A week has passed since the terrible evening at PalaGalli, where Nc Civitavecchia threw away the possibility of achieving promotion to Serie A2, at the first attempt after last year’s relegation, in the “beauty” of the playoff final against Metanopoli. It was a big disappointment for the rossoceleste seven, who were unable to make an audience explode with joy who expected nothing else from their favorites.
But, as often happens in sport, the days and the passage of time are fundamental to having full awareness of what has been done along the way.
The bitterness for having missed the target disappears very slowly, but the satisfaction for all the good things that have been done increases. The boys and the technical staff have been able to pick up the “pieces” left after the last disappointing years and have created a team that has been able to dominate the scene in the first part of the season and then manage to dance under the rain, when things started to get difficult and the opponents began to become fully aware of the particular strengths and weaknesses of the team coached by Aurelio Baffetti. It should be specified that, during the market phase, practically no investments were made. The only corridor that was undertaken by the club, which in the meantime had renewed its management organization chart, with the return to the role of president of Marco Pagliarini, the arrival as sporting director of Massimiliano Criscoli and the “promotion” to first coach of Aurelio Baffetti, who had already started a path as a protagonist as a motivator for his boys, was to avoid further farewells and to bring back into the squad players who had been part of the group in the past, which then happened with Marco Chiarelli, Marco Muneroni and Marco Camela. The initial skepticism, partly understandable for a city that had not come to terms with the Serie B championship for 60 years, was swept away by the first winning phase, after which the rossocelesti never made a mistake in their first nine outings, arriving halfway through the I walk without even a point of delay. But, in the second round, things definitely changed: the home draw with Livorno made it clear that the goalscored goals of the first matches had to remain a distant memory. Also due to several defections which restricted the group in some matches, the NC had a period of marked decline.
One point in four games, only two wins in seven games. The rossocelesti continue to maintain the top spot also thanks to the positive results coming from the other pools. But just at the moment in which everything seems to be faltering, Romiti and his teammates score the decisive victory against Perugia, which allows them to close all discussions a day early.
Then the playoffs, which are recent history that everyone remembers. The maximum objective was probably achieved, because, if on the one hand the conquest of the playoff final was the aim of a group that is of a high level for the B series, on the other being able to overcome the Metanopoli obstacle would have represented something more, because Civitavecchia had to clash against a group built to move up and which had had decidedly greater investments than that of Marco Pagliarini’s club.
For next season, just one note: you can certainly lose, you can have “bad” days where nothing succeeds, but during this season there were too many. Two occurred in the playoffs: the defeat in Vicenza and the defeat in the last match against Metanopoli.
But even during the return leg there were matches where the light disappeared. Civitavecchia, in addition to knowing how to dance in the rain, will also have to learn how to dance in the storm. Losing by fighting is okay, also because not even Pro Recco manages to always win, but losing by completely leaving the margin to the opponent is an aspect on which we can and must improve for the future.
At the moment it is decidedly early to understand what will happen for the team in view of next season. The feeling is that, given the lean times from an economic point of view, as all the attention and energy are on the PalaGalli issue, we will continue along the path undertaken, trying to confirm all the protagonists and perhaps understand if there is the possibility of landing some low-cost shots.
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