Genoa Club Amsterdam

Saturdayevening we honoured just like last year Rodrigo Palacio as Genoa Club Amsterdam Genoano of the year. In the Sheraton hotel near the airport of Genova we met Rodrigo who was with the team in the hotel to prepare for the match against Lazio the next day. Rodrigo is again chosen as our man of the year, not only because of his fantastic way of playing, or his many important goals but also because he stayed with Genoa and refused the transfer to Inter which wanted to pay him a few times his salary with Genoa and gave him the opportunity to play in Champions League. For this reason we surprised Rodrigo with a little copy of the most important European trophy, to show him that also with Genoa you can win the Clampions league. Rodrigo was very pleased with the trophy and thanked all the members of Genoa Club Amsterdam.  

After Udinese and Napoli this time Lazio was send home with a 3-2 defeat in Marassi. Again a very spectacular match with 5 goals and a few minutes of sufference at the end. The just honoured Genoa Club Amsterdam Genoano of the year: Rodrigo Palacio scored the first goal with his heel inmediately out of the corner of Jankovic. A wonderful goal just as last week against Napoli of our topscorer who celebrated his 30th birthday. Halfway the first half Jankovic doubled the score after a cross of Beppe Sculli who played against his former team before the transferperiod in January. With 2-0 halftime arrived.     

After only 12 seconds in the 2nd half Jankovic scored his second and Genoa’s third goal when his defender Garrido slide down on the half frozen field. Game over with 3-0, not with Genoa! Within 10 minutes Ledesma scored 3-1 out of a penalty (mistake Mesto) and because Genoa refused several times to score the fourth goal the match was again completely open when Gonzalez scored 3-2 in the 89th minute. Happily Lazio already played with 10 men at that moment because of the red card of Diakité, so they could not really give a lot of pressure at the end. Again 3 points to the team of Pasquale Marino.  

Again a match with a lot of goals, with this time 3 points to the boys of Pasquale Marino: 3-2. The last weeks Genoa is the most attractive team in Italy, or maybe Europe with results like 3-2, 3-5 and again 3-2. This time Genoa played fantastic in the first 30 minutes and with goals of Palacio (fantastic shot from the corner of the penalty-area in the far 7 of the goal) and Gilardino (his first with Genoa) the score at halftime was 2-0. When halfway the second half again Rodrigo Palacio scored the third goal everybody expected the match was over, except Napoli-players Cavani and Lavezzi who scored 3-1 and 3-2 within 1 minute. The last 15 minutes the Genoa-fans had to suffer as never before, but Sebastien Frey kept his goal clean and with 27 points in 20 matches Genoa is now on the shared 8th position. Wednesday at 18.00 hours Genoa plays in Bergamo.

Genoa lost 5-3 in Palermo and is now 10th in the standings. Despite the 7 injuries (Dainelli, Kaladze, Antonelli, Bovo, Rossi, Veloso and Constant) and the debut of Mario Sampirisi Genoa started the match very good in Palermo: after a fantastic combination of Mesto and Gilardino it was Rodrigo Palacio who scored the first goal after 13 minutes. Immediately after the goal the “Tsunami” of Palermo started and the halftime arrived with a 3-1 score to Palermo. Also in the second half Genoa started good and Palacio scored a penalty (3-2) after a handball of defender Balzaretti and brought us back in the match. But just as in the first half it was Palermo that was the most dangerous teams and they scored 4-2 and 5-2. At the end Genoa had several chances and with a little bit more luck we could score more goals than just the one of Jankovic in the 89th minute: 5-3. Next Sunday our friends of Napoli arrive in Marassi, let’s hope that playmaker Miguel Veloso and some of our defenders are healthy again.

What a fantastic match! Against nr. 3 in the standings Udinese Genoa played its best match so far this season. After the defeats against Napoli and Cagliari the team of Mr. Marino was 110% motivated to play a good match unless the missing of 5 defenders: Dainelli, Kaladze, Bovo, Moretti and Antonelli. The defense was now formed by the real defenders Mesto and Granqvist and the midfieldplayers Rossi and Constant. Genoa started good in the match and got some chances with Gilardino and Merkel, but Udinese opened the score in the 14th minute by a header of Ferronetti: 0-1. Unless a very attractive first half we had to wait for more goals after the break. After only 4 minutes in the second half Granqvist scored the equalizer being the fastest player in the rebound of the extremely hard free-kick of Jankovic that was blocked by keeper Handanovic: 1-1.

Only 1 minute later Bosko Jankovic himself scored the second goal after a perfect cross of Constant: 2-1. Genoa created more and more changes, but on the other side Udinese was a few times very dangerous but this season we have goalkeeper Sebastien Frey. In the 71st minute Palacio scored 3-1 after a cross of Gilardino. Everybody who now thought the match was over was totally wrong, because within 2 minutes referee Doveri brought the black and white of Friuli back in the match. Marco Rossi touched the ball in front of topscorer Antonio di Natala, but the referee gave Udinese a penalty and our captain a red card. Di Natale scored the penalty and Genoa had to play the last 20 minutes with 10 against eleven. Of course Udinese was the best team this last minutes, but Sebastien Frey saved us a few times and after the last whistle the stadium went completely crazy, what a match! Genoa is now 8th in the standings, but more important: back in the field with attractive, offensive and powerfull football.

After the match against Napoli coach Alberto Malesani was fired. We all thought that the players were shocked about the decision of Mr. Preziosi and were very motivated in Cagliari with new trainer Pasquale Marino and topstriker Alberto Gilardino. Except Sebastien Frey, Marco Rossi and Alberto Gilardino all other players looked uninspired and played again very bad in Cagliari. Of course the first goal of Cagliari was made out of an unreal penalty of Larrivey, but it was sure that Cagliari deserved at least 1 goal in the first half. In the second half Genoa started good but after 11 minutes Victor Ibarbo scored the second goal out of a corner of our Kevin Constant! Only a few minutes later Moretti got an undeserved red card because of a foul in midfield with Granqvist still behind him, again a big error of referee Celi. With 10 against 11 we all waited for the third goal which came of course and was made by our own defender Andreas Granqvist. Thanks to Sebastien Frey the result is not as bad as in Napels, the way we played was maybe even worse.

Tomorrow at 15.00 hours Genoa plays the first match with the new trainer Pasquale Marino and central forward Alberto Gilardino. The opponent is Cagliari, the team of the island Sardegna that has 18 points, 3 less than us. Mr. Marino misses the line-up players Kaladze, Veloso and Palacio at his debut tomorrow. The expected line-up: Frey; Mesto, Dainelli, Granqvist, Moretti; Kucka, Seymour, Constant; Rossi, Gilardino and Jankovic.