Balboa In Bust-Up
By: cathal | July 17th, 2009Rocchi Balboa lived up to his nickname today as our captain got involved in a dispute with Diakite’. The extent of his involvement is uncertain as one report empasises on the verbal aspect while the other speaks of a physical altercation. Whatever the situation may have been, I believe this to be incredibly irresponsible behaviour from the team leader.
Let me explain what I know about the situation. Today, the team trained in front of 500 fans and the tension began when Mobido made a bad challenge and hurt Meghni, leaving Mourad on the ground for five minutes. Play was stopped while the player was being attended to but on resumption, the tall centre-back made another hard challenge on our captain who proceeded to confront the French man. Apparently, Tommaso was restrained by his fellow squad members and Mobido left training shortly afterwards. The two later had a discussion and appeared to have sorted things out somewhat.
I guess we can draw a line under it there but for me, there is no excuse for the team’s rolemodel to be wading in and accusing a fellow squad member of being too hard in his tackles. I can’t see why a player would try to hurt his friends and the captain should be the first to calm the situation down; not the person to instigate it all. Remember, 500 dedicated fans took time out of their schedules to come down and watch our boys prepare for the friendly against Universitatea Craoiva tomorrow. I am sure the last thing they wanted to see was two of our players squabble. Tomorrow’s game should be the perfect Europa League warm-up. The Romanian side are no mugs having finished seventh in the league last season and only missing out on Europe via goal difference or head-to-head, depending on how they judge those things over there. Thus, it should be a competitive tie and one I hope to see us win and I don’t want foolish actions to diminish our chances. Forza Lazio!
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Comments | Add your comment
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hey cathal what would u say if instead of meghni was zarate and what if he was out for a month let’s say?
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United States
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It doesn’t matter to me who the player was bobi, Rocchi let the club and the fans down with his retaliation. Besides, if a defender can’t tackle in training then there is no point in him being there…
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On lazialita.it there is a video of Rocchi arguing with Firmani. I can’t hear them talking but I hope it didn’t turn into anything seriouse.
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i’m not saying that rocchi was right but i understand he’s anger because to make 2 tackles on a training and to hurt 2players with those 2 tackles i think it’s stupid
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Video from that last game. We did not look that bad!!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLDcTANMUK4
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Hey Cathal how do you know if Morbido was warned or not before. The media only comment about the argue. Rocchi is our captain and he must be rolemodel as you said but thats exactly what he did. Position in first 11 you can get from good form and good games NOT by making conflicts and ruing training.
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United States -
I’m quite surprised that so many people are jumping to Tommaso’s defence.
As I said, Rocchi is our captain, the player’s representative at the club. It is his duty to protect our players, not attack them. We all know that there probably was a personal element to this dispute (his own fear of being injured) but as captain of our club, he cannot resort to a verbal or physical attack in front of 500 supporters in training.
Suppose Ballardini raised his hands towards Mobido (as Rocchi did, allegedly), he would probably be sacked for such actions. In fact, suppose this was Diakite’ acting on Tommaso. Again, viewpoints would be different.
What he should have done is sat the kid down after training and have an adult conversation. Agree?
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2 things.
1.Who will lose if ROcchi is injured again Lazio or he?
2.Have you seen the tackle on Mehgni?As you said it is a training, so who gives a damn about how many supporters were present.
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Players get injured in training. Players break other players’ legs and nothing is said or done about it. Accidents can happen and unless Mobido was deliberately trying to injure Meghni and Rocchi, that fight is inexcusable. That’s just my opinion though.
We criticise players for not giving 100% in games and now many are criticisng Mobido for giving 100% in training. Both players are trying to cement a place in the first team, it’s just, one is starting out, is immature and perhaps needs a word of encouragement and advice every now and again and the guy who has the task of giving it is apparently trying to fight him!
I’m not saying Rocchi behaved badly in particular or that he was wrong or foolish, merely, I am trying to illustrate why incidents like these exhibit a poor captain. That’s my opinion though.
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I haven’t seen this incident. I think seeing the incident first hand might make opinions differ in both camps.
I think it is important to give 100% in training. But maybe Mobido made a bad tackle, a yellow card offence in real play. If Rocchi was reacting to that, i think that is appropriate, as long as a fist fight does not ensue. A shout or a verbal warning is fair enough.
Delaying it after the game sounds nice, but i think a warning needs to be made on the spot. Let’s not forget age also – tomasso is maybe 10 yrs older than mobido. And he is the captain.
Finally: who is ‘refereeing’ these practice games : maybe Ballardini should be stepping in!
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I agree with you Omar to a large extent. I’ve been asking people in Italy for a viewpoint and they said it was nothing important.
That’s good to hear, but if no fuss has been made of it then why did Tommaso react the way he did?
You make a good point that something should have been done at the time but as I mentioned earlier, when players are said to be “restraining” our captain, it’s a cause for concern.
Anyway, as our players appear to have moved on then so will I. But it will remain in the back of my mind when Rocchi wears that armband…
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SO mister Cathal,
If I get your point you are cheering for the Russian all the way.Suit yourself, at the end you’ll be all screaming Rocchi ROCCHI!!!
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Of course I will be cheering on Tommaso. I’m a laziale, that’s not in doubt!!!
However, I don’t think any of us can or should be 100% happy with decisions made at the club.
Posted from
United States
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