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 wins derby: 21.675 season-tickets
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:
- Milan 42.106
- Inter 36.417
- Roma 27.313
- Forentina 23.389
- Napoli 22.430
- Genoa 21.675
- Palermo 19.996
- Sampdoria 18.258
- Juventus 17.179
- Torino 16.401
Our first match in Serie A: 2-0 victory
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.
The come-back of Figueroa on the trainingfield
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.
Mr. Gasperini proud winner of our trophy
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.
How we landed on the fifth place
As we promised: the You Tube clip of Genoa-Cagliari (2-0). Posted on the internet by a Dutch Cagliari-fan… We’re living in a small world.
[youtube P1QWtQvQ11M]
Hans Otten in Genova: a big party here
A sms from our President Hans Otten and his ‘adjudant’ Bart in Genova: “Because of the 2-0 and the fifth place in the Serie A; it’s a big party down here.” Well Hans, we’re also partying in Amsterdam at the moment! UEFA-cup here we come 🙂 As soon as possible i’m posting the best You Tube clip of the match against Calgiari. Forza Genoa! DJ Pure de Mele.
Gian Piero Gasperini our Genoano of the year
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.
You Tube clip of Napoli-Genoa CFC
See how Genoa won in Napoli. Most of the time we prefer a draw against our friends, but a ranking above Milan and the Ciclisti feels good after all those years.
[youtube onV_QsnDRlc]
Genoa wins again: 1-2 in Napoli
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 !!