Torino 3-0 Lecce and the End of the Mercato

By: bingitz2002 | September 1st, 2008

We won! It is the first time we have won a Serie A opening match since 1993, so that is a noteworthy achievment in my book. However, we should not get carried away with ourselves. Our goals were fairly lucky and Lecce hit the post twice. That being said, we definitely deserve to have a bit of luck on our side. Also, we see the end of the mercato today. Although it was a pretty satisfying one, seeing some of the last day signings made me a bit unhappy (Stendardo and Basta to Lecce, Milito to Genoa, Kerlon to Chievo especially) as I feel we could have certainly done better.

Back to the match, although we had some lucky goals, the team played with that cuore granata that we’ve been looking for and lacking in the past couple seasons. In goal Sereni was a beast, showing why he should have had a place in the Euro 2008 squad. He made some good saves including a fantastic one at the beginning of the second half. (It should be the first chance Lecce gets in the second half if you watch the highlights.) Our defense was OK, we have some good, strong defenders, but it is clear that they need to work together for longer as Pratali and Di Loreto didn’t have the best understanding on the pitch. Our full-backs were good though as Diana showed his versatility and occasionally went forward without neglecting his defensive duties while Rubin was even better, marauding up and down the left flank. He could be crucial this season.

In the midfield we gave a strong performance. Zanetti and Säumel worked very hard with the former thoroughly earning his first goal in the Toro jersey while Säumel had a nice debut and looks like he will adapt well to the Italian league. Corini was his usual creative self and looked good despite his ever-increasing age. Hopefully he stays reasonably fit and healthy because we don’t have any other player like him in our squad. Our attacking trident of Rosina, Amoruso, and Bianchi looked effective and could be even better with more time and practice together. Rosina was the best out of three but Amoruso and Bianchi were also good, threatening the Lecce defense with their movement and aerial ability.

We now have a two week break (this is when I most loathe international matches) before traveling to Reggina on September 14, and we can hopefully continue our good start to the season. If we play like we did today, 10th place is an achievable goal.

Highlights:

Mercato’s End

It’s been a long summer full of speculation, hope, and disappointment, but its finally over and all in all, I’m satisfied. There was a bit of controversy surrounding our mercato as we didn’t get started ’till late, but we got it together in the end. It wasn’t a great performance by our management but it should be enough to give us breathing room over the relegation zone this season. On the final day we signed Blerim Dzemaili from Bolton on loan with an option to buy at the end of the season. He is a Macedonian-born, ethnically Albanian, Swiss international (I think I got that right) midfielder who took part in the World Cup in 2006 for Switzerland and impressed at FC Zürich, though he struggled with a move to Bolton Wanderers after a serious injury and only made one appearance. Hopefully he can revive his career here at Toro.

Here’s a review of our mercato moves as a whole:

Angelo Ogbonna (Crotone, loan finished), Elvis Abbruscato (Lecce, co-ownership resolution), Marco Moro (Messina, co-ownership resolution), Nicola Amoruso (Reggina, full ownership), Tommaso Vailatti (Livorno, loan finished), Matteo Melara (Livorno, loan finished), Alex Calderoni (Treviso, full ownership), Riccardo Colombo (Udinese co-ownership), Jurgen Säumel (Sturm Graz, out of contract), Rolando Bianchi (Manchester City, full ownership), Francesco Pratali (Empoli, full ownership), Blerim Dzemaili (Bolton, loan with right to full ownership)

Out

Marco Motta (Udinese, loan finished), Álvaro Recboa (Inter, loan finished), Paolo Hernán Dellafiore (Palermo, loan finished), Gianluca Comotto (Fiorentina, full ownership), Nikola Lazetic (Red Star, out of contract), Masashi Oguro (Tokyo Verdy, out of contract), Sasa Bjelanovic (Vicenza, loan with option to buy), Lys Gomis (SPAL, loan), Claudio De Sousa (Pescara, co-ownership), Davide Bottone (Vicenza, loan), Vincenzo Grella (Blackburn, full ownership), Marco Moro (SPAL, loan)

I think overall we have a better team than last year though we could have done better. Our attack is much better and the only place we are weaker could be at right-back, though Diana looks more than capable and Colombo will be an adequate backup. The Gazzetta dello Sport gave us a 6 for our mercato and I would agree with that maybe pushing it up to a 6.5.