Cliffs Notes Preview: Visiting Old Friends

By: chris | May 3rd, 2008

Sampdoria v Roma

Big game? Might be. We’ll have to keep one eye here, one eye elsewhere. But aside from the actual result, I’m frothing at the mouth to watch Vincenzo and Antonio back together again and playing against Roma. It’ll be mighty weird, but I’m sure on a few occasions I’ll be imagining them in giallorosso, streaming down the pitch at the Olimpico, waiting for the chance to run in celebration towards the Sud. L’aeroplanino has at least been called up, so we shall see what happens. Unfortunately, Sampdoria still has much to play for with a spot in Europe in the balance, so it’s not as though Walter Mazzarri can throw any old lineup out there.

That’s really where the good news ends. You know the standings, and it doesn’t seem as though Francesco Totti took a dip in the fountain of medical miracles, meaning he’ll be left back in Rome to rehab. Taddei is also “out for the year”, which is one of my favorite things in sports. It happens across the board, too. Players will have an injury which would normally take a month to heal, but because the season has only 3 weeks remaining, they’re out for the year. Is this necessary? Because when I hear “out for the season” my first thoughts are, “does he have AIDS and where the hell are my prayer candles?”. Can we be a bit less dramatic? Like, say, “he’s going to be out three weeks and will miss the remainder of the season”. Is that too much to ask? Because as it looks right now, minor injuries which have ended a players season have taken at least 7 years off the back end of my life. Thanks.

Oh, right, Sampdoria.

I expect the boys to put up a performance and I expect Spal to go for the win. However, he may have an eye towards Wednesday, with Roma having a realistic shot at that trophy.

Last Five

Roma: DWWDW

Samp: WWLWD

They creamed Udinese, drew with Fiorentina and lost to Reggina. Your guess is as good as mine.

Squads

ANTUNES Gabriel
AQUILANI Alberto
BERTAGNOLI J. Sergio
BRIGHI Matteo
CASSETTI Marco
CICINHO
CURCI Gianluca
DE ROSSI Daniele
DELLA PENNA Claudio
DONI Alexander
ESPOSITO Mauro
GIULY Ludovic
MANCINI Alessandro
MEXES Philippe
PANUCCI Christian
PERROTTA Simone
PIZARRO David
TONETTO Max
UNAL Daniel
VUCINIC Mirko

I understand mathematically it’s all left to play for, but I’d love to see these kids get a late-game run. For all the fantacalcio in the last few weeks, we may be looking at two studs sitting in Roma’s Primavera right now.

* - Juan is suspended unjustly.

Samp:

Portieri: Fiorillo, Mirante.

Difensori: Accardi, Gastaldello, Miglionico, Sala.

Centrocampisti: Delvecchio, Franceschini, Palombo, Pieri, Poli, Sammarco, Volpi, Zenoni, Ziegler.

Attaccanti: Bellucci, Bonazzoli, Cassano, Montella.

Probable XIs

Roma:

Doni;
Cicinho, Grumpy, Mexes, Tonetto;
Piza, DDR;
Ludovicious, Simone, Amantino;
Vucigol.

Maybe Marco Cassetti for Cicinho or King Berto for David.

Samp:

Mirante;
Gastaldello, Lucchini, Accardi;
Palombo, Sammarco, Delvecchio, Franceschini, Pieri;
Cassano, Bellucci.

I cheated.

Movies

For all the Taddei naysayers: How many goals has he cleared off the line this year? I count at least two. Shit, that’s more saves than Curci, Julio Sergio and Carlo Zotti combined.