More on That Unmentionable Match in Parma

I don’t know about you, but sleeping on it didn’t help me — I’m still incredibly depressed by the memory of Palermo’s performance yesterday, and completely befuddled by all the “We’re deeply satisfied with a point” nonsense team officials are spewing to the press. If they’re actually happy, they need to be slapped. And if they’re not, isn’t it time to actually say that? What bad could come from saying “The performance was dreadful and we must do better, full stop.”? It lets the fans know you’re actually aware of what’s going on, and lets the players know in yet another way that the current trend is unacceptable.

Going into Sunday, this looked like a perfect turnaround game for Palermo. After loses in every possible area (league, UEFA Cup, domestic cup), they were finally playing a bad team (though Parma’s b-team has been dominating in Europe) with a full squad — Simplicio was back from suspension and di Michele back from injury. What could possibly go wrong? Well, for one thing they were suddenly unable or unwilling to keep the ball in the midfield, instead preferring to launch long, totally inaccurate balls in the general direction of Amauri. For another, Eugenio Corini, the team’s bedrock, was spraying balls all over the damn place, many of them seemingly aimed at invisible teammates who were making runs none of the human on the pitch bothered with. The whole thing was just demoralizing — no structure, no flow, no togetherness. Everything that made Palermo such a pleasure to watch a few weeks ago was gone; this team was virtually unrecognizable as the one that beat Fiorentina away in one of the most thrilling matches of the season.

All the shabby, passionless play aside, however, the worst moment for me was when the not-match-fit (not to mention utterly useless on the day) di Michele was substituted: He repeatedly raised his eyebrows in a clear effort to send a knowing “Who, me? Ah, the gaffer is making a foolish error.” message to everyone watching. The absence of that sort of selfish bullshit is what has made this team so much fun to follow — and, it could be said, so wonderfully surprising so far this year. As much as I hope I’m wrong, that single expression could very well be a sign that the best this team had to offer is already in the past.

Category: Palermo, Serie A

Tags: Corini, di Michele, Palermo, Serie A

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