Bologna-Siena, Bologna-Roma Recap

By: Giovanni | November 1st, 2009

osvaldo

Another week, a few more opportunities to grab some much-needed points from two struggling teams. Siena, sitting at the very bottom of the table, eventually coughed theirs up while playing clean football and making things somewhat interesting. Roma, sitting just a few points above the drop, refused to give anything in a must-win comebacker at the Stadio Olimpico. Where do we stand now?

Well, as Ben wrote last week, this team is in trouble. Bringing new coach Colomba in to replace Papadopulo had little to no effect on the club, and after a transfer season full of talk that amounted to little action (the “rejuvenation” of the club basically started and ended with Viviano, who has been a great acquisition, and Zalayeta, who has been less helpful), I’m wondering what the ownership is going to do. There’s talk of a new stadium in advance of a possible Italy-hosted World Cup, and they’ve done a little shuffling, but… What’s going to give this team the kick in the pants that they need? I can’t imagine the entire season continuing like this.

Watching the Roma game on ESPN360 this morning, I can’t say that I was displeased with how the team looked in the first half. The offense tried to stay organized (and is at least holding onto the ball) and the defense didn’t exactly look porous. The problem, I think, is with their rhythm… Di Vaio can’t be the same player that he was last year, and there are very few drives upfield to get him the ball. They’ll hang back and wait to get people in position, but they lack the talent to execute their plans and get the ball in the right place. Many through balls were intercepted by Roma – and Bologna’s incompetence in attack shows in the match stats. Even against Siena, they only managed 43% possession, and today they had one (!) corner kick to Roma’s 17. I’m glad that Roma didn’t complete more of those, but come on. Roma is a team that’s struggling to stay above the drop; you should not be conceding so much to them on defense. Get the ball and run. There were seven offside calls to Roma’s three, and only four shots on goal to Roma’s 29… Maybe I should retract my statement about the defense being better than “porous”.

shots

At least Viviano continues to impress – I’m glad that he can serve as a sort of young base moving forward. As far as the rest of the youth… Osvaldo was a hero of mine when he came to Bologna, because I thought that he could take Di Vaio’s place as the new young star at the front for a team that plays with a “get the ball to the striker and pray” mentality, but he had one strike from the right side today and was otherwise, in ESPN’s words, “invisible”.

It certainly seems to me that the biggest problem for Bologna is their lack of ball control. They’ll clear to prevent an attack and then give their opponents another chance moments later, leading to inevitable goals. Luckily, I just read (while writing this post!) that Bologna have brought in Ghana captain and midfielder Stephen Appiah… Can he help in midfield? He seems spirited from his comments to the press, and he’s only 28, but I’ll reserve judgment until I see him on the pitch. Hopefully, the rossoblu learn from their successes and failures in these two games and try to do something next week against Palermo.