A most frustrating 3 points

By: salvatore | November 2nd, 2008

Holy anti-football Batman, that was an incredibly frustrating game to watch.

Full credit should go to Catania for their strong start this year, but good god in heaven, did they ever play an awful form of defensive footie today. 11 men in their own end behind the ball, barely any shots on target (only one made it to Carrizo), and foul after foul after foul. It was a slow, dire affair, and was really hard to watch without wanting to get up and punch the television screen.

Thankfully, super sub Pasquale Foggia was able to do his usual act of team resuscitation, injecting the Aquile with a jolt of energy upon entry, and then collecting a soft Zarate cross in the box and slotting in the winning goal. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, I really think Pasquale should be starting ahead of Mauri. Then again, you can’t fault Delio for wanting to keep him on the bench as a sort of ace in his sleeve. Whenever Pasquale’s been introduced in the second half this season he’s made an immediate impact. Which begs the question, is Foggia’s pace and energy best served as a late game pick-me-up, or as something fresh out the box? Hard to say, but it looks like Rossi seems to prefer a “safe” midfield behind the Za-Pa-Ro trio.

Speaking of which, the trident failed to build on the momentum created against Chievo, and looked out of sync for most of the first half. Of course, given Catania’s tactics, it’s not really fair to blame Za-Pa-Ro. There just wasn’t much space out there. That said, The Zarate Kid was his usual dangerous self, buzzing around the box and creating panic throughout the whole game. If there’s any negative to his performance, it’s that again, he sometimes holds on to the ball longer than he should. A small quibble maybe, but let’s not forget how young he is. He’s still developing, if you can believe that. Also of note was Pandev picking up a really unnecessary yellow card. This was his fifth booking of the year, which means he’s going to be forced to miss the next match. Can you say Balboa-Zarate?

On the defensive end, Radu and Lichsteiner had strong games moving forward, but given the lack of any offensive effort on Catania’s part, it seems a bit hollow crediting fullbacks. Still, it bears repeating how strong a player Lichsteiner is, and how great he’s been for us. Less impressive was the midfield performance of Meghni, who made an appearance in the second half, and seemed slow and indecisive. He did manage a few good through balls, but I don’t think it’s wrong to expect more from Mourad. He’s too talented to be so underwhelming.

All and all, it’s a big sigh of relief getting three points from this kind of defensive struggle. It could have easily ended nil-nil, especially when you consider how so-so our form has been lately. Here’s hoping for a confident display in our next match against Siena. They beat Fiorentina today, so nothing can be taken for granted.

Forza Lazio!

Here are a couple of pics from today’s match: