by Fiorenzo Dosso
“I don’t regret the moments I suffered; I carry the scars on me as if they were medals“. Attend Paulo Coelho’s kiss to celebrate a painful memory: on 1 July it will in fact be 45 years since the play-off in Bologna. The question is: can something ‘painful’ be ‘celebrated’? An all-too-evident oxymoron, yet every single response – intimate, personal, painful – deserves the utmost respect. I try to tell my story of July 1, 1979 and its subsequent developments in my red and white heart.
I was 15 years old at the time. And the 15 years of 1979 are different from the 15 years of 2024. Very different. Without considering whether it gets better or worse. Completely different. At Sada I saw them all: naturally on that 1st July I would like more than anything to get on one of the fans’ buses but my parents don’t have the same idea. And I, very reluctantly, have to obey. Also because on Friday 29 June – as per consolidated family tradition – the holidays begin in Miramare di Rimini with the grandparents. When, around 6.30pm, the train stops in Bologna I feel a long, intense and melancholic shiver: I find myself in a place where I would dream of being exactly two days later at the same time. Even today, regardless of the unfortunate outcome, that absence is one of the biggest regrets of my life.
For a few seconds I identify with Domenico Volpati. Who, after a fabulous championship, will be forced to give up the most important match due to a yellow card received in Pistoia in the last match of the championship. The lack of his driving force will be felt. Damn if it will be heard. Volpati, splendid protagonist of the historic championship of Verona di Bagnoli in 1985, confessed several times: “In my career I have only one real regret: not having been able to play, due to a disqualification due to a yellow card, in the 1979 play-off in Bologna wearing the Monza shirt for promotion to Serie A.”.
Thanks to my grandfather’s understanding, and giving up dinner, I await the live broadcast of the second half on Rai2 (in the Mesozoic era, there’s no need to talk about the entire match…) after the unspeakable suffering of the first half glued to a radio, the infinite bitterness of the advantage of Pescara signed by a close header by Pavone and a sigh of relief for the great save by Marconcini following a shot by Nobili. While the other guests of the legendary Pensione Fiorini comment – full of enthusiasm – on the incredible series of overtaking, which has become legend, between Villeneuve and Arnoux in the Dijon Grand Prix in the afternoon, I – in the front row in front of the TV – dream of a red and white overtaking for enter history. But my Monza, just to stay on the automotive theme, ran out of petrol. And what’s more, the commentator announces that Stanzione is injured: Magni brings in Gorin to try to give greater offensive impulse. The big red and white heart remains. Which in the first quarter of an hour of the second half gives me a shred of hope: on two splendid crosses from a moving Ronco, Silva creates havoc in the Abruzzo rearguard. Just when I start to believe it again, here comes the decisive blow: Pallavicini – up to that point the best of Monza and from the beginning of the second half diverted into the role of libero – is slow to return to try to set up, Cinquetti steals the ball and sends Nobili shooting from limit of the area. The conclusion wouldn’t be a problem for Marconcini but he hits Giusto’s buttock and rears up, becoming a slow and deadly parabola.
Which goes out – mockingly – on the internet. And it extinguishes – damn it – the dreams.
I try to hold back the tears. I struggle a lot but for a few minutes I succeed. Then Giuliano Vincenzi, for years one of my essential points of reference also for his calm in the most difficult situations, reacts to yet another provocation from Pavone and Bergamo sends him off: while he leaves the pitch I no longer care about showing myself strong and I burst into tears. In the television room of the Fiorini pension some look at me worriedly, others curiously, others pity me without understanding. I feel my grandfather’s arms on my shoulders and then his hand gently caressing my head.
Absence and defeat: a deadly cocktail. Probably the worst. Because regret, disappointment, bitterness and discouragement are ingredients that leave a mark. Terribly deep. For a long time.
For decades I have tried – in vain – to exorcise July 1, 1979. As if it had never existed.
Then came the hard times of the two failures, of horrific managements, of the C2, even of the D: the memory of the glorious past served then to give me strength. To not give up. To continue to love so much – despite the unspeakable humiliations – the most beautiful colors of my life. And so the play-off in Bologna, that is the highest point of our history for over 100 years, began to redeem itself becoming, at least for me, a reason for pride to shout to the world that we had been those there. Those that the great Pozzetto consigned to legend with “I am from Monza, we will never go to Serie A”. Those who had dreamed big and who ‘tolerated’ the miseries of the present because they were harshly forged by a past as beautiful as it was always mocking in the last kilometer.
At a certain point Silvio Berlusconi and Adriano Galliani took us by the hand and took us where we didn’t even remotely dare to imagine: promotion and two wonderful seasons in Serie A. In the magical atmosphere in which we are immersed now, the copious tears of the play-off of Bologna (due to their absence and defeat) finally hurt a little less while remaining as a perennial reminder of a romantic and bitter stage in our history. A stage to be told with pride and to be jealously preserved in the red and white heart.
It took 45 years but, now, I can truly make Paulo Coelho’s phrase my own: “I don’t regret the moments I suffered and I carry the scars as if they were medals”.
Sunday 1 July 1979. Bologna, Stadio Comunale.
PESCARA-MONZA 2-0 (1-0)
SCOREERS: Pavone (P) in the 40th minute, Giusto (M) own goal in the 16th minute
PESCARA: Pinotti, Motta, Rossinelli, Zucchini, Andreuzza, Pellegrini, Pavone, Repetto, Di Michele (30′ st Ferrari), Nobili, Cinquetti. Available: Recchi, Piacenti. Coach: Angelillo
MONZA: Marconcini, Vincenzi, Pallavicini, Corti, Giusto, Stanzione (1′ st Gorin), Lorini, Ronco, Silva, Acanfora, Penzo. Available: Monzio, Scaini. Coach: Magni
REFEREE: Bergamo di Livorno
NOTE: Vincenzi (M) sent off in the 25th minute for attempting to hit Pavone on the ground while play was stopped.
Paying spectators 28,110, proceeds of Lire 108,642,220 to be divided, after deducting organization costs and taxes, into three equal parts between the Lega Calcio and the two clubs.
