and no one was home to answer.

An opportunity to continue Napoli's dream start hit a nightmarish speed
bump at the Stadio San Paolo yesterday. Roma's loss to Inter and
Palermo's defeat at Empoli meant a victory would catapult the
Azzurri to 3rd place heading into next week's clash at the San Siro
against the nerazzurri.

All the stars were aligned after Wednesday's late victory against
Livorno:
• Genoa hadn't scored in two previous Serie A road matches
• Genoa's starting keeper was disqualified for the match
• Napoli had only conceded two goals (both in the first match of the
season) all year
• A raucous San Paolo crowd that had only seen their squad lose once
at home in two and a half years

This was three points in the bag, right? Not effing likely.

Things started going badly long before kickoff when Lega Calcio ruled
the match was to be played behind closed doors. The offense, you ask? It
seems the linesman in the Livorno match was hit by a yogurt bottle and
there were some offensive banners displayed for a short while before the
stewards took action to remove them. Sticks and yogurt bottles may
bruise my shins but names will never hurt me. In other news, all fans
coming to my nine-year old's Park District game will be expected to
pass through a metal detector and forbidden from bringing orange slices
and Gatorade. Christ. Do you think there's a chance Roma fans will
be punished for throwing fireworks on the pitch? Or Lazio punished
because their fans come to matches packing heat like Tony Montana going
to a club? Or Juventus fans…just because?

The crowd ban was simply a foreshadowing of what turned out to be a
disastrous day. Ezequiel Lavezzi looked refreshed after sitting out the
mid-week clash and began to immediately exert his will on the Genoa
defense. He rifled a shot in the 9th minute which was parried away
nicely by Alessio Scarpi. Shortly thereafter Paolo Cannavaro anticipated
a cross into the box by Leon and looked to knock it away. He succeeded
in sticking into the back of his own net past a helpless Matteo Gianello
who was subbing for starting keeper Genarro Iezzo. All indications point
to Iezzo being ready for next week's match against Inter Milan.

The goal seemed to have spurred on Napoli as they came at Genoa in
waves. For their part, Genoa put 10 men behind the ball and looked to
catch Napoli on a counter and break Lavezzi's ankles anytime he came
close to goal. The Argentinean wonder kid will continue to see this
treatment throughout the campaign, and to his credit, he doesn't
seem to be effected by the pounding he's been subjected to. Reja
recognized Genoa's tactics and replaced Cupi, who made a horrible
error almost costing the side a goal, with Marek Hamsik in the first
half to change Napoli's favored 3-5-2 with a 4-3-3 attacking
formation.

The scoreline wouldn't change until early in the second half. Napoli
fans have seen enough of Lavezzi during the first two months this season
to know they have something special in their midst. El Pocho's
punishing runs and dangerous through balls have put Serie A on alert. In
the 6th minute one of Lavezzi's runs led to Napoli's equalizer.
Two Genoa defenders tried to make a Lavezzi pannini in the box. To his
credit, El Pocho didn't dive, unlike his Argentinean teammate
Roberto Sosa, when he felt the contact but tried to run through the
challenge. To my surprise Napoli defender Maurizio Domizzi knocked home
the penalty kick in the lower right hand corner when Scarpi dived left.
Emanuele Calaio took most of the PK duties last year and I would've
figured Lavezzi or Hamsik would've had the honors with Calaio riding
the bench. It wasn't the cleanest or best struck penalty but they
all count.

Napoli had the better scoring opportunities as evidenced by their shot
advantage (14-8) and the number of corners (8-4). However, Zalayeta,
Hamsik and Lavezzi weren't able to capitalize on their opportunities
and Genoa stuck the dagger in the dying moments. Napoletano striker, and
part-time cokehead, Marco Borriello crossed the ball into Giuseppe
Sculli who headed the winner home in the 44th minute of the second half.
Napoli was caught ball watching and especially Gianello who was rooted
to the spot as he watched the ball come off the inside of the upright.

So Napoli sit in 5th level on points with Palermo and Udinese instead of
being in 3rd level on points, but behind in goal differential, against
Juventus. I figured the key to the campaign was gathering as many points
as possible heading into a brutal October. The three points dropped
against Genoa could be extremely cruel. Despite the FIFA break coming
mid-month, which will allow some players to rest, Napoli will face Inter
Milan at the San Siro next, then travel to the Stadio Olimpico to take
on Roma before finishing up with Juventus at home and traveling to
Firenze to take on the Viola two days later. Guh.

The Napoli match against Inter Milan will be shown live both on RAI
International <http://www.international.rai.it/tv/p...20071006.shtml>
and in the United States on Fox Soccer
<http://msn.foxsports.com/id/7226130_37_1> . I can't ever remember
a Napoli match being broadcast in English. Let's hope Ibrahimovic
sits this one out with his foot injury picked up against Roma and the
rest of the Inter backline are still dead. How did they manage to keep
Roma under wraps at home? Inter absolutely dominated their match this
weekend. A repeat effort would be ugly…for us.

Visit http://napoli.theoffside.com/match-review/opportunity-knocked.html
<http://napoli.theoffside.com/match-review/opportunity-knocked.html> to
leave your impressions of the match.



Regards,

Joe








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