Serie B: Pescara-Juventus [03-31-2007] (30 Viewers)

Vinman

Vinman

2013 Prediction Cup Champ
#641
Jul 16, 2002
11,482
#641
I thought we were sluggish most of the game...the international break did this team no good

we had way too many bad passes, shots off target, and I had a sense that the players werent into this game...it just seemed like they didnt want to run today. More than a few times I saw a player with the ball with 2 guys on him looking for a pass, with no one coming to the ball

All that said, my biggest criticism is for our illustrious coach, DeCHUMPS

Would someone PLEASE tell me WHY Zala deserved the full 90 minutes ?? He missed passes and shots that most professional football players wouldnt on their worst day. Zala isnt worth a full tank of gas for the team bus, so why does this idiot insist on playing him ??

The best player on the field today was Marchionni...he is starting to show some serious improvement, and what does DD do...he subs him out for Palla, when Palla should have replaced Zala, not Marchionni !!!

The other sub I couldnt figure out for the life of me was Zebina for Biri. Zebina wasnt hurt, or being beaten by his man, so why replace him ?? He got forward a few times, and had a decent game....I dont remember him receiving a yellow card, and if he did, it wasnt a reason to replace him. I know some fools here will say "well, Biri scored for us"...that is true, but Biri wasnt brought in for his scoring prowess, and its not an every game occurance by any means

Once again, Boji is left on the bench...good job DD !!!!:tdown:


Buffon- not too much to do, but perfect when called on

Zebina- did fine...no idea why he was subbed

Boumsong- let his man turn in the box for a point blank shot at Buffon, stumbled once on an attack, luckily nothing came of it (is he wearing Nike boots ?? He always stumbles at the worst times)

Chellini- he played pretty well defensive, a mixed bag with his passes

Balza- defensively sound...but TERRIBLE on passes and crosses today

Marchionni- MOM, he came into his own today, and played very positive. He needs to play more

Zanetti and Gianni- both had some problems today- Pescara wasnt afraid to attack on the counter, both had to get pretty physical to slow down Pescara's speed

Neddy- not his best game, he missed some shots and some of his passes were off (we are used to perfection from him !!) He got into the middle consistently, which is where he belongs

Zala- pure crap...cant pass, cant shoot, waste of space. If he wants to remain in Turin, hand him a shovel and a hose and make him a groundskeeper at the stadium.

DP- not his best day either, missing a PK. He tried to make things happen, but was always covered by 2 defenders

Palla- came in in the second half for Marchionni, and had the corner kick which led to the goal...otherwise, he was pretty anonymous

Biri- scored our only goal, and did fine defensively


Play of the game part 1- DP showing his acting skills by demonstrating to the ref how Pescara defender Zoppetti faked an injury (which earned him an academy award...I mean a yellow card !!:D )

Play of the game part 2- Zanetti missed a slide tackle on a Pescara mid in the 79th minute, and decided to take him down American football style, by grabbing his leg , and pulling him down :pint:
 

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L'autista
Administrator
#654
Sep 23, 2003
84,790
#654
Vinman said:
...
All that said, my biggest criticism is for our illustrious coach, DeCHUMPS
...
The best player on the field today was Marchionni...
...
The other sub I couldnt figure out for the life of me was Zebina for Biri.
Click to expand...
Wow. While I agree with some of Vinman's commentary here, I gotta break ranks big time on some of the comments.

The team definitely came out sluggish from an NT hangover. The first half lacked energy and purposefulness. And I completely agree that Zala was the wrong choice to start -- over Boji or Palla for that matter. Throughout much the match, DP was setting up our best plays and there was no one around capable of finishing. Even an out-of-from Trez here would have been a godsend.

The second half was complete, relentless Juve pressure to find the one-up goal...which took some 30 minutes of play to finally get at that pace. And it came from Didi's two subs on the play: a corner from Palla to a breaking Biri with a great one-touch over the goalie.

As a result, this match was very much a model for the "Juventus Serie B Community Service"-type matches we sometimes have this season. We took what should have been an easy match and made it look a hell of a lot harder than it should have been. Happy for the three points on the road, of course. But we took too much energy to do what little we did. Capello would have not been pleased. ;)

Buffon - 6 - Never really threatened much, and played his role well.

Zebina - 5 - This guy has had worse matches, but this was one of his poorer matches. Hacking defensive moves that earned him at least one yellow card and was verging on his second. When he got engaged in the offensive play he did little with the ball and squandered opportunities. Defensively he was decent on the wings, but when he had to fill centrally he mistimed tackles and headers and made a mess of things. A better opposing attack would have toasted him for at least one or two goals today -- Deschamps was wise to pull him, even if we needed more help up front for our first sub.

Chiellini - 6 - Generally efficient, but nothing special. Not challenged much, and didn't make many good plays either. Certainly nothing offensively.

Boumsong - 6 - He allowed his man to get by him once or maybe twice. But he showed great recovery in hunting down the guy with the ball. Overall, he was our best defender on the back line today. And some of his headers at the other end created some near chances.

Balzaretti - 5 - He has played so much better before. His crosses were weak. A couple of times his upfield passes went completely to the wrong team and almost cost us a counter-attack crisis here and there (we were lucky not to have been burned). Added little offensively.

Nedved - 6 - He was an engine, but not the engine that could. His assists could have been more accurate, and he forced a few shots in traffic that should have been kicked wide. But he was creating some chaos up front.

Giannichedda - 5 - Combined with Zanetti today, the core of our midfield was poor. Possession consisted of a good challenge to win the ball here and there, but a completely useless or errant pass to turn it over right away afterwards. Giannichedda embodied that. He was better in our own box as a defender than anything he contributed beyond our own box.

Zanetti - 5 - Like Giannichedda, he added nothing to our forward movement. Some bad tackling. Sloppy. Just sloppy.

Marchionni - 5.5 - He's played better matches by far. His crosses were weak, as was his decision-making when it came to passing targets. I couldn't help but get the sense of all the things Camo could have done in his place given the same situations he was in today. The best play he had all day was deciding to dribble into the box more, when he had space, which lead to the DP PK. His shot on goal was terrible, so it was fortunate he used Pescara's defensive packing to his advantage and caught an arm. Otherwise, he was never threatening in his crosses and assists, and he was even less threatening when attempting shots at goal.

Zalayeta - 5 - Completely non-threatening. We could have replaced him out there with a teddy bear on the pitch and done just about as well. His best moves were in forcing the ball forward, catching passes down the wing, and kicking them back to someone else. Never seemed to break free, never seem to do anything constructive with his touches. Deadwood today.

Del Piero - 6.5 - Yes, he missed a PK. But he had to get my MOM. He was the only real force on the pitch today that was really generating anything of any real threat. It just throttled him that Pescara packed so many in the box and he had not a single finisher on the pitch to make use of his ball movement and maneuvers to create space.

Subs:

Birindelli - 6.5 - Beautiful one-touch goal. I thought bringing him in over Zebina was a wise move because Juve were proving that they could safely send their defensive wings forward and get involved in the play, and Zebina was not getting it done at all. Biri has been in better crossing form in recent months, but it was his finish that won it for us. Add that he wasn't going to hack his way to a red card like Zebina was about to, and it was a surprising early sub but a critical one nonetheless.

Palladino - 6 - When he came on, I could almost sense the difference in out offensive confidence. He controlled the ball far better than Zala and created a few chances.

Marchesio - NR - Not on long enough.

DD - 6 - Not one of his best coached matches by far. But we got the points on the road, and it was his two first subs that were responsible for the goal that finally broke the match open. His choice to start Zala was nonsensical at best. Leaving Boji on the bench today was irresponsible, really. But his choice to sub Biri for Zebina and Palla for Marchionni were both solid choices -- though the latter one should have been made earlier on.
 
Rami

Rami

The Linuxologist
#656
Dec 24, 2004
8,065
#656
Vinman said:
I thought we were sluggish most of the game...the international break did this team no good

we had way too many bad passes, shots off target, and I had a sense that the players werent into this game...it just seemed like they didnt want to run today. More than a few times I saw a player with the ball with 2 guys on him looking for a pass, with no one coming to the ball

All that said, my biggest criticism is for our illustrious coach, DeCHUMPS

Would someone PLEASE tell me WHY Zala deserved the full 90 minutes ?? He missed passes and shots that most professional football players wouldnt on their worst day. Zala isnt worth a full tank of gas for the team bus, so why does this idiot insist on playing him ??

The best player on the field today was Marchionni...he is starting to show some serious improvement, and what does DD do...he subs him out for Palla, when Palla should have replaced Zala, not Marchionni !!!

The other sub I couldnt figure out for the life of me was Zebina for Biri. Zebina wasnt hurt, or being beaten by his man, so why replace him ?? He got forward a few times, and had a decent game....I dont remember him receiving a yellow card, and if he did, it wasnt a reason to replace him. I know some fools here will say "well, Biri scored for us"...that is true, but Biri wasnt brought in for his scoring prowess, and its not an every game occurance by any means

Once again, Boji is left on the bench...good job DD !!!!:tdown:


Buffon- not too much to do, but perfect when called on

Zebina- did fine...no idea why he was subbed

Boumsong- let his man turn in the box for a point blank shot at Buffon, stumbled once on an attack, luckily nothing came of it (is he wearing Nike boots ?? He always stumbles at the worst times)

Chellini- he played pretty well defensive, a mixed bag with his passes

Balza- defensively sound...but TERRIBLE on passes and crosses today

Marchionni- MOM, he came into his own today, and played very positive. He needs to play more

Zanetti and Gianni- both had some problems today- Pescara wasnt afraid to attack on the counter, both had to get pretty physical to slow down Pescara's speed

Neddy- not his best game, he missed some shots and some of his passes were off (we are used to perfection from him !!) He got into the middle consistently, which is where he belongs

Zala- pure crap...cant pass, cant shoot, waste of space. If he wants to remain in Turin, hand him a shovel and a hose and make him a groundskeeper at the stadium.

DP- not his best day either, missing a PK. He tried to make things happen, but was always covered by 2 defenders

Palla- came in in the second half for Marchionni, and had the corner kick which led to the goal...otherwise, he was pretty anonymous

Biri- scored our only goal, and did fine defensively


Play of the game part 1- DP showing his acting skills by demonstrating to the ref how Pescara defender Zoppetti faked an injury (which earned him an academy award...I mean a yellow card !!:D )

Play of the game part 2- Zanetti missed a slide tackle on a Pescara mid in the 79th minute, and decided to take him down American football style, by grabbing his leg , and pulling him down :pint:
Click to expand...
Jonathan got a yellow card and will miss next match...Other than that I really don't see why Biri was sent in for Zebina.

We had some funny incidents today...DP's acting was hillarious and unexpected from him!!
 
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#658
Sep 23, 2003
84,790
#658
pavelnedved said:
the corner of Palladino. I wonder ... was that a brilliant one or a really really bad one ? :)
Click to expand...
It wasn't bad. Too many of our corners and crosses and long passes were skying too high -- which got DP motioning with his arms (i.e., pushing down) for the club to settle down and ease up a bit.

So Palla chose more of a lower in-ball than skying something -- which was the right choice with Biri breaking forward. It just happened to have hopped on the ground at just the right spot, and Biri made a nice tap (rather than skying it over the bar) to lift it over the goalie on the bounce back up off the ground.
 
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L'autista
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#659
Sep 23, 2003
84,790
#659
Rami said:
Jonathan got a yellow card and will miss next match...Other than that I really don't see why Biri was sent in for Zebina.
Click to expand...
His defensive play wasn't that great, but against Pescara it was certainly good enough. The main problems were his poor tackles -- he was a clear red card risk -- and that he was not making any effective use of his touches upfield, where we were able to roam and we were having trouble scoring.
 
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