Author: Hans

After 3 matches with 2 draws (Novara and Cesena) and a horrible defeat (Siena) the trainership of Alberto Malesani with Genoa ended again. Only a few hours after the match against Siena our president Enrico Preziosi fired Malesani and choose Luigi de Canio as his subsitute for the last 5 matches of this season starting in San Siro against Milan.

If you don’t play well there is always the risk to arrive in a negative circle with bad results ad bad luck. Against Siena the team of Alberto Malesani played very good in the first 17 minutes and created some chances to open the score. In the 17th minute referee Tagliavento whistled for a dubious fall of our new young defender Alhassan. The freekick of Brienza touched the back of Gilardino and flew directly in the goal of Genoa: 0-1. Our players were shocked, how is this possible: we are the best team in the field, Siena did not even had a shot towards Sebastien Frey and now we are 0-1 down. Only 2 minutes later our rented player Mattia Destro scored the second goal of Siena: 0-2. Just before halftime Brienza scored 0-3 and just after the break Giorgi also scored 0-4. This was enough to a part of the Genoa-fans in Gradinato Nord who came towards Distinti and stopped the match with fireworks ad climbing on the fence.

After 45 minutes discussion between the fans and the players Marco Rossi and Giuseppe Sculli the team of Siena and the referee including linesmen arrived again on the field and the last 37 minutes were played in a very strange atmosphere. Siena scored another time, but now in their own goal: 1-4. Because Lecce draw in Roma against Lazio they are now only 1 point behind us while Genoa has to play the last 2 homematches without public. Nobody believes that Alberto Malesani still will be our trainer tomorrow.

The fifth edition of United in the name of Genoa was (again) a great succes. Eigth teams (5 of Genova and 3 from Holland) played at the tennisfields of Le Palme in Genova, Albaro. The final at 18.00 hours was the same as last year Allunamanin agianst Gelateria le Stelle (Holland) and again the Italians did win the title with a 4-1 victory. After the tournament all the players went to Righi (the Dutch with the funicolare) to have a fantastic dinner with a spectacular view on the city-centre of Genova. We all thank Luca Carini for the fantastic organisation and already look forward to the 6th edition next year.

The match Milan-Genoa is cancelled because of the death of 25 years old Piermario Morosini by a hartattack in the field during the match Pescara-Livorno. Genoa and Milan already had started their warming-up when the news about the death of the Livorno-player (Serie B) and the decision of the Italian Football Associciation to cancel all the matches of this weekend arrived.

The next match of Genoa now will be: Genoa-Siena on Sunday 22nd April at 15.00 hours. Genoa Club Amsterdam will be there for the first time since Genoa-Lazio on 5th February (last victory of Genoa!) to bring again 3 points to the team of Malesani. Because of the calcetto-tournament United in the name of Genoa on Saturday in Albaro 21 Dutch Rossoblu will arrive, a record for our fanclub!   

Till 15 minutes before the end everything was ok. Genoa was 1-0 ahead by a goal of Marco Rossi and Lecce was 1-0 down by a goal of Bergessio of Catania. In the last minutes everything changed: Mutu scored the equalizer in Luigi Ferraris just as Lecce on the island Sicily in the 88th minute. The goalkeeper of Catania protested against the goal of Lecce (offside ?!) and got his second yellow card, becaue Catania already substituted 3 times midfielder Lodi had to be the new keeper. In the 91st minute Di Michele also scored the winning goal to Lecce after a mistake of goalkeeper Lodi. In 15 minutes from 7 points ahead and almost save to now only 2 points ahead and the away-match in San Siro against Milan as next game. It will be a hard night for Malesani and the players.

Tomorrownight Genoa plays at 20.45 hours in Luigi Ferraris against number last in the standings Cesena. An easy match ? No, in Italy doesn’t exist easy matches as we could see in the first match against Ceseana that we lost by 2-0 (2 goals of Adrian Mutu). Genoa misses tomorrow Belluschi, Antonelli and Constant because of injuries and Kucka because of his 8th yellow card this season against Novara last Saturday. Let’s hope we finally can celebrate a victory after 5 draws and 5 defeats.

Mr. Malesani selected the following 20 players: Alhassan, Frey, Lupatelli, Mesto, Granqvist, Kaladze, Carvalho, Bovo, Moretti, Rossi, Veloso, Biondini, Birsa, Sturaro, Sculli, Jankovic, Jorquera, Palacio, Gilardino, Zè Eduardo

Again a draw while we alle hoped for the first victory since 5th February: Genoa-Lazio 3-2. Already in the 7th minute Genoa scored the openinggoal when Marco Rossi touched the shot of Rodrigo Palacio in the goal. During the first half both teams were equal, but after the break it seemed that Genoa was afraid to play. The equalizer of Mascara (ex-Genoa) halfway the 2nd half wasn’t a surprise. During the last part of the match Novara was the strongest team but our Rodrigo Palacio was the most close to a goal with a hard shot on the cross of the post and the crossbar. Because Lecce beat Roma by 4-2 we are now only 4 points above them. Wedsnesday-evening at 20.45 hours we play again: in Marassi against number last in the standings Cesena.

Two of our most fisical players Kucka and Granqvist are back in the team and ready to play Saturday at 15.00 hours in Novara. In the very important match against nr. 19 in the standings Genoa only has to miss Antonelli and Constant because of injuries and Belluschi because of his red card against Inter. Mr. Malesani can be happy to have so many experienced players back in the team. Tomorrow Genoa travels by coach to train already on the synthetic field of the hometeam from Piëmonte with 4 ex-Genoani: Gemiti (our Genoano of the year 2003/2004), Paci, Mascara and Caracciolo (hired to Novara).

This afternoon President Enrico Preziosi fired coach Pasquale Marino after 14 matches with only 13 points. The new coach till the end of the season is …… Alberto Malesani, our former coach that was fired a few days before Christmas after the 6-1 defeat in Napels. In the first half of the season Genoa had 21 points in 16 matches with Alberto Malesani, now in the last 8 matches we hope he can give us at least another everage of 1,30 points each match. The first match of Malesani is Saturday at the synthetic field of Novara.