Francesco Totti caught up with Antonio Di Natale at the top of the top scorer’s chart with 9 goals after his hat-trick vs. Bari at the Stadio Olimpico. That was Totti’s first hat-trick in 7 years, the last coming against Brescia in 2002. Both Totti and Di Natale have each scored a hat-trick this season. Giampaolo Pazzini and Diego Milito follow closely however, each with 8 goals. Totti is now at 187 goals in Serie A, 1 shy of Giuseppe Signori’s record of 188. Once he hits that his next target would be Kurt Hamrin at 190, and then an assault on Roberto Baggio at 205. If Totti eventually hits 200 goals enjoy it whether you like him or not, because it’s going to be a while before another player reaches that milestone. Goals of the week after the jump.

Francesco Totti vs Bari – This is a video of his 28 minute hat-trick. OK the first was a penalty, but the second and third are excellent strikes.

Marcelo Zalayeta vs Inter – Zalayeta loves to score vs. Inter. Here he traps a long ball excellently and then a nice finish past Julio Cesar.

Giampaolo Pazzini vs. Chievo – This is a great team goal. Quick exchange of passes and then Cassano puts in the assist for Pazzini.

Fabio Grosso vs. Udinese – Another great team goal. Great holding of possession by Juve, Grosso gives it to Poulsen and makes an excellent run into the box, Poulsen great ball to Caceres who gives a perfect assist to Grosso who taps it in.

Alexandre Pato vs. Cagliari – This is just a sublime finish. Unstoppable for Marchetti. Borriello to Ronaldinho, quick touch to Pato, and “il Papero” just unleashes an awesome strike.

Esteban Cambiasso vs. Bologna – This is a great goal because of Cambiasso’s work-rate. If you notice, Cambiasso starts this play with the long ball for Milito in his own half. He then sprints from his own half to the Bologna box, receiving the assist from Milito and finishing the play he started.

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

Fairly good week for goals, as only one game finished 0-0 (Catania-Napoli, but ask Takayuki Morimoto about that). The top scorer table is still wide open, as Di Natale started strong but now has cooled off so he remains at 9, while Hamsik is second with 7 and that’s impressive for a midfielder. Pazzini and Milito also are at 7 and they probably won’t stay there for long, while Trezeguet and Eto’o are starting to score regularly as well and are at 6. Most impressive on the top scorer list at the moment? Giandomenico Mesto at 4 goals. Mesto only scored 1 goal in 5 seasons at Reggina and 2 in a season with Udinese. He already has 4 this season. Amazing what a change of position can do to a player. Goals of the week after the jump.

Felipe Melo vs. Atalanta – This video is good because it first shows the perfectly valid goal that Melo scored that was called back and then a few seconds later he sticks it in the linesman’s face and unleashes an unstoppable blast past Consigli.

Fabio Ceravolo vs. Juventus – Nice assist from Simone Tiribocchi, and then Ceravolo cuts past Grosso and puts a perfect curling effort past the outstretched Buffon.

Riccardo Allegretti vs. Livorno – Allegretti was long known to be a free kick specialist, and Bari fans were waiting for him to finally score on a free kick in Serie A. It finally happened vs. Livorno.

Marco Di Vaio vs. Palermo – Di Vaio first misses the easy breakaway, but then makes up for it finishing from an almost impossible angle.

Mirko Vucinic vs. Inter – The Montenegrin scores a beautiful header. Marco Motta with the long searching pass, Vucinic jumps over Lucio and loops it over Julio Cesar.

Samuel Eto’o vs. Roma – This is a real striker’s goal. Amazing quick turn and pinpoint finish.

Alexandre Pato vs. Lazio – Nice buildup from the Rossoneri, Ronaldinho with the pinpoint cross and Pato with the perfect anticipation of Kolarov and perfect header past Muslera.

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

One of the players playing extremely well at the moment is Genoa fantasista Raffaele Palladino. Palladino has always been a player that could do things with the ball that others could only dream of doing, but he never had the consistency to show that talent at a high level. Palladino is now an important part of Gian Piero Gasperini’s Genoa side, and he’s the one that can make the difference up front for the Rossoblu. It looks like now at the age of 25 he has finally reached the point where he can be consistent enough to show his incredible skill.

Palladino grew up in the Juventus youth system, and in 2004 was sent on loan first to Salernitana, where he had an excellent season in Serie B, and then the following year to Livorno, where he had a decent season in Serie A. He immediately became an important part of the Italy U-21 side, first under Claudio Gentile and then under Pierluigi Casiraghi. With Juventus’ relegation to Serie B, he was taken back to the home base and played a role in Didier Deschamps’ Juve side that won promotion. At first he didn’t play as much, but his versatility led him to play many games, as he could play as a second punta, a winger, or as a trequartista. The following season he stayed with the Bianconeri on their return to Serie A, but with the purchase of Vincenzo Iaquinta, Palladino was essentially the 4th striker. When he did play he showed good things, and Roberto Donadoni even gave him a shot in two national team games. He even earned the nickname “Raf Alladino” (Raf Aladdin, because of the magic tricks he worked with the ball) from fans. However, Palladino needed to play, and so in the summer of 2008 his old Juventus youth team manager, Gian Piero Gasperini, brought him to Genoa on a co-ownership deal, and gave him a chance to show his stuff.

His 2008-2009 didn’t start well, as a bad knee injury kept him out for most of the first part of the season, but upon his return he worked himself back into the side and played a very important part towards the end of the season, scoring a crucial winning goal vs. Juventus and then making some nice assists for his teammates. This past summer, Genoa decided to renew the co-ownership deal and keep him for one more season. The start of this season was also injury troubled, as a bad virus kept him out until mid-September. But Palladino was back with a bang. He immediately started playing really well, and against Fiorentina scored an amazing back-heeled goal against Sebastian Frey. Palladino has continued to play well, and now that he is healthy and motivated he seems to be finally showing his talent.

If he can continue, a return to the national team is a possibility. Palladino’s mix of speed, technique, and ability to do whatever he wants with the ball at any instant can be of great use to a national team lacking in creativity. However, we’ll have to see if he can keep it up all season, as consistency has always been his problem.

A few nice goals this week, but nothing extraordinary. Giuseppe Mascara scored one of his trademark wonder-goals, and Marco Borriello got back on the scoresheet with 2 goals (the second a nice scissor kick) after almost a year. Diego Milito got back to his scoring ways as well after being absent through injury, and Mirko Vucinic finally scored his first goal of the season. Simone Perrotta scored as well and did his best Cassano impression kicking down the corner flag and yelling obscenities at the crowd. Goals of the 11th Giornata after the jump.

Marco Borriello vs. Parma – Assist from Ronaldinho, and Borriello coordinates himself for the scissor kick and executes it perfectly, finishing past Mirante. Borriello said he “imagined this goal in his head” before the game.

Marek Hamsik vs. Juventus – Yeah the terrible clearance at the back set this up, but the finish was excellent, and it meant a historic win for the Partenopei.

Giuseppe Mascara vs. Fiorentina – Awesome goal from Mascara, who is always known to score goals like this. Runs on and hits it first time, perfect finish past Frey who can do nothing about it.

Marco Marchionni vs. Catania – Marchionni scores the first of 2 goals with a beautiful left footed finish into the far corner.

Diego Milito vs. Livorno – Milito scores a excellent finish. Some nice footwork to throw off the Livorno defense and then a pinpoint finish into the corner.

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)

Although we are only 10 games into the season, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar is starting to look more and more like a big flop. 15 million euro were spent on the Dutch striker, and even if he reaches 5 goals this season it would seem like a big achievement. Sure you can say that he needs time to adapt to a new style of play, new language, new culture, but it’s already November almost and we still have not seen Huntelaar’s name on the score sheet. Will Huntelaar be considered one of the biggest Serie A flops at the end of this season? It remains to be seen. But I thought it would be fun to go through players that were flops from 2000-2009. Flops after the jump.

Ricardo Quaresma – Inter (2008-present)

I consider Quaresma a flop, I don’t think he will ever be the player he was at Porto in Italy. Lots of money spent on him, and never lived up to expectation. All he has shown he is good at is his famous trivela, which he even uses for simple passes when his teammate is 2 yards away. Somebody should trivela him out of Italy.

Nicolae Dica – Catania (2008-2009)

Everyone thought Catania had made a great buy bringing Dica to Sicily in 2008. A Romanian international who had great technical ability and many likened him to Adrian Mutu. Instead, Walter Zenga (his former coach in Romania) couldn’t even field him because he was so bad, and only played 93 minutes in his first six months in Italy. Catania loaned him to Greek side Iraklis this summer.

Ricardo Oliveira – Milan (2006-2007)

After losing Shevchenko in the summer of 2006, Milan desperately tried to find a replacement, and settled on this Brazilian striker, who played for Real Betis. The start was good, as he scored on his Serie A debut vs. Lazio, but after that only managed 2 more goals the whole season and proved to be a big waste of money. He now plays in the United Arab Emirates. What a superstar.

Olivier Kapo – Juventus (2004-2005)

Moggi was undoubtedly the best when it came to finding unknown talents, but he made a couple of mistakes from time to time. Like Olivier Kapo. When he was signed he was supposed to be a French version of Pavel Nedved for Juventus, but it turns out he wasn’t very good at imitating his Czech counter-part. Quickly loaned away after his first season.

Gaizka Mendieta – Lazio (2001-2002)

Mendieta was one of the top midfielders in Europe with Valencia in the late 90’s and capped that with an excellent performance at Euro 2000. In the summer of 2001 Lazio broke the bank to have the Spanish midfielder on their books (somewhere near 50 million euro), and it looked like he only was in Rome on vacation. He didn’t look like himself at all, and spent the next two years of his contract loaned out.

Al-Sa’adi Gheddafi – Perugia, Udinese, Sampdoria (2003-2007)

Son of Libyan leader Muammar Gheddafi, he was apparently captain of the Libyan national team and facts were unknown about his Libyan club career. When Tamoil had a stake in Juventus, he was on the board of directors. In 2003 controversial Perugia owner Luciano Gaucci signed him, and he only played 1 game (vs Juventus) in his two seasons in Umbria. He also failed an anti-doping test. The following season Udinese signed him, and he once again only played 1 game near the end of the season. Then Sampdoria signed him, and he never stepped onto the field. After that season he retired.

Hakan Sukur – Inter and Parma (2000-2002)

A goal-scoring machine with Galatasaray, he was signed by Inter in the summer of 2000 after his excellent performance for Turkey at Euro 2000. However, he couldn’t cut it in Serie A, only nabbing 5 goals in 25 games. The following season Parma took a chance on him, but he still couldn’t make his mark, scoring 3 goals in 15 appearances. He left for England after the 2002 World Cup.

Shabani Nonda – Roma (2005-2006)

The Congolese striker was famously suggested to Roma by Luciano Moggi, and the Giallorossi took his advice and decided to sign him from Monaco. However, it seemed to be bad advice, as Nonda only scored 4 goals in 14 appearances and was then shipped off to Blackburn the following season.

Mido – Roma (2004-2005)

Egyptian striker Mido was a last minute signing for Roma in the summer 2004 transfer window. However, he seemed very out of place in Serie A and couldn’t put in any good performances. He only made 8 appearances throughout and the season and was then loaned to Tottenham.

Rivaldo – Milan (2002-2003)

After the 2002 World Cup and great seasons with Barcelona, Milan were expecting Rivaldo to be a huge signing in the summer of 2002. However the Brazilian could never get going, he was always injured, and when he did play he was a shadow of the brilliant player of years past. At least he won the Champions League and Coppa Italia though before leaving for his native Brazil.

Javi Moreno – Milan (2001-2002)

Another terrible striker signing by Milan. After impressing for Alaves in their UEFA Cup run to the final, Milan decided to take a chance on Moreno, who was dubbed “the Spanish Gerd Muller”. Well, quite simply, whoever gave him that nickname was an idiot. He couldn’t adapt to Serie A and only scored 2 goals in 16 appearances before being shipped back to La Liga.

Okan Buruk – Inter (2001-2004)

Picked up by Inter in the summer of 2001 with teammate Emre, Okan didn’t live up to expectation like Emre did. Okan never showed his talent, but remained on the books for 3 years. He only made 25 appearances in those 3 years however before returning to Turkey.

Fabian Carini – Inter (2004-2007)

The Uruguayan keeper was acquired from Juventus in exchange for Fabio Cannavaro and 10 million euro. I’m pretty sure Juventus got the better deal. Carini, despite being Uruguay’s number 1, was Inter’s 3rd and only made 4 appearances in 3 years.

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All of these were done off the top of my head with no extensive research, so if I missed any big ones, or if you have your own flops you’d like to nominate, post them in the comments!!

I didn’t put up a Weekend Round-up yesterday because I figured with the midweek round tomorrow, it would be pointless to update everything twice. So we’ll dive in straight to Goals of the Week. Not as great as last week, but still some good goals, especially Daniele Mannini’s one-time volley vs. Bologna. Goals after the jump.

Daniele Mannini vs. Bologna – Mannini has transformed into a bomber at Samp. This is probably the best goal of his career so far. Pazzini with a perfect assist to the winger who hits is brilliantly on the volley and it flies past Viviano.

Wesley Sneijder vs. Catania – The Dutch trequartista scores his second goal in Serie A with this pinpoint free kick.

Francesco Tavano vs. Roma – Tavano scores against his ex-team and grabs Livorno the 3 points at the Olimpico. I can’t find a non-replay video of this goal, because the replay in slow motion doesn’t do a great job of showing how hard his shot was.

Reto Ziegler vs. Bologna – The Swiss winger scores a nice goal with his favored left foot, turning the defender and finishing in the bottom right corner.

Cesare Bovo vs. Udinese – It’s still debated whether this goal was deflected or not, but we’ll give it Bovo. It was a great volley. And I like this live at the stadium video.

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.