Antonino Asta was actually born in Alcamo in western Sicily, closer to Palermo than to Catania. He had his best years with Torino and moved to his hometown team two years ago, to try to help Palermo get promoted to Serie A. Unfortunately, after scoring only 3 goals in 24 appearances for the rosaneri last season, he has been out through injury this entire season. I can't tell for sure, but the team may have even terminated his contract. At 33, some fear his career is over. I'm pretty sure that one appearance for the Azzurri that you remember was his only cap. Anyway, here is the table with 4 weeks to go. Green and red indicate a win and loss, respectively, in the most recent game. Palermo 75 Cagliari 74 Messina 72 Livorno 72 Atalanta 70 -------------------------- Piacenza 67 ------------------------- Fiorentina 66 Triestina 62 Ternana 59 Catania 59 ^ mathematically safe from relegation Torino 56 Ascoli 54 v mathematically cannot be promoted Treviso 53 Vicenza53 Napoli 53 Salernitana 50 Albinoleffe 49 Venezia 48 Genoa 47 ------------------------- Bari 46 Pescara 42 ------------------------- Verona 41 Avellino 34 Como 33 Pescara fired their coach Iaconi today while Genoa's president was not too happy to lose to Avellino and said as much. Meanwhile, Como, although not mathematically relegated, has given up all hope after losing at home to fellow strugglers Bari.
Montreal United, I think your choice of Palermo is a good one. They've stated transfer targets of theirs to be Di Natale of Empoli and even Chevanton from Lecce. Even if they end up not getting such topnotch players, the fact that they're even making the attempt signifies the club's ambitions. Anyway, the games of the weekend: Albinoleffe-Como Avellino-Pescara Bari-Catania Fiorentina-Napoli Genoa-Cagliari Livorno-Torino Messina-Palermo Salernitana-Venezia Ternana-Atalanta Treviso-Vicenza Triestina-Ascoli Verona-Piacenza Unfortunately, there is no game on RAI International this weekend.
Thanks SueB, by the looks of it I'll need miracles from my promoted teams (St-Etienne, 1. FC Nürnberg & Parlermo) Messina-Palermo should be great. Hopefully, we shock them away.
damn what happened to Cagliari today? I am in the US so I get no access to european highlights let alone Serie B
Welcome, ucdawg. You can typically see highlights on-line at RAI sport ( www.raisport.rai.it ) Looks like the ones for these games may not be up until tomorrow though. What happened to Cagliari is likely that they ran into a desperate team in Genoa. I actually got to watch the Messina-Palermo game on RAI International. Apparently, the president of Messina granted the rights to show the game for the sake of all the foreign-based Sicilians. In the end, it wasn't the impassioned derby you might expect, with a suspiciously convenient result for both teams. But who am I to suspect ... Here are the complete scores: ALBINOLEFFE-COMO 2-1 AVELLINO-PESCARA 3-2 BARI-CATANIA 1-2 FIORENTINA-NAPOLI 2-1 GENOA-CAGLIARI 4-2 LIVORNO-TORINO 3-1 MESSINA-PALERMO 1-1 SALERNITANA-VENEZIA 2-0 TERNANA-ATALANTA 2-1 TREVISO-VICENZA 1-1 TRIESTINA-ASCOLI 1-1 VERONA-PIACENZA 3-0 And the new table, with Fiorentina now into the playoff spot and Atalanta looking nervously over their shoulder. Como is now officially down to C1. Palermo 76 Livorno 74 Cagliari 74 Messina 73 Atalanta 70 -------------------------- Fiorentina 69 ------------------------- Piacenza 67 Triestina 63 Ternana 62 Catania 62 Torino 56 - cannot be promoted or relegated Ascoli 55 Treviso 54 Vicenza54 Napoli 53 Salernitana 53 Albinoleffe 52 Genoa 50 Venezia 48 ------------------------- Bari 46 Verona 44 ------------------------- Pescara 42 Avellino 37 Como 33 - relegated
Yes, it was a very good day for the Viola. Next up we play a pretty good Catania squad while Piacenza will very possibly be beaten by Livorno and Atalanta plays lowly Avellino. I would be pleased to just hold our ground in relation to Atalanta this week. Nick
Wow! Another fan of Cagliari! Yes, as SueB told, Genoa (who is not a weak team despite his position) played a desperate match. Well, for something like 25 minutes we were winning and in serie a... We could have closed the match in the first part of the second half, Genoa was really in confusion , but we didn't. Then Genoa managed to score and draw, the match was going to end this way but the referee decided to become a protagonist conceding genoa a very questionable penalty (40° minute of 2nd half). The fourth genoa's goal came at the end when Cagliari was making his last attacking efforts leaving space for counterstrikes.
Here are the games of the 44th week. Ascoli-Messina Atalanta-Avellino Cagliari-Salernitana Catania-Fiorentina Como-Genoa Napoli-Bari Palermo-Triestina Pescara-Albinoleffe Piacenza-Livorno (RAI International, 3 pm Saturday) Torino-Treviso Venezia-Verona Vicenza-Ternana The top four teams could possibly guarantee promotion this weekend. If Palermo wins, they are up. Livorno and Cagliari would go up if they win and Fiorentina does not, while Messina would go up if they win and Fiorentina loses and Piacenza does not win. Of course, there are many other possibilities not worth going into. At the bottom, Avellino will be relegated if they lose or, even if they win, if Verona wins and Bari doesn't lose. Lots of key games, with RAI's TV game - Piacenza vs Livorno - being one of them.
Today's results: Ascoli 2 Messina 1 Atalanta 2 Avellino 0 Cagliari 3 Salernitana 1 Catania 1 Fiorentina 1 Como 1 Genoa 3 Napoli 0 Bari 0 Palermo 3 Triestina 1 Pescara 4 Albinoleffe 3 Piacenza 1 Livorno 3 Torino 2 Treviso 1 Venezia 0 Verona 2 Vicenza 1 Ternana 2 With their wins and Fiorentina's stumble, Palermo, Livorno and Cagliari all celebrated promotion to Serie A (I assume sardus pater is out partying). Meanwhile, Avellino is officially down to Serie C1. The table: Palermo 79 - promoted Livorno 77 - promoted Cagliari 77 - promoted Messina 73 Atalanta 73 -------------------------- Fiorentina 70 ------------------------- Piacenza 67 Ternana 65 Triestina 63 - cannot be promoted Catania 63 Torino 59 Ascoli 58 Treviso 54 Vicenza54 Napoli 54 - cannot be relegated Salernitana 53 Genoa 53 Albinoleffe 52 Venezia 48 ------------------------- Bari 47 Verona 47 ------------------------- Pescara 45 Avellino 37 - relegated Como 33 - relegated
Suazo has just scored the third goal after a tremendous solo. Suazo's talent is amazing. salernitana played very well, they really outplayed Cagliari in the first half (0-1) due to the fact they play a good organized calcio, pressing everywhere, and that Cagliari was really nervous (gambe molli as we say). In the second half Cagliari managed to put away all the fears and scored 3 goals in the first 25 minutes... Then everyone looked at the result of catania-fiorentina... when few minutes before the end of the match we saw the bench exulting... and then it was partytime. All in the field... (yes, I admit, me too) oh well, i imagine how Palermo looked like yesterday they were waiting 30 years for this to happen, it was 4 years for us and it already looked like an eternity.
For those interested... http://www.marcoschirru.com/CagliariChannel.htm There are photos and movies. http://www.marcoschirru.com/[Divx - ITA] Gol Ca- Salern.zip (yesterday's goals) http://www.marcoschirru.com/suazo_fuori_dal_tunnel.zip (suazo's goal) You will find other stuff about yesterday inside... I guess the quality of movies is high (I am currently dloading them) given the size.
I watched Livorno's victory at Piacenza on TV, and the scenes were similar even though they were the away side because there were 6000 travelling fans. Lucarelli's rather obscene goal celebration aside, the scenes were particularly heart-warming as the players and fans celebrated the club's return to Sere A after a 55-year absence.
Correction, there were 8000 travelling Livorno fans in Piacenza. Here is Palermo's team celebrating - Players in their underwear ... these celebrations are one of my favorite Italian traditions.
awesome, I had a great gift awaiting me when I checked the sports ticker! I love Cagliari, I cant wait until these videos are finished
Well, I have always loved Italian soccer for some time, but being from America I have not gotten the best information about it, for a few years I used to be a Lazio fan but I had later been told that their fans are considered racist, and I had been confused with a racist when I identified myself as a Lazio fan to some people more knowledgable on Italian soccer. So I reluctantly dropped them after years of blind allegiance, which was difficult. I had to find a new team, but I didnt want to be a glory hunter, so it had to be a team in Serie B. I had been to Italy once and visited Cagliari, which I really liked, and fortunately they were in Serie B and I started to follow them and a couple of times I found some highlights of their games, but those were few and far between. I really loved the attitude of the players I got to see and the atmosphere at a Cagliari game looked awesome, especially near the end of the season. I kept liking them more and more and found myself a nervous wreck waiting for their scores to update on the internet, which is when I know I've become a fan of a team. I guess I started following them for a season and a half now, but maybe I will get to see some of their games on TV now that they've promoted to Serie A
The games of the penultimate week: Albinoleffe-Ascoli Avellino-Cagliari Bari-Piacenza Fiorentina-Torino Genoa-Napoli Livorno-Palermo Messina-Como Salernitana-Vicenza Ternana-Venezia Treviso-Atalanta Triestina-Catania Verona-Pescara RAI International is not showing any of the games. I'm not sure why they aren't showing Verona-Pescara, which is absolutely crucial in the relegation battle. They have the rights to Verona's home games. Even Ternana-Venezia would've been interesting. Who knows.
Right. Those Lazio fans are all a bunch of racists... I'm with you. We need to stand up to those that would stereotype. Nick