Author: Hans

At the end of the training Mr. Gasperini hand over the list of 20 players that are now in the hotel in Piëmonte to prepare for the big match tomorrow-evening in Stadio Olimpico against Juventus. The 20 players are:

Goalkeepers: 83 Rubinho, 73 Scarpi.

Defenders: 3 Bovo, 4 Bega, 16 Lucarelli, 24 Konko, 25 De Rosa, 34 Masiello.

Midfielders: 5 Coppola, 7 Rossi, 8 Danilo, 28 Juric, 29 Fabiano, 77 Milanetto.

Forwards: 9 Figueroa, 11 Leon, 14 Sculli, 20 Papa Waigo, 21 Di Vaio, 22 Borriello. 

Ivan Juric and Matteo Paro. Our goalscorer of last season is healthy enough to play tomorrow; ex-Juventus player Matteo Paro has to stay infortunate in Genova. 

For the first time in more than 12 years it is possible in Holland to watch a match of Genoa live on your tv. The last match was the horrible match Genoa-Padova on Raiuno in 1995 in Firenze, but this time you can watch it on Sport 1, the Dutch sportschannel. After 12 years we are really back at the top !!

  

Buffon as we like him the most: or in Rossoblu or beaten by one of our players … 

Mr. Gasperini surely misses Dos Santos and Paro next Sunday and probably the match comes to early for Figueroa, who is not in 100% physical condition yet. Genoa will have the support of 2400 fans in the cold Stadio Olimpico with an expected temparature around 0 degrees during the match. Let’s hope our Rossoblu-boys keep us warm.

Genoa Club Amsterdam has chosen Mr. Gasperini as Genoano of the year for many reasons, but the way he let the team play is one of the most important. We thought and hoped that our sympathetic coach is inspired by the big three of Dutch (Ajax) and Spanish (F.C. Barcelona) football: Michels, Cruijff and Van Gaal, that all 3 were born in our city, Amsterdam. As we now know it really is true, as you can read in the article in Il Secolo XIX of Sunday 7th October:    

(click to enlarge)

After 11 years in Serie B and 1 season in Serie C-1 it is difficult to believe, but the scoreboard of Luigi Ferraris Stadium still tells the truth: Genoa is number 5 of Serie A. Big teams like Milan and Lazio are jealous that we already gained 12 points, 4 more than our local friends of Sampdoria. We all know it is almost impossible to keep the fifth place till the end of the season, but after the 12 difficult years it is good to enjoy this great moment. Forza Genoa !

Genoa did win the season-ticket competition against Sampdoria by 21.675 against 18.258. Genoa is on 6th place in Italy by number of season-tickets.

 

Top 10 in Italy:

1. Milan 42.106
2. Inter 36.417
3. Roma 27.313
4. Forentina 23.389
5. Napoli 22.430
6. Genoa 21.675
7. Palermo 19.996
8. Sampdoria 18.258
9. Juventus 17.179
10. Torino 16.401

Sunday afternoon: Genoa – Cagliari, almost 10 years after the foundation of our fanclub the first match to visit in Serie A. It also was the return in Gradinata Sud, this time as seasonticket-holder of Genoa and not as visiting supporter of Ajax. As we already had seen on the closed training saturday: Genoa played with Konko in defence and Marco Rossi on midfield. Also this time Mr. Gasperini found the perfect tactical-system to control the match. Cagliari hardly never reached goalkeeper Rubinho of Genoa, while goalkeeper Fortin on the other side was very bussy to try to keep the zero on the scoreboard. In the first half the Sardinian goalkeeper succeeded, but in the second half in front of Gradinata Sud he was without any chance at the fantastic goals of Borriello (his fifth this season!) and Marco di Vaio. Now Genoa is back in the same position as during our last visit of Gradinata Sud on 1st April 1992: zone Uefa-cup, only at that time this young supporter wasn’t born yet.   

Saturday after the training there was a special match between the employees of Genoa. We recognized trainer Gian Piero Gasperini, his assistents Bruno Caneo and Gianluca Spinelli, doctor Lucio Genesio, Fabrizio Preziosi, press-manager Dino Storace and Luciano Figueroa. Our Argentinian striker played without any fisical problems and scored some goals of course. Let’s hope Lucho returns quickly in the team of Mr. Gasperini, but after Saturday-afternoon we know that the goalkeepers in Serie A have to fear our very sympathetic forward.  

     

Saturday-afternoon at 14.30, half an hour before the closed training of Genoa, we hand over our yearly trophy: “Genoa Club Amsterdam Genoano of the year” to the trainer of Genoa: Mr. Gian Piero Gasperini. Our 49 years old coach really was proud to receive the trophy and was honoured with our comparation of him with Michels, Cruijff and Van Gaal. The very friendly trainer told us he is indeed inspired by the Dutch football-style, as we once again could see the day after during the fantastic match Genoa – Cagliari. 

The fans of Genoa Club Amsterdam have chosen Mr. Gasperini as Genoano of the year 2006-2007. There are many reasons to honour our 49 years old coach as most important Genoano of last season. Of course he brought us back in Serie A and he surely always is a real gentlemen, but most of all he is an Italian trainer with Dutch, or even better, Amsterdam minds. He always thinks offensive and his most favorite tactical-system is 3-4-3. It’s the system of the 3 most successful Dutch coaches of all times: Rinus Michels, Johan Cruijff and Louis van Gaal.

All 3 were born in Amsterdam and started their career as coach of Ajax (they won together 4 European Cups and 7 Dutch titles) and then went to F.C. Barcelona (to win together 2 European Cups and 7 Spanish titles), while Rinus Michels also was the coach of the winning national team of Holland during the European Championship in 1988. Our Mr. Gasperini has the same way of thinking as the 3 musketeers of Holland and all 4 of them use the same lyrics like: “attacking is the best defense” and “if we have the ball the opponent can’t score”. Their way of thinking brings a lot of succes and must be honoured in these hard years of modern, defensive and calculated football. Let’s hope Mr. Gasperini can bring us the 10th scudetto in the next years to be forever the man that gave us our star!   

We hope to hand over our trophy to Mr. Gasperini next Saturday at the Pegli trainingfield.   

Especially in the season of Serse Cosmi Genoa often lost points in the last minutes of the game. One of the main reasons in the past was the fever to loose points, so many times the team played the dying minutes of the game in a defensive way. Now with Mr. Gasperini Genoa always tries to play offensive and like the best Dutch player of all times Johan Cruijff always says: to attack is the best defense. As long as you have the ball, the opponent can’t score.

Today to be honest Genoa also was lucky. In the twelveth minute Leon gave a good cross and before Borriello could shoot, Cannavaro already shoot the bal in his own goal: 0-1. In the second half Napoli got their almost usual penalty in homematches. Domizzi scored the penalty behind Alessio Scarpi. After the equalizer it was mostly Napoli that was close to the winning goal, but if possible Genoa also tried to win the match. In the 89th minute Borriello gave a perfect cross just on the head of substitute Giuseppe Sculli: 1-2.

Now Genoa is on the 9th position in the standings, which is fantastic, but not the most important fact of this weekend. Most specially was the warm welcome and the applause by Napoli-fans the Genoa-team got at the arrival at the airport and by entering their hotel and the stadium. Genoa and Napoli: friends forever !!