This was was nicely one of those matches Juve finally dominated. But you wouldn't know it from the scoreline. Many missed opportunities and lack of a killer instinct kept Verona in the match and kept this from being 3-0. Which is a little worrisome. We should have put out the lights on Verona by early in the second half.
What helped us is that Verona lacked any of the offensive tools to cause us much trouble -- even when they went down 1-0, they hardly pressed forward for an equalizer. Our shaky defensive line was able to relax a bit, and the occasional screw-up was never exposed because Verona never forced the issue. Gigi's biggest challenge today was his own doing, which should tell you something.
A win is a win, of course. But this was one of those underachieving matches where you wonder if Capello is still at the helm.
Buffon - 5.5 - Not called upon much. His own footwork muff was his only real challenge.
Zebina - 6 - You wouldn't know this guy is carrying so much rust. He actually looked halfway decent today. Maybe my standards are being lowered by our CB play of late, but he contributed to some offensive drives and didn't make any major defensive mistakes.
Kovac - 6 - Generally good performance, though not really tested much.
Boumsong - 6 - He decided to have a decent match today, but this was just Verona. Normally I get worried when I see a CB running on the pitch with the ball during play. But in his case, how much could it hurt our defense, afterall.

Actually only a couple small defensive mistakes that Chiellini bailed him out for.
Chiellini - 6.5 - Good defensive showing. Bailed out Boumsong a couple of times. And when I saw him break free on the edge for the cross that ultimately lead to the goal, I knew he would deliver for some reason.
Paro - 5.5 - Mixed bag. Nothing great, but nothing too terrible either. I need to see more good stops from him, more on-target passes, and better thinking when he's on the offensive end of the pitch.
Marchisio - 6 - A nice defensive stop in the first half in our own goal to bail out a coverage flub. And quite a few times he demonstrated some excellent pin-point passing. A few poor decisions, like lifting the ball way over the net from deep back instead of passing it around more. But otherwise I'd like to see him continue to get involved in play... he's contributing a bit and needs to gel more with his teammates.
Camoranesi - 7 - MOM. Picked up some of the slack with Nedved out, as we needed. Still played a dangerous offensive match. Some finishing probs, but when is that new? And of course: the header in front of his former team. Well done.
Palladino - 6 - Iffy. At moments he can make brilliant plays like some of the great, looping crosses into the box like the one Camo scored on. But he saved his best finishing for a play that got whistled back. More concerning is the guy cannot hold the ball when confronted. Whenever a Verona defender came in to challenge him on the wing, he coughed up the ball like a Kansas tourist handing over his wallet to avoid a New York City mugging.
Zalayeta - 6.5 - For moments he was our most dangerous player on offense. He had the best finishing in the match of anyone ... just that he unfortunately couldn't get it around the Verona goalie. (Though you could say that was partly the fault of his finishing.)
Bojinov - 5 - The man needs another confidence boost. Offsides too often. His body language is just droopingly sad out on the pitch. Can't seem to find his finish. Bad patch of form lately.
Subs:
Del Piero - 6.5 - Made an immediate impact coming on. One of our most creative players on the pitch today, and I loved his instincts for the ball and the goal even with his back turned. No rust to shake off here.
De Ceglie - 5.5 - Not on for long, but not very involved when he was on the pitch.
Piccolo - NR - Too late on the pitch to rate.
DD - 5.5 - The squad dominated possession but didn't do enough with it. We easily could have let Verona back into the match at any given time and didn't finish the job. Some of his subs didn't make a lot of sense at the end, and it seemed to translate to player confusion in our formation and play at the end of the match. And any match where I am reminded of days with Capello at the helm does not reflect well on the coach.