Reggina v Fiorentina: Oh Good, a Scoreless Draw

By: Martha | November 25th, 2007

So freaking pasty, the pair of them. Well, Fiorentina got the dull away draw they apparently wanted — it may have said 4-3-3 on paper, but what they actually played for most of the match was 4-5-1, with Giampaolo Pazzini stranded up top and a rickety, second-choice backline. Reggina, on the other hand, continued their incredible progress under new coach Renzo Ulivieri, taking their fifth point from his first three matches, two of which have been draws against good teams (this match and the one against Genoa).

The first half was all Reggina: They were frightfully organized and played with all kind of focus and confidence, looking anything but a team at the bottom of the table. The biggest thing Uliveri’s done with his team, at least from a casual observer’s point of view, is to give them a bit of self-belief — they know exactly how they’re supposed to play, and do it as if their lives depend on it; pretty amazing to watch, particularly given how dire they were just a month ago. The Viola, meanwhile, seem to lack any urgency — their passing was poor, and they all were infected with Riccardo Montolivo’s infuriating casual disease. Granted, they were without a lot of first choice players, and part of their inability to put much together was due to Reggina’s determination to keep the midfield tight but, to use a very old, very true cliche, the hosts just wanted it more.

The Viola defense spent a lot of time scrambling in the first half and in the first few minutes of the second, but they managed to protect Sebastian Frey, who only had to make a handful of saves. At the other end, though, Fiorentina’s only real shots were from about 30 yards out, a distance from which Montolivo and Marco Donadel decided they were going to score (not surprisingly, they didn’t) — I don’t think Andrea Campagnolo had to make a single save, though he did come off his line a couple of times to punch the ball away/run into people.

As the second half wore on, Reggina pulled more men behind the ball and launched only periodic attacks. In addition, their sharpness slowly slipped away, so the Viola spent the last 20-or-so minutes with more possession. The result was the same as it had been in the first half, though: Nothing but a few long-range efforts and ambitious/bad passes that went flying out of bounds. Without the ill Cesar Prandelli (Channel 4 says he’s got colic — isn’t that the catch-all name they use for any babies who cough?), the Viola also didn’t substitute as early as they usually do, which meant there was no spark off the bench. Bobo didn’t replace an ineffective (but powerfully whiny) Pazzini until the 75th minute, and Kuzmanovic, who would perhaps have bought a bit of creativity to the match, only came on with about two minutes left, which was utterly pointless.

So, in the end, a great result for Reggina and an apparently expected but not very good one for the Viola, who are now fourth but could be passed by Juve if they beat Palermo tonight.