Another One Bites The Dust

By: cathal | September 4th, 2009

It may have been a friendly but when you present Lazio with a chance to win a trophy, we tend to avail of the opportunity. Once again, it wasn’t pretty but we managed to pull a 2-0 victory out of the lucky bag and resign a talented Real Zaragoza side to defeat. The talk of the past week may have been Lotito and his spectacular failure to land a defender but it seems Ballardini has come up with an unorthodox solution; Del Nero. At left back…

Yes, you did read that correctly, Davide opted to play Del Nero at left back. There’s a fine line between bravery and stupidity and those who missed the game will undoubtedly think our bald maestro on the bench just crossed it. However, Simone’s performance wasn’t half bad and what’s more, Cribari at right back was decent as well (yes, you read that correctly also). An unusual pairing for the wings and they were complemented with Radu and that troublemaker, Stendardo at the back with the latter in particular turning in a very fine performance. We also got a good look at our up-and-coming right back, Faraoni who managed a spirited but understandably immature performance and both Perpetuini and Sevieri got cameo appearances under their belts as well. They have a lot of growing up to do but the potential is evident. All in all, that makeshift line-up done good.

I can’t say there is all that much else to get excited about. Foggia expertly converted a penalty to give us the lead and Zarate unleashed a trademark second to make the game safe. It wasn’t convincing but it does show that this squad can get itself out of tight situations. The difference between the current squad and that of last season is simple. There is a wonderful sense of camaraderie, an immaculate team spirit, a winning mentality, the ability to grind out results when you really shouldn’t and a sufficient level of tactical organisation and preparation of our team on and off the field. That is impressive but whether it will make up for an apparent lack of quality remains to be seen. All I know is something is different and I flippin’ like it. Forza Lazio!