The Night the Lights Went Out in Lecce

By: Dan | October 28th, 2009

lecce_reggina 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.

It was the debut of new coach Ivo Iaconi. Reggina were clad in the their road whites, complete with new sponsor Ipac.. which is some semiconductor electric company of sorts. The game started with bizarre circumstances, as less than two minutes into the match the stadium lights went out at the Via del Mare, leaving nothing but blackness throughout the stadio. The only light being the glow of one of the scoreboards, clock frozen in time, with the 0-0 scoreline still glowing amidst the inky shadows.

Well after a 15 or 20 minute delay, the game finally restarted. As we reported earlier, Iaconi would debut an exciting 3-4-3 formation. And a surprise to many was that young Nigerian Daniel Adejo was in the starting lineup. I’ve been screaming from the mountaintops for him to get some playing time. Iaconi can easily win me over with decisions like this. Also making an appearance was midfielder Emmaniel Cascione, getting the starting nod over Sergio Volpi.

We were actually creating some offense in this match. Maybe it’s the formation, maybe the players were eager to prove their worth in front of their new coach. We took an early 1-0 lead with a Bonazzoli penalty stroke, but would allow Lecce to level the scoreline just before halftime.

In the second half we actually kept playing! (well, maybe for some of the second half) Rizzato created a goal that was finished off wonderfully by Biagio Pagano. The 2-1 lead would be too good to be true and reality would soon set in. Why isn’t this Baclet character for Lecce regularly in their starting lineup? He already had three goals entering this match, and scored two more right after he was subbed in… we couldn’t handle him. It didn’t help that Valdez foolishly picked up a second yellow card when it was 2-2, sending us down to 10 men and ending all hope that we might earn the winning goal.

Valdez and Santos will both be suspended for the upcoming match against Salernitana. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that WE HAVE TO WIN THIS ONE. They are in LAST PLACE (a position I predicted pre-season despite some animosity from you Salernitana apologists out there) and we are at home. Anything less than three points isn’t going to cut it. Give more kids a chance. Let’s see the Viola brothers, lets see Vincenzo Camilleri. With two defenders suspended there should be no reason to keep Camilleri on the bench. Let’s go for it all. This is our last chance.