Finally: Do I think we’re done in the CL? Probably. It’s tough to see us advancing, but of course it can still be done. We need to beat Lyon in Florence, take care of business vs. the underdogs, and get something from Liverpool. If we do that, we can still be okay. But make no mistake: we have an uphill battle on our hands.

I’m not posting this now because I think I’m prescient, or to mock my obvious doubtfulness. First of all, we all knew what HAD to be done, and most of us were probably pretty concerned about our ability to do it. I am instead posting it because tonight I think we as fans can all share a sense of “mission accomplished,” the idea that our team set a very difficult task before it, and achieved that task. Think about it. Put yourself in that position after matchday one. If I had told you that by matchday five we would not only be leading the group, but would also have a good chance to win it, what would you think? I imagine what little is left of my credibility would have vanished.

And yet here we are. Tonight everyone in the football world seems to be talking about us, and it is nice. We have made everyone forget about Henry’s handball for five minutes. Tonight’s win has allowed the team to take another step towards once again becoming a “big” club in Europe, and has further cemented the Great Man’s status as an equally great manager. Tonight, like so many other nights, I wish I was in beautiful Florence once again.

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Over the coming days you’re going to hear a lot about matchday six, the game in Liverpool, and winning the group. I do think it is a very winnable match. We have everything to play for, and Liverpool, well, doesn’t. I’m pretty sure they’re also not dying to do Lyon any favors. But, while I would like to see us win the group (and get in the “1-seed” group) I’m not going to spend a ton of time worrying about it. The way I see it, we’re now in the last sixteen of the Champions League. We’re going to be playing someone good. Yeah, if we can avoid Barca and Manchester United, fine. But every team at this stage can play. And remember this, which I said after the first Liverpool match: If we play like we did in the first half of that game for 90 minutes, we can beat anybody. ANYBODY. You name the team. Its just a question of putting it together for a full game against a quality opponent. Easy? Of course not. But it is possible. We saw it for 45 minutes vs. Liverpool.

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Scattered thoughts from the match itself:

• If you had told me back in September that while winning our group we would beat Lyon without our two best creative players (Mutu and My Precious) and our best defender (Gamberini) I would have REALLY, REALY thought you were nuts.

• I know in every recap I always write some variation of “Jesus, Frey was a BEAST today,” but Christ, Frey was an Animal out there tonight. If we win the Champions league they should probably give him two medals. Just because.

• I was just crazy about the way De Silvestri played today. I thought he ran like a dog, was a real threat on the wings, and played smart on defense. I want to see more of him after tonight.

• Kroldrup looks like a counter man working the overnight shift of a gas station with that ridiculous wispy mustache of his, but he and the Captain kept ‘em out tonight, so he gets mentioned in the recaps. Now get back to pouring slurpies.

• If Santana’s shot off the woodwork had gone in, it would have been one of the five prettiest Viola goals I had ever seen.

• Were the British announcers actually wearing Liverpool shirts as they called the match, or did they just go with the scarves?

• I’ve been tough on Marchionni in these pages, and he still makes some mind-numbing mental errors, but nicely done tonight.

• And Vargas. Remember when everyone wanted to give him that ‘Trashcan of the Year’ award they give to the biggest bust in Italian football last year? That keeps getting further and further away in our memories.

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That’s all I got for now. It’s late. Sorry about the double preview posts earlier. I just wanted to throw a quick placeholder up, but I didn’t know Timmy was writing his (as usual, excellent) preview post at the same time.

Enjoy tonight, everybody. I doesn’t get much better than this. And to all you Americans reading this, have a safe and happy Thanksgiving this Thursday. I hope you all get to spend it with family. We’ll see you on the weekend, where we have yet another big game coming up.

Forza Viola!

Close followers of Fiorentina (and readers of this here blog) have known for quite awhile now that whatever the stats said before Saturday, the Viola defense was a weak point in the squad. And, good God, Saturday proved that without Gamberini back there anchoring things and plugging holes, Fiorentina are clearly in trouble. Also, I’d say that I have a developing understanding of tactics at this point, but why exactly was it a good idea to play a high defensive line and rely on the offside trap with two of the slowest center backs in the Serie A out there? Um, Parma have young, dynamic forwards. What was going to happen if they sprung the trap? Ok, enough about that match, it was a poor one, and hopefully it can be chalked up to some blown assignments, injuries and general lethargy coming out of the international break.

Team News

Fiorentina will still not have a 100% strengh squad tonight. Gamberini, gulp, is out. So is Mutu. Jo-Jo is on the way back to fitness, and will probably make an appearance as a second-half sub. A silver lining is that Kroldrup is back. That’s what we’re reduced to a CB, but clearly a CL match against Lyon is beyond Natali who is only able to win headers if it requires jumping straight up into the air when he’s already in the right position. Staying in front of someone, tracking a run or defending a guy who is facing him with the ball at his feet are things he cannot do at this level.

For me, this means two things. First, RickyMonty and Zanetti are going to have to do a good job of retaining possession in the middle of the field. And second, the wingers are going to have to do more of a 2-way job of defending. Marchionni and Vargas are going to have to be conservative with their runs forward, and the shape of the team will probably need to look more like a 4-5-1 than a 4-3-3 if the Viola are going to keep Lyon’s goals to a minimum. This might be a game where Fiorentina look to keep it tight and hope the Gila Monster can come up with something on a cross, or maybe a late bit of magic from Jo-Jo running at a tired defense will do the trick.

Lyon haven’t been playing particularly well of late. Their last five matches, going back, are draws with Grenoble, Marseille (5-5 !), and the Scousers. Before that, they lost to St. Etienne and Nice. Another draw tonight suits them just fine as it will keep them in first place in the group and ensure that they finish ahead of the Scousers. But, they’ve got the type of tricky and pacy forwards that will surely provide options going forward in Gomis, Pjanic and Lopez.

Lineups, aka Blind Guess Dept.

Fiorentina: 4-3-3 masquerading as a 4-5-1: Bassy; Comotto, Dainelli, Kroldrup, Gobbi; RickyMonty, Zanetti; Marchionni, Old Man Jorgensen (I don’t want to see Santana and the old man has had a post-international duty rest and his experience would be great today), Vargas; Gila Monster.

French Guys: 11 guys I don’t like, probably including that cheating flopper with excessive syllables in his name Toulalan, the guy who’s not a better French goalkeeper than Bassy but has a tough-sounding first name, and a few forwards who are significantly faster than any of the Viola defenders. We’ll see in a couple hours.

TeeVee?

Its going to be live from 2:30 pm on FSC negli Statti Uniti. We’ll exchance some streams in case people don’t have the channel or won’t be able to wait until they get home from work (like me).

Prediction Time:

I’m going to say the Viola keep things tight and win it late with a 88th minute goal by substitute Jo-Jo (he comes on for Old Man Jorgensen somewhere around the 60th minute). 1-0 to the good guys and the Scousers go to whatever they call the UEFA Cup now.

Forza Viola!

We all know the stakes. A win puts us in the knockout stages of the Champions League. We’re at home. The match is being televised all over the world. It’s so on.

The match is on television here in the states, so I’m recording it and watching it after I get home tonight. I will try to have reaction up in the next 24 hours.

Good luck, boys. Forza, Forza, Forza Viola.

I suppose you guys don’t need me to tell you about this, but things are looking pretty good at the moment for Fiorentina. Our boys are back in the top 4 (though the standings are quite bunched with only 4 points between 10th placed Napoli and 3rd placed AC David Beckham), and have 9 points from the first 4 CL group stage matches. Lyon come to town on Tuesday for a massive match (a win in that one guarantees Fiorentina a place in the knockout phase of the CL), so Prandelli will have to work around some availability issues and rotate his squad a bit to get results both tomorrow and on Tuesday evening. And, there is that trip to the San Siro to face league-leading Inter next Sunday. So, needless to say, Fiorentina come out of the International break with quite a daunting set of games to look forward to.

Team News:

Cesare Prandelli has said that the following guys will not be available tomorrow, due to injury or illness: Gamberini, Mutu, Jo-Jo and Kroldrup (who came back with a bit of Bronchitis from Denmark, but will be good to go on Tuesday). This means we’re looking at either the vaunted Dainelli-Natali CB pairing, or having Comotto or Donadel play at CB to deal with the injury crisis. At any rate, I’m crossing my fingers that ex-Viola man Valeri Bojinov will not make his old team pay due to our depleted CB situation.

There are many members of the current Fiorentina squad with ties to Parma. I think the list is complete with Prandelli, Mutu, Marchionni, Bassy, Donadel and the Gila Monster. Of note for Parma, besides Bojinov, is their defensive midfielder, McDonald Mariga, as the young Kenyan has been linked to Fiorentina and is quite impressive in the center of the field.

Lineups, aka Blind Guess Dept.

Here are Prandelli’s choices:
Agyei (numero di maglia 26), Avramov, Babacar, Castillo, Comotto, Dainelli, De Silvestri, Donadel, Frey, Gilardino, Gobbi, Jorgensen, Marchionni, Natali, Pasqual, Santana, Savio, Vargas e Zanetti.

Here’s my guess: 4-2-3-1: Bassy; Comotto, Dainelli, Natali, Pasqual; Donadel, Zanetti; Vargas, Santana, Marchionni; Gila Monster. Here’s hoping we get a look at young Savio as a substitute.

For Parma: 4-1-3-2: Mirante; Zaccardo, Panucci, A. Lucarelli, Castellini; Mariga; Morrone, Dzemaili, Galloppa; Amoruso, Bojinov

TeeVee

This one will air live on FSC, beginning tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 pm EST. Sweet.

Prediction Time:

I think the Viola will get it done at home. 3-1. Goals for Gila, Donadel and Vargas for the good guys and one for Bojinov as well.

Forza Viola and its good to be back.

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First off are some much-delayed, and not very ground-shaking, thoughts about where we stand in the Champions League. After an inspiring second half explosion vs. Debrecen on Wednesday, we now sit on 9 points, second in our group, and 5 in front of a highly regarded Liverpool squad. We next play Lyon in beautiful Florence. Lyon, of course, is in first, it could be argued that they could be a little comfortable seeing how they’ve been great in the competition so far, and they will be on the road. It is not unthinkable that we could get three in that match, which puts us safely into the next round. We will see, but it is certainly a date to circle on your calendars.

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On the Domestic front we have Udinese on Sunday.

Here are some blind guesses as to the starting line-ups:

Udinese: Handanovic; Basta, Zapata, Coda, Lukovic; Inler, D’Agostino, Asamoah; Pepe, Corradi, Di Natale.

Fiorentina: Frey; Comotto, Natali, Kroldrup, Gobbi; Montolivo, Donadel; Marchionni, Santana, Vargas; Gilardino.

For the Viola Dainelli is suspended, while Gamberini and Adrian are out with injuries. Apparently Frey, Zanetti and My Precious are all iffy, although I believe all three could ultimately play.

Right now it looks like the match will NOT be televised on American TV, so make sure your computers are fired up and set to stun.

I see a 2-1 Viola victory on the road.

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IF I get to see some of the match (I didn’t see much of the game on Wednesday because I was at work) I will try to get some thoughts up later. Sorry about how little I am putting up now; once I get the next issue out the door (I edit a magazine) I should have a little more free time.

In the meantime, hope you are all well. Enjoy tomorrow’s match. Forza Viola.

Here’s two useful-ish links. The first is a preview of the match, written by someone who seems to know as much about Debrecen as I do. (And that aint sayin’ much.) The second is the Great Man urging the boys to take this one seriously. I think I can second that.

News right now (as of Tuesday night on the East Coast of the US) is that we will definitely be without Adrian and probably without My Precious, which is problematical because of our goal-scoring problem as of late, regardless of what happened Sunday. Hopefully my second, imaginary son will be fit.

There are also reports that Bassy is iffy. I can’t even speak rationally about it and thus will not entertain discussion concerning it.

I’m going to try to stream the match at work. Not sure how much I’ll get to see. If I do get to see at least a chunk, I’ll get some reaction up here as soon as I can.

I’m hoping (obviously) for a big Fiorentina win, combined with Lyon beating Liverpool. It would make my Wednesday.

Prediction: Fiorentina 3 – Debrecen 1 (Jo-Jo Hat Trick).

Hope you are all well.

Forza Viola

As many of us have observed, the Viola haven’t gotten all that many points from their last month of Serie A matches. Meanwhile, the team has played well (very well, one could argue) in Europe, and play the good teams tough domestically. But we are sitting eighth in the league and, with a club that some observers now see as awfully thin to be playing every three or four days, signs of trouble are on the horizon. But I say: NO! In spite of a shaky October, there are reasons to remain optimistic about the boys in purple. Here are ten:

1). It’s still early. If I gave up on Fiorentina every October, I would have missed three great seasons where they qualified for the Champions League.

2). Watching Bassy Frey save penalty kicks, like he did on Sunday.

3). When I walk down Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, and some car passing me starts honking like crazy, and the driver rolls his window down, and screams “FORZA VIOLA!” and gives me a fist pump, and only then do I remember that I have my Fiorentina windbreaker on.

4). Remembering that Champions League play starts again next week, with another game vs. the Hungarians. I smell three points like I used to smell roast beef when I would visit my grandma’s. Three points closer to the knockout stages of the CL will make us all breathe a little easier.

5). Watching Alessandro Gamberini single-handedly destroy another supposedly “worlds greatest” striker. Who will be next?

6). Having my wife refer to me as belonging to the ‘Toyota Enthusiasts Society’ because every other piece of clothing I own advertises that Japanese automaker.

7). Supporting Ricky Montolivo, which is a bit like raising a child. Sure, he has all the potential in the world, but most of the time he just falls flat on his face. You pick him up, dust him off, and send him back out here. And tell all your friends about that one time where he scored this amazing goal three seasons ago…

8). Remembering that no matter what, some of the bigger clubs in Italy suck a lot worse than we do right now. Yes, I’m looking at you, Roma and the Beckhams.

9). Speaking of the Beckhams, also remember that we have the best young player in Italy right now, a lad named Steven Jovetic. Yeah, I said it. Fuck you, Pato.

10). For the last few season, we have played better in the second half. Is it better coaching, better training or just dumb luck? Hell if I know. But things will look up.

So there you go. No reason to get down. We play again this weekend, and then have a European night in beautiful Florence a few days later. Keep your chins up, and remember, ‘We are Not Discouraged.’

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Thanks to my pal Tim for pitching in with some extra recaps and previews over the past few weeks, which have been uniformly awesome. Right now I am trying to figure out how much I can do for the blog going forward. If I had the time, I would continue to write all the time, since I like writing about the boys and like all of you. But, as Tim knows, I have been named Executive Director of the non-profit I work for, but I also am still doing my old (full-time) job at the same place. I’m not complaining, I’m happy to have the work. But I am becoming more and more busy as I basically try to do two full-time jobs in one work week, and still be a good dad and all that. I always do this blog late at night, but now I am working even late at night, and I don’t know how frequently I’ll be able to keep the football writing going. Eventually, I may become more of an “Occasional Guest Blogger” then a regular writer. I’m not sure. We will see how things shake out over the next few weeks. But if you don’t hear from me for days at a time, know I am still with you all, and still following the team. My silence means I am just having trouble finding the time to do anything else.

Hope you are all well, and, as I said, keep your chins up.

Forza Viola!

Napoli Match:

Not a whole lot to say here. First, let’s start off by saying that Bassy was incredible and without him it could have been much worse. Second, the trouble scoring goals of late has been worrying me. Aside from the game against Debrecen, there haven’t been many and the Viola need to figure out a way to convert the possession and wing play into more goals. Third, if you’re coming to the Franchi and looking for a result, wear a baby blue shirt. Fiorentina won’t score.

Genoa:

This is a big one. Genoa were strong last season and have been slumping of late. Their last two matches include the 5-0 humbling at the hands of Inter and twice blowing leads in losing 3-2 at Cagliari.

For Fiorentina, 2 points from the last 3 league matches puts the boys in danger of sliding down the table to an undesirable position after a solid start to the campaign. We’re currently level on points with Palermo, but sitting 5th in the table based on goal difference. The pink guys are at Inter tomorrow, so a result today would hopefully allow Fiorentina to hop back into the top 4, depending on how AC David Beckham fare at Napoli.

Lineups, aka blind guess dept.

Fiorentina: (4-2-3-1) Bassy; Comotto, Gamberini, Dainelli, Pasqual; RickyMonty, Zanetti; Marchionni, Mutu, Vargas; Gila Monster.

Genoa: (4-3-3) Amelia; Papastathopoulos, Biava, Bocchetti; Rossi, Milanetto, Zapater, Modesto; Mesto, Floccari, Sculli.

TeeVee?

Doesn’t look like we’ve got any USA options. Post a stream if you got it starting at 3:45 pm EST. The time already changed in Europe for some reason.

Prediciton Time:

I’m confident. I think this will be a good one, but I see the boys coming back strong and Prandelli having them ready to go. 2-1 for the good guys with both goals from Mutu. It won’t be equal to his 3 from last year, but we’ll take it. I suppose that mercenary Crespo will come off of the bench to get one for Genoa.

Forza Viola!

I’d like to be fully confident in the Viola taking home all 3 available points on Sunday, but for some reason I’m petrified of a letdown. Even though Napoli have lost to every decent team they’ve faced up to this point {Palermo (giving them credit as being decent even though I’m not sure that’s the case), Genoa, Inter and Roma}. Even though Napoli’s only result against a half decent team was a 0-0 with Udinese. Even though Napoli’s only wins are against relegation fodder (Siena, Bologna and Livorno). Even though they’ve lost every single away match.

I guess I’m worried because we know that Quagliarella can score from anywhere. Also, they’ got Lavezzi and Hamsik, who, despite their penchant for losing passports and god-awful tattoos, are the exact kind of short, pacy, shifty and creative players that could give Fiorentina’s defense fits. Plus, there’s the fact that Fiorentina played a difficult away CL match in Budapest on Tuesday while Napoli were able to stay home, rest, train and try and figure out what the hell their new manager wants out of them.

Viola News:

Nothing major is happening with the Viola. Marchionni is still out, and I’m not sure if Dainelli will be ready to go from the start. Also, we’re likely to see Mutu start on the bench due to the need to rotate the squad and the fact that he went the full 90 for the first time in quite a while in Budapest. Also, Jo-Jo is rested and ready to go. Its also possible that Gobbi may get a start on the left sided attacking role since Vargas may need a rest as well. I’m hoping he starts because Napoli’s recent switch from a 3-5-2 to a 4-4-2 leads me to believe that they’ll still be vulnerable down the flanks. And we all know that Vargas is our best way to take advantage of that. Also, I think its time for LDS at RB.

Lineups, aka Blind Guess Dept.

Viola: 4-2-3-1: Bassy; LDS, Gamberini, Kroldrup, Gobbi; Zanetti, RickyMonty; Santana, Jo-Jo, Vargas; Gila Monster.

Napoli: From Football Italia: De Sanctis; Campagnario, Rinaudo, Contini; Maggio, Gargano, Cigarini, Hamsik, Aronica; Quagliarella, Denis.

TeeVee:

The match begins at 10 am EST Sunday morning, on account of the Europeans changing their clocks earlier than we do. Unfortunately for Serie A fans, FSC is airing the Scousers against Man U at that time, so we’ll be scouring for internet streams.

Prediction Time:

Despite my aforementioned apprehensions, Fiorentina are plainly the better team. I’m going for a 3-1 victory with goals from Jo-Jo, Gila and Vargas. I see Quagliarella getting one as well.

Group Standings:

Lyon: 9 points, +6
Viola: 6 points, +2
Scousers: 3 points, -2
Debrecen, 0 points, -6

Things are looking very good for our boys at this point. The last 3 matches, in order, are Debrecen at home, Lyon at home and then away to the Scousers. Wins in the next 2 matches would certainly see Fiorentina through to the knock-out phase of the competition, but the most obvious priority at this point has to be beating Debrecen again at home. Let’s face it, they have a few decent players, but they can’t hang with Fiorentina when the Viola are playing anything like thier best game.

Negatives from yesterday:

Up to this point, Fiorentina had neither been scoring nor conceding many goals, no matter what the competition. Debrecen saw this match as an opportunity to go for a win, and they pushed men forward right from the start. It was not ideal to give up 3, though I’m really more angry about the first and the last goals. The second, while Comotto and one other Viola player could have been tighter to that guy, was simply a tremendous shot. Tip your cap to him and move on. But the first and third resulted from NO marking on the first and lax marking on the 3rd, from a set piece towards the end of the match. Concentration needs to remain strong at that point to ensure that no points are given away late in the match.

Positives:

4 goals. 3 points. 2 for Mutu. 1 road win in the Champions League. 0 minutes played so Jo-Jo will be fresh for the Napoli match. Also, Bassy was sharp and kept the boys in the match as usual. Sharper than Iker Casillas and Dida from what I hear. I’ll take it.

Also, I’ve been thinking this for awhile, but haven’t said it, but Dainelli has been playing pretty well. I’m concerned because in the linked recap it mentioned that he left in the 55th minute with a fitness issue. If he can stay relatively healthy and Prandelli only uses him for 1 match a week, I think he can be pretty effective. Between Natali (didn’t see him play at all yesterday), Kroldrup and the baby Argentine Christmas present who arrives in January, hopefully Cesare can get some results and some solidity at the back.

Plus, Santana had a chance to score and he didn’t mess it up, so nice work on that one Mario! Still, please stay late after practice and work on your shooting.

Also, this is a game that Fiorentina would have lost or drawn last year. I’m not sure if what has been happening is down to experience, improved confidence, the emergence of Jo-Jo, the addition of the level-headed Zanetti instead of the batshit insane Melo, or what, but I do like it. Cesare seems to think that the team is getting its swag right. I’ll agree with the Great Man.

Looking Ahead:

The matches start coming up quick for the Viola now, with 5 more before the next international break. Sunday sees the boys home to Napoli, next Wednesday is away to Genoa, 11/1 will be home to Catania, 11/4 Debrecen come to Firenze and then 11/8 is away to Udinese. Cesare will have to be smart about keeping his players fresh, but there should be plenty for us to talk about.

More Friday about the Napoli match. Until then.