Roma v The Former Colony Liveblog

By: chris | January 28th, 2009

Roma 2 – Palermo 1

What an awful, awful match. Awful. Still, they should’ve won 4-1 or 5-1 at the least. If they can play that poorly and still win….well, I think that’s just about the best thing we can take from this game.

GAME

94′ DDR breaking…down to the corner…pushed over, no foul. Fairly ridiculous. Come on…need that whistle.

First yellow! Doni for time wasting.

Yep, four minutes.

93′ Taddei does well to save the ball down the other end, Brighi heads it to Amelia’s arms. Palermo with numbers on the break and their attack is stifled thankfully.

Stream hasn’t showed the extra time and couldn’t quite catch the Olimpico announcement. Four sounds about right.

91′ Marco’s being carted off. Absolutely fantastic. A solid three minutes from him.

90′ Taddei pulled down by the neck, wins a free kick.

89′ Cassetti pulls his hammy, goes down off the pitch, Roma down to 9.5. Wonderful. Marco just pulled up lame there and he’s still down.

88′ Mirko wrenches his back, goes down. Not a fan of how many back problems a twenty four yo has. Not at all.

87′ Ridiculous foul given against Brighi a half a sun dial turn after the foul…Mirko on the counter…Taddei…Mirko’s offside. Is that only his second offside today? Miraculous. (Then again it’s a lot different setup with Totti in the lineup.)

86′ Cicinho whips in a nice cross to the grass in front of the six yard box.

85′ Could really use a Mirko counter now as this is far from an attacking oriented lineup. Succi on for someone.

84′ Cassetti coming on for Francesco.

82′ Doni boots a goal kick 40 yards for a Palermo throw. Typical today. Not a single player is having a good, all around game. Totti’s excused as he’s been out for a month and assisted on both goals, but still – far from vintage.

80′ Now that we’ve calmed down…..that’s the best DM in the world right there. What a fantastic run from a player with no business making one of such caliber.

Four sitters now? Good lord.

78′ Really open game here. Levan’s shot blocked by Juan I believe, Totti feeds DDR on the break….DDR! He beats Amelia, open goal, tries to pass it to Mirko through two Palermo defenders. What a run, what a collapse at the end.

76′ Totti tries a backheel, no dice. Guana bursting down the left after Cicinho pushed up. Palermo donate a gift….Roma running, Mirko on it….Riise knocked over in the box by The Homeless Lumberjack, no call.

75′ Has there been a card yet at all today? Not one I can recall. That’s impressive on both ends.

74′ Corner Palermo, Simplicio whiffs at the far post after the ball is headed his way.

73′ Taddei coming on for Alberto. Little bit of workrate being introduced, and lord knows whether Alberto has 90 mins in his legs yet or not. Don’t exactly want to test that theory here today.

71′ Yikes, Guana all by his lonesome in the box and puts it ten yards wide. Sloppy work in the back again. Could use that guy…what’s his name? Oh yeah, Panucci.

70′ Mirko! Sitter in front of the goal after some great work by Aquilani and Brighi and he heads it wide.

Is that three sitter misses now?

69′ Palermo again, but Cassani’s ball is too strong for Bresciano and it goes out for a goal kick. Could desperately use a player who doesn’t pass it to a white shirt here.

67′ Levan header off the bar, Roma on the break….Totti through ball too strong and picked up by Amelia.

66′ Break with Riise……his pass goes one way, Mirko goes the other. Riise again, awful pass.

This is quite possibly the worst passing game I’ve seen from Roma in years. And on a clear day, no less.

65′ Mirko beats The Homeless Lumberjack easily, drops it to Totti but can’t maintain.

64′ Simplicio shot to Doni allows Cicinho to break on the right, in possession a bit more now before DDR hoofs possession to Amelia. Not the brightest of ideas.

63′ Another criminal mistake from Philou, who is looking anything but solid in the back early in the second half.

61′ Totti header on the Cicinho cross nodded way up. Not much in the attack during the second half here.

Mchedlidze on for Nocerino. Second sub for Palermo.

59′ Mexes hit in the head, play stops.

58′ Foul on Berto finally gets them going the other way, but it winds right back up in thhe back. Criminal pass by Mexes after some stellar ball work. Nothing going quite right here, is it?

Juan clears it out for a corner.

56′ Palermo owning the right side of the Roman box, Bresciano with yet another shot, this one too high.

55′ Perrotta coming off for David. Good move. Simone took a huge knock and they could use a calming influence here.

53′ Guana whips in a cross, too stron. Palermo eventually win a throw…another cross….a centered ball cleared and Mirko on the break….Totti one times it into Amelia’s arms.

52′ An ugly, ugly start to the half, but this has happened multiple times even throughout their good run. Hopefully by the hour mark they settle down and begin to dominate again.

50′ Palermo down the other end….Doni saves once, punches it to Palermo before Bresciano hammers another one in to Doni’s arms. Totti half-nelsoned in the other direction.

48′ Massive clusterfuck in the box, Simplicio wanted a peno, and Doni saves the day from point blank twice.

47′ Back in possession and the ball is booted to Amelia. Lil Pizza sounds good.

Vuci with a halfway decent run, pulls it back before he runs out of bounds but no trailer.

46′ Boring, knock-it-around start.

SECOND HALF

Some poor work by Matteo to kickstart Palermo’s equalizer, but he damn sure made up for it by leaping like an Olympic high jumper for the second.

Oh yeah, and that Totti guy. Goal, assist. That’s all.

HALFTIME

Totti cross for the leaping Brighi header. Whadyaknow. Whadyafuckinknow.

46′ Awful, awful passing here today from nearly everyone. Three minutes of added time. Aquilani shoves it in my face with a great pass leading to a cleared cross, and…..

MATTTTTEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

45′ Some nice work near the box results in nada….Mexes crosses it like a CB, Palermo goal kick.

44′ Cicinho whips a cross to nobody, Palermo throw.

43′ Guana in for Migliaccio. Bodies dropping everywhere here today. Hopefully halftime will be enough to replenish.

41′ Simone is still down, Roma on the break….Alberto’s cross stuffed….hits it wide to Cicinho. Too wide. Perrotta limping quite a bit, may need to come off.

39′ Pass to Perrotta too strong, he’s down in the box. Kicked in the back of the shin. This is nice.

What the hell is Bovo doing? He’s trying to take out the legs of all his ex-teammates. How the hell is that going to earn you a trip back home, bro?

37′ Cassetti’s warming up. I guess there are simply too many healthy bodies for Roma right now. Though John looks to be coming back on….

Bresciano hammers one straight at Doni. Doesn’t screw it up.

35′ Poor free kick and Palermo clear it. Doni’s playing like an idiot, places a poor ball to Riise who is forced to chase it and Riise is down. Nasty challenge on both ends, both players sliding in and go knee to knee.

34′ Juan whiffs and Cavani nearly makes them pay again. I know this is Palermo but it is a Serie A team for fuck’s sake. Everyone’s taking a midweek breather.

Totti fouled…again.

33′ Cicinho actually tackles someone, Riise moving forward with it…some sloppy passing here. Not what you’d expect from a Roma featuring both Francesco and Alberto.

31′ Palermo with numbers and the back collapses, 1-1. Brighi, after his amazing last week, is having a real shocker.

30′ DDR hoofs it to Mirko and this one almost works, but no dice in the end. The Philippe Mexes Train takes out Simplicio. Tit for tat.

29′ Panucci’s influence still coming through despite his absence as Philou boots a long ball forward, resulting in jack shit.

27′ Cicinho bundled, free kick. Working around deep midfield and the back, Juan makes a steaming run forward….hoof it up front, Aquilani hit by The Homeless Lumberjack Train and whiplashed.

25′ Brighi’s not quite up to par, concedes a free kick in a very dangerous spot from 20 or so….Liverani puts it up and over.

The Homeless Lumberjack 1 – Palermo 0

23′ Palermo’s away kits are fucking awful. I like pink, but not random curving pink lines.

Matteo tries to get too cute, flick it to Alberto and it’s knocked out of the box…Cicinho on the crosss….FRRAAAANCESCOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

(Deflected, but fuck it, we’ll take it.)

22′ Riise and Brighi with some tandem work up near the box….Cicinho cuts in with a class break, too many numbers back…centers it to Brighi, to Riise….miscommunication between John and Francesco, goal kick.

20′ Poor pass by Riise results, somehow eventually, in Mirko being called offside despite it coming off Liverani.

18′ Speaking of messing one’s pants, Brighi has an epic fail going 1v1 with Amelia 10 yards from the net after some nifty work from Mirko. Just choked. But that’s two quality chances. Wait til Francesco gets one…

17′ God, what a begging chance. Riise must’ve messed his pants getting the chance to wind up inside the box.

Cavani shot from distance deflects out for a throw.

15′ Cicinho cross in…bounds to Riise who had his debut goal from about 15 yards deflected up and over. Well saved there by someone. DDR’s header on the corner goes just wide.

14′ Simone breathes too hard on Nocerino, he goes down for a free kick about 25 yards out and way to the left, The Homeless Lumberjack’s header goes another 25 yards over the bar.

13′ Cicinho’s looking frazzled early. I suspect Pricipessa Panucci is lounging on the sofa with a giant smirk on his face.

12′ Brighi to Francesco, lays it off to Cicinho, gives it back to Matteo on the right, who has two crosses knocked out for a throw. Yeah, why don’t you head back to the middle of the pitch.

10′ Doni’s playing fast and loose in the box. Excellent. Francesco drops deep for the ball, fouled. I see all is back to normal.

8′ Mirko in the box tries to pass to Totti but his touch fails him. Break the other way results in a harmless shot over the bar by Simplicio.

Alberto is now playing his 100th game in Serie A this evening. And, if he stays on this course, should get another hundred before he turns 30.

7′ Alright, Atdhe sup and running. We’re good to go.

Of course this isn’t going smoothly. Atdhe’s not running yet, ESPN, the “Global Leader In Sports”, couldn’t run a live event if they were broadcasting to the crowd in attendance and Justin is, well, Justin.

Look at that midfield. That’s a sexy, 100% Italian midfield.

RomaNews has these as the lineups, ~~unsure if they’re official or not~~ they’z official:

ROMA (4-3-1-2) : Doni, Cicinho, Mexes, Juan, Riise; Perrotta, De Rossi, Brighi; Aquilani; Vucinic, Totti.
A disposizione: Artur, Cassetti, Loria, Taddei, Pizarro, Baptista, Menez.
Allenatore: Spalletti

PALERMO (4-3-2-1): Amelia; Cassani, Carrozzieri, Bovo, Savini; Migliaccio, Liverani, Nocerino; Simplicio, Bresciano; Cavani.
A disposizione: Ujkani, Kjaer, Succi, Mchedlidze, Guana, Tedesco, Cossentino.
Allenatore: Ballardini

The important stuff: devastation in the streaming world.

Because of pending legal proceedings, Myp2p has removed all links in the following competions: Elitserien – SM-Liga – NHL – Swedish Allsvenskan – Italian Serie A – English Premier League – Dutch Eredivisie. Once a judgment has been given, we will notify you of the outcome.

So we are rerouted. Bet365 works if you live in Europe – and anywhere but the US, I believe (it does, however, require a free account). Roja Directa has some backup options. ESPN360 is running the game if you live in the US and are one of the chosen few (meaning if you have Verizon or AT&T – not sure if Comcast has sprung for it yet). But the best option will presumably be the one most of us use every week: Atdhe.net. (The actual Roma v Palermo stream.)

And now we all send our prayers – and maybe some legal assistance – to the great people at MyP2P. Fight the power.