A day of coaching changes in Serie A. At his first press conference as Palermo boss back in the summer, Walter Zenga famously said his objective for the season was to win the Scudetto. Well 13 games into the season, and Palermo was 15 points behind leaders Inter and didn’t look like Scudetto contenders at all. Maurizio Zamparini grew impatient and sacked him today (I knew the Zenga-Zamparini relationship wouldn’t last a complete season), replacing him with former Lazio boss Delio Rossi, who had always been linked to the Palermo job. Another team has brought in a new manager and that is Siena, who are currently last in the table. Primavera coach Marco Baroni had been the interim manager the last two games while the club searched for a new manager, and had almost brought back Mario Beretta but that fell through. Instead, they have brought in Alberto Malesani, known for his past glory at Parma in the 90’s and for yelling Italian curse words at the Greek media. Personally I think Malesani has had his success as a manager and doesn’t have the magic touch anymore, I don’t know if Siena made the right move. Round-up after the jump.

SERIE A RESULTS, STANDINGS, AND HIGHLIGHTS

SERIE B RESULTS AND STANDINGS

Milan has really jumped up the table these past few weeks. After the horrible start where everyone condemned the Rossoneri to a season of misery, Leonardo’s squad has made a complete turnaround, finally playing well and becoming contenders once again. They now find themselves 5 points behind leaders Inter and only 2 behind Juventus and saying the word Scudetto shouldn’t be met with laughter. Ronaldinho looks to have found motivation to play again and has been excellent, Pato is scoring crucial goals, and even Massimo Oddo has been placing his crosses into the box instead of row Z of the stadium. If Milan can keep it up, they can make this season a lot more interesting. Serie A round-up after the jump.

SERIE A RESULTS, STANDINGS, AND HIGHLIGHTS

SERIE B RESULTS AND STANDINGS

Roma-Inter from May of 1999 is another highly entertaining game from one of the most entertaining Serie A seasons of all time. The 1998-99 season had 3 leaders of the table (for the first part of the season it was Fiorentina, who were winter champions but were then hurt by the injury of Batistuta, then Lazio, who looked on their way to the Scudetto but fell off form towards the end, and then Milan who surprised everyone and stole the Scudetto on the last day). Juventus had a bad year, with Del Piero suffering a big injury and Lippi being replaced mid-season by Carlo Ancelotti. Inter were expecting big things with their strike pair of Roberto Baggio and Ronaldo, but various injuries led to the latter two not playing much together all season, and Inter went through 3 coaches before finishing the season with Roy Hodgson. For Roma, this was their last season of the Zdenek Zeman era, as Fabio Capello would take over in the summer. Roma practiced the Zeman philosophy, 4-3-3 formation, free-flowing constant attacking football, leaving many defensive holes. It’s no surprise that this game ended 5-4 in Inter’s favor. Game story after the jump.

This game was played in early May of 1999 with the season coming to an end. Roma were fighting for a place in the Champions League, while Inter were having a disastrous season and hoped to salvage some of it by at least getting a UEFA Cup qualification spot. This was one of the few games of the season where Inter had Roberto Baggio and Ronaldo both fit, as well as Chilean striker Ivan Zamorano, always deadly on headers. To counter Zeman’s 4-3-3, Hodgson put out his own 4-3-3, with the trio of Baggio, Ronaldo, and Zamorano up front. Inter kept taking the lead but Roma kept fighting back with it’s own trio, Marco Delvecchio, Francesco Totti, and Brazilian Paulo Sergio (who left for Bayern Munich that summer and won the Champions League). Like I said, Inter kept taking the lead, and Roma always found a way back until the end when Diego Simeone scored the winning goal. It was highly entertaining. And of course something to not: what a joy it was to watch Roberto Baggio play, no matter what shirt he was wearing. He was involved in 4 of Inter’s 5 goals in this match.

Napoli won vs. Juventus in Torino for the first time since November 20, 1988, when Maradona’s Napoli won 5-3. Since then, there had been 11 wins and 5 ties, and Napoli hadn’t scored in Torino since March of 1998. This Napoli side has been rejuvenated under Walter Mazzarri, and they have shown they have a never say die attitude that keeps them working for the full 90 minutes. If Napoli can ride this wave of enthusiasm and keep playing like they have these past 3 games, they should have no problem finishing in the higher places in the table by the end of the season. Round-up after the jump.

SERIE A STANDINGS, RESULTS, AND HIGHLIGHTS

(link: http://www.youtube.com/user/mfSerieATIM#grid/user/C7BF52B670A44B74)

This is going to be a good goals of the week post. There are many nice goals, and in particular the goals from Stankovic and Dessena are awesome to watch. Goals after the jump.

Dejan Stankovic vs. Genoa – Stankovic notices that Amelia makes an error on the clearance and moves to the right, hitting the ball on the volley from way out and it sailed over Amelia and into the net.

Daniele Dessena vs. Catania – This is probably the most spectacular goal of the day. Cross from the right wing, and Dessena hits a perfect bicycle kick that is unstoppable for the Catania goalkeeper.

Adrian Ricchiuti vs. Cagliari – This is an awesome team goal and excellent set piece. Four touches and a goal.

Sergio Almiron vs. Chievo – Nice header from Almiron. Comes towards the ball and manages to place it into the upper corner.

Adailton vs. Napoli – Unstoppable free kick from the Brazilian midfielder with his left foot.

Jamie Valdes vs. Udinese – The Chilean scores a wonderful goal, taking the ball to about 20 yards out and unleashing a perfect strike into the upper corner.

Diego De Ascentis vs. Udinese – De Ascentis said this is the best goal he ever scored in his career and we can see why.

Alexandre Pato vs. Roma – Ronaldinho with a perfect searching pass, and Pato with the excellent control and finish.

The picture on the left is the photo sequence of Dejan Stankovic’s 54 meter long strike vs Genoa on Saturday. Marco Amelia messed up his clearance, and Stankovic coordinated a beautiful volley that sailed over Amelia and bounced into the net. Goals from midfield are always nice to look at. We’ll definitely see it in tomorrow’s Goals of the Week post. Weekend Round-up after the jump.

SERIE A RESULTS, STANDINGS AND HIGHLIGHTS

SERIE B RESULTS AND STANDINGS

First, the international week is incredibly boring. Second, I thought I’d start a new post here on the Italy Offside: Great Serie A games. A post that will show videos of some of the greatest Serie A games of all time. For the first post I decided to stay fairly recent. We go back to the 2004/2005 season. Inter-Sampdoria. This is pre-calciopoli. This a time where Inter just weren’t that good, and Sampdoria fans couldn’t enjoy the magical moments of Antonio Cassano. Story of the game and video after the jump.

This was Roberto Mancini’s first season as Inter manager, and up front Inter had the duo of Adriano (when he was still good) and Bobo Vieri (when he started his decline). Sampdoria were managed by Walter Novellino and had a decent team, with players like Francesco Antonioli, Sergio Volpi, and Francesco Flachi. The story of the game goes like this: Inter dominate but can’t seem to score if their lives depended on it. Sampdoria go up 1-0 in the first half. In the second half Inter continue to bombard the Samp goal but still can’t score. Sampdoria score on the counter-attack late in the game (with the commentator even saying “the result has been put to bed“). Inter fans hurl insults on the squad and start to clear out the San Siro. All of a sudden, Inter spring to life in the 41st minute. Oba Oba Martins pulls one back and Inter continue to attack. Within 6 minutes, they are 3-2 up and have won the game, thanks to a spark from Alvaro Recoba. One of the most impressive Serie A comebacks of recent times and definitely one of the reasons Inter was so aptly nicknamed “Pazza Inter” (Crazy Inter, also became their club anthem) during those times.

VIDEO:

Sampdoria are top of the table alone for the first time in 18 years. A week ago I wrote an article saying that Sampdoria could be the surprise of the season, and right now that hypothesis is still holding up. While it’s almost impossible for them to win the scudetto and considering the fact that Gigi Del Neri’s teams usually suffer a drop in form after the winter break, they should be challenging for a spot in Europe next season, whether that be Europa League or Champions League that remains to be seen. Certainly if they perform in every game like they did against Inter they should have no trouble reaching that objective. Serie A and B results and highlights after the jump.

SERIE A RESULTS, STANDINGS, AND HIGHLIGHTS

SERIE B RESULTS AND STANDINGS

After 3 giornate, only 3 clubs are still at full points: Sampdoria, who defeated Atalanta 1-0 in Bergamo with a goal from Daniele Mannini; Juventus, who saw Lazio off with a 2-0 win thanks to Martin Caceres and David Trezeguet; and Genoa, who thumped Napoli 4-1 with Sergio Floccari, Giandomenico Mesto, Hernan Crespo, and Houssine Kharja all scoring their first goals of the season. Full results after the jump.

REPORTS

All reports can be found here.

RESULTS, STANDINGS, AND HIGHLIGHTS

(Remember to click the number 03 to watch all the highlights)

SERIE B RESULTS AND STANDINGS

International week is boring. There’s really no news from Serie A, and we get a week of Lippi dodging questions about Mourinho and Cassano. Here’s the highlights from today’s game. Italy won 2-0, finally a decent performance. Pirlo excelled as a trequartista, Zambrotta actually ran up and down the wing, De Rossi is the most important part of our midfield, Iaquinta and Gila actually had pretty good chemistry, Grosso is still awesome, Buffon is back to being Buffon, Marchisio put in a good performance, and Simone Pepe still manages to fall over his own two feet. Highlights after the jump.