Introduction and Napoli-Bologna Preview

By: Giovanni | October 16th, 2009

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It’s been a relatively uneventful two weeks away from Serie A. Luckily, we’re gearing up for this weekend’s return to action after a tough loss to Genoa during the celebration of Bologna FC’s 100th anniversary. It was a match that Bologna fans desperately wanted to win, considering the hype and excitement surrounding the game, but the 3-1 loss may provide a bit of perspective. We might already be getting to that point in the season where fans have to take a step back and think realistically about their goals for the year. Can this team climb up the Serie A ranks and contend? As a fan who witnessed the unlikely salvezza of last season firsthand, I’m ever-optimistic. Already this season I’ve seen these guys pull out miracles against Juve and almost against Fiorentina early on; this is a team with fight, and after acquiring some new talent and setting some new goals for itself, this team can do something more than fight against relegation. They can compete.

Before I go any further, I should probably introduce myself: my name is Giovanni, and I’ve signed on with the Bologna FC blog here at TheOffside in order to help co-blogger Ben and make regular contributions to keep the blog running. I’m an American college student living on the East Coast, graduating in the spring, but I spent the last year studying in Italy at the University of Bologna (and before that in Florence during the hot Italian summer). I had the privilege of attending many soccer games during my stay – the team won every one of the games I saw except for the one against Inter, which was still a blast – and I miss the sport terribly. I’m up every Sunday to catch Internet feeds of the team’s games, and I’m a frequent reader of TheOffside, the official Bologna site, and some Italian fansites. I can speak Italian, so I hope to pass along what I hear and read about the team from Italian sources, and I hope that you Offside readers enjoy my enthusiasm. And if I sound a little biased or I display a sort of “ra-ra” fan attitude in my writing, it’s just because I’m a hopeful fan who misses the team and its city.

With that out of the way, I can handle the match preview and do a little team recap. Ben’s been busy in his life away from the blog, so we haven’t had much in the way of previews or recaps, but I’ll probably be stealing Ben’s traditional copy/pasting of roster previews that you can find every week over at the Italian site of La Gazzetta dello Sport. For this week’s match, Papadopulo is sticking with the 4-4-2 formation and Di Vaio-Zalateya up front; my boy Osvaldo is available, but defender Raggi is out… Still, I hope that the defense is more solid than it looked against Genoa. You Napoli fans have any thoughts about the match-up? Please, post below in the comments!

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So there you have it. After a bit of a stumbling start without captain Marco Di Vaio and some missteps here and there, Bologna finds itself near the bottom of the table, but not so far that they can’t propel themselves upward with a win this Sunday. Napoli sit one place ahead with 7 points to Bologna’s 6 – this would be a big confidence-booster, something that we really need. I’ll be watching closely, and I’ll report back after the match, before next weekend’s Saturday game against Sampdoria. Please bear with me as I get the blog running smoothly again, and thanks for reading! Forza Bologna, ragazzi!