It was the November 30, 2021 when Vincenzo Vivarini was appointed coach of Catanzaro to replace the exonerated Antonio Calabrese and since then more than something has changed. What happened two and a half years later is history: from the disappointment of Padova which leads to the promotion to the second division after 17 years, breaking all records in Series C (with the icing on the cake of the triumph in the Super Cup), up to the last championship of Serie B concluded as a rookie in fifth place and two steps away from the play-off final for the double jump. After inheriting a complicated situation, the “Commander” was able almost immediately with his ideas to rekindle the enthusiasm of the yellow and red square forced in recent years to swallow several bitter pills. But no one could ever imagine that the Vivarini era could give so many joys and satisfactions with a modern game to entertain everyone around the boot.
A proactive football based on ball possession and aesthetics as the strong point of Vivarini’s Catanzaro team. High aggression, approach from below, phrasing and verticality as tactical fundamentals studied down to the smallest detail to try to bring home the result against any opponent. The team has become increasingly mature over time, has become capable of gritting its teeth in moments of difficulty and of knowing how to win even in a different way: exalting itself in spaces with rapid counterattacks from the defense or taking advantage of the meticulous attention to inactive balls and the to leave no detail to chance. All this made possible by a solid group that Vivarini has been able to build and enhance day after day. A team that enchanted an entire population by scoring a lot in every category, but which in Serie B revealed a few too many defensive gaps resulting from a game without major tactics which in some circumstances cost dearly with mocking defeats remedied at the last minute.
Vivarini had created a toy in his own image and likeness. He was the man who, with his winning and proactive mentality, restored credibility to a tormented city, giving it an unexpected dream. Those ambitions of a great leap into Serie A that were part of a glorious past and in some ways set aside by years spent in the hell of the third division. Despite the bitter divorce, no one will ever be able to forget and erase these two and a half years that brought great football back to the top of the three hills. And it is precisely for this reason that the separation between the most successful coach in the history of the club and Catanzaro had to happen differently. Perhaps with the most classic of happy endings. As all the people of Catanzaro would have wished so as not to undermine the good that has been done.
