Championship final without great stimuli for the Calabrian B teams. Catanzaro, certain of fifth place in the playoffs, lost at home against Sampdoria giving space to many reserves, while Cosenza drew at Como (thanks to a goal by the usual Tutino), promoted to Serie A.
This Catanzaro can dream of Serie A
Fifth place with 60 points in his first season after returning to Serie B. Only applause for Catanzaro who takes leave of the 2023-2024 Serie B with the surprise scepter of the championshipof a terrible freshman and of a team that gave the best game in the category (and perhaps not only). A season worth remembering but it doesn’t end here. What has been achieved in the 38 championship matches is worth the possibility of playing together with Venezia, Cremonese, Palermo, Sampdoria and Brescia the last promotion to Serie A. An unforeseeable objective at the beginning of the season, a goal pursued throughout the tournament and achieved with full merit. And now dreaming costs nothing. Catanzaro arrives at the play-offs as outsiders, without pressure or regrets, with the lightness of those who know they have already done something extraordinary but also with the desire to continue to amaze.
The home defeat against Pirlo’s Sampdoria does not affect the eagles’ progress at all, already fifth regardless of the result of the last race of the season. Vivarini sent the second lines onto the field, those who have played less or not at all so far and those who need playing time to find their best condition. The immediate disadvantage, due to the penalty scored by Borini, forced the Giallorossi to push straight away and the first half returned a proactive Catanzaro who was in control of the pitch as usual. The absences were not noticedthe turnover did not seem to affect the fluidity of the Giallorossi’s maneuver at all. Oliveri’s goal, the first of the season for the Atalanta-owned winger, put the match back on balance, which was then decided by Sampdoria in the second half when the home team’s intensity dropped. Not bad, the result was of no use. It was important to test the “alternatives” in view of the next play-offs which will start on Saturday 18 May when the Giallorossi will face the Brescia. Single match in the preliminary round, in case of a draw there will be extra time. If the tie remained even after 120 minutes, Catanzaro, by virtue of their best place in the standings, would advance to the semi-finals where they would meet Cremonese.
Cream: the positive notes in Ceravolo’s evening came from some elements who have played little or nothing so far and who were able to not make their fellow starters regret it. Hall above all. The second Giallorossi goalkeeper did not make Fulignati regretful between the posts and showed himself capable, like his counterpart, of playing well with his feet too (an indispensable prerogative for Catanzaro’s game). But good indications were also provided by Miranda, guilty of the penalty foul that marked the start of the match but who appeared in good shape and above all without fear of making a mistake. The boy has personality as well as skill and could be a valid alternative in the post-season.
Bitterness: I’m very sorry to arrive at these play-offs with a slightly short deck. If it is true that Vivarini knows he can also count on the aforementioned Sala and Miranda (but not only), it is equally true that the certain absences of the injured Ghion, D’Andrea and Ambrosino significantly reduce the possibilities of choice for the coach, especially in the advanced department . Department in which Donnarumma and Brignola are still decidedly behind in the hierarchies and in which Stoppa has never really exploded. The Iemmello-Biasci couple provides ample guarantees, of course, but there don’t seem to be the necessary alternatives behind them. (Stefania Scarfò)
Cosenza’s crescendo finale that smacks of waste
It’s just a feeling, certainly wrong and exaggerated, but we don’t keep it to ourselves: if the Cosenza seen at work in the last month had managed to grab a place in the playoffs, probably would have played on equal terms, and much better than Sampdoria and Brescia, with the very favorites to be promoted to Serie A. It must be repeated well to avoid partisan raspberries (which will arrive anyway, never mind): it’s just a feeling. However, it is dictated by several factors. We expose some of them: almost all the teams that finished in the top eight positions in the standings (Cosenza is ninth at the end of the games) finished the championship with bated breath. Some more or less – just look at the progress of the so-called greats in recent times – have struggled terribly from a psychophysical point of view, unlike William Viali’s boys who have instead progressed (7 useful results in a row: 3 wins and 4 draws, 15 goals scored and 7 conceded), showing a surprising and unpredictable confidence in one’s own means, as well as a Tutino – 20 goals in Serie B with the Wolves like no one before, record, legend and best wishes – practically unmarkable. The idea, therefore, that these B playoffs could vaguely resemble those of C in the summer of 2018 (Cosenza won them as the underdog), remains, but it stops here because otherwise the discussion risks turning into something cloying that We don’t like it either. All this, however, serves to say that very little would have been enough for this team (example: a club capable of understanding that the manager needed to be changed in December and not in March) to dream of something more than the usual salvation.
Cream: this year this space has almost always been occupied by a single player. But how can you talk about anything else when Gennaro Tutino continues to churn out pearls and records as if there were no tomorrow? The problem is that tomorrow has already arrived and president Eugenio Guarascio will now be able to do nothing but shed the mask and reveal his true plans for Tutino and the Cosenza of the future. Redeeming the Neapolitan striker requires a great economic effort and love towards the rossoblù colors, as well as a credible project. Starting again from Tutino would mean aiming high and no longer downward. A simple and difficult speech at the same time, from cream or usual bitterness.
Bitterness: we repeat, not having reached the playoffs with a Tutino like this (and a squad this time that wasn’t exactly to be thrown away) is unforgivable. Just as the chronic uncertainty that reigns supreme over Cosenza’s future projects is unforgivable. For example, there is a sporting director, Roberto Gemmi, whose contract is expiring for the second year in a row, and who could leave, forcing everything and everyone to start from scratch. And so, here we are at the starting point: to keep a Serie A player like Tutino in Serie B, a club with a Serie A mentality would be needed. Instead, Cosenza Calcio’s mentality seems to have stopped in the summer of 2018 when they won Serie A without having it. scheduled. In the history of a provincial reality, intense moments like the one that Piazza Bruzia is going through, viscerally linked to its symbolic footballer, happen once every thirty years, if all goes well. Letting this magic slip away without fully understanding it, without believing in it and investing in it, would be the biggest mistake of the many made in the last six years. (Francesco Veltri)
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