. Vidal could be described as something similar. “I have enough strength and endurance to have [Andrea Pirlo’s] back. Fatigue does not frighten me, I’m a fighter,” he says.
This is most obvious by looking at their tackling statistics – despite being talented technicians for big clubs, both players are amongst Serie A’s top ten tacklers. Vidal is not only more prolific when tackling – he’s also more successful.
http://images.cdn.fourfourtwo.com/sites/fourfourtwo.com/files/styles/inline-image/public/vidalstrootman1.png?itok=bZvH5fQl
In terms of distribution, Strootman is the more impressive midfielder. Vidal is a very frantic player that continually darts between midfield and attack at great pace, and can sometimes be rushed with his final ball. But Strootman is calmer, more measured on the ball, helping his side retain possession and spreading play reliably out wide.
Strootman completes around 11 passes more than Vidal per game, with a 4% better completion rate – he’s more of a ball-player, whereas Vidal leaves the creativity in deep positions to Pirlo, and scampers forward off the ball.
http://images.cdn.fourfourtwo.com/sites/fourfourtwo.com/files/styles/inline-image/public/vidalstrootman2.png?itok=AQDGKTnM
Because he’s more careful with his distribution, Strootman creates fewer chances than Vidal. But he’s actually recorded two more assists in Serie A this season, suggesting that his chances are of a better quality.
However, Vidal remains the better goalscorer – of his dozen goals so far this season, he’s managed six from open play in the league, and specialises in late runs past the centre-forwards into a goalscoring position, essentially becoming an extra striker. Strootman is more of a threat from long range – and while he’s scored four times in Serie A this season, two have been from the spot.
The two players shoot with similar frequency, but Vidal gets himself into dangerous positions more frequently, and therefore scores more goals.
http://images.cdn.fourfourtwo.com/sites/fourfourtwo.com/files/styles/inline-image/public/vidalstrootman3.png?itok=8dCb-D2e
Although they occupy the same zone, and are a similar breed of midfielder, there are still obvious differences between Vidal and Strootman. The Chilean excels at a wider range of duties – he’s simultaneously a more prolific tackler and a more prolific goalscorer, while Strootman is more of a classic central midfielder, able to pass more consistently and reliably. Whichever gets the better of Sunday’s clash will probably find himself on the winning side.
Interesting and informative article, @chewy louie[/USER]. Strootman has indeed been outstanding as any non-biased observer of Roma will have noted. Those who quite ridiculously labelled him as a poor player and who childishly obsess about being vindicated won’t acknowledge this, however. I don’t watch Juve much (boring, cheating scum) but hasn’t @[USER=1052]Rudi been a consistent critic of Vidal?
[SIZE=6]Juve-Roma rivalry all about the little things[/SIZE]
Posted by James Horncastle
It’s the spring of 1983. Dino Viola, the then president of Roma, is at the office. He’s sat behind his desk about to start work for the day when his personal secretary enters with the morning post. Among the bundle of letters, there is one stamped and mailed from Turin. As he picks up the envelope, studying it carefully before opening the lip, Viola knows exactly from whom it was sent.
Intuition tells him that it’s from the president of Juventus, Giampiero Boniperti. Over the years, the pair had frequently corresponded, writing rather amusing open letters to each other in their respective local papers. They formed part of the build-up to matches between their two clubs.
This particular one, however, arrived the day after Juventus had come back from a goal down at the Stadio Olimpico to beat Roma 2-1 on March 6, 1983, scoring twice in the last 10 minutes. Their winning goal, headed in by Sergio Brio, had been a source of some controversy. Michel Platini who assisted it, appeared to be in an offside position when the ball was played to him.
Viola, not for the first time, had complained afterwards that the result was a “question of centimeters.” So, with that in mind, Boniperti went out and bought him a gift. He had it delivered the next day.
“I sent him a little plastic ruler. It cost 3,000 lira [$2],” Boniperti recalled. There was an explanatory message for Viola in accompaniment. “You can use this to measure our offsides,” he wrote. Viola, a qualified engineer, sent the former footballer Boniperti a gold one in return. “You need it more,” he scribbled back.
It was a classy exchange. Notwithstanding the defeat, Roma went on to win the Scudetto that year for the first time since 1942. It was only the second in their history. And yet for many of their supporters it should have been the third. Understanding why it wasn’t goes some way to explaining this rivalry and its endurance ahead of Sunday’s eagerly anticipated meeting in Turin. So what happened?
http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2014/0102/soc_g_bonipertig_576x324.jpgClaudio Villa/Getty ImagesDuring his time at Juve, Giampiero Boniperti enjoyed a cordial rivalry with his Roma counterparts. The rivalry remains strong.
“Er’ go’ de Turone”
In 1981, the title race had also been a joust between Nils Liedholm’s Roma and Giovanni Trapattoni’s Juventus. With only two games left, they met at the Stadio Comunale in Turin for what was billed as a decider. Trailing Juventus by a single point, if Roma won they’d leapfrog them. A quarter of an hour from the end, with the score still 0-0, came a moment that would charge a rivalry. Bruno Conti lifted a ball into the Juventus penalty area, Roberto Pruzzo rose to flick it on for the onrushing Maurizio Turone who nodded it beyond Dino Zoff.
The deadlock looked to have been broken. But as Turone got to his feet again, raising his hands in celebration, something made him stop in his tracks. It was the linesman Giuliano Sancini, a gift shop owner from Bologna. His flag was up. Paolo Bergamo, the man in black, who’d later become the referee designator between 1990 and 2005 – that is until the Calciopoli match-fixing scandal engulfed him – validated the decision.
There was disbelief. Turone had made a late run into the box, catching the current Italy coach and former Juventus midfield player Cesare Prandelli asleep at the far post. How could he have been offside? His initial reaction was that it must have been Pruzzo who had strayed. Broadcast later that evening on “La Domenica Sportiva,” Italy’s version of “Match of the Day,” the replay showed Turone to be onside.
The match finished in a stalemate. Juventus preserved their lead at the top of the table and, 1-0 winners away at Napoli and at home to Fiorentina over the next fortnight, claimed the championship.
Conspiracy? Chokes. Claim and counter-claim
Er’ go’ de Turone – “the Turone goal” in Roman dialect – is still talked about to this day. At the time, Juve’s owner, the charismatic playboy and captain of industry Gianni Agnelli, didn’t know what Roma were complaining about. “You have the Pope, [Giulio] Andreotti [the most powerful man in Italian politics] and the sun. At least leave us the Scudetto,” he joked. Juventus had won 19 of them, though. Roma: only one.
Boniperti, his right-hand man, later admitted: “For me it was a goal. But, be careful now: you can’t definitely claim that with that goal Roma would have won the game and therefore the Scudetto, because there was still a long time to play until the end and we might have been able to equalise. You can’t insinuate that the referee disallowed it out of favour to us either, as [Juve’s rugged midfielder] Beppe Furino was sent off in that game.”
Unused to being in the ascendancy, Roma might have choked too. They beat Pistoiese the following weekend and were leading Avellino on the final day of the campaign when news came through that Antonio Cabrini had put Juventus ahead against Fiorentina. Shortly afterwards, Roma conceded and drew 1-1.
http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2014/0102/soc_g_pirlo_totti_576x324.jpgPaolo Bruno/Getty ImagesRoma and Juventus have set the gold standard for Serie A this season. Sunday’s clash promises more of the same.
It’s worth noting that this team did have a tendency to throw things away. Flash forward, for instance, to the penultimate game of 1985-86 for evidence of that when they lost 3-2 to a Lecce side doomed to relegation and were overtaken by – yes, you guessed it – Juventus. This Scudetto, though, the 1981 edition, felt like it had been taken away from them.
While “you can’t say anything for certain” – particularly after Calciopoli – Turone himself doesn’t completely buy into the conspiracy theories and retrospective analysis that followed the scandal.
“In those days it was fashionable to talk about a ‘control room’ but I don’t believe that Juventus had to go looking for help,” Turone told Il Corriere dello Sport. “Let’s not forget that they were a great team: Zoff, [Claudio] Gentile, [Antonio] Cabrini, [Gaetano] Scirea, [Marco] Tardelli… They were the backbone of the national team that won the World Cup [in 1982]. And then there was [Roberto] Bettega, [Franco] Causio and [Liam] Brady. Yet we weren’t inferior. Conti, [Roberto] Pruzzo, Ancelotti, Agostino Di Bartolomei and above all, Falcao, a phenomenon, a complete player.”
The height of a rivalry and why it burns anew
Roma’s wait for a Scudetto ended in 1983. They reached the European Cup final the following year, losing on penalties to Liverpool in front of their own fans at the Olimpico. Juventus lifted that trophy in 1985, with the tragedy at Heysel as its backdrop, and in '86 would edge Sven-Goran Eriksson’s Roma to become Campione d’Italia again.
That era was the height of a rivalry that will forever have Er’ go’ de Turone as its symbol.
It is still disputed.
http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2014/0102/soc_g_nakata_d1_576x324.jpgGabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty ImagesHidetoshi Nakata helped Roma pip Juventus for the Scudetto in 2000-01.
Only this year, Carlo Sassi, the man behind the TV instant replay at the time, claimed it was offside and that the camera angle had led to a false impression and even alleged it had been manipulated to show otherwise at the broadcaster’s studios in Rome. When applied, new technology, however, did demonstrate that Turone was onside. But “any instrument has a margin of error.” As such, we’re still no closer to an answer.
What Viola said all those years ago is true to this day. It remains a “question of centimeters.”
Evoked whenever Roma and Juventus meet, it attains a greater resonance if it’s a match considered decisive for the title. That was the case in 2001, the last time they were involved in a top of the table clash. On that occasion, the decisions went Roma’s way, notably the one to lift the restriction on non-EU players just prior to the game.
Down 2-0 inside 10 minutes, Fabio Capello was able to throw on Marcos Assuncao and Hidetoshi Nakata in the second half. “The Japanese who shouldn’t have played was decisive,” recalled Juve’s coach at the time, Carlo Ancelotti. Nakata did indeed change the game. He pulled one back in the 79th minute and it was from the rebound of his shot that Vincenzo Montella equalised at the death to preserve Roma’s six-point lead on Juventus. Six weeks later, they were champions.
http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2014/0102/soc_g_vidal_576x324.jpgMaurizio Lagana/Getty ImagesCan Arturo Vidal and Paul Pogba keep Juve on track to win Serie A again?
Memories of encounters like that whet the appetite for Sunday’s game in Turin. Even at this early stage – remember we’re not yet halfway through the Serie A season – it’s expected this meeting will set the tone and tell us a lot about the psychology of the remainder of the campaign.
Winners of their first 10 games – a record in Italy – Roma were five points ahead of Juventus in late October. Things have swung in the meantime. Victorious in their last nine league games, Juventus are now the ones five points out in front. Make it 10 in a row and according to the great Zbigniew Boniek, who played for both clubs in the 1980s, it will be “practically match point” for the Old Lady.
Yet Roma can bring this title race closer to deuce again. Far from disappointing in any of the big games they’ve played so far this season and, lest we forget, still undefeated, they will run Juventus close. Sunday promises to be another “question of centimeters.”
The websites with the streaming services to football matches don’t change. Go to firstrownow.eu, find a stream and never ask for a link again
:rolleyes:
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Did you download that “DTV India” app, @chewy louie?
No, should I?
Yeah, it has all major sport channels.
That was a great chance for Ljajic after a 4 v 3 break. We’ve started on the front foot.