Iaconi Out?
By: Dan |
2 Comments
Still waiting on an official announcement, but after the debacle of Saturday’s 3-1 loss to Vicenza, Reggina president Lillo Foti could sack current head coach Ivo Iaconi and replace him with Primavera boss Roberto Breda [pictured]. Read the rest of this entry »
Category: Team News
Transfer Window Closed…
By: Dan | 2 Comments
After the actions of Reggina (or lack thereof) on the final day of the calciomercato, let me join in the collective head scratch.
Two more players exit. Piermario Morosoni (property of Udinese who is sent to Padova on loan) and Alessio Viola (19 year old youth product who will get plenty of first team action at Monza).
Okay, so who did we get? The only player signed today was Ivan Castiglia [pictured] from Cittadella. A familiar name as he grew up in the Reggina youth ranks, but why weren’t any other moves made?
We have been hearing the exciting rumors about the signing of a defender (Terlizzi), another midfielder (Caserta), and even possibly another forward. But none of this happened. Players like Brienza and Valdez were being courted by Serie A clubs, but they also end up sticking around. Daniele Cacia was linked to West Ham this morning but the deal ending up falling through. So where does that leave us?
Basically we have parted ways with all of the players who Novellino originally brought in that were having difficulty settling in: Cassano, Volpi, Busce, Morosini, Capelli. Throw in Alessio Viola’s name as well, but we will see him return in the summer. Four acquisitions were made: Fiorillo, Tedesco, Vigiani, Castiglia. We’re left with a team that doesn’t exactly scream promotion playoff spot, but I’ll try to look on the bright side of things.
By losing 1 defender and gaining 0, maybe young Vincenzo Camilleri will get more playing time? I’m dying to see more of him in action, although Iaconi has openly stated that Camilleri isn’t ready. Valdez, Santos, Lanzaro, Cascione, and Costa will have to hold down the fort the rest of the season. Although all decent players, this is the 3rd worst defense in Serie B. Perhaps Fiorillo is going to change our fortunes. He already has 1 shutout under his belt.
Castiglia has been playing well for Cittadella, but it’s hard to consider him much of an upgrade at midfield over Morosini. I know it’s not popular in Italy, but I like the young kids. I am excited to see the growth of Castiglia and possibly more playing time for Nicolas Viola. A midfielder we DIDN’T lose is Simone Missiroli, who apparently turned down a loan move to the lower leagues. He brings versatility to the midfield and to the attack.
Brienza and Cacia are Serie A talent and I don’t care what anyone else has to say about that… A healthy Brienza is going to do wonders for this attack. You will see this weekend. It’s a shame to lose Alessio Viola, but with Biagio Pagano playing in a foward role and the two aforementioned forwards sticking around, the kid wasn’t going to see much playing time. I wish him well on his loan spell.
There’s no doubt that the tifosi are going to be disgruntled. I’m remaining optimistic. The squad was large and needed trimmed down. We still have talented players. There is a lot of calcio to be played so let’s not throw in the towel just yet.
Category: Team News3 Points!
By: Dan | Add Comments
Finally! Reggina picks up a much needed win over the weekend against a direct relegation rival in Padova. It was a must win for head coach Ivo Iaconi, who would most likely have been replaced as we enter another off-week. If you haven’t seen them, check out some highlights of the 1-0 victory:
It was a lone goal by Biagio Pagano in the first half to give us the lead, and it would be the only goal scored in this match. Emiliano Bonazzoli did come close on a couple of occasions to doubling the lead. One such instance in the second half, Bonazzoli’s header from an Andrea Costa cross bounced of the woodwork.
Nevertheless, I’m glad we were able to hold on the lead with the amount of pressure that Padova piled on in the second half. Young Vincenzo Fiorillo picked up his first shutout in front of goal. He wasn’t tested too often, but performed his job when he was called upon. He will be exciting to watch down the stretch in what could be a breakout year for the youngster.
With his goal, Pagano remains our top scorer with 9 goals to his name. He definitely has a knack for scoring, but it seems a little odd for him to be paired with Bonazzoli in the 3-5-2. He is a midfielder first and foremost. This formation was a change from the 3-4-3 we had been seeing from Iaconi. Credit goes to Iaconi for adapting from a formation that just wasn’t working.
My MVP from the match was without question Carlos Valdez (pictured above). After this performance, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he will stick around. His tackling was on point, he was winning headers, and he just never let the intensity level drop. Great defender who I’m proud to have in the Amaranto shirt.
As predicted, Vigiani failed to impress me. I know I had a comment on my last post about how he had a good game, but i didn’t see it. Care to elaborate for me? At one point he gave away possession so easily that it almost resulted in a gift of a goal for Padova. I’d still prefer Adejo over Vigiani.
Let me also say that the refereeing was atrocious. Bonazzoli would be getting his shirt pulled, doing nothing wrong, and have a foul called on him. Multiple occasions he was whistled for no apparent reason. I guess that’s just what you have to deal with when you’re almost a half foot taller than some of the other players.
As I said, there will be an off-week before another away trip against Vicenza. Will we be seeing a new-look squad by then? Franco Brienza will be fully recovered and could be featured in the starting lineup. As far as new players go, don’t be too suprised if we land defender Christian Terlizzi or attacker Ferdinando Sforzini, with Santos and Daniele Cacia possibly on their way out.
On an unrelated note (still Reggina related), let me brag about my latest purchase from the good folks at rockngoal.it. The 2009-10 home shirt. Good material, good fit. There’s no main sponsor, but I dig the vertical lines on the front and back:
And also vote for The Offside in the 2010 Bloggies for best sports blog! Even if you don’t like my run-on sentences and poor transitions, The Offside deserves to take home some silverware. Voting ends January 31… go here: http://2010.bloggies.com
Category: Team NewsAnother Familiar Face Returns
By: Dan | 3 Comments
Reggina have announced their third signing of 2010: midfielder Luca Vigiani from Bologna. Reggina faithful are familiar with Vigiani from the handful of seasons he has played in Reggio. Now that we have Vigiani and Tedesco, we are looking like a throwback to the 2005/06 team. I never hold back my opinions on this blog so I will tell you how I feel about Vigiani. I was glad when got rid of him last year. At the time I thought if we got any money for him we would be stealing. Firstly, I can’t stand the way he looks. His long hair, mustache/crustache thing he always has, and he is scrawny. I always felt that if I played for Reggina, I could do as good as job as Vigiani can, and with my limited skills I would be almost as good. He creates some goals, but what he usually does is run really fast down and create fake collisions which send him flying to the ground. No one can earn free kicks like he can… I will give him that. He is a versatile player, so I’m not sure where he will be playing.
Going back to Tedesco, I think he can become an important figure for us in the second half of the season. He was one of the few bright spots of the team in the 3-1 loss to Cesena over the weekend. New goalkeeper Fiorello looked shaky at times, but did the job when he was called on. Can’t really put the blame solely on him for any of the goals.
Other current rumors are the sales of Carlos Valdez to Bari and Emmanuel Cascione to Chievo. Both defenders (although Cascione is a true midfielder), so I’m assuming that we’re still looking to bring in a defender. Although I would prefer to see the young players get some time (Camilleri). The always injured Brienza seems to be sticking around for now. Let’s hope he recovers soon and gives us some much needed help.
Looking ahead… Saturday’s match at Padova could be make or break for head coach Ivo Iaconi. A loss could see him face the axe, which would give us our third coach of the season. Rumor has it that Reggina Primavera coach Roberto Breda is already lined up to succeed Iaconi. I like Iaconi a lot and I hope he gets to finish this season. Some of the blame has to be put on the players, right?
Category: Team NewsFirst Post of 2010
By: Dan | 4 Comments
The new year hasn’t started too well for us. First, a draw at home to Grosseto after we had the lead 2 minutes into the match. Then, a poor performance on a cold/rainy day in Lombardia against Albinoleffe. A loss which saw ‘Leffe leap over us in the table. Can we get it together? I think a chance at a playoff spot is far from being obtianable, unless we’re talking about the relegation playoffs. It’s pretty much impossible to drop points week after week, especially at home, and pretend to be in the playoff hunt.
Can the market bring some changes for the better? The names I’ve been hearing don’t excite me that much. As we all expected, goalkeeper Mario Cassano has left (Sampdoria). I haven’t heard anything official but we could be getting young keeper Vincenzo Fiorillo (pictured) in exchange for Cassano. This I would be excited about. Fiorello is a quality young player, and perhaps is someone we can rely on moving forward in the coming years.
Antonio Busce is also on his way out. I have no hard feelings for Busce. He’s a solid veteran and I hope he has more success with his next team than he did in Reggio.
Other potential candidates rumored to be out the door include Volpi (the most obvious one), Valdez (love him but was practically sold to Lazio last year. Will probably end up in Serie A), Santos (eh, he makes a lot of dumb mistakes and I’d rather see Camilleri), Cacia (could have been a hero this week but missed a penalty!), and Brienza (I LOVE Franco. But the fans have hard feelings toward him ever since his fair-play incident. He’s also been very injury prone). And don’t forget that Daniele Capelli already returned to Atalanta.
I don’t see how we can improve when players like Valdez, Cacia, and Brienza leave. Like I said, I’m not thrilled about the reinforcements:
Giacomo Tedesco. It’s all but been officially announced that he is joining Reggina. A familiar name to many after his playing days in Calabria. He’s 34 years old. What can he really bring to the table at this stage in his career? And don’t forgot how he left us high and dry to join Catania two years ago. It was his decision.
Christian Terlizzi. Okay. That’s fine. A good, tall, powerful defender. Might need him if Valdez and Santos are ciao-ciao. I guess it would be a good signing.
Luca Vigiani. Please no. How many washed up ex-players do we want to bring back now?!
Fabio Caserta. Another okay name. Decent midfielder currently at Atalanta. Not the most amazing player we could get, but a good one. Although I haven’t heard as many rumblings about Caserta since the signing of Tedesco.
Nothing else really is being discussed. Tedesco and Fiorillo are the two big names that could be announced any day now. I wish we still had Hallfredsson. He would be dominating on the left wing in this 3-4-3 against inferior Serie B talent. But instead we loan out every good young promising player. Christian Stuani didn’t get the chance to play for than 5 minutes a match and now look at him. The leading goal scorer in the Spanish Segunda league. But I digress…
Stay tuned for more updates and angry rants.
Category: Team NewsThe Real Reggina?
By: Dan | 1 Comment
This is the Reggina that we expected to see all along. A talented, deep team that should be able to play with the best of them in Serie B. It’s been an uphill struggle so far, but head coach Ivo Iaconi has given us a little more spark with his 3-4-3 system. The real Reggina was on display earlier this week in their 3-1 defeat of mid-table dwellers Triestina. After allowing an early goal, I participated in the collective groan of Amaranto nation… here we go again. But the boys pulled it together, thanks to a masterful performance by the home grown Simone Missiroli (pictured). The lanky attacker bagged a brace; leveling the game at 1-1, then giving his team the lead before being substituted later in the second half. Biagio Pagano would then complete the come-from-behind victory with his seventh goal of the season. Check out the highlights here:
Props to Pietro Marino. The former youth team goalie (a giant of a man at 6′8″) has quietly been serving as the backup to Mario Cassano, before getting the call to start against Triestina. He did his job and made an impression with some key saves. Which leads us to the next topic: the calciomercato.
The January transfer window is right around the corner and the transfer rumors are already circulating around the Italian print media. Cassano has apparently been the target of verbal attacks from the tifosi, and his absence from the Triestina match makes his January sale seem inevitable. Was the swap-deal with Cassano/Puggioni a bad move? Piacenza doesn’t seem to be much better off with Puggioni either, 5th from the bottom of the table.
One player that we can say is virtually out the door is the veteran Sergio Volpi. He was our first big signing under the regime of his mentor, Walter Novellino. After struggling to make an impact early on, there was not going to be any room for Volpi after Novellino’s exit. He is close to an agreement with Catania, which will send him back to the top flight to help the relegation strugglers.
Also throw Antonio Busce’s name into the mix. I personally like Busce, but much like Volpi he has not been a regular in the starting lineup and could leave for Serie A and the prospect of more playing time. Tuscan side Siena are the main suitors for the services of the veteran. I have no problem if Busce leaves and Daniel Adejo gets more playing time.
Atalanta and Siena have declared interest for Uruguayan defender Carlos Valdez. However, he is not officially for sale and I hope he sticks around. His move wouldn’t come as a shock, as a move to Lazio was almost official, but time ran out on the last day of the transfer season.
Another player I would NOT want to see go is Franco Brienza. Once again, Siena is showing interest. It seems like they want to pillage our entire team. Brienza is always a target of jeers from the Reggina fans, but I think he is the most talented player we have and a valuable asset. Don’t want to lose him. We’ll see what happens….
So there is one game left in 2009. Tomorrow against fellow southern club Gallipoli. It would be great to end the year with a bang and win a second straight league match (would be three out of the last four). It is definitely a winnable match and can lift us more comfortably into the middle of the table. It’s amazing how things change so quickly. After the victory over Triestina, Iaconi starts mentioning that obtaining a playoff spot is a possibility. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Two weeks ago we’re battling relegation and now we’re making the playoffs? Let’s get some for victories first.
Category: Team NewsAscoli 1-3 Reggina… and the “Fair Play” Debate
By: Dan | 4 Comments
Forgive my lack of posting as I have been busy settling into my new apartment… but i was able to watch the Serie B direct goal cast on Saturday when Reggina defeated Ascoli by a score of 3-1. Normally I would be posting about my jubilation after the victory. But this match was all about a controversial goal and the gesture of fair play that followed.
Watch the events unfold in the highlights:
Ascoli would open the scoring just a few minutes into the first half with a goal that would start the controversy. As Reggina attempted to play the ball out of bounds so that the injured Carlos Valdez could receive treatment, or a substitution, Vincenzo Sommese of Ascoli intercepted the ball and rushed it by a defenseless Andrea Costa to set up the goal. It was obvious what Valdez was trying to do… and Costa was clearly holding his arms up in the air telling the Ascoli player to stop. As the goal celebration took place, a small fight ensued and Costa was shown red for giving a shove or a slap to opposing player. Costa is one of my favorite players… I have no problem with the emotion he showed, despite leaving our team in the tough position of playing almost an entire match with 10 men.
Shortly after the dust settled, Giuseppe Pillon, our short-lived manager in the 2008-09 season, saw the error in the ways of his players and ordered them to give one back. So they did just that and Biagio Pagano strolled to the unopposed net and scored his 6th goal of the season, leveling the scoreline at 1-1. I applaud Pillon for this decision and it was the correct thing to do. If only we could get a goal back every other time we’ve gotten screwed over the last 5 years.. we would be regularly competing for a spot in the Champions League.
Anyway… we would go on to win 3-1, despite the man disadvantage. Good to see Bonazzoli getting his name on the scoresheet. Hopefully that will be one of many more to come. The aftermath of this game involves an investigation by FIFA to see whether or not this was a gesture of fair play or an illegal act. I’m not sure why there would be anything illegal about it. No team battling relegation is going to just stand by and let people score on them. It was absolutely the right thing to do and that’s all there is to it!
These events have garnered a lot of attention around the soccer community and the above youtube video is even grouped in the “most viewed” page with over 600,000 hits. What do you Offsiders think of what happened? And oh yeah.. Forza Reggina.
Category: Team NewsCalabrian Derby
By: Dan | 1 Comment
Finally… a point on the road. Not that we had to travel very far. It was the first Derby della Calabria of the 2009-10 campaign with our close neighbors, Crotone. We have recently been on a dreadful run of road results, but on Saturday the spoils were shared in a 1-1 draw.
It’s been difficult to write about this team when we are constantly going 2 or 3 weeks without playing a match. It’s safe to say I’m pretty much fed up with these international postponements..
As we all know we are nowhere near where we thought this Reggina team could be around this time of year. At just 13 points we are occupying a spot in the relegation zone, albeit with a game in hand compared to some of our competition. Ivo Iaconi has brought in a new and interesting 3-4-3 formation. It gained us a valuable win against Saleritana, but that momentum wasn’t able to be carried over the following week against Empoli in a 2-0 loss. A couple weeks passed and we were given this 1-1 draw with Crotone.
Can we start winning on a regular basis? Are these long delays between matches doing more harm than good? Perhaps it allows us to heal our injuries and for Iaconi to get some important training time, but it’s really impossible to build this much needed momentum with this whacky schedule.
On top of this, we have to deal with the distraction of playing Palermo in the Coppa Italia this Thursday – two days before an important showdown with Brescia. Maybe Thursday will be a time for the reserves to shine? Can’t really risk injury at this point. Although it would be nice to stick it to a Serie A team who happens to be our neighbors on that nearby island.
Going back to the Crotone match, we once again saw the use of the 3-4-3. Biagio Pagano (pictured) broke through early on with his second goal of the year, but we allowed Crotone to bounce back in a matters of minutes to make the score 1-1. And 1-1 it would stay for the rest of the 90 minutes. The 3-4-3 is not allowing space for both Daniele Cacia and Emiliano Bonazzoli to shine. It’s a shame cause they are both talented players but only one of them can be used in this system. Although it was a surprise to see that NEITHER started against Crotone. Instead we saw the young Alessio Viola leading the trident attack with Brienza and Pagano. I’m sure Viola is good young talent, but we have the talent at our disposal and we need to use it. Bonazzoli should be starting without question.
I’m just rambling now. I hope everyone out there in the states enjoys their Thanksgiving. And hopefully we can have something to be thankful for this weekend.
Category: Team NewsThe Night the Lights Went Out in Lecce
By: Dan | 2 Comments
New coach, new formation, new players, new sponsor.. same result. Although we actually showed some signs of life in the 3-2 loss to Lecce. Read the rest of this entry »
Category: Team NewsNovellino Out – Iaconi In
By: Dan | 1 Comment
It’s not fun to blog about Reggina when all we are experiencing is loss after loss… 4th from the bottom after 10 matches. I like Novellino but I guess something had to be done to ignite a fire with this team. Walter Novellino was canned following the 2-0 road loss to his former club, Torino. A match in which we hardly created anything on the offensive side. Missed a couple a close chances, but other than that never really threatened.
So Novellino’s replacement is Ivo Iaconi. Who is Iaconi you might ask? He’s a 53-year-old journeyman coach around the lower leagues in Italy. Most recently with Cremonese, and more notably with Ascoli in 2007-08 after their relegation from Serie A. He’s been at the helm of more than ten clubs in a period of time which spans almost two decades.
Is he the right guy for the job? From what I’ve read, he prefers to use three defenders and three attacking players, which might create some exciting football for once. He relies on the speed of the wingers, so we might see a 3-4-3 of some sorts. We won’t have long to wait and see what Iaconi does on his debut, as he will be immediately tested with a midweek match against Lecce.
Promotion is far from a goal now. Let’s just take it one game at a time and then we can see where we are at when May and June roll around. For now, I will continue to play FIFA ‘10 and live in my Reggina fantasy world.
Category: Team News
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