International fansite Genoa CFC
The last 3 matches Genoa did not score, but now our topscorer of last season Rodrigo Palacio is back in the team! To arrive back again in the Europa-zone we have to win tomorrow against Udinese. Mr. Ballardini selected the following 21 players:
GOALKEEPERS: Eduardo, Perin, Scarpi
DEFENDERS: Chico, Criscito, Dainelli, Kaladze, Mesto, Moretti
MIDFIELDERS: Jelenic, Kucka, Milanetto, Rafinha, Rossi, Veloso, Zuculini
STRIKERS: Boakye, Destro, Jankovic, Palacio, Sculli
With a delay of 24 hours because of his injury Genoa decided at the end to hire Mauro Boselli the rest of the season of Wigan. In July Genoa can buy the striker who won 2 times the Coppa Libertadores (South American Champions League) from which he was also topscorer with 8 goals. The price is already fixed on € 7 million. Because of the injury we have to wait till the end of the month (derby ?!) before Mauro can play his first match with Genoa. In the meanwhile Gergely Rudolf is rented to Bari for the rest of the season to have more playtime in Serie A and return more experienced next season.
Today was also the official presentation of Luca Antonelli (Parma ) and Juraj Kucka (Sparta Prague). The Slovacchian already played yesterday with Genoa in San Siro against Inter. Antonelli is injured and can probably play at the end of January (like Boselli).
Tonight Genoa lost 3-2 in San Siro against Inter in the 1/8 finals of Coppa Italia. The 2 goals were scored by Kharja (penalty) and Sculli, both in the 2nd half in which Genoa played a lot better than before the break. Man of the match was Samuel Eto’o who scored twice before halftime. Our ex-defender Andrea Ranocchia should be sent off with a red card after his irregular stop of Rudolf. Besides the penalty it also should be red.
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Yesterday-evening it was big news everywhere in the world: Genoa bought two Argentinian strikers with the name Mauro: Boselli and Formica. Now 24 hours later both transfers failed in the last minute. Formica yesterday already left the trainingscamp of Newell’s Old Boys in Argentina and was on his way to the airport to fly to Genova when at the last minute the transfer failed because Genoa wanted to pay the transfersum after the medical test and Newell’s wanted Genoa to pay before Formica left Argentina. At the same time Genoa agreed with Wigan (Premier League, England) of hirering striker Mauro Boselli the rest of this season with an option to buy him this summer. This afternoon Boselli already arrived in Genova to have his medical test and to sign the contract to be in time to play against Udinese next Sunday. Unfortunately Boselli did not pass the medical test, so also this transfer failed at the last minute. Hopefully the new striker(s) will arrive soon, because in 4 days we play against Udinese.
Again a draw without goals. Genoa played 8 matches with Mr. Ballardini as coach and we took only 4 goals (Juventus 2, Napoli and Lecce both 1), but we also scored only 5 times (Lecce 3, Bologna and Cagliari both 1). The 5 clean sheets against Bologna, Cagliari, Brescia, Lazio and Cesena are fantastic, just as the fact the Genoa now has the best defence of Serie A with only 15 goals in 18 matches. But we Genoani like attractive and offensive football and with only 5 goals in 8 matches we cannot say that the way of football of Mr. Ballardini is very spectacular and attractive. Yesterday against Cesena the only shot on target was a shot from 20 meters by Rafinha and the only real chance was missed by Mattia Destro. On the other hand, also Cesena had only 2 little chances, so or defence with Dainelli and Kaladze in the centre played perfect. Let’s hope our strikers will return (Palacio) and arrive (Boselli?) soon, before Sunday for instance if we play at home against Udinese that scored 4 times in San Siro against Milan yesterday.
The first match of Genoa in 2011 ended in a goalless draw, which was the most right result. Genoa started the match with Bosko Jankovic in the line-up and Kaka Kaladze to substitute Andrea Ranocchia in our defence. In the first half runner-up Lazio was the best team in the field, but Eduardo kept his goal clean. In the second half Genoa played more offensive and created the best chances, but Toni, Rossi and Kaladze missed them. On the other hand Lazio was most close to open the score when Hernanes hit the post in the 60th minute. With this result Genoa stays on the 10th place in the standings, while we played 1 match less because of the posponed derby.
Since President Preziosi gave Luca Toni a 3 on a base of 1 tot 10 in an interview the rumours said that our most earning player (€ 4 million a year) wanted to leave our club. Yesterday against Lazio also a part of the Genoa-supporters whistled at the moment Toni touched the ball, because they expected Toni to admit his disappointing way of playing instead of immediately saying that he would leave Genoa. Of course a President must never criticize a single player in the newspapers, but also a player must not immediately react by saying that he wants to leave the club after some critics, especially if you don’t play very good and you earn an enormous salary. Luca Toni today singed a 18 months contract with Juventus. Genoa did not even ask a transfersum, in 18 months the club saves € 6 million salary which is enough to Mr. Preziosi. The substitute probably will be the Argentinian striker Mauro Boselli of Wigan (England), the former teammate of Rodrigo Palacio with Boca Juniors.
Mr. Ballardini has selected 21 players to book the first victory in 2011 tomorrowafternoon at 15.00 hours in Luigi Ferraris against runner-up Lazio. Inbetween the selection are Enjec Jelenic (Koper) and youngster Sturaro (Genoa-primavera). The complete team that is now preparing in the Sheraton-hotel to play against Lazio:
GOALKEEPERS: 1 Eduardo, 88 Perin, 73 Scarpi
DEFENDERS: 2 Chico, 3 Dainelli, 13 Kaladze, 20 Mesto, 24 Moretti, 4 Criscito
MIDFIELDERS: 11 Kharja, 77 Milanetto, 18 Rafinha, 7 Rossi, 30 Sturaro, 42 Veloso
STRIKERS: 25 Boakye, 22 Destro, 71 Jankovic, 29 Jelenic, 17 Rudolf, 9 Toni
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Last night Mr. Fabrizio Preziosi has bought the strong 23 years old midfieldplayer of Sparta Prague: Juraj Kucka. The international of Slovakia played at the World-cup last summer against Italy and Holland. Rumours say that also the brother of Diego Milito: defender Gabriël Milito will arrive from Barcelona to substitute Andrea Ranocchia.
The first 2 new players has arrived: left wing-defender Luca Antonelli and striker Alberto Paloschi, both raised in the youth of A.C. Milan and played with Parma this season. Antonelli already is a Genoa-supporter as son of father Roberto who played with Genoa in the early 80’s before Luca was born. Andrea Antonelli is a fanatic Genoa-supporter with a seasonticket of Gradinata Sud who can now see his brother Luca in the loved red and blue shirt every 2 weeks in Luigi Ferraris. Alberto Paloschi is a very talented striker who scored his first goals in Serie A with A.C. Milan.
We all knew that Mr. Preziosi is not happy with the results so far this season. Our succesfull coach and friendly gentlemen Gian Piero Gasperini was fired in November and now there is a little revolution going in the selection of players.
Maybe our best player this season, Andrea Ranocchia is sold to Inter that pays € 12,5 million to have our very talented defender. Last summer Inter already spend € 6,5 million to have 50% of Andrea, so Preziosi earns € 19 million and makes a profit of € 14 million in 2 years after paying Frosinone (Serie B) € 5 million in 2008. Let’s hope this money will be totally invested in new players.
Raffaele Palladino (rented) and Cicco Modesto (sold) go to Parma and Nenad Tomovic is hired to Lecce. The rumours say that also Houssine Kharja, Franco Zuculini, Gergely Rudolf and probably Mimmo Criscito, Beppe Sculli and Luca Toni will leave Genoa before 31st January. Our topscorer is furious of Mr. Preziosi who gave him in an interview a 3 on a base of 1 tot 10 for his way of playing the first half year with Genoa. Now Luca probably will be the substitute of injured Pippo Inzaghi with A.C. Milan.
