The team lost their Coppa Italia Third Round match in Livorno this weekend by a score of 2-0. Despite the scoreline there are plenty of positives to be taken from the match. For much of the game we were the equal of the newly promoted Serie A side and I strongly believe that if we can improve our finishing touch from what we showed today we can easily challenge for the Serie B title. A few points from watching my crappy quality stream as I wait for the full match to finish downloading:

So, although one can never be too happy with a loss to beat ourselves up over it would be a bad reaction to a game that was more of a measuring stick than anything of actual worth.

Transfer Tidbits

Transfer-wise we have some interesting rumors surfacing. The first and most exciting in my opinion regards this guy:

Éder Citadin Martins, Éder for short or “Éder-gol” as he has been dubbed by Frosinone fans is rumored to be the subject of a megabid (by Serie B standards) from Torino. The purported figure is somewhere between €3 million and €3.3 million. Éder is regarded by some pundits in Italy as “the next Kaká” and indeed bears a resemblance to his superstar countryman, at least in his style of play. An attacking mid with pace and goalscoring ability, Éder has been a star in Serie B the past year and a half playing for Frosinone and could fill the gap left by Rosina. This summer he came back to Empoli, the team who co-owned him but if the rumors play out he might not play a game for the empolesi as he could move to Toro. This transfer could add a real punch to our attack, especially if we sell some of our forwards (Abbruscato and Amoruso, namely) and he will certainly find his way to Serie A sometime soon, so why not with us? He may be a little on the pricey side, but with the money we have made from transfers I think he is not out of our reach.

If we don’t land Éder another popular transfer rumor these days is a swap with Reggina: Elvis Abbruscato for Franco Brienza, which would be a steal for us, IMO. Abbruscato is a good Serie B player, but Brienza is an effective Serie A player who could also provide a ton of creativity in the attack to replace the loss of Rosina. Parma is the latest rumored destination for Nick Amoruso while Dominique Malonga could move on loan to newly-promoted Ligue 1 side Boulogne, where he could gain some valuable experience.

Regarding the Dzemaili saga, Cairo and Foschi have frozen negotiations with Palermo for the time being and are now saying that Dzemaili will stay at Toro. The player himself is happy to stay, but many suggest it is a bluff to increase the price for Dzemaili, especially with Napoli now entering the race to sign him. Blerim is a player I’d hate to lose, but if we can milk this transfer for a lot of cash then I could be OK with it.

Torino are through to the next round of the Coppa Italia after a narrow 1-0 win over Lega Pro side Figline. As commentators appropriately noted, it is the Toro of August, as we are still in many ways getting ready for the league campaign ahead. Rolando Bianchi scored the only goal of the match, assisted by David Di Michele, making his competitive debut after a loan spell in England. We also saw true Toro debuts from Simone Loria and Nicolás Gorobsov, who both started, and our most recent signing, Massimo Loviso, who replaced the latter early in the second half.

Highlights:

There is not much else to say about this match. It felt more like a pre-season friendly than anything else and although we only scored one goal, we never had to put our foot on the gas and generally looked comofortable with very few opportunities worth noting for Figline. However, we have a much trickier match coming up this Friday, away to Livorno in the Third Round. (The match was pushed up from Saturday for TV.) The winner of that tie will play the winner of Sampdoria-Lecce.

On the transfer side of things there is not much to note. There is a possibility that Palermo will make a new bid for Dzemaili while the papers are saying Milan and Shakhtar are also interested. I think there is still a good chance Dzemaili could stay here but would not be surprised if he left. Foschi and Cairo want to keep him but know that if they can get a good price for him now would be better as he is fresh off of a solid Serie A campaign despite Toro’s relegation. Palermo are also possibly interested in Matteo Rubin.

The big transfer out is that Simone Barone, who joined Toro after his World Cup win in 2006 has left the club for Cagliari for a sum of €1 million. While that is fairly inexpensive, I feel that it is a fair valuation considering that although he is a good player, he is not the same player that played 16 times for the Nazionale and hoisted the trophy in Berlin and is now 31. His performances over the years have ranged from solid to below average and considering the room this frees up in the wage bill, especially now that we are in Serie B it is a move that makes sense. While a good player, he has perhaps not delivered as much as we thought he would and is a component of the team that we can afford to replace. Nonetheless, ciao Simone, and thank you for your three years of dedicated service.

Coming into Torino in a move not coincidentally related to Barone’s departure is Livorno center-mid Massimo Loviso. The player comes in on a co-ownership deal worth €900,000. For this sum we are getting a midfielder with many of the same traits as Barone but at 25 years old has considerably more upside and potential. He has Serie A experience with Bologna from 2002 to 2005 and also played a season with them in Serie B. A season long loan to Serie C side Sambenedettese saw him establish himself as a first-team regular there before he was sold to Livorno where he played regularly for the first team over two seasons in Serie A and Serie B, going down with them and them helping them right back up. Over his career so far he has made 145 professional starts, scoring 9 goals and also appearing 6 times for the Azzurrini. He is a player that can definitely do the job in Serie B, has potential to improve, and should fill the gap left by Barone’s departure quite nicely. Benevenuti al Toro, Massimo!

Also worth noting in the transfer market is that an already long saga in the possible departure of Dzemaili to Palermo could go on plenty longer. The two clubs have failed to reach a deal as Cairo has stated that he is planning on keeping the Swiss midfielder in Turin unless Palermo can make a good enough offer, which has not happened as of yet. Meanwhile, Dzemaili has stated that he is happy to continue playing for Torino right now and is preparing for tomorrow’s Coppa Italia match against Figline.

On that note, it is worth mentioning that we play our first competitive match tomorrow. Torino will take on Figline in the Second Qualifying Round of the Coppa Italia. AS Figline come from Figline Valdarno, a town of about 17,000 people in Tuscany, near Florence. They have spent most of their 40+ year history bouncing around the amateur leagues of Italian football before earning promotion to Serie C2 at the end of the 2007-2008 season and then going on to win the renamed Lega Pro Seconda Divisione Girone B and the Supercoppa of the Lega Pro 2 last season, earning them a spot in the Lega Pro Prima Divisione for this season, the highest the club has ever ascended in the Italian football pyramid. Figline defeated fellow third division side Pergocrema away to reach this round. The only recognizable player in Figline’s squad is Enrico Chiesa, a name recognizable to any fan of Italian football. Although Chiesa is now 38 years old, he is still certainly an attacking threat. Lastly, despite the fact that the tie is a home match, it will not be played in Torino due to the unavailability of the Stadio Olimpico. Instead it will be played in the nearby town of Ivrea at the 3,500 capacity Stadio Gino Pistoni, which is also home to the town’s Lega Pro 2 team. The change of venue does have some upsides as despite the fact we are not in Torino, we are nearby and should be able to fill it up whereas I could forsee a fairly empty-looking Stadio Olimpico for this type of match. This is a match we should definitely win but we will need to do a professional job. It will also be worth watching what kind of lineup Colantuono will field with the various signings and departures. The winner of this tie will play Livorno in the Third Qualifying Round.

Now, I am off to see Barcelona take on Chivas in San Francisco. Also, apologies for the formatting issues. I will look into make this more visually pleasing in the days to come.

Now, I could spend time and use some space writing a bunch of stuff, but this Gazzetta graphic tells the story perfectly:

Perhaps the most notable thing about our starting lineup is that Monzon is planning on starting Gasbarroni lining up as our fantasista instead of Rosina. This is a bizarre decision to me. Rosinaldo has been in good enough form to keep his place. What I would suggest is starting Gasba on the left wing instead of Diana, who has never really impressed me there and should certainly not replace Abate. However, Diana does bring a lot of hard work and stability to the table, while Gasba is a bit of an unknown quantity and probably not as good at defensive responsibilities as Diana. To me, its all a question of balance. We could tilt the scales in favor of attacking, but that’s a dangerous thing to do against a squad like Udinese. On the other hand, if there is ever a game we need three points from, it is this one. We could go for attack and sacrifice one of our more attacking center mids, but that would likely be Corini, who I would see as integral to a positive result tomorrow. I still like the idea of putting more into our attack and possibly having Dzemaili drop back a little bit or even switch out for the more defensively capable Zanetti, but it seems now we will have to wait for whatever surprise El Monzon springs on us next.

I can’t write much more because I have to get to the airport early tomorrow morning, but I will leave you with a prediction: Torino 1-0 Udinese, Gasba to open his Toro account. Unfortunately, we have not beaten Udinese in this fixture (or at all) since the 2001-2002 season, but I that has to change some time and what better time than now. FORZA TORO PER SEMPRE!

I suppose it would be appropriate to recap what has gone on so far. In summary: not much that I would want to remember. Stunningly poor performances, getting assraped by the refs, and idiocy on the part of the higher ups.

As far as the poor performances go, we can put the blame on any number of things. The most obvious is the Gianni De Biasi is not a great coach. There, I said it. He can occasionally pull something out of his hat, but by and large he is doomed be a yo-yo coach for yo-yo teams. His tactics are uninspired and though its not been entirely his fault, he is misusing the players at his disposal. Yet with Toro it seems that he can win when it is absolutely necessary. He has twice saved us from relegation when a more “qualified” manager had our team going down the tubes and he is managing to keep his job despite being a defeat or two away from the axe. The problem is that the rest of the time (and usually even in winning) the team are dire. What we truly need is to not shell out money on players all the time (what has Bianchi been doing?) but on a good coach that we can tie down. Until them, we will just play with De Biasi’s loose grip on tactics and continue to perform poorly.

As for the refs, the simple question is, “What the fuck?” We have had three, count them THREE legitimate goals disallowed, two of which (Udinese and Samp) could have changed the course of the game at 0-0. Serie A has been rife with poor refereeing in the past few weeks. I think Byron Moreno has had offspring and sent them to terrorize Italian football fans yet again. Toro fans took the unusual step of sending an open letter to Collina complaining about refereeing mistakes while both Cairo and Marco Pisano have complained publicly, but so far we haven’t heard as much as a peep out of the ref’s camp, which leads me to believe something is up.

We all learned from this summer that Cairo is not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to transfer policy, but if there is anything that the opening of the season showed us, it is that this man is clearly not capable of running a football club. Perhaps backing it, but he seems to have been taking classes from the Zamparini school of management. He has helped to alienate a number of key players including Rosina and Sereni and management and created a real mess for GDB, who already has his hands full with injuries. In order for this team to succeed, Cairo needs to take out his meddling fingers. I appreciate that he loves this club, but right now he is hurting it!

Torino-Palermo Review

But hey, at least there’s something to be happy about! We won a game! All in all, we should have been about as inspired as Fabio Liverani would be this evening, but this game seemed to show that our players do have some grit. GDB was forced to field a ramshackle lineup, with Sereni, Corini, and Malonga out injured with Natali and Abate suspened, yet Rosina still found a place on the bench! Nonetheless, we outplayed a sluggish Palermo side in the first half by keeping the pressure on in the midfield, actually showing some fight. Both sides hit the woodwork, but overall it was a dire half.

In the second half we continued to take it to Palermo, playing with a bit more life, but still showing glimpses of that Serie B style attack. After Dzemaili hit the bar, Amoruso put in the followup, but it was ruled out for a very tight offsides. Credit to Cairo for staying calm afterwards (they panned to his box showing him in his seat, calm and collected), if I were him I’d have been flipping a shit at that point. Palermo had ex-Juve man Nocerino sent off for elbowing Dzemaili in the face (though it didn’t seem intentional) and we finally broke the deadlock on 89 minutes as Jurgen Säumel rifled in a volley from 20 yards to give a spectacular ending to a fairly boring match.

Of course after telling you all this, here are the highlights:

Overall, it wasn’t our greatest performance, but it was efficient, we kept Palermo at bay, and most importantly we won, keeping a fine record over Palermo in recent years. Dzemaili was a star, he could prove to be a great acquisition as long as he stays healthy. That’s all for now, and I look forward to writing again!

For one, Alessandro Rosina limped off injured. I cannot find any official news on how long he is out for, but it seems like he will at least miss Wednesday’s important game against Chievo. However, the good news is that Ignazio Abate was called up to the squad for the Inter game, though he didn’t get on the bench. This is a sign of his early recovery which will be even more welcome now that Rosina is gone.

The other pressing issue that needs to be addressed is our propensity for own goals. We have scored two own goals in the past two games that have had huge implications for us. Both of these goals have come while our defenders are trying to clear out dangerous crosses. While some attempt is better than none, you’d think these experienced defenders (Di Loreto and Pisano) would be capable enough to clear the ball someplace outside their own net.

Torino-Inter Highlights:

Looking ahead to Chievo we are without Corini, Rosina, and Natali, the absence of the former two leaving a huge gap in our creativity. However Säumel, despite being naturally a defensive midfielder has stepped up his attacking game and was probably one of the best Toro players on the pitch against Inter. Corriere dello Sport has Dzemaili to start and Abate on the bench while Gazzetta has both on the bench, so perhaps we could see something from them. I still know next to nothing about Dzemaili, which I’m sure is the case for many Toro fans, so it would be great to see something from him this afternoon either from the start or off the bench.

Either way, here is what I expect to be our lineup against Chievo:

————–Bianchi
——–Amoruso-Abbruscato
—–Säumel-Barone-Zanetti
Pisano-Di Loreto-Pratali-Diana
————–Sereni

Still pretty solid despite those absences, and definitely a team I think can beat Chievo. They are missing a fair amount of players such as Bentivoglio, Nicolas Frey (Sebastien’s brother, a defender), Mauro Esposito, and Bogdani. These absences will certainly hurt them but we have to be careful against the likes of Langella and Pelissier (a Toro youth product). We will also be facing up against at least two good midfielders in Italiano, whom I’ve always rated and Pinzi, who was close to Toro this summer.

Although a win would be nice, we have lost our last three games at the Bentegodi, all by considerable margins, so history doesn’t bode well for us. Of course, this still has potential to be an ahistorical season, so we should always hope for the best. FORZA TORO PER SEMPRE!

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:

In

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.

Our Opponents

Lecce have returned to Serie A after a two-year stint in the cadetto. Coached by survival specialist Mario Berretta, who has managed to keep up Siena two seasons in a row, Lecce will be looking for a win in what some call a potential relegation fight. Although they have reinforced with the loans of Daniele Cacia and Roma youngster Antunes, the salentini haven’t done too well in the transfer market and are among the favorites to go down. They seem far from the side that sported the talents of Valeri Bojinov and Mirko Vucinic just four years ago. Nonetheless, they are a determined side with strong players and will be looking to take advantage of our penchant for being slow out of the gates, so we will have to be ready for them.

Toro-Lecce Connections

Toro have a very close recent history of sharing players with Lecce. First off, current Lecce players Simone Tiribocchi and Andrea Ardito are former Toro players, with Ardito having helped gain promotion in Cairo’s first year. Ardito, however, will not be featuring in the match due to accumulation of yellow cards and has expressed his displeasure at that. Toro striker Elvis Abbruscato, who is poised to leave Toro in search of first-team football at another Serie A club (Genoa, Reggina, Catania, Atalanta) played a crucial role in Lecce’s promotion from Serie B. Also possibly taking the pitch is forward Axel Konan, who played with Toro for two seasons before moving to Lecce. Konan could make a surprise appearance after being laid off by injury for a number of months. As for the head-to-head, the teams have met 21 times in total, with Torino emerging the victors ten times and Lecce five times, with six draws. The last edition of this tie and the last meeting between these two teams was in Serie A on April 12, 2001. The game ended 1-1 with Jose Maria Franco Ramallo netting for Toro and Gheorghe Popescu for Lecce.

Probable Formations

These are the probable formations according to Corriere dello Sport:

Torino

————–Bianchi
———Amoruso-Rosina
——Säumel-Corini-Zanetti
Pisano-Di Loreto-Pratali-Diana
—————-Sereni

Bench: Calderoni, Colombo, Ogbonna, Barone, Malonga, Abbruscato, Stellone

Lecce

———-Cacia-Tiribocchi
—–Ariatti-Giacomazzi-Munari
————–Caserta
Giuliato-Esposito-Diamoutene-Angelo
————–Benussi

Bench: Rosati, Antunes, Schiavi, Vives, Konan, Feltscher, Castillo

Key Players

Torino: Rolando Bianchi

The new acquisition from Manchester City will be looking to prove himself on Sunday as the savior for Toro’s goalscoring woes. Despite a tough spell at Manchester City and an average performance at Lazio, Bianchi was lethal for Reggina in the 2006-2007 season with 18 goals alongside his current teammate Nicola Amoruso, who had 17. Bianchi got off to a goalscoring start, scoring in the 9-1 demolition of Eccellenza side Asti on Thursday and will be looking to replicate, albiet against a much tougher opponent. His aerial power and touch make him an ideal target for Alessandro Rosina to play the balls too, assume the fantasista will pass the ball.

Other players to watch: Nicolas Amoruso, Alessandro Rosina, Aimo Diana

Lecce: Daniele Cacia

The young and powerful striker, half owned by Fiorentina will be looking to prove himself in Serie A after solid spells as Piacenza and Pistoise. He has a formidable goalscoring record in the lower divisions and is considered one of Italy’s top striking talents. Our defense will have to be on alert though we can take away alot of his power by cutting off his supply as he thrives on good support.

Other players to watch: Simone Tiribocchi, Guillermo Giacomazzi, Fabio Caserta

My Thoughts

This is a game Toro must win if they are to aspire to higher things than relegation this term. Furthermore, a win will give us the good start to the season that we have missed since our return to Serie A. We are the bookies’ favorites by a fairly large margin although Lecce are hungry for success after returning to Serie A and will be looking to get all they can in a potential relegation battle. If our team clicks together well in the first half we should have a good shot at winning this, though if we concede an early goal we will be psychologically damaged. Our strikers should be good enough to overcome a relatively weak defense though we will have to watch out for the Lecce attack as they can create some good chances for Cacia. My prediction is a 2-1 Toro win, Amoruso and Rosina for Toro, Tiribocchi for Lecce.

(Alessandro Rosina, Nicola Amoruso, Eugenio Corini)

Daniele Cacia
(Fabio Caserta, Simone Tiribocchi, Guillermo Giacomazzi)

Note: The graphic is not mine – thanks to Tutto Toro for that.

Our Opponents

Brescia should be a team familiar to most fans of Italian football, most recently as the final home of one of the greatest Italian players of all time, Roberto Baggio, though he is not their only famous alumnus. Andrea Pirlo (a product of the youth system), Cristiano Doni, Luca Toni, Pep Guardiola, Gheorghe Hagi, Marek Hamsik, two current Torino players and one special member of the Toro staff have all featured for the biancoazzuri in the past. Brescia haven’t won much, a couple lower-league titles and an Anglo-Italian Cup, though they do have the slightly dubious distinction of having played in Serie B more seasons than any other team (51, if you were wondering). However, they have a strong squad and off-the-pitch problems have played a large part in their continued stay in Serie B after being relegated at the end of the 2004-2005. To reach this stage of the competition, Brescia defeated Lega Pro side Foligno 2-1.

The Toro-Brescia Connection

Many of the players and both the managers taking to the field on Saturday have a history with their adversaries. First off, both Eugenio Corini and Aimo Diana have featured for Brescia (1987-1990, 1994-95; 1996-99, 2000-01) and both came through their youth system to boot. Another former Brescia player featuring in tomorrow’s match is Gianni De Biasi, who enjoyed the peak of his career at Brescia between 1978 and 1983 and also managed Brescia from 2003-2005. On the flipside, Brescia attacker Davide Possanzini was a product of Torino’s youth system and striker Andrea Caracciolo has been linked with Toro many times over the past couple of years. Brescia manager Sesre Cosmi has had some experience with Torino when we defeated his Perugia side in the 2004-2005 Serie B promotion playoffs. Of course, both sides were later prevented from going anywhere after financial troubles. Lastly, new Torino director of sport Mauro Pederzoli has formerly worked at Brescia.

In terms of head-to-head record, Torino has 31 wins, 10 draws, and 13 losses in 54 matches played against Brescia. In the Coppa Italia Torino has triumphed 3 times, drawn once, and lost once. The last encounter between Toro and Brescia was a 1-0 win to Toro in Brescia during the 2005-2006 Serie B season with Elvis Abbruscato scoring, something which he could do again for Toro tomorrow. The last edition of this tie was played in the same season, with the two sides playing to a 1-1 draw at the Stadio Olimpico, Claudio De Sousa the goalscorer for Torino.

The Squads

Here are the players that Gianni De Biasi and Sesre Cosmi have called up for tomorrow:

Torino

Portieri: Calderoni, Sereni.
Difensori: Colombo, Di Loreto, Diana, Ogbonna, Pisano, Pratali.
Centrocampisti: Barone, Corini, Grella, Saumel, Zanetti.
Attaccanti: Abbruscato, Amoruso, Di Michele, Malonga, Rosina, Stellone.

Manager: Gianni De Biasi

Brescia

Questi i convocati: ARCARI, VIVIANO, BERARDI, DE MAIO, GORZEGNO, MARECO, RISPOLI, ZAMBELLI, MARTINEZ VIDAL, SALAMON, EL KADDOURI, MARTINA RINI, SZETELA, VASS, ZAMBRELLA, CARACCIOLO, FECZESIN, MACCAN, POSSANZINI, NSEREKO.

Manager: Sesre Cosmi

Probable Formations

Here are the probable formations for both teams (Toro’s is from Gazzetta dello Sport, I kinda just guessed at Brescia’s, so it could be way off):

Torino

————-Stellone
———–Rosina-Amoruso
——–Zanetti-Corini-Säumel
Pisano-Di Loreto-Pratali-Diana
—————Sereni

Brescia

———Caracciolo-Possazini
—————Morfeo
—-Zambrella-Vass-Dallamano
Gorzegno-Mareco-Bega-Martinez
—————-Viviano-

Key Players

Torino

Alessandro Rosina – Rosinaldo is a major reason as to why we have stayed up the past two seasons. On his day he is definitely Italy quality, though he has a few consistency issues to sort out. Nonetheless, he will be looking to start the season off on the right foot (left foot, actually) and weave some of his magic against Brescia. He can hit some wicked shots with a powerful left foot and has some magical dribbles up his sleeve. Rosina scored an important winning goal against Rimini at this stage of the competition last year so let’s hope he can repeat the act.

Brescia

Andrea Caracciolo – The Milan-born striker will be Brescia’s main striking threat and could pose serious problems for some of our defenders. He is very powerful in the air and Toro will have to guard closely against him, especially with the good service he will be getting from Domneico Morfeo, another important player for Brescia. Although he has never really impressed outside of Brescia, he is a force to be reckoned with playing for the rondinelle and will have to be watched carefully by the Toro defenders.

My Analysis

Brescia is certainly one of the toughest teams we could have faced in this round though they did struggle against a Foligno side newly promoted to the third division. Caracciolo and Morfeo will have to be watched while Hungarian midfielder Adam Vass will also be a threat. Azzurini Emiliano Viviano will be tough for our strikers to beat, fresh off an Olympic campaign leaving many of the players with something to prove. Nonetheless, I think we should win even if the way GDB has set up the attacking trident is a bit suspect, though it could even go to penalties. If Rosina and Amoruso can hook up though, we should be good. If we win, we will face the winner of the Crotone-Livorno tie, the winner going on to face Fiorentina. The referee will be Mauro Bergonzi of Genova.

What it means for Torino is they need to get on their fuckin’ bulls and start putting some goals into the net, because even 8 straight nil-nil draws likely won’t cut it. Now they sit just three points from the relegation zone, and their inability to do anything which resembles scoring goals is becoming quite worrisome. Also: Alvaro Recoba…..you suck.

This weekend’s jaunt is another down to the isles, this edition being a Sicilian trip where they get to take on Catania, a team which sucks….unless they’re playing at home. Oh good. They’re as close to a drunken sorority girl (sure thing) as you’re going to get in calcio when they play away from home, but being on their turf is an entirely different matter. They’re 6-5-3 at home, meaning they’ve only managed to get beaten three times: Fiorentina, Atalanta and Inter. Guess what? Torino isn’t any of those teams, not even Atalanta (sadly).

Meaning: Toro fans should down beaucoup anti-depressants before this game.

Squad

Portieri: Fontana, Gomis.

Difensori: Dellafiore, Di Loreto, Motta, Lanna, Pisano, Rubin.

Centrocampisti: Asamoah, Bottone, Corini, Diana, Grella, Rosina, Zanetti.

Attaccanti: Bjelanovic, Di Michele, Malonga, Recoba, Stellone.

No Simone Barone, no Nikola Lazetic, no Matteo Sereni, no Cesare Natali.

You know what I’d love to see? A “fuck it” lineup. Screw balance. Go all out.

Fontana;
Diana, Dellafiore, Di Loreto, Motta;
Rosinaldo, Grella, Corini, Recoba;
Di Michele, Stellone.

And you know what? It might work, because Catania has some serious impotence – they’re tied with Empoli for least number of goals in Serie A. Why the hell not? It’s not like they’ll come back and put you out of the game with a quick four in the first ten minutes or anything (or half, like Parma). Throw everyone forward, get the team to play like they’re down one in stoppage time of the second half for the entire game, and then maybe build up a little bit of confidence so that they can manage to stay up this year, dammit.

Of course, more likely is a team which will aim to go and scrap out a nil-nil draw, the Torino way……..

Prediction: 0-0. Blah.

Ah well, there’s always this: