VotD: Roman Classic

okie, this was fun. lamagica, the name stands.
gotto go to work now..

lol! consider the name official.

True, Johonna. But it is also true that some fans avoid embarassing themselves by slamming a team higher in the table than them. They come out of the woodwork when their team is doing better.

lamagica, can we name them the 'High School Musical/Offside Clique'?
then we can be the Napoleon Dymamites and Pedro.

But also, mimo, when you are down, more things feel like kicks.

lamagica, I am glad my post made you laugh. But I will stridently proclaim innocence. ;)
(Note: I am in a profession where we do the "you are wrong/stupid but I say that with all due respect" thing.)

oops, crossed posts there, mimo. i think we are thinking along the exact same line. yes, i agree, some do choose to ignore while others call it out. however, as you point out, there are also those who cant quite pick it up or actually try to dismiss it, including a few resident romanisti here amidst the non-romanisti that 'collude' against us.

as i mentioned elsewhere, there is a cyber circle jerk going on with some of the various fans. thankfully we werent invited.

lol, mimo. you are on fire today starting from that initial post. you certainly show some dexterity for making 'general' comments / observations quite specific, without mentioning any names. made me laugh pretty hard when i originally read it.

also lamagica, I am guessing many of us detect the sarcasm and choose to ignore it. However, was it Bashar who went so far as to completely deny that the comments were sarcastic and snide? That is cyber-naivete, IMO.

lamagica, I almost mistook your description of KJ with what people say about George W Bush! ;)

how anyone can NOT detect the sarcasm and veiled arrogance in those posts is beyond me.

at least with kj you get everything at face value. he certainly dim but at least he's straight forward and i love the guy for it.

As far as the other MF haters, and most of us know who they are, they don't even deserve any attetion from me. Others can do what they want. I chose to ignore their simple-minded one line comments.

The only bright spot for me is that our D is finally back.

Knock in training? thats what they call it these days.

U, the mayor is Laziale from what I know.

Ale, Totti is out, does that help you on your injury news? :)

We can only hope and pray Bestia regains that Bordeaux form.

And where the fuck is the REAL Vuci.

I understand Mimo, not at all, we can't change people minds. The reason I fire back at alessio, and alessio only, its because the is good at what he does. Complement us a bit, and then disrespect us in the process.

Since many not pick up on that, and other chose to take it lighly, while others chose to embrace it, I chose to POINT at what he is doing, so that people will at least become aware, and then think about what he is doing.

But thanks for your well thought out comments and rationale Mimo!

Continuing on my defense worries- I will consider Roma to be a solid contender when we can go into a game where we think that maybe our attackers wont score, but with more than 50% chance Roma can grind out a 0-0.

Also, Pauly it should come as no surprise that some non-Roma fans' comments have been getting worse. We are having a terrible season so far! There's not much you can say when Roma was doing best among serie A teams in europe, challenging for the scudetto etc. last season, no? As they say, it is easier to kick someone when they're down.

your biggest problem has been mexes not playing hes the third most important player behind de rossi and of course totti. you could do with gettin petrucci back

Pauly, I understand where you're coming from and I sense the same spitefulness and snideness that you do. But there's not much you can do about it, right? Yes, you can debate. But I hope you are not banking on changing people's minds and inner characteristics! You cant stop people from typing on their keyboards sitting in some corner of the world. And also remember that people who have these tendencies also enjoy riling people up by their comments.

Not to pontificate too much, or anything.. :)

What you guys don't realize is that a healthy backline that includes the likes of Panucci, Mexes, Juan, Cicinho and Tonetto can do the job and keep the goals out. Cicinho has greatly improved defensively if no one has noticed.

As far as missing Totti is concerned, if Baptista is on form and we have guys like Menez and Vucinic playing (and if we're not using the 4-2-3-1 system) we can still score and win games.

Mimo: Yes, I could not agree with you more on 1st paragraph of your comment. The problem that I have is that alessio's comments have been getting progressively worse and more spiteful by the day. I can't help but then defend my own team, in my own home, against his hate, sarcasm, and facades(masked comments).

I'd rather he went back to his old ways.

Well said mimo, that was spot on.
Personally speaking, I have had the same operation that Totti has had twice. The first time I was twenty and recovered great and rode a bicycle 2,000 miles three months after my surgery. The second time was 11 months ago and I still have not recovered all the way. I am a year older than Totti. For him to come as far as he has is amazing. I did start to worry when everyone was saying how amazing it was that he recovered so fast, because it takes time to recover even if you are an amazing athlete like Totti. We expect so much out of our teams and players that we stop thinking of them as humans that have limitations.

i know he was juventino but i dont know if alessio was taking the piss as they say in england. my apologies

suspected L word supporter but not proven :-)

According to this article, Totti hurt his knee in training today, and is out for Juventus and Chelsea at least.

The good news is that Baptista is cleared to play Juve. But of course it pales in comparison.

http://www.uefa.com/competitio...

LorenzoRosanero, you got it.

For all of his many wonderful qualities, Walter Veltroni is a Juventino. We all make mistakes.

Unfortunately, he's not mayor anymore. Nor is he Prime Minister. Which is unfortunate for Italians of any football persuasion.

I have always assumed that Alemanno (the current mayor) is a Laziale at heart, but does anyone know?

i read some of the posts here but have not been able to write much. before getting to serious footie- my 2c on other teams' fans commenting here and some of our responses. while I cant bother to react as much as Pauly does to Alessio etc., I do agree that some (like Alessio) often come in here with the facade of contributing to good discussions- many times they do, but often the comments are snide and have an undercurrent of presumptuousness and "elitism" (quotes because the IMO true elite have an untarnished history, and based on my definition I cant think of truly elite teams- rich yes, elite no). Some seem quite concerned about how widespread (in offside) the respect they are getting is- from other teams' fans especially. Or maybe, they are not really good at spotting snarkiness, sarcasm etc in cyberspace!

Bottomline for me- freedom of speech and all that, so pretty much anyone's welcome. Even the seemigly-intelligent rude ones. However, the really annoying and boring human-anatomy-related and homophobic mud-slinging is probably a drag for all of us who want to at least some sense in the posts. But inevitable in cyberspace I suppose.

As for the state of the team: The journos are clearly into the best slam-the-battered-pinnada mode. Of course, now that Roma is having a bad season, everything else was fluke and this was the "truly inevitable". Interesting...
My biggest problem with the current squad is in defence (apart for unfortunate injury situations). Roma needs 2 world class starting CBs (Mexes is close, but rather immature still). More importantly, there should be quality back-ups which as we know is not even in the same ballpark as what Roma have. Champion teams build from the back: it was roma's undoing last season, and in all probability this season when it comes to playing good, in-form teams.

d'agostino, that was a Giuly-like miss of ale's point.

Lorenzo raises the question I was trying to discuss. Who is calling the shots here? Does Er Pupone do whatever he feels like? Does he even get advice from the medical staff? Is Sensi/Spal/Prade/Romulus and Remus urging him to play? Does he have appearance clauses in his playing or sponsorship contracts?

alessandro - i believe alessio's referring to the fact that Roma's mayor is actually a Juventino (if my memory serves me correctly)...

Alessandro, those people in Roma, even if they love the same team I do, are ignorant! Utter ignorants! Yes, I understand many parts throughout the world run that intense, where people get beat and stabbed for wearing the wrong jersey in the city.

THAT IS WHAT FOOTBALL SHOULD NOT DO TO US! The game of football should do what its doing to us now, just look at all the different fans from different teams discussing Calcio. Let's all keep it civilized.......

Sounds like a good bet, Johanna. I think Totti's problems go back to the forced recovery to play in the world cup.When things are not right in the body related problems will occur,
even if they don't appear connected. Say a strain somewhere forces compensation somewhere else and the body's natural balance is broken. Aches, pains and injuries are inevitable.

alessio i never know if you are being a prick or sarcastic or what?! but i know people who have gone into a shop to buy a drink and no get served because they have juve shirt. and god help you if you wear a juve shirt with nedved on the back ex lazio juventino they hate him with a passion

I wonder if Totti's supercup appearance might not have been the biggest mistake Spaletti has made this season. Of course he had no way to know that the game would go into overtime, but I just dont think Totti was ready to play 35 minutes in August. I have always wondered if that didn't set him back considerably.

certain parts of roma you would be attacked for wearing juve shirt

I guess that's why the mayor of Rome for the last 7 years had to have security eh....

I think this "outside pressure" has also something to do with the fans. At all Roma-related sites there's always a lot of talk: "No Totti, No Party", "In Totti we trust" and so on. We sometimes expect too much of him and he risks serious injuries to live up to our expectations...

and in italia a romanista would probably try and spit on me they hate sicilia

Daniele - Totti's situation isn't the medical people's fault from what I've heard. They've warned him and management against playing in his current condition. He's been "cleared to play" only half-heartedly by the staff mainly due to "outside" pressure - whether that's coming from Roma management or Totti himself...or both.

to do with all this arguing with other people on these blogs, if we are in italia then any juve fan would not get respect from any other big team fan and in certain parts of roma you would be attacked for wearing juve shirt. you are lucky in the sense that you can talk about calcio without just getting horrible abuse thats why i come here they are plenty of italiano websites but they are just blinded by there loyalty to there teams! and it helps me with my english

This whole season is a bunch of "what ifs"...

Of course, all bets are off when any supporter's team plays Juventus that week. Then Alessio is a blowhard! hahaha But that should basically come as no surprise. Tensions run high during match days...and sh!t talking is the inevitable product. ;)

Bash is a good guy Pauly...he doesn't need your seal of approval.

So, out of curiosity, what's Roma's lineup going to be? I have trouble keeping track of who is or isn't injured.

1. I'm going to disagree with Pauly a bit on that matter. It would be better if anyone read/responded to the posts/ guests he/she thinks worthy of that and simply ignored the ones he/she thinks unworthy...

2. I don't hold anything "outsiders", even criticizing Roma, if they 1)use civilized language 2)do not resort to personal attacks.

3. BTW, I always loved preaching. Sorry :D Now I should order you to grab your hands and sing: "Make this world a better place" or sth like that...

Well.. We finished 17 pts above 5th place last season.. And so far this year we've dropped 9 pts that we earned last year in the corresponding fixtures (away to Genoa, Palermo and Udinese). This year is more competitive but if we have any chance of making the CL we need to play like 2007-2008 Roma almost immediately.

It's disheartning that our medical examiners, can't do their fucking job.

you know because without healthy players, comes shit results.

Basta.

The only reason why I said that Alessio deserved an apology was because the comment he made was misconstrued to think it was a slight against Totti. In my opinion, Alessio is pretty rational. Everybody who supports one team is occasionally going to take jabs at supporters of another team, no? I mean, that's what "fandom" is all about.

Aside from that, I still think that even if you rested Totti thru the winter break, he'd need more time than that. It'd just reappear shortly thereafter. I'm telling you this is basically a "long term" injury Totti is dealing with. It only appears to be a nuisance rather than the very serious injury it, in fact, is.

i really hate to say i told you so, but... well you know about totti and this injury. For some reason tho, i don't think this "injury" is serious at all so, we'll see

I don't think alessio brings any negativity here.. We don't all see eye to eye on everything but he isn't by any means a nuisance.. We'll see after the Juve game of course as that was the last and I believe only time I was truly annoyed with him..

The fact is that Roma's future looks way different than it did before the season started.Luxuries cannot be kept. To have a shot to play in the CL next season the team must improve quickly. For one, where will the scoring come from ? The defense is also paper thin.Are there are players who can solidify it enough to make it a touch better than average ?

I meant, *air*

blow *hair*

Bashar: Its a shame that you, out of all the people here are the one that encourages alessio to bring his constant bullshit here, as if what he does deserves merit. Comments such the one Lorenzo wrote are what deserves merit. I always got the impression you and alessio have some sort of friendship or respect for each other, and you chose to side with him, or to tell him to ignore our comments, when in fact, we here are defending our team.....AS ROMA, on this very blog.

He's the one that comes here as an intrudor, we don't ask him to come here, neither does he have a "right" (as we do), but we do have the right to express our feelings about our team and Calcio in general. So, no disrespect to you, but quit trying to blow hair up his venemous you know what.

In addiion Bashar, You might have been here for years, and I'm sure you have earned the respect of many here. You and me have never really chatted or discussed things here, so I don't owe you anything. Well, I won't give you the respect as a given, just show me the best way I can respect you, and then we'll take it from there.

Grazie evaldo

Does no one else think that if we keep having re-occurring injuries, that perhaps Alberto is affected by the way they are being handled as well? He was doing well up until now..

Try pitching that to ultras and fans like myself, let alone the board that runs the club. Also try telling that to Alberto himself and see what happens.

Bashar, I don't think the Lega has a real answer to your injury question yet, because the circumstance is largely unprecedented.

My guess is that they will make allowances for players who are injured or otherwise unavailable (given the proposed timing, guys could even have been transferred). And given the reasoning behind allowing Mexes and Vucinic to play against Juve, one would think that suspensions from January shouldn't apply to the replay.

Market Glassman as he would fetch the most ...

Lorenzo: No one here, as far as I am concerned, needs to apologize to alessio! He deserves what he gets from me and any other ballsy person who tells him off because--he deserves it! All the spite and venom that he throws towads our team and MOST bloggers here will not go unnoticed by me and ignored.

You on the other hand, just from that lenghty comment that you've posted above about Totti, epotomizes (or shows what and how a visitor here should approach us),and you wrote the truth of the matter for our team. I RESPECT THAT comment and you for that, and I will not show any disrespect as long as you continue! You prove your neutrality towards our team, just as Johonna does, based on how you express yourself. Thank you.

spot on ul with your totti assessment. exactly what i was thinking but too lazy to write.(also, probably better put than i would have)

with totti they have to think about the bigger picture and not our miserable present

D, because he needs to take a longer term view of the club, the team, the city and the country.

This isn't a friggin' Stallone movie.

As far as Totti, I knew this would happen. Few of us were screaming here that Totti should have NOT come back so early, and most of you were so eager to se him return.

Now, everyone is saying what should have been said before, that the poor guy should have taken his time until he was truly 100%.

Who could be sold? We truly only have a couple, younger alternatives to bring in that cash and it might severely dampen future seasons.

It may be time to sell and buy in order to salvage the season.A first class striker would run about 20 mil. A solid defender about 4 or so. Who could be sold to get that kind of money ?

and with mexes and juan back you have a good chance against juve it will be a good game!

i know i keep going on about this but there is only one man who can save you season and give totti his rest....cassano!!!! he would slot straight into that squad and then the free flowing, attacking calcio would follow!

It's called wishful thinking and 'turning a blind eye' Daniele.

The bottom line regarding Francesco is that he should have never stepped foot on the pitch until after the Christmas break this season, NOT even for a guest appearance. He should have been resting and going through the rehabilitation process in full-stride. At that point he should have been brought on slowly and while we waited, the formation changed to reflect his loss. The club made a huge mistake in rushing him back and continuing with the formation we've been using while he has been sidelined and playing hurt.

We should have tried a variation of a 4-4-2 and gave him time while also propelling other player's form. We dug our own hole and Totti shouldn't have to risk the rest of his career for us as he can still be very important. This kind of injury is never easy to recover from, for a regular person or a professional athlete. Totti might have done well coming back for ANY person to have this problem, but he should have been forced by the club to take the extra time off to ensure he would still be able to continue his career at top form. If he is truly seen as such a pivatol player for the club and citta', they should have used more "common-sense" and given him time to recover.

This weekend will be a tough test, not only because of our opponents or the fact we've had so many injuries, but it's testing a fragile squad and will truly show if we do have the GRINTA necessary to push for any major titles in a competitive domestic and european competition.

U,

Why wouldn't he?

The dude is a fucking king in Rome.

It may be a bit sad, but he has partly earned it.

I agree Zo. Those ligaments have to be tendor as hell. And with all of the inflammation and swelling, those are signs that shit aint right.

Shelve him till Christmas... Please...

How could the doctors, NOT see and or know this...

We need the January break more than any other team at the moment.

I mean when are things going to look up for this group?

Totti, De Rossu, Spal, Aqui, Cici, theres drama at every corner.
Fucking soap opera.

Is Totti really given carte blanche when it comes to deciding if he plays or not?

This is kinda what I expect to see against you guys:

Manninger
Grygera Legrottaglie Chiellini Molinaro?
Marchionni Sissoko TIAGO!? Nedved
Del Piero Amauri

Only problem is as we're going through a similar injury crisis, Marchionni, Grygera, Nedved and Amauri could really use some rest.

Totti should have never stepped foot until after the christmas break, not even for a guest appearance. At that point he should have been brought on slowly and while we waited, the formation changed to reflect his loss.

Adam, I did not say that was the game that was gift-wrapped, I was merely asking whether it was one (of too many).
If you doubt, one word, Capostazione :-)

This Cicinho nonsense is also ridiculous.. Why would we pay 9 mn for him, having him for one (I think successful) year and let him go back to Sao Paolo and still pay half his wages?

Well, he's no Andrade at least.

Interesting, Bashar :D
What if four and more players starting in the Samp match got injured/suspended in January?

Realistically, he would need to sit out for the rest of the season, in my opinion. That's just the nature and severity of the injury. And just like evaldo eluded to in his post, the risk of another injury is very high.

I understand that Totti is the life and breath of this team, but what's happening right now is he's basically stomping out his own future by continuing to play on a knee that has ligaments that could snap fairly easily. Given Roma's current condition, it's understandable why he's being rushed back...but it's not entirely management's decision to have him on the field, in part, it's his too...Yet, this is taking place against the advice of all the medical staff & trainers.

Just out of curiosity... What happens if a player who started the Sampdoria game gets injured and can't play in the continuation in January? Can Spalletti put someone else in there and will it count as a substitution?

What a terrible day.. Rumors of De Rossi falling out with Spalletti, the usual Tuttosport nonsense (or not) of Aquilani to Juve, Totti injured again for God knows how long, Cicinho wanting to go, ADP and Legro back for Juve.. Nothing is going right this season.. at all.. Where there's smoke, there's fire and it seems like there are a lot of unhappy people at Roma.

Doni has had a poor season as well.. Having Loria doesn't help but still.. What a terrible year.

This Cicinho nonsense is also ridiculous.. Why would we pay 9 mn for him, having him for one (I think successful) year and let him go back to Sao Paolo and still pay half his wages? It makes no business sense, but leave it up to Roma to consider that. Good thing they scuppered the deal.

so Totti is out, this is so much like last year!

Basharm you have become one of the most well represented well respected posters here.

Kudos brotha.

Let's all be happy that this bottom table shit is happening now, and not 4 months from now.

Zo,

Yes I knew this, and I guess we all expected the Totti who bounced back stronger after the horrific ankle injury to, boiunce back from this, but bottom line is, he is not a kid anymore.

I know many people who have had this surgery, and walking, let alone running and kicking a ball seems to even be discomofrting at times.

Totti is a strong willed mother fucker, and will play through pain, but damn, this could really affect his career from here on out.

Scary to say this, but the day had to come. He has given so much to this shirt, the citta, the game, the league and Italia as a whole.

If I were Totti I would sit my ass out until January and come back healthier and ready to play at a more consistant level and for more matches in a row.

Either way, c'e solo un capitaaaanoooo.

Lorenzo.. you should pass by here more often. I'm beginning to see that this Totti injury is a lot worse than expected.. He's just rushed back way too fast and he's getting really brittle. Being the most fouled man in calcio for almost 4 or 5 years straight does that to a person.

Alessio.. Just ignore a lot of the things that are said.. Juventus will always be associated with calciopoli.. These backhanded comments are something you will have to live with.. Just like we're living with the mid-table/bottom-table club comments.. for now.

KJ.. Cassano doesn't want to go to a bottom-table club? Hmm.. I would check again where his team is.. haha. I'm willing to take comments like that on the chin right now because.. well.. we're near the bottom..

unfortunately the club being in crisis keeps pushing him to return early

he shouldn't have rushed back. everyone knows that recovering from that kind of injury takes six-12 months. totti, despite what some romans would lead you to believe, is human just like the rest of us. rushing back is what put him in this predicament and it is only going to get better now if he takes the proper time off. hopefully he hasn't re-damaged it somehow and has to have another knee surgery. gilbert arenas has had 3 in the last 2 years because there have been various pains when he has tried to come back

I guess someone owes Alessio an apology from earlier (about the Totti comment) lol.

But in reality, here is the deal with Totti:

Unfortunately, for you guys, this is going to be how it is with Totti this season. The injury he suffered is one that is going to cause too much pain to play back-to-back matches consistently. This is going to be the recurring theme for the rest of this year (and possibly the rest of his career). He'll play one game, sit out one or two...It's not me spewing anti-Totti, anti-Roma stuff, it's the reality of the type of injury that Totti suffered. I just got back from Italy earlier this week, and while i was over there, there was a discussion about Totti and the nature of his injury. What I just wrote is what is being said behind closed doors by the medical people working with him. For obvious reasons, Roma don't want to just reveal the full, serious nature of this injury, but the fact of the matter is that Totti is never going to be the same player he was even a couple years ago (before/after the horrific leg injury).

As always, it's up to you guys to ultimately believe whether or not this stuff is true, but I'm just gonna say that this current pattern is going to remain the same throughout the season.

Not if he keeps rushing back Daniele. Thats the problem when the guy is so popular, so dominant within that club, and is too proud to admit he needs to sit down for a month or two.

Tonetto's been healthy for like a month.

I'm just cringing at the fact the only two people that don't act like they've taken valium on offense aren't playing because of injury and youth. Vucinic is lazy, Taddei is slow, and Baptista is a midfielder.

The Beast better be ready to go at it full steam ahead.

No Totti No party. Fuck.

That knee is going to ever be 100%.... I am very afraid of that.

4-4-2 sounds good to me, but I doubt Spal will change up the formation, even though he said he might...

Zack, Riise was playing b/c Tonetto was injured...
Tonetto is back to fitness now and that's why he has started the last 2 games (albeit for 6 mins vs. Samp)

YESSSSS SIMONE LORIA IS ON THE TEAM SHEET AND TOTTI NOT!

now I'm off shooting myself in the head!...

Asem, Tonetto is not good anymore, that's why Riise keeps playing. At least we have athleticism to go with that sucking with Riise. We just have sucking with Tonetto. Taddei will also probably start instead of Menez although Menez is better, faster, and is an individual threat.

asem, lets hope that isnt true about the severe pain and inflammation cause we might see him in january again.

please no dear god, not the 4-2-3-1 again!!!!

4-4-2

cicinho mexes juan riise
taddei ddr pizza menez
beast vucinic

No he reported severe pain and there was inflammation in the knee. Why would they give up on Serie A? Scudetto dreams aren't over 'til it's mathematically impossible to win(though in my opinion they are). Hell, I'm just shootin' for a top 4 spot...

- - - - - - DONI - - - - - -
-GOMR - MEXES-JUAN - MAX T.-
- - - - DDR- - -PIZA - - - -
-MENEZ- - PERROTTA - -VUCI -
- - - - -LA BESTIA- - - - - -

That's what I'd go with...

F*** no
totti is out again ;x
R.I.P Roma

or have roma given up hopes on serie A and want totti for champions league games primarily???

no totti again, fuck me!!!

Juve is evil. Always has been. Always will be.
They're not the old lady of Italian football, they're the fat, extorting, corrupt mafia henchmen.
Evil usually prevails in this world and they'll probably take the three points this weekend.
But it's nice to to know they won't be winning a scudetto this year, unless of course the money starts making it's rounds.

Yep...
It's official...

2 CHRISTIAN PANUCCI
3 CICERO JOAO DE CEZARE (CICINHO)
4 JUAN SILVEIRA DOS SANTOS
5 PHILIPPE MEXES
7 DAVID MARCELO CORTES PIZARRO
9 MIRKO VUCINIC
11 RODRIGO FERRANTE TADDEI
14 FILIPE GOMES RIBEIRO
15 SIMONE LORIA
16 DANIELE DE ROSSI
17 JOHN ARNE RIISE
19 JULIO CESAR BAPTISTA
20 SIMONE PERROTTA
22 MAX TONETTO
24 JEREMY MENEZ
25 GUILHERME DE MORAIS GUSMAO ARTUR
27 JULIO SERGIO BERTAGNOLI
32 DONIEBER ALEXANDER MARANGON (DONI)
33 MATTEO BRIGHI
89 OKAKA CHUKA STEFANO

Well thats 3 out of 20, not much originality there

There's 3 am I rght?
Juve, Udinese, Siena