Another Goddamn Tie.

By: salvatore | April 14th, 2008

Well, it seems the Biancoceleste are stuck in sort some of awful parody of Torino FC. If you’re keeping track, that’s three straight draws, and five in the last eight games.

We’ve looked good in almost all of those games, but for whatever reason, we just can’t close them out and kill off opponents. This was apparent in Milan, unlucky to be true against Inter, and obvious yesterday.

Sigh

To be fair though, there was a definite air of indifference yesterday. I mean what else would you call a starting line-up that featured the fearsome (heavy sarcasm) strike partnership of Igli Tare and Fabio Vignaroli? Yep, Bianchi and Dabo may have been out with injury, but Delio also rested six players likely to be named for Wednesday’s Coppa Italia clash with Inter Buenos Aires, making this outing with Siena feel damn near like a friendly.

The best part though was that we nearly pulled it off, even with one of the most toothless attacks I’ve ever seen. That’s either a comment on Siena, or an indication that when healthy, the midfield and back four bench isn’t completely terrible.

That said, Muslera. Holy shitballs Muslera.

Muslera

Full discloser, up until the 80th minute of yesterday’s game I had been thinking of posting something of a discussion on whether or not he should start against Inter, and if he might be ready to get some steady playing time. Well, discussion over. There’s just no way that last goal should have gone in, and until he can limit these game destroying howlers, he can not be trusted with the starting gloves.

I was against the idea of loaning him out, mostly because I thought he could make a good backup. But with Carrizo hopefully joining in June, and the news that Ballotta will stick around for another year, maybe it’s time he gets loaned out for experience. We’ll just have to wait and see.

That ugliness aside, there were some bright spots yesterday. For one thing, Mofo Mutarelli scored a nice goal from outside the box, and it looks like he’s getting back into full-game shape. Zauri managed to last the full 90 minutes in his first start back, and Rozehnal looked comfortable working with Siviglia in the center of the defense. Oh, and Mauri did nothing to really piss me off…of course, he also didn’t really do anything special either. Shrugs galore then, and time to prepare for the Coppa Italia semis.

Here are the highlights of yesterday’s 1-1 practice session with Siena: