Good Times, Bad Times

By: bingitz2002 | August 25th, 2008

It was a good weekend. Toro beat Brescia 2-1 in the Coppa, the Bianchi affair concluded in a positive way, and I rocked out in Golden Gate Park. The game against Brescia was a struggle, not concluding until David Di Michele started to prove his worth by finishing off a wonderful move. Bianchi finally signed for Toro, much to the delight of myself and many other Toro fans as he booted some balls into the Curva Maratona (hopefully not a precedent for this season) and took a lap of honor with Cairo. The rocking out was great too as Toots & The Maytals, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, Broken Social Scene, and Wilco satisfied my desire to rock out at Outside Lands.

Overall, the game with Brescia was a bit disappointing. Torino youth product Davide Possanzini put Brescia in the lead after making Matteo Sereni look like a fool and Azzurrini ‘keeper Viviano kept our strikers at bay. However, things started to turn around in the second half and Toro equalized through a Rosina penalty after a streaking Di Michele was brought down in the area by Viviano. Largely thanks to the heroics of Viviano, Toro required extra time to secure the victory despite playing with a numerical advantage thanks to Zambelli’s sending off for two bookable offenses. The winner was a thing of beauty though, with Rosina playing a cheeky exchange with Di Michele before threading it through to Stellone, who used the deftest of touches to set up DDM to blast home.

Torino-Brescia highlights:

The Mercato

Bianchi’s here! After being linked with us since January, Rolando Bianchi has finally joined Toro, putting an end to months of speculation. Although he initially angered Toro fans by snubbing the club for Lazio, he seems to have made amends with them, getting a rather warm reception from the Curva Maratona before the Brescia game and explaining his choice to go to Lazio over Torino in January. What’s also great about the deal is that even though we are paying a fairly big sum for him (a fair sum though) is that Bianchi is making financial sacrifices not only to play for Toro but to help the club out with the transfer fee. Furthermore, from what I’ve heard he is a genuinely nice guy off the pitch, so I’m glad to have him at Toro. Benevenuto Rolando!

Since this is a post about Torino F.C., there has to be one requisite piece of bad news, hence the title. This weekend’s news is that Coppa hero David Di Michele (now known in Turin as Decisivo Di Michele) wants to leave Turin. I know I’ve pondered about a Di Michele-Brighi swap but last night we got to see the Di Michele that Cairo made a big investment for last summer. He looked like he had something to prove with Bianchi coming in and although it could get crowded in attack he could be a valuable asset to the squad if he plays like he did against Brescia.

One more week until the Serie A starts and we are now looking for a midfielder and a defender to round out the squad. We are still linked with Mutarelli and I wouldn’t count out a Di Michele-Brighi swap quite yet. As for the defense though, I and the media have little idea about who will be brought in. We haven’t been seriously linked to a defender since Pratali came in.