Categoria: AS Roma Corner

Rubrica in inglese gestita dagli amici del Roma Club Dublino

0 Monthly review

9 Novembre 2022
Stefano Sale
· AS Roma Corner

It is not a question of play. Each time you have to hear the same story from certain people. Mourinho has always been like this, wherever he went. Winning, first of all. Porto, Chelsea, Inter, Real Madrid, Manchester. A European trophy arrives in Rome, which had been missing here for 60 years, with the poorest team he has ever coached. And he succeeded where everyone had always failed. Always with the same philosophy. That does not change. The difference is the players, the quality and the attitudes of the individuals.

The team does not play as a team. After the win at Verona, we lost the derby to a team that put the bus behind in defense for 100 minutes. In the face of Sarrismo. But the Lazio players didn’t care less than zero for not playing the game. They won with just one shot, or rather our assist. So also with Sassuolo. We did little and nothing, precisely those players, those out, those out of shape, and for the poor quality left on the pitch. Above all, we lack quality in ideas, light in attacking play, we are slow and predictable, trivial wrong passes, stops and ball checks.

Sassuolo seemed to have an edge even in dribbling and phrasing, a ball stealer like Frattesi who would serve us as the bread in the middle, or an Orient to tease on the wing. Quite the opposite to seeing Zaniolo continuing his ruffled run, Shomurodov is anything but a sniper, and Zalewsky’s involution, to name a few. Then who took over in the second half, which immediately made those who came out regret, from El Sharaawy to Karsdorp, irritating to say the least.

We also lacked defense, this time with a few too many flaws. Positive notes only from the great goal of Abraham and from the personality of Volpato, who is destined to grow. Two points lost for how the game was going but also one gained for what we saw on the pitch in the total calculation. In the regret that between the derby and tonight 4 points could be taken, missed opportunities that will weigh in the end. Waiting for the last one with Torino before the world cup stop, it is essential to win to stay hooked to the train tha leads to Champions League football. One last note: If Dybala comes back to lend a hand to the cause, very well, if he only serves to be summoned to go to Qatar then he better stay where he is now, in the pitstop. Another championship starts in January, everyone needs to be recovered, fresh and charged, ready to start again. Who does not put the effort can also go elsewhere.

0 September review

7 Ottobre 2022
Stefano Sale
· APP · AS Roma Corner

Joy and pain. It’s been a bumpy road so far. A big win at the San Siro, now another defeat comes at home, after Atalanta. This time with Betis Seville, partly because of bad luck but also because of our mistakes.

It was the direct match to try to recapture the Spaniards at the top of the Europa League group standings. The game had gone well, on the right track with taking the lead over a penalty, but then a few negative episodes ended up penalizing us. Above all, the goal of possible doubling failed by Cristante and the great save by their goalkeeper on Dybala’s volley.

Roma goes to alternating current, ups and downs, but with a positive constant, precisely Paulo Dybala, simply extraordinary with his plays, once again the absolute protagonist. The same cannot be said of his comrades in the ward. Abraham struggles and works but hardly ever succeeds. Zaniolo perhaps even worse, never sharp, irritating at times and not very intelligent given the angry reaction that also costs him the red card in the final minutes. Pellegrini is also not having a good time. The captain, absent with Betis, has mostly physical problems. Even Celik, too, who came out injured. Hard now is even securing second spot.

Despite everything, the ranking in s positive in the league, but thanks above all to Dybala and Smalling. We need to be more cynical inside the box. The team lacks the performance of the other top players, anyone from Spinazzola to Rui Patricio. We need a great performance in Seville. But first there is Lecce, we need to regroup immediately, it is too important to remain hooked to the top zone in the league, then we go to Seville to take back the stolen goods. Mou, take care of it!

0 August review

3 Settembre 2022
Stefano Sale
· APP · AS Roma Corner

Here we go again. From Josè Mourinho and the whole team who gave us that trophy that had been missing for too long. An immense joy that the Romanisti people deserved. We have said it here repeatedly throughout the year, even when things weren’t going very well, even when someone called upon people like Italian, Dionisi or De Zerbi, not understanding that in Rome you only win with the winners.

History tells it. The Special One has accomplished a feat, immediately hitting the center in the first year, with a short and deficient team. And besides, the owners, with their seriousness and intelligence, have turned the club upside down in less than two years, in all sectors. They didn’t miss a beat, without saying a word. Facts and not words. A three-year project that is preparing to accelerate. This year we are already aiming higher, with an expanded squad, targeted purchases and great champions.

Roma is already a great team on paper, the gap with the top four seems to be almost filled but it is clear that now the field will have to confirm all this. The important thing is to stay up there to compete, the minimum goal is fourth place and to go to the bottom both in the Coppa Italia and in the Europa Legue. The winning mentality is acquired in this way, with victories, hunger and ambition. But also with the right and strong players. Mourinho’s presence brought about all of this. People like Dybala, Wjinaldum and Matic and Abraham would never have come here without Josè.

Now there is also a great leader like Pellegrini and all the other missing pieces. Not forgetting another great purchase, potentially the strongest player, Nico Zaniolo. There is a lot of enthusiasm, rightly so. And it is not the usual “Scudetto of August”. The difference with the last few years is that now there is a strong coach, club and team. All very similar to about twenty years ago. The four competitors are perhaps still a little bit above for their position and tradition, but this Rome can now compete with all of them. Without fear.

Roma are now in the lead after four games tied with Atalanta. A positive fact that brings enthusiasm and conviction, even if at the moment it matters little, with a tangle of teams in a handkerchief with a few points of distance. It is played match by match, starting from the next match against Udinese you will need a proof of maturity. The important thing is to remain calm and cohesive in the group, to continue on this path, now even more so with the new reinforcements arrived. Gallo Belotti already a fan favorite, and Mady Camara, the plunger to replace Gini Wjinaldum. Hoping not to run into other injuries, the real scourge of this period, with Zaniolo, El Sharaawy and Kumbulla now stopped in the pits.

Mourinho has a complete team, the icing on the cake would have been the defender but at this point he goes on like this until January, with Solbakken already booked for the attack. It is a Rome that makes you dream but always down to earth, we have already won the Scudetto in August several times over the years, the championship is long and the state of form changes. There will be ups and downs, you need to stay attached to the leading train until the World Cup in november-december, then grind it from January onwards. Calm and Forza Roma!

0 Roma-Feyenoord

27 Maggio 2022
Stefano Sale
· AS Roma Corner

Champions. Of Europe. Winners of the first edition of the UEFA Conference League. Without ifs and buts. Anyone who tries to belittle this achievement is either in bad faith or simply froth of anger. The only Italian team to win a European competition, the last time 12 years ago, just happened to be led by him, our leader and today a prophet in the Giallorossi homeland. The divine Josè.

The only one to have won them all. Fifth cup in his incredible palmares. The “hand of five” at the Tirana stadium. A serial winner, everywhere. All this is Mourinho, that poor old man, derided by many, the same ones who today jump on the winners’ bandwagon. They asked for its head who knows to make room for, perhaps the champagne football of Italiano or De Zerbi, forgetting that in recent decades all those others who had passed here had failed miserably, with even better equipped teams.

In less than a year this gentleman has rebuilt a family, broght people at the stadium, empathy and pride. But above all he brought us the much coveted trophy. He was the only one who could do it. Our hope. And unlike his other prestigious victories, this time he did it with little means available, a team not full of champions, but under construction. His tears are of joy and awareness, making happy the most beautiful fans in the world, for too long desperately looking for victories. This cup has a different and perhaps unique flavor for this very reason.

Rome had been expecting all this since 1961, from the Fair’s Cup. This May 26th partially redeems the finals of 1984 and 1991, wounds never healed. And cancel the other May 26th, the unfortunate one. From today it becomes our day to celebrate in the years to come, for the sake of the Lazio people.

This day will also be remembered for the big party, the parade of the team on board the doouble decker bus, from Caracalla to the Colosseum, a sea of Giallorossi fans at the Circus Maximus. It was destiny. The story, the circumstances. It could not have been otherwise. The watershed between the past and the future.

This immense happiness between tears of joy and emotion has pervaded many Romanistas, especially those of another era or generation. From the 1983 to the 2001 championship. Lost finals. We weren’t used to it anymore. Our thoughts immediately went to our loved ones and to the curva paradise, those who guided us towards this faith, to celebrate this extraordinary event from up there, in the spirit that has always united us and that will never leave us. We love you. Forza Grande Roma. Always.

0 Weekly review

22 Maggio 2022
Stefano Sale
· APP · AS Roma Corner · Rubriche

Regardless of how it ends. José Mourinho is working a miracle, on and off the pitch. He had started with a small squad, anchored in sixth-seventh place for some years. Some excellent players from the first places, others less good, young, or still to be deciphered. Fluctuating results, some great games but also some very bad ones, not including referee’s scandals and many lost points.

“The team must reach my level, not the other way around”. Slowly but surely José remodelled the team, with the few means available, in January he sent away and put aside those players that he considered not up to par. Even though lots of fans were shocked and asked for his head. For having “devalued” certain players. “Boiled, old, incapable”. Told by fans of a team that hardly ever wins anything has enough effect. And coincidentally, he was right here too. And instead, he then launched, enhanced, and improved other players, obviously better than those “purged”. Above all Zalewsky, on the bench all year, now an immovable owner.

Mou has brought back the enthusiasm, the full stadium, and the support of the people. A sea of love for the Giallorossi lo, which has not seen for a long time. But above all he is changing the minds of the players and the mentality, a growth that also includes a strong club that supports him. José’s hand. Attention is meticulous on everything, team, fans, and management. That is the club.

Three years of project. Many did not understand all this. And they contested it when things weren’t going well, perhaps giving heed to certain characters from the ether who were a little biased or who hated him regardless in the various TV shows and various newspapers. The important thing is that now all Romanistas have understood this. Mourinho is our only chance for growth. To win. Not to float.

We leave the various coaches, Italiano or De Zerbi to their halfway zone. After having seen so many utopias of a beautiful and hopeful football, I now prefer a more practical and winning football. We have the best of all, and we still don’t realize. With the euphoria of the final, he reminds us that we are not a team of champions. He continues to goad the club to raise the bar and invest, he continues to praise the fans, a social phenomenon to be studied, but also remember that we lack winning trophies.

The Special One in a few months of work has brought us to a European final, which we have not reached for 31 years, since 1991. Next year we are in the Europa League. With the points stolen by referees and the Var we could also go to the Champions League in place of a Juventus that made a ridiculous championship, like ours, not forgetting how much they invested and their expectations of glory. And that we play a final on Wednesday. They don’t. We are the only Italian team.

José Mourinho has achieved the maximum possible so far. Dybala or not Dybala, next year other strong and functional players must arrive, the team must improve in quality, ready to climb positions and start competing at other levels. I am convinced that the owners are very ambitious and that it will follow its coach with investments. The time is right. The final can be our driving force. “Vate retro” Newcastle. FORZA ROMA.

0 Weekly review

17 Maggio 2022
Stefano Sale
· APP · AS Roma Corner

The regret for other lost points continues. This time, however, there are no referees involved, no Var and not even our performance. Just a lot of bad luck. A disproportionate number of shots on goal and woodwork hits. True, it was the Venezia just relegated, and with a man down for 60 minutes.

Venezia played with so much determination, respecting the rules with the championship still in progress. Just as opposed to the match played at the Allianz stadium, with Juventus who decided in the second half that it was time to celebrate the farewells of Chiellini and Dybala. Allegri changes half a team to make room for the young players and defend for 45 minutes. Sarri, Tare and Lotito already knew that Lazio would eventually equalize.

An Italian championship where the mess is always there when you least expect it. Or maybe when you expect it too. With Lazio now fifth in the standings, Roma is now still in a precarious situation to finish sixth. We need the victory in Turin against the ‘granata’, and thanks to the slips of Atalanta and Fiorentina, fate is still in our hands. It will be interesting to see if Josè Mourinho will make a moderate or more massive turnover in view of the final.

There is a dilemma. It is the last of the championship, it is important to win it to guarantee Europe next year. But the final for us Romanisti is now more important. Whatever it takes. The team needs to breathe, some players are tired. The tribute of the Olimpico even after the disappointing draw with Venezia denotes an infinite enthusiasm and euphoria. There is a great desire to take this cup home. But there is still a game to play. Let’s hold on, then from Friday evening the Tirana operation starts. All focused. Forza Roma.

0 Weekly review

10 Maggio 2022
Stefano Sale
· AS Roma Corner

Josè Mourinho’s tears are also ours. After 30 years, Roma are in a European final. The testimony of how important it is for this city. Unique emotions last night, at the stadium and around with all the Roma fans around the world. We are in the final and we all took it together, starting from the strength and determination of its leader and proud leader. The divine Josè.

After Tammy’s goal, the team gathered like a Roman tortoise, a squad of legionaries to repel the enemy Britannia, as stated on the banner in the curva sud. Impenetrable defense. Indeed, Roma had at least three occasions to double on the counterattack. Great performance of the team, in all departments. The team comes out exhausted and in the end all to collect the embrace of the Giallorossi fans.

Tired and out of steam after thursday, against Fiorentina did not go well. Now you have to let off the adrenaline. In hindsight, better off with some fresh legs instead. Another cocky referee and useless Var, same old grief…no point anymore. Let’s win the last two to ensure European football next season. Or else:) The next two matches in the league must be honoured but with the second lines on the pitch. It matters little. Only the final counts. Aim the Dutch of Rotterdam. Let’s go to Tirana. Forza Grande Roma!

0 weekly review

2 Maggio 2022
Stefano Sale
· AS Roma Corner · Rubriche

It’s the final countdown or these are the days of miracle and wonder. Choose your own quote and preferred line to sing along. The game with Leicester is the only thing that counts at this stage. And the draw against Bologna is not going to affect our mood.

We Romanisti have not been in a Uefa cup final since 1991. Let alone the European cup final in 1984. The last win is the Italian cup in 2008. We have in our memories that fantastic win against Barcelona and the semifinal against Liverpool. It is our biggest moment since then.

The away game at Leicester certified we can get into the final. Yet it is not done yet. On the contrary. We need to be focused like against Bodo, the only way to beat the english side. The stadium is sold-out like every game these days, 72,000 roaring. The atmosphere will be electric, we need to scare the opposition. We are biggest fans in the world. Let’s do it. Forza Roma!

0 Weekly review

17 Aprile 2022
Stefano Sale
· AS Roma Corner

The perfect match. Along the lines of the last derby. Those races where you can see the hand of Josè Mourinho. Determination, tenacity, the desire to throw the heart over the obstacle. Roma crashes Bodo Glimt without appeals and without holds.

The last minute comeback against Salernitana last Sunday was the prelude to a magical evening for the Giallorossi seasoned by an overcrowded stadium. The Mou effect is visible outside and now also inside the pitch. Following in his footsteps of him is what he asks of us to make the famous change of mentality.

Tammy and Zaniolo the prima donnas The semifinal is ours. Now we have Leicester City, the miracle of Sir Claudio Ranieri. The third European semifinal in four years after Di Francesco in the Champions League and Fonseca in the Europa League. Once again we challenge an English team. It is time to dispel this taboo. But first there is the Napoli of the former Spalletti, Monday night’s big match in the league. The Foxes can wait. Wolf pack won’t. Come on Roma.

0 Weekly review

25 Marzo 2022
Stefano Sale
· AS Roma Corner

It will go down in history as the Derby of the poor seagull. Immediately after the threefold whistle of the referee, a real smash started to tease the Lazio fans especially on the various social media. The Rome derby is also this. The Giallorossi triumph is overwhelming but almost unexpected. I was very afraid of Lazio, not because of being superior, far from it, just because the Giallorossi up to now have always proved to be discontinuous and unreliable. But if Roma play like Roma, we beat Lazio. This is my pre-game thought.

If we perform typical performances against Atalanta, Napoli or Juve up to a certain point, then we win. But the last three games weren’t reassuring at all. Team subdued, lackluster, does not sting, does not shoot at goal. This team is moody, too difficult to understand. It’s a lottery game. And here, once again, when you least expect it, comes the sumptuous performance, near perfection . This time even better than the victory in Bergamo. The best of the season, in the Mourinho era. Immediately on the pitch with a strong spur, great desire and character, a lot of determination that even surprises the Lazio players after only 56 seconds. Then only a monologue up to the 90th. Lazio stunned and inexorably beaten by two slaps of Abraham and a jewel of Pellegrini.

Tammy is everywhere, fights like a brave with the world, front and back, and scores a brace. A giant. But also his teammates, all of them, from Karsdorp’s crosses to Smalling in defense, Miki’s plays and above all the bulldozer Cristante, a dam together with Oliveira. Great Zalewsky, confident and mature. Rui without rating. Note of merit for Lorenzo Pellegrini, one of the worst in recent times, much criticized. Great technique and various spells including masterful free kick in top corner. He came from a bad injury. He was back to his levels. We need it too much.

Tammy is just waiting to be served, he could score a lot more goals. It was also the right time to reverse the trend. He needs to give continuity in the league and cup. They must reach the level of Josè Mourinho, our true champion. With the right mindset. The special is right, the derby is for the fans to celebrate, they don’t, they have to get back focused immediately, to grind straight away for the next goal. To beat Sampdoria and Salernitana after the break, another false step would be unforgivable, after the many opportunities so far thrown away. You need to give continuity.

Next chapter, after Italy fracass out of the World Cup once again. The Euro Champions pay the heavy price, unable to beat Bulgaria, N. Ireland and Switzerland. And now, North Macedonia, the ultimate punch in the face. A massive blow for Italian football. A new era approaches, only nine months later from that historical win in Wembley. Bella ciao.

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