Parma takes on Catania and Di Carlo won’t be kicked in the butt

By: Francesco | January 26th, 2008

After the undeserved loss to Inter , Parma keep their chins up and face another away tie, this time making the long trip down to Sicily to take on Catania. Last week was the end of the “girone d’andata“, which means the fixtures revert themselves and start all over again, and if you remember correctly, we faced Catania in the first game of the season at the Tardini, which was a 2-2 draw. Parma almost got the win there, but a late goal from Japanese teen Takayuki Morimoto gave the Sicilians a point.

To paraphrase what Di Carlo said today, “Our Away Form Sucks. We Must Improve it!” And after the good performance vs. Inter the boys should all be confident that they can break the away game curse tomorrow. (If we play like we did vs. Inter tomorrow we’ll win 2 or 3-nil.)

Di Carlo will actually be watching from the stands, as he was sent off vs. the Nerazzurri (better for Di Carlo, he won’t be kicked in the butt this time), and therefore his assistant Roberto Murgita will be taking charge. (Murgita was Di Carlo’s teammate at Vicenza in the mid-90’s and was his assistant at Mantova as well.) Look at this Vicenza team sheet from the mid-90’s, Di Carlo was a defensive midfielder, Murgita a striker.

4 players will be unavailable tomorrow. Couto is suspended because of the red card, while Dessena still hasn’t recovered from his injury vs. Inter (he really was injured Inter fans!), and Coly is still in pain from Materazzi’s tackle. The other unavailable player is Massimo Paci, who still is suffering from a concussion.

Which means the starting defense tomorrow will be Zenoni at right back, Marco Rossi and Falcone in the center, and Paolo Castellini at left back.

In midfield we’ll see the usual quartet of Pisanu, Cigarini, Morrone, and Reginaldo, and up top Corradi will be the lone striker, supported by Andrea Gasbarroni.

Lucarelli played 70 minutes with the Primavera squad to regain some match fitness, and last year’s scoring machine Igor Budan will finally return to the bench after a long injury layoff.

Catania are a good side, and have surprised me this year, especially since Silvio Baldini is in charge. The hefty manager has never really done well in his career, getting sacked at Palermo, Lecce, and at Parma when he managed the Gialloblu’ in 2004/2005. Gionatha Spinesi is a lethal striker, and Giuseppe Mascara creates chances for everyone. In midfield they have Davide Baiocco who never stops running. Their weakness is their defense, although they have the excellent Juan Vargas at left-back, who will most certainly be playing for a big club next year.

I think Parma can pull out a result here, and it should be a good game. Let’s finally get rid of this away game curse!

AVANTI CROCIATI!