It still happens today, 48 hours after the match, that we come across comments full of disdain for the performance of the Lecce against theUdinese. Opinions that are conveyed, as always happens, by the exceptional sounding board of social media. Comments in front of which, even if you want to try to isolate yourself from the traditional brawl of the virtual squares, it is sometimes impossible to remain indifferent.
No case
Here it seems to be one of those classic detective films, in which the detective, after having racked his brains in pursuing any investigative hypothesis, even the most imaginative, realizes that the solution to the case it was always before his eyes and was, after all, the easiest way to go. This is an extreme parallelism, also because in Lecce-Udinese there is no case, although someone perhaps wants us to believe the opposite.
The criticisms
The prosecution’s thesis that leads the team yellow-red directly in the dock he sees the Salento team guilty of not having honored the championship, of having lost the style, of having made the biscuit, of having had an embarrassing attitude, of having offended the fans, of having done an injustice to all the other teams fighting for salvation (as if the difficulty of saving oneself were not enough, one must now also take on the burden of saving others).
All expressions that we quote because they were actually written in multiple posts regarding the match. It’s hard, honestly, to keep up with the wildest conspiracy theories, the desire to think badly about a defeat at all costs. One of the 15, moreover, that Lecce has collected in the championship, as if it were unprecedented to see the Giallorossi capitulate in front of a team that, simply, plays better. The conspiracy theses have been wasted, starting from the one that has its roots in Lecce-Udinese last year, when Baroni’s team, desperately looking for points of salvation, won 1-0 against the Friulians who had nothing left to ask in the league. Evidently forgetting Falcone’s sensational result-saving interventions, which blocked the way for Udinese who appeared anything but a compliant opponent.
Different motivations
Far from wanting to waste time on various types of discussions, the result of Lecce-Udinese last Monday has only one reason: a team played with more belief of the other. In this case, the one who put the most intensity into it was the team with the water in their throats, who necessarily needed to obtain points in order to save themselves, who arrived at the “Via del Mare” to play a final, the most important match of the championship.
On the other hand, however, Lecce appeared physiologically more relaxed, evidently a little satisfied after having achieved the arithmetic salvation less than 48 hours earlier. Complete with toasts, uncorked sparkling wines, improvised carousels in Piazza Mazzini together with the fans, all late in the evening before the match finished. Suddenly everyone seems to have forgotten the atmosphere of great and sudden celebration that characterized the (few) hours that separated the awareness of the arithmetic salvation from the match against Udinese. It happens to anyone, at all levels, to be more exhausted after crossing a finish line.
Last Saturday, in the Bundesliga, Borussia Dortmund lost 3-0 at Mainz. Borussia was confident of qualifying for the next Champions League and was coming off the heels of the celebrations for reaching the Champions League final against Real Madrid. Mainz, on the other hand, by winning against their most popular opponent, was able to recover and abandon the relegation zone. In short, motivations make the difference, at all levels, in all latitudes of the world. Whatever they say.
The performance
We would have liked to see a Lecce more vigorous? Certain. Should we blame the team for not playing the best match of the championship? Absolutely not. But on the other hand, reviewing the match without preconceptions, it certainly cannot be said that Lecce, despite playing badly, paved the way for Udinese.
Unfortunately, all too often, we end up measuring matches based on the result, without looking fully at the performances and without evaluating how decisive the events are, which very often are the result of chance and beyond the team’s control. Here, things being equal performance, if Pierotti’s shot in the final stages of the match had entered the net and the match had ended 1-1, would there have been the same outcry? It is legitimate to doubt it, yet the performance would have been the same.
The opponent
We then add another aspect, or rather, we reiterate it. Football is played with opponents. Lecce, by its nature, being a team that fights not to be relegated, to win points against anyone (and we underline whoever) needs to play every game at 100%. And even though she is playing at 100%, she cannot be certain of bringing home the result. Against Udinese it was enough to fall slightly short of our real potential to suffer against a team that perhaps many are underestimating.
It wasn’t written anywhere that it should be an easy match against the Friulians, on the contrary. Perhaps it is useful to refresh your memory and remember that no more than two weeks ago the team of Cannavaro drew 1-1 at Bologna (now arithmetically qualified for the Champions League, but at the time still in need of European points), after having been in the lead for a long time, even hitting a sensational post in the last minute. In short, losing is bad, but it’s not a scandal. And we underline it again: losing is bad, the Lecce players, the club, Gotti himself certainly didn’t like it, everyone would have wanted to give a success to the 28 thousand celebrating the “Via del Mare”.
But if it didn’t happen it’s because, let’s reiterate, there was a team that played with more conviction than the other.
No controversy
The controversies, ungenerous and fruitless, must not make us forget that in the last few days here in Lecce we have witnessed the completion of a business as extraordinary as the second consecutive salvation in Serie A. Getting lost in conjectures resulting from petty conspiracy really seems like a useless exercise in front of a club that has no equals in terms of fairness and respect for opponents.
