CL LiveBlog: Roma v CFR Cluj

By: chris | September 16th, 2008

I’ll say it: Spalletti’s job is safe, I just don’t know how safe it should be. In these years Roma’s great Achilles heel has showed no signs of strengthening.

Roma 1 – Cluj 2

GAME

93′ Totti blast deflects wide. Cicinho throw….shot into the arms of Cluj’s keeper.

91′ Wish I could hear what the crowd’s chanting right now, cannot be good.

89′ It looks like this will be the worst loss since the Siena game last year. That one seemed to serve as a wakeup, let’s hope this one does as well.

86′ Cluj break….stopped by Cicinho. God. Ball to Totti with his back to goal, no chance to turn. Loria with a Macellazzi special on Kone.

83′ Cicinho yellow. Baptista just sat on the ball with nowhere to go. I’m not even sure what formation is on the pitch right now.

81′ Cluj just missed #3. Tonettto cleared it from in front of Doni.

80′ Aquilani lines one up from Moldova. No dice.

De Rossi down. Gifting balls to Cluj. I’m getting ready to type it looks like they’ve quit.

Cicinho with a gimme cross in the box, fluffed it, he’s limping. The entire fucking back line is down and out. Wonderful.

76′ Strange enough….the chemistry between Totti and Montella is still there. Maybe that’s what Spal’s been seeing in training.

75′ What a fucking run by Mirko Tomba. Out for a throw and two Cluj players down. The cart has come on the field, off comes Today. L’Aeroplanino on. No Menez? Ah well. Turn back the clock, Vincenzo. It’s 1999 again.

73′ Nice work by Cicinho to cut in and pass to DDR whose daisy cutter was saved easily.

70′ Cluj off the post. That would’ve been nice. Oh dear god…….

69′ Is the pitch slanted? Because there hasn’t been an attack on the right for ages. It’s a risk this early with Mirko, DDR & Totti hurt, but perhaps bringing someone on for Taddei would help.

(As I typed that an attack came down the right. Of course.)

67′ Totti tripped in the box, no peno. Goal kick.

66′ Menez & Okaka warming up. Lesson learned: Tonetto/Taddei wing doesn’t really work right now.

65′ Cluj break stuffed, a welcome change. Tonetto fires a cross in with his right and it’s cleared out. Fires one in with his left and it’s cleared out. Ugh.

64′ Free kick given. De Rossi hammers one from distance but goes a bit high.

62′ Firefox is acting up apologies. But luckily nothing was really missed. Or unfortunately. Riise looks completely dejected on the bench.

A sports psychologist needs to come in to assess what happens after Roma dominates en route to a 1-0 lead.

55′ Finally some gorgeous play by the Roman.s Welcome back, Francesco.

Free kick outside the far post by Arjen Robben’s dad.

55′ Taddei foul for a free kick within distance of goal. Perhaps it’s time he comes off as well.

The entire play is concentrated on that left wing.

Let’s pray for a Torino Coppa Italia performance.

52′ Riise off, Totti on. In Jesus we trust….

There’s the panic button – here comes Francesco.

50′ 2-1 Cluj. Who has the panic button? This is awful. Culio. Who else? Can they sign him?

49′ A slow start to the 2nd half as everyone was just waiting for Panucci to be taken off.

GOMR’s coming off, he’s clearly hurt. Ugh. Loria on. This is NOT a sub we wanted to see made.

SECOND HALF KICKOFF

Panucci’s still limping. That’s good. Having 3 CB’s down and the 4th playing a whole 90 shitty minutes in the shirt obviously was needed.

Alright, I just put on a Roma scarf and killed a live chicken. Here’s to good juju.

45′ No stoppage, HALFTIME. One word: ugh. They do look like scoring anytime now. The problem is so doesn’t Cluj.

43′ I know he’s still learning, but I think the last touch Baptista had was in pregame warmups. Could be time for the Menez show.

42′ Riise threw a knee into Julio Culio’s midsection, he’s down. TGIP is looking unhappy.

41′ Love that Cluj have a baldheaded Frenchman named “Tony”. Just Tony. Looks like he might be the lost member of The Village People.

39′ Cluj on the break with numbers….another save by Doni from outside the box.

37′ Corner Roma after some nice hustle work from Mirko…..DDR put it in a different position to fool the defense. Must be reading the LB on his mobile. Didn’t want to give anything away. you’re welcome, Daniele.

35′ Cluj corner….hit towards Pluto….ball with Cluj in a safe position….I think Arjen Robben’s dad is playing LB for Cluj.

Vuci in a nice position but a little too much mustard on his touch. Riise continuing with his herculean throw ins.

34′ DDR really sends in some precise corners. Always seem to wind up at th exact same spot.

33′ Halftime Totti sighting? 60th minute? Tking out La Bestia wouldn’t be terrible at this point. He’s done near nothing.

31′ Showing that goal again and Culio ate Taddei for breakfast. And apparently Culio’s first name is Juan. I suppose Julio would’ve been too much to ask.

29′ Goal Culio. You know, I was just about to say he’s damn good.

I think they needed that. You’d think Trap was coaching this team with the way they handle 1-0 leads. Tonetto just got fucking hammered. Knee to the head. Back up.

28′ Another bomb by Pereira. So Cluj gameplan: Get the ball on the foot of Culio, Pereira or Kone and then become a decoy to create shooting lanes.

26′ Culio with another cannon, this one goes over the bar. He’s got some left foot on him.

25′ DDR to Beast…..Aquilani scuffs on well wide. Hey, he an DDR canline up as often as they like with the way they’re playing right now.

25′ DDR & KA playing with Cluj. Those two should be side-by-side every game for the next 10 years – Roma and Azzurri.

23′ Cluj on the break….cannon parried over the bar by Doni.

21′ Mirko with some more sweet work in the box and forces a Cluj defender with a biked clearance after his cross. Just heard “Diego Maradona” in amongst all the Romanian. There we go. I’m quite liking Mirko Tomba though. Nobody slaloms like Mirko.

19′ Another cross sent in by Cicinho. He’s having a game right now.

What else? A header by the near post from Christian.

17′ Vucinic off the post! Goalie was out and beaten and Mirko looked like he was hammered from behind as he was takin the shot. Any moment now this is going in.

And a beautiful pass from Cicinho on that play….corner results in Roman possession GOOOOOOOOOOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL PANUcCIIIIIIIII.

16′ I’ve figured out Cluj’s gameplant: fire on goal once within 30 yards.

14′ Cicinho sends in his 73rd cross of the day which hasn’t come close to a Roman….but a beautiful pass from Cici to Vuci one timed on the gallop goes just wide.

12′ Kone puts one on net; Doni saves easily; Romanian announcers needs a change of pants. Small expectations.

9′ Vuci with some sweet ball control in the box after a Riise save for the corner….Roma gets it back but it’s cleared out for a throw.

7′ Free kick, Pereira gets a yellow…Vucinic over it…..hammered into the goalkeeper’s arms. He’s got a nice free kick tha lad.

Scary moment on the counter, someone is forced to head the ball into Doni’s arms with a Cluj atacker steaming in.

6′ Cluj’s left winger is pacy. Should be a ffun matchup against Cicinho.

No mantained possession for either side yet, really. Though Roma seems to be sttling down. Roma corner…quickly taken. Nothing.

4′ Good news: My stream has no time clock on it, so I’m going to be making up numbers as we go alon.

Cicinho sends in his first cross of one bajillion today, headed out. Cluj eventually get possession.

3′ Panucci bundled. Unfortunately, he’s probably the last person we want to see go down after The Simone Loria Experience on Saturday.

2′ End to end play with no productivity here. Everyone keeps sending extra long long balls that wind up out of bounds or in the keeper’s hands.

KICKOFF

Oh my god. The lineup is…..tall. This can’t be Roma.

Can I buy an alarm clock which wakes me up with the Champions League theme every morning? I can’t even fathom the amount of motivation that would give one for the day.

Official lineup:

Doni;
Cicinho, Panucci, Cassetti, Riise;
De Rossi, Aquilani;
Taddei, Baptista, Tonetto;
Vucinic.

I like right backs. Do you like rightbacks? Spalletti likes rightbacks.

CLUJ: Stancioiu, Tony, Cadu, De Souza, Alvaro Perreira; Dani, Muresan; Dubarbier, Trica Juan Culio; Kone.

No Totti. Ah well, might be for the best. Though as an fyi, this projected XI has changed twice since I first looked at it, so their guess is probably as good as yours.

Just looked at the streaming options and immediately went to fetch my wallet. Not a good sign. LiveSport 1 (RO) is usually decent, but they can be a bit jumpy. Here’s to more streams flying in at the last moment. (LiveSport seems pretty decent thus far.)

Eight minutes to gametime and still no official lineup yet, though the one up top seems likely. Yup, that one’s official.

LB will start from back up top.