International fansite Genoa CFC
Today I had a quick chat with the assistent coach of Holland and from 1st July the assistent coach of Ajax: our member of honour mister Johnny van ‘t Schip. We talked about revelation Borriello and of course he wanted to show our special Genoa Club Amsterdam shawl in front of the camera. Thanks Johnny! DJ Pure de Mele.
After the great victories against Udinese (5-3) and Napoli (2-0) Genoa lost twice against Cagliari (1-2) and Juventus (0-2), so now it is time to earn again some points. Of course the match in Florence against Fiorentina is not easy to win, but with the support of our 1600 fans we possibly can surprise the purple team that hopefully still is a litte tired of their match against Everton in Uefa-cup. Mr. Gasperini selected the following 20 players:
Goalkeepers: Lanza, Scarpi.
Defenders: Criscito, De Rosa, Ghinassi, Konko, Lucarelli, Santos.
Mifielders: Danilo, Fabiano, Juric, Masiero, Milanetto, Rossi, Vanden Borre.
Forwards: Borriello, Di Vaio, Figueroa, Leon, Sculli.
Yesterday-evening 28.151 people watched Genoa-Juventus in Luigi Ferraris Stadium. Only 1.000 (!!) of them were happy at the end of the match with the 0-2 result by goals of Grygera and Trezeguet in the first half. The most succesfull team of Italy with the most supporters (??) brought only 1.000 fans to one of the closest away-matches in the first season in Serie A after the punishment. Knowing this it is easy to explain why players like Criscito prefer Genoa (football, passion and friendship) above Juventus (only money). With Genoa the Belgium player Anthony Vanden Borre made his debut 31 minutes before the end as a substitute of Milanetto that was kicked out of the match by Camoranesi. The referee refused to give Camoranesi his second yellow card, just like Cassano 3 weeks ago. Genoa is now 9th in the standings.
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At the end all the 3 slightly injured players Borriello, Fabiano and Sculli are selected by Mr. Gasperini to go in Sheraton Hotel to prepare for tomorrownights topmatch against Juventus. The following 19 players try to put Juventus in a crisis:
Goalkeepers: Scarpi, Lanza
Defenders: Criscito, De Rosa, Ghinassi, Konko, Lucarelli
Midfielders: Danilo, Fabiano, Masiero, Milanetto, Raggio Garibaldi, Rossi, Vanden Borre
Forwards: Borriello, Di Vaio, Figueroa, Leon, Sculli
This season Genoa sold 21.675 seasontickets and the average of spectators this season is at the moment 24.333. The match with the most visitors is so far this season, of course, Genoa-Sampdoria with 31.618 paying spectators. Because Sampdoria could not sell 1400 of the 2000 seats in the visitors-sector, the authorities forbid to sell 1500 tickets and another 1500 persons (sponsors, guests, etc.) entered the stadium without paying the maximum number of 36.541 was not realized. On the second place so far this season is the match against Napoli (26.417, on a wednesday-night!), just before Fiorentina (24.876) and A.S. Roma (24.107). The match against Siena was with “only” 22.697 spectators the one with the lowest number of people in the stadium.
Thursday-evening the number of sold tickets to see the match Genoa-Juventus was already over 5.000, so at least 27.000 vistors will be present in Luigi Ferraris next sunday-evening. Maybe in the last 2 days (friday and saturday) another 5.000 people buy a ticket, breaking the visitors-record of 31.618 so far this season.
The 2 goalscorers of the 1-1 draw in Luigi Ferraris stadium last year: Ivan Juric and Pavel Nedved don’t play next Sunday. Both players are banned because of their 8th yellow (Juric) and 2nd red card (Nedved) of the season. Besides Juric friendly Mr. Gasperini also misses Paro (5 months out), Bovo (one month), Rubinho (20 days), Santos (10 days off) and Wilson (trains for the first time with ball this week), while it is not sure if Fabiano and Sculli can play after their injuries in the match against Cagliari. Maybe this all means that Anthony Vanden Borre can make his debut against the Old Lady.
On the island Sardinia Genoa lost 3 points against Cagliari but remained on the 8th position in the standings. Of course it was clear it would be a difficult match without Konko, Paro, Santos and Bovo and after 2 great victories against Udinese and Napoli. It also was known that Cagliari would be very agressive and motivated because they lost Friday 3 points behind the green table.
However Genoa started the match very good. In the first 15 minutes there was a header of Sculli over the goal, a shot of Borriello that was saved by goalkeeper Storari, a header of De Rosa and finally the first goal of Lucarelli after a fantastic cross of Fabiano: 0-1. The breakpoint of the match was in the 29th minute. Out of a corner Criscito headed the ball at the crossbar and 20 seconds later, while Criscito was still on the way back to the defense, Acquafresca shot the ball behind Rubinho: 1-1. A few seconds before the halftime whistle of the referee Cagliari got a corner that was headed by Acquafresca on the post, but the ball bounced at the back of unlucky Rubinho into the goal: 2-1 and Rubinho injured. In the second half with Scarpi, Figueroa and Danilo in the team Genoa tried to score the equalizer but only 1 time Leon was close.
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Genoa coach Gian Piero Gasperini and his staff selected the following 19 players to travel with them to the island Sardinia:
Goalkeepers: Lanza, Rubinho, Scarpi.
Defenders: Criscito, De Rosa, Ghinassi, Lucarelli.
Midfielders: Danilo, Fabiano, Juric, Masiero, Milanetto, Rossi, Vanden Borre.
Forwards: Borriello, Di Vaio, Figueroa, Leon, Sculli.
Genoa misses banned Konko (4th yellow card against Napoli) and the injured: Bovo, Santos, Paro and Wilson against Cagliari, number 20 and last in the standings. Yesterday the team of Sardinia was punished with 3 points (from 18 to 15) because of the fact that old-Cagliari player Grassadonia informed the court that in the past Cagliari-players substituted each other at the dopingtests after the match to save their doped colleagues. The old defender also told that the board of the club used the ultras to scare the players at home if they did not play well. Besides the lost of 3 points also Cagliari president Cellino is banned for 1 year out of football. Of course the club and president try to save themselves at a higher court.
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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.