Alpha Romeo Metaphor II

Serie B: Derby Via Emilia - Bologna v. Modena

View attachment 311826Wednesday, 24 December 2014

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The weather was English. English Christmas, that is. Cold, windy, driving rain. Despite a kick-off temperature of 6C, over 20K turned out. Personally, I'd have stayed home given the choice. Not that I have one. So there I was in my Wengeresque parka, hood up, hat on under hood. Scarf sticking out. You can pretty much only see my nose in the shadow from the hood.

The Ultras were well-liquored up and sang for nearly an hour prior to kick-off. These derbies matter to them. While the middle of the stadium was rather empty, Curva Sud was packed tight. While Curva Nord in which the Modena fans were penned in, several thousands had made their way over from Modena.

We bossed the first half. Gennaro Troianiello and Sergio both had a pair of chances, but neither could convert them. As the half wound down, I was starting to get worried that we'd pay a cruel price for our negligence in front of goal.

In the 43rd minute, Gialloblu striker Nicola Ferrari outraced Dominico Maietta for a through ball but Dejan Stojanovic spread himself wide and blocked his shot.

A minute into stoppage time, Modena right back Davide Zoboli hoofed a long ball up into the teeth of the wind. Their striker Pablo Granoche, Maietta and Federico Barba all raced for it. Granoche won the race and coolly slotted home past Dejan.

The linesman was nearly right in front of me and as Granoche approached the ball, up went his flag went up for offside. It was pretty close, but fkn A I'll take whatever good fortune we can get.

I told Matthia Lepiller to get warmed up as the ref blew the whistle for halftime. Federico Casarini was playing alright but he looked tired and off the pace. Sergio was looking good out on the right so it was time to try Matthias in the hole behind the striker.

Curva Sud roared their Rossoblu onward to start the second half despite the lowering temperature and the very real threat that the driving rain might turn to sleet or driving snow soon. Derby della Neve doesn't sound like much fun to me.

Modena parked the bus in the hope that they could catch us out on a few long balls over the top.

In the 53rd minute, Lepiller produced a wee bit of Frankish magic. He'd passed the ball up to Robert Aquafresca. Two defenders were all over Aqua and poked the ball free. Matthias stepped up and put his foot through it, it was one of those shots that rose over the entire distance it covered. And it covered 25 meters. The Modena keeper only had enough time to begin to reach a hand out for it before it bulged the net.

1-0

Curva Sud went ballistic! Lepiller ran over to Curva Sud behind the goal to celebrate. What a hammer blow. This was the kind of magic that'd been missing from our play for the last several matches.

In the 60th minute, I replaced Marti Riverola with Michele Pazienza to defend our lead. Who was I to know that we were about to increase it.
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In the 63rd, Paz won the ball back as they attempted to start a counter attack. He played the ball back to Uros Radakovic. Uros hoisted a high ball toward the left corner flag. Troi was the first there, controlled it perfectly just as it landed, spun his defender and curled a cross toward the back post where Sergio was standing there feeling lonesome. He had time to aim his header past the keeper.

2-0

Poor Modena. They had no idea what hit them. Aqua scored a third a couple minutes later and five minutes after that Sergio bagged his second. It could have been a full-on blizzard for all the Curva Bulgarelli cared. We beaten a local rival like a rented mule and they'd cherish this victory for at least a week or two. Calcio is like that, you know.

After we scored the fourth, I remembered to check my mobile. Varese were losing. Can't get much better than that.

Merry Christmas, you Rossoblu's, from your beloved club.

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I'm surprised you don't use a halfback to augment your CB's pace problems.

Also can't aqua false nine or complete forward? Its hard for an advacned forward to lead an attack without anyone in the middle third with him.
 
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Nomad Ekaria said:
I'm surprised you don't use a halfback to augment your CB's pace problems.

Also can't aqua false nine or complete forward? Its hard for an advacned forward to lead an attack without anyone in the middle third with him.
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In fairness he has won 14 of 20 games, leads the league & his goal difference is twice that of any other team.

Don't nessessarily disagree but hey, "if it aint broke, dont fix it" lol ;)
 
Nomad Ekaria said:
I'm surprised you don't use a halfback to augment your CB's pace problems.

Also can't aqua false nine or complete forward? Its hard for an advacned forward to lead an attack without anyone in the middle third with him.
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The danger with pressing high up the pitch is balls over the top. When the opposition does have a really fast ST, I don't pressure high.
As for my STs, in my 4231 they have an AMC right behind them. What I don't talk about much is how feckless Aqua & Cacia are going forward. They have yet to actually score dribbling into the box.

Lippo255 said:
In fairness he has won 14 of 20 games, leads the league & his goal difference is twice that of any other team.

Don't nessessarily disagree but hey, "if it aint broke, dont fix it" lol ;)
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Thanks for sticking up for me, dude! I've set my team up to hurt my opponents from the wings and via long-range bombs.
 
no worries mate. If I know anything about Alpha's its that you spend enough time under the hood without buggering around when its running! Lol :P
 
I agree its working really good its just I'm trying to do the same thing with RCD Mallorca but in my game fell to the third level in spanish football and had just lost its entire roster and its good sponsorship deals, not being able to resign any of the players it traded for or had in the past. I use the same formation but a 2-3-2-2-1 for a counter/defence alternate tactic. I'm just surprised you didn't use a half back beacuse I didn't know people used DM roles other then roaming playmaker or half back.
 
Serie B: Livorno v. Bologna

View attachment 311064Saturday, 27 December 2014

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Since we played on Christmas Eve, I gave the players Christmas day off. So we only prepared for Livorno for one day. Livorno are fourth in the Serie B and tens points behind us. I don't know if you noticed, but Livorno did us a huge favor on Wednesday and beat Varese in Varese. They've won six of the last eight and are playing really well. By contrast, I'm not sure which side is going to turn up on the Amalfi Coast today? The side that smote Modena in the derby or the side that lost the two previous matches.

The bottom line is that we'll be winter champions and I can't wait to get away on holiday to Cadiz for a few days.

We started the match off fairly well. They only managed two aimless, long-range shots in the first quarter hour. The only problem was we weren't creating any chances except for a free kick about 20 yards out that Matthias Lepiller blazed over the bar.

In the 17th, we should have had a penalty. Teenage left winger Antonio Calabrese cuts inside, passes to Robert Aquafresca who flicks the ball back into the path of the kid. He's about to shoot when he has his legs chopped out from under him. The ball rolls to the keeper.

Me and the thousand or so Rossoblu supporters are all bellowing at the ref. Then I start interrogating the fourth official. Did the ref think he got the ball? I get no response. When I turn back to the game, it's a minute or more later and they've got the ball in our half.

They bring the ball across the field and into our left corner. Damjan Djokovic and Cutolo exchanged passes. Nobody tracked Djokovic. So there the young Croat is with the ball in the box and a few defenders left to beat. He plays a give-n-go with Rafati and he has a clear slot to shoot at the near post. He does and lasers the ball into the low corner.

1-0

How the **** do you just let someone walz into your penalty box like that unmarked, for one, and completely unchallenged. Fkn A.

We start working harder and by the half hour mark are starting to create some offensive chances.

In the 36th, we get a free kick out left. Just a ten meters in from a corner and 20 meters up the line. Everyone lines up between the top of the box and the penalty spot. I just know that Matthias is going to curl it towards the back post where our tall players, Aqua, Dominic Maietta, Federico Barba and Uros Radakovic are queued up.

Matthias curls the ball for the back post. Uros comes flying past everyone and hammers a header past the keeper!

1-1

Two minutes later, Calabrese gets chopped down in nearly the same spot. I know what's going to happen next.

As I watch Matthias step up, I see Maietta in his overexuberance leave just a step too early. Since he's all alone, he gets to the ball first and smashes his header into the net.

"Dammit, Dom!" I exclaim skyward. "Dammit! Why'd you leave early."

I look back down and just as expected the linesman has his flag up and the ref is signaling for offside.

Then a minute into stoppage time, a broken play leads to a fortunate goal for Livorno. Di Matteo crosses in from our right flank. Lepiller is lazy and waits for the cross to land at his feet. Biaganti steps in and toe pokes the ball to Rafati at our top right corner of the box. Luca Ceccarelli makes a desperation sliding tackle. The tackle ends up being perfectly timed. The only problem is the ball is rolling towards the penalty spot. Right where Galabinov is standing. He slots home.

2-1

And we go into the half losing and undeservedly so. A uncalled penalty for us and Maietta should have held his run for that fraction of a second. He'd have still gotten there. Dammit.

Barba looks exhausted so I replace him with Marios Oikonomous to start the second half.

The second half was an incredibly frustrating bit of football to watch. They dominated for the first ten minutes. We couldn't get the ball out of our half. So at the 55 minute mark, I pull off the teenage Calabrese for Gennaro Troianiello and pull off Uros, who is looking tired and slow, and put on Federico Casarini. I'm hoping Casa paired with Paz will dominate the middle of the park and Troi will do something magical out on the left.

It takes a while but we eventually start creating some chances. With 15 minutes left, we're really dominating play. Then it all falls apart.

It was a really stupid move. He didn't need to make the tackle and he should have known better than to do a stupid tackle like this right under the ref's nose. Ceccarelli had been booked in the 48th for a vicious foul. So in the 80th minute, their substitute left winger has the ball at the half line. His back is to our goal. He's going nowhere.

View attachment 311062Ceccarelli decides he needs to lunge in and get the ball from him. He's immediately up on his feet waving his hands about to vainly try and indicate that he hadn't touched the guy.

Yellow and red.

I knew we were good and screwed now. Despite going a man down, we did manage to create two chances. And they were for guys that I'd want to have chances, my subtitutes Casa and Troi.

I would characterize Casa's shot attempt as more clearing the ball to safety than as a shot towards goal. Troi's attempt as he stormed in off the left wing was so wayward it went out for a throw in. And it was a good 10 meters up the line.

No ****ing luck today on the pitch. Our luck was elsehwere -- Brescia did as a huge favorite and dispatched Varese 2-0.

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The league seems to be closing in again mate, should make for an interesting race for promotion.

When you say you will be "winter champions" what does that mean? Apologies for my ignorance but i know very little about the lower leagues in Italy.
 
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Lippo255 said:
The league seems to be closing in again mate, should make for an interesting race for promotion.

When you say you will be "winter champions" what does that mean? Apologies for my ignorance but i know very little about the lower leagues in Italy.
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I'm guessing he's referring to being top of the table by the time the winter break comes along.
 
Lippo255 said:
The league seems to be closing in again mate, should make for an interesting race for promotion.

When you say you will be "winter champions" what does that mean? Apologies for my ignorance but i know very little about the lower leagues in Italy.
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For leagues that have a winter break, whomever is leading at the break is Winter Champion.
 
View attachment 310753View attachment 310744

Gwen met me at Casteldelbole and we were off to Milan and our flight to Cadiz. It left on-time and as the plane taxied away from the gate I took a huge, deep breathe and let out a mammoth sigh.

"You look like you could use a drink," the stewardess said. As you might guess, Gwen had booked us in first class.

"Two champagnes, please," Gwen said in reasonably decent Italian.

"So the lessons are going well then?" I asked in Italian.

"Si," she replied and then in English said. "Whatever it is you said."

We downed our champagnes and a moment later were airborne.

"So my little Italian-American stress machine," Gwen said. "That wasn't a half bad first half was it?"

"Yep, wasn't bad," I sighed. "It'll be so nice to get away from it all for a few days."

I leaned my head on her shoulder and looked out the window at the receding lights of Milan.

"You won't stop thinking about though, will you," Gwen observed.

"Mmmph."

"Esteban and I will do our best to distract you."

I snickered.
 
View attachment 310441Ahh, Cadiz. Warm, sunny Cadiz.

For those of you who are new to my story, I wandered into Esteban's barbershop about an hour before my interview for the Cadiz CF SAD job. He convinced me to shave it all off. I got the job with the Yellow Submarine and we've become close friends. When I was in London at AFC Wimbledon, he started the Cadiz Wombles fan club. Now that I'm at Bologna, he started the Rossoblu Cadiz.

Like Bologna, Cadiz got off to a rocking start to the El Segundo B4 season, but had a much worse and longer hangover after the undefeated streak ended. They managed to claw their way back into 3rd place before the winter break. So Esteban and I discussed the two teams seasons in detail and we even went to a friendly match. Amazingly, this was the one rainy, cool day we had while we were there. Cadiz got smoked 2-0 by Liga Adelante side Alcorcon.

Generally, we slept in, ate well and spent plenty of time wandering the back streets and beaches of Cadiz. Here's a few pics. Just to make you all jealous.

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View attachment 310429Friday, 2 January 2015

Alright, fine. I lied. Cadiz wasn't all west and wewaxation (as Elmer Fudd might say). I bought Fransesco Migliore from Spezia for EU110K. I now have a second left-footed fullback. Negotiations went smoothly as I'm pretty sure his agent had been given explicit instructions to get him the **** out of Spezia. He's okay being a back-up as Morleo and Garics are on the wrong side of thirty (Franseco is 26). This also gives Bologna's future at left back, Simone Costalunga, more time to develop.

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Fransesco arrives today. Woot.

And I also went after Antonio Vacca. If you ever saw me play, you know that Casarini, Pazienza and Zuculini are my kind of players. All action, snarling (when necessary) and can run for 150 minutes if necessary. Except unlike me, Casa can score. Well, and Paz and Zuke on occasion, too. So Vacca gives me four of a kind. Sweetness.

I originally low-balled it. My scouts said start at 400K. The Director of Football at Catanzaro laughed at me over the phone then told me EU1.8M. We eventually arrived at EU1.2M. Did I overpay? Probably some. Personally, I think we're winning because of our awesome midfield. My defense and attack are sufficient for Serie B. I don't want to destabilize my defense and I can't afford to upgrade my strikers or wingers. Too much is better than not enough ... and we're more ready to compete in Serie A.

Interestingly, I got Antonio on board for cheaper than Franseco. The final sticking point was the agent fee. Seriously, this weasel didn't do all that much and definitely didn't deserve EU125K for this negotiation. I didn't want to jeopardize getting my man over short-changing his weasel agent. If you can believe it, weasel boy originally wanted 300K. **** that ****.

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Antonio arrives tomorrow.

If you've noticed, Director of Football Roberto Savoia hasn't had much to do. I don't like him and I don't trust him. I did give him a task to do. My dirty work. I wanted him to negotiate a mutual termination with Matuzalem (he signed him I might add) or buy him out. Matuzalem is too slow, doesn't read the game well, is overweight and injury-prone. Oh, and getting rid of him sends a message to the squad that if you destabilize my locker room, you're gone. Or for any player who can't pick up on a message that subtle, get on my bad sad, arrivederci muthafunker.

Apparently, the negotiations didn't go well. Glad I wasn't there. It cost us EU450K to get rid of him.

Tomorrow we host the Argentinian side Cruzeiro in a friendly Cup competition. So I figured one days preparation should be sufficient. More on that soon.
 
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The Rossoblu December 2014 - January 2015 Report

So the undefeated streak ended and then we had a hangover. Meh.

We didn't score in three straight matches. We scored 5 in December and conceded 6. The lone bright spot was the Derby della Emilia. Varese went on a very convenient three game losing streak to end the year which is the only reason we ended 2014 as Winter Champions.

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We start off the new year with a friendly Cup competition with three Brasilian sides: Cruzeiro, Flamengo and Sao Paolo. The week after that we have another friendly Cup competition with Bari, Brescia and Modena. All these matches are on TV. Hopefully, we can bust out of our funk with these matches and put some Euros in the bank.

And these cup matches better prepare us because January may only have three matches, but Brescia were on a hot streak to end 2014 and sit 5th in the table. They are 3-1-1 in the last five, have scored 7 and conceded 3. Ternana are in 7th though they ended the year poorly. Unfortunately for us, Pro Vercelli are 4-0-1 in their last 5, scoring 10 and conceding 5. Hopefully, they cool off.
 
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View attachment 310100Sunday, 4 January 2015

We beat Cruzeiro 3-2. We were up 3-0 just after the half hour mark. A Maietta own goal gave them a lifeline just before halftime. The ripped right through our defense to start the second half, but we settled down afterward and ground out the victory. This was my first team except for Sergio and Leonardo Guerra (he leaves on loan on Monday). It was nice to seem them defend a lead for a long period of time. We've been unable to do that recently.

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On Sunday the second stringers faced Sao Paulo and lost 1-0 from a goal right after halftime. It was a decent enough performance against superior opponents. Luca Callegari got sent off for two yellow cards inside 4 minutes. Both were deserved. We were unable to mount much of a comeback with a man down.

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The bottom line was that for a calcio-starved nation, they could tune in to RAI to fulfill their addiction. The stadium was half full for all three matches which means we made some decent money.
 
View attachment 310066Tuesday, 6 January 2015 9pm or thereabouts

"You come here often?" Albano Guaraldi said. "You see to know the know the owner."

"I do," I replied as I sat down. "I started coming here when I was a player. Had my first date with my ex-wife here. So, yes, I have a long history here."

We talked about the food for a few minutes and I made some recommendations. The small talk was bothersome, but it's all part of the dance. I had a goal for this dinner with Guaraldi. I wanted to raise the pay ceiling so that I could offer Federico Casarini a new contract. Casa's contract ended this June. First, I didn't want any foreign club poaching him on a free during the January transfer window and, secondly, I wanted to make a statement that we were building for the long-term.

Plus, not signing the fulcrum of our offense would just give the media ***loads of annoying questions to hound me about and I wanted none of that ****.

"I have the numbers from the Brasilian Cup," the Club President said after the small talk wound down and we'd ordered our dinners. "EU215,000 in TV revenue and just under EU500K from tickets and stadium sales after the associated matchday expenses are factored in."

"700K income in January is great," I said. "That's good to hear."

"So what's on your mind, Enrico?"

"Casarini."

"Ahh, yes," Guaraldi replied. "His contract expires. Right."

"And I've spoken to him and I've spoken to his agent," I continued. "They're willing to sign for the same money in terms of Serie B salary and Serie A salary."

"That's good to hear."

"Yes. Yes it is," I agreed. "He's come through the youth ranks and the Ultras adore him. Everybody does. Does all the promotional **** we ask him to do. Works incredibly hard in training."

"Yes, he's a fine boy," Guaraldi agreed. "What's the issue?"

"Money."

"Money?"

"Yes," I confirmed. "Savoia said that the most I can offer on any given salary is EU4500 per week. Right now, Casa makes 7K."

"Ahh, I see your point," Guaraldi said.

"Your salads," the waiter said. We ate in silence for a few moments.

"I want to make a statement by signing Federico," I said when I'd finished my salad. "I want to make a statement that we're building a winning side, we're looking toward the future."

Guaraldi thought about what I'd said in silence. The implicit statement that I hadn't needed to say was that we weren't about to sell any prize asset as he had done with both Gilardino and Diamanti. He knew that I was incredibly popular with the supporters and the Ultras especially. Because we were winning and because the Ultras liked the direction I had the club heading, their hatred for Guaraldi had abated. By no stretch of anyone's imagination had they forgiven him, but Guaraldi Out banners had disappeared. There hadn't been a protest since I'd taken the helm.

What was he going to do?

"Well," he sighed. "We need to stick to our budget. We need to remain financially careful. Saputo and his American friends might come through with a firm offer to take over the club and we need to keep ourselves in check."

Joey Saputo et al hadn't made the firm offer we'd expected. There had been plenty of speculation in media, but crickets from across the pond.

"Yet, if I hadn't insisted we wouldn't have just made 700K last weekend," I replied. "And we wouldn't be pulling just about the same amount next weekend. And for that matter, how much did those cup competitions reel in last summer? 2.7 million, I believe."

"More or less," Guaraldi agreed.

"So I want to make sure that Casa stays," I said. "Oh, here's our first course."

"I can't allow it," Guaraldi said as we dug into our pasta dishes. "We need to be careful financially."

"I just want to say that I disagree whole-heartedly," I said. "You know I'll let it drop, but I want you to know I'm not happy. The Ultras are going to start asking questions about this."

****. At least the food was excellent.
 
View attachment 309762Thursday, 8 January 2015 8pm-ish

"Hey, Christian," I said.

"Huh?"

"It's Enrico Pucci," I said quietly as I raised the brim of my ball cap so my face wasn't hidden in shadows. "Can we talk? Privately?"

"Yes, sure, of course," he said.

I followed the President of the Forever Ultras into his favorite bar and we found a booth in the back.

"Just so you know, I'm not here right now," I said. "I'll publicly deny anything you hear from me. As a matter of fact, this conversation never happened."

"You certainly have my attention," he said raising an eyebrow.

"I have a problem with Guaraldi," I said. "Despite doing well financially, those friendly cup competitions are a gold mine, I can't get him to raise the wage ceiling. Specifically, I want to offer Casarini a new contract. I'm not talking about some kind of Manchester City or PSG sized pay raise or anything. But I can't even offer Federico anything that isn't laughable. Suddenly, and I think because it's a way to oppose me, he's gotten all financially responsible. Because I'm so popular, he can't oppose me in any public way. I think he and Savioa are waiting for an opening to attack me."

"Okay," said Christian. "I've been wondering about Casarini's situation."

"On the other hand, I can't publicly wage war against Savoia and Guaraldi over Casarini's situation," I continued. "This is where I hope you'll come in. I've not given Savoia that much work to do. I negotiated and finalized Migliore's and Vacca's deals. He just filled out the paperwork. I'm completely undermining him. But I can't do it publicly. At least not yet."

"Here's where I think you might be able to help weaken Guaraldi," I said. "Ask about Casarini. Pester them. Demand explanations about why I can't have Casarini. Ask if he's planning to sell off Casarini. See where I'm going with this?"

"I do," he replied.

"I'd better go," I said. "Where's the back exit?"

"Through that door right over there."

"Thanks in advance."

"My pleasure," Christian replied. "I would gladly get the long knives out. And we never talked."
 
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