Month: February 2008

Genoa’s 24 years old midfielder Matteo Paro left the field yesterday-evening after only 19 minutes with a heavy injury. Today at the scan in the hospital it was clear: Matteo needs to be operated within 15 days on his left knee. Because of the operation and the rehabiliation the season is over. Genoa Club Amsterdam wishes Matteo Paro all the best and we hope to see him back next season on the midfield of Genoa. 

 

Roberto Donadoni might want to look into securing a permanent base in Genoa. The Italy manager has known since before the season started that he would need to pay close attention to Sampdoria’s Antonio Cassano, who turned in another sumptuous performance during Samp’s 1-1 draw with Inter. But Donadoni would not have expected to be devoting so much time to another striker playing his trade in the same stadium. With his second hat-trick of the season – both of them against Udinese – Genoa’s Marco Borriello lifted Genoa to a 5-3 win yesterday, and himself to joint first in the Serie A scoring charts alongside David Trezeguet with 15 goals. It is by no means inconceivable that he will line up alongside Cassano for Italy at Euro 2008. Coming into 2007-08, Borriello was just another eterna promessa (eternal promise), a powerful forward with the physique, raw talent and model Wag befitting a world-class striker, but nothing like the end product. A product of the Milan youth system, he bounced back and forth between the San Siro subs’ bench and loans at clubs from Triestina right up to Sampdoria, without ever finding his niche. His most productive year had come at Treviso in Serie C1 in 2001-2002, when he scored 10 goals in 27 games.

At 25 years old, Borriello already looked set to finish his career as little more than an “And finally” footnote in calcio history, after he was banned from football for three months for failing a drugs test – he had neglected to check the contents of an ointment his girlfriend, Belen Rodriguez, rubbed on his genitals after she gave him a sexually transmitted infection. Instead he has been reborn at Genoa, after il Grifone bought 50% of his rights from Milan. Effective as the central striker in Gian Piero Gasperini’s 3-4-3, he has been arguably even more effective when the manager adjusts to 4-4-1-1 as in both games against Udinese. At just over 6ft tall and with broad shoulders he is a potent target man, while a pair of scars on his otherwise model features hint at a natural aggression. Last season, while on loan at Sampdoria, he caused two would-be muggers to turn and flee after flying into a rage when they tried to steal his watch as he took a stroll in the Albaro district in Genoa.

Borriello made his Italy debut earlier this month, becoming the first Genoa player to turn out for the Azzurri in almost 17 years when he replaced Luca Toni during the 3-1 win over Portugal. Already he is being discussed by a typically understated Italian press as Toni’s natural heir and, although that is taking things too far, his goals yesterday reflected an impressively complete natural skill-set. If the first was the most technically impressive – Borriello chesting down a cross with his back to goal before controlling the ball with his left foot and then turning to thrash it past Samir Handanovic without letting it touch the ground – the second and third showed he can also be clinical, as he dispatched a low drive and diving header from inside the area with equal ease. “I preferred the third goal, in which you could see all the skills needed by a centre-forward, ” crowed a modest Borriello afterwards. “The feint [to make room for himself to win the header], the counter-movement and then an acrobatic conclusion.”

Minds in Genoa are already turning to how the club will hang on to such a player come the end of the season. There has been no indication that Milan want Borriello back – the Rossoneri having been linked instead to a number of high-profile strikers from Didier Drogba to Emmanuel Adebayor – but the terms of the deal made last summer mean they will set the price Genoa must match. Just like Cassano, who said this weekend that he would accept a 20% pay cut to make his move to Samp permanent this summer, Borriello wants to stay put, but he knows Genoa may not be able to afford him. For the past six months he has been living in a hotel in the city, and until a permanent deal is signed, he has no intention of selling his place in Milan. “Definitely I want to stay, but with every goal my asking price rises and I don’t know if (Genoa president Enrico) Preziosi can break the bank to buy the other half, ” acknowledged Borriello after yesterday’s game. “He tells me he can and I believe him.” Preziosi will doubtless do his best to keep hold of a player who has become the figurehead of a team who have gone from relegation candidates to European contenders in a matter of weeks. Genoa staggered through nine games without a win after losing to Juventus on October 21, and Gasperini’s job was reported to be on the line before a 1-0 win over Parma in the last game before the winter break. Since the break Genoa have won four and drawn one of the seven games they have played, and now sit eighth, just four points behind Udinese who occupy the final Uefa Cup spot. Gasperini admitted after the game that the club may now have to raise their sights from the previous objective of simply avoiding.

Many thanks to Genoa-supporter Pedro to find this article !!!

Again a victory of Genoa! After 41 minutes Giuseppe Sculli scored the first goal and 15 minutes before the end Borriello decided the match by scoring the second goal from the penaltyspot. Our topscorer is now alone on top of the scoringslist with 16 goals. Genoa has 35 points and shares the 7th place with Sampdoria that lost against Atalanta by 4-1. The only negative aspects of tonight are the 4th yellow card of Konko which means he can not play next Sunday against Cagliari and the knee-injury of Paro after only 19 minutes.    

Tomorrow-evening the red and blue train only misses passengers Rubinho (banned because of his 4th yellow card) and Wilson (injured), so coach Gian Piero Gasperini selected all the 20 other players:

Goalkeepers: Scarpi, Lanza

Defenders: Bovo, Criscito, De Rosa, Konko, Lucarelli, Santos

Midfielders: Danilo, Fabiano, Juric, Milanetto, Paro, Rossi, Vanden Borre

Strikers: Borriello, Di Vaio, Figueroa, Leon, Sculli

Over 25.000 tifosi will be in the stadium to see the friends of Genoa and Napoli play to stay in zone Uefa-cup.

Till today Genoa scored 8 goals in 11 away-matches, today in Udine the Gasperini-boys scored 5 goals. After 9 minutes it was Leon that scored our first goal and after 43 minutes Giuseppe Sculli scored the other Genoa goal in the first half. Inbetween these 2 goals also Udinese scored twice from the penaltyspot, so the score at halftime was 2-2.

In the second half our topscorer Marco Borriello scored just like in the homematch 3 times, while Udinese scored only 1 goal, so Genoa booked the 3rd away-victory of the season. A fantastic result of the Rossoblu that are now on the 8th position in the standings, while Marco Borriello is just as Trezeguet topscorer of Serie A with 15 goals.

 

Despite the distance of 506 kilometers over 500 Genoa-fans support the team tomorrow against Udinese, number 6 in the standings with 36 points. Last September the match in Luigi Ferraris was very spectacular with an unfair red card of Rubinho and 3 goals of Borriello giving Genoa a 3-2 victory. Besides Borriello also Leon was one of the best players in the field, so maybe our king of the dribble plays tomorrow. Saturday-afternoon Mr. Gasperini took the following 19 players with him in the airplane to Udine:

Goalkeepers: 83 Rubinho, 73 Scarpi.

Defenders: 3 Bovo, 18 Criscito, 25 De Rosa, 24 Konko, 16 Lucarelli, 33 Santos.

Midfielders: 29 Fabiano, 28 Juric, 77 Milanetto, 19 Paro, 7 Rossi, 68 Vanden Borre.

Strikers: 22 Borriello, 21 Di Vaio, 9 Figueroa, 11 Leon, 14 Sculli

Genoa misses banned Danilo and injured Wilson, while Ghinassi and Masiero today played with the Primavera.

Genoa Club Amsterdam member of honour Johnny van ‘t Schip is next season together with his friend Marco van Basten and Rob Witschge the new coach of Ajax Amsterdam. Our 44 years old ex-player signs tomorrow a contract of 4 years with the club of Johan Cruijff, since a few days the new technical brain that has to bring the Dutch club back at the top. Before the new technical staff starts with Ajax, they first want to make the Dutch national team European Champions this summer in Austria and Switzerland. Let’s hope that after his years with Ajax friendly Johnny comes to Genoa, just like he did as a player.