Football Manager Blog | Football Manager Guru | Verona Marches On

Verona’s great start.

This post is about Verona’s matches on August and October.
It has been an excellent start for Verona. The first two official matches were Italian Cup Qualification Rounds. The first one was against Spezia, a Serie C2 team.

Verona – Spezia: It was an easy match. But unfortunately, Spezia scored and tied the game after an Abdoulaye’s stupid foul on the area, in a crossed ball that my keeper Pinsoglio had perfectly controlled. But my team never stopped attacking and got the victory. It was an excellent debut for Adam Vass (He managed to score a goal). Giuseppe Russo got injured and will be out for 4 weeks. Filippo Pensalfini, one of my central midfielders, made two assists and was chosen Man of the Match.

Ancona – Verona: Second match was against Ancona at their stadium, a more difficult team because they’re on Serie B. Ancona dominated the game and eliminated Verona from the Italian Cup. It wasn’t a tough elimination, because we were not going to win that Cup. At this point, it is more important to win Serie C1 Cup (even if the Board Room are not interested in this competition). Giuseppe Pugliese, my left back, was chosen Man of the Match. It is also worth pointing that it was Mifsud first game in Verona. He didn’t have any clear goal chances and ended with a 5.8 rating. But it’s all about adaptability I think.

Now with Serie C1 matches.

Verona – Foggia: The first one against Foggia. Foggia’s media prediction is 2nd but clearly its squad doesn’t resemble it. It deserves a 8th or even lower. Anyway, it seems that Mifsud will have a sweet sweet tournament. He scored 4 goals and smashed Foggia’s defense. Pugliese and Abdoulaye had a good match too.

Spal – Verona: Next game was against Spal in their stadium. This was a very difficult one because Spal plays with wingers and my team plays mainly in the middle. Spal has a good team with a strong attacking force, Giacomo Cipriani (ex-Bologna) and Fabio Bazzani (ex-Sampdoria) as his substitute and Vinicio Edwards Espinal, a Dominican attacking midfielder, running through the right side of the field, but my team took advantage of their mistakes in defense, with an another good game for Mifsud (Man of the Match), bagging a goal and making an assist.

Verona – Real Marcianise: The game against Real Marcianise was an easy one, but they managed to make things difficult. They shot a lot from outside the area, but it seems that their shooting is not one of their strengths. We played decently but for some strange reason we couldn’t score until minute ’82 with Berretoni’s penalty, we deserved to win for a bigger margin. Samuele Dalla Bona was chosen the Man of the Match only because he was the intellectual author of the penalty. He played as “average” as all other Verona players (around 6.7 – 6.8 match rating). Adam Vass got injured but it’s not a serious one. Before this game, Francesco Di Gennaro got injured and will be out for 4 weeks so, Corrado Colombo will be Di Gennaro’s replacement.

Pescara – Verona: This is probably one of the most difficult rivals I will be facing this season (along with Spal and Rimini). Marco Veratti, the amazing wonderkid in Football Manager 2010 is in this team (fortunately, in my game, he was sold to Udinese hahaha). However, they have a team with a lot of potencial, with or without Veratti.
My defense couldn’t cope with Massimo Bonnani’s header and for moments I thought we were losing this match, but if Pescara has a good Target Man, we have it too. Corrado Colombo (Di Gennaro’s substitute) had an amazing game and gave us an important draw, considering how strong is Pescara’s team. Bonnani was chosen Man of the Match due to his hattrick. Verona’s best player was Corrado Colombo (9.2 rating and he wasn’t chosen Man of the Match).

Verona – Taranto: Taranto is another good team if we consider the level of Serie C1. But in this game, they dissapointed their fans, the media and me (they ended the match with a 5.75 average rating). I expected so much more from them, doesn’t matter that they are my rivals. They played awfully and Mifsud and Colombo (another good match) took advantage of that. Man of the Match? Colombo… Hands down.

Valle del Giovenco – Verona: Valle del Giovenco is a curious case. They have a good attacking force: Gionatha Spinesi (former Catania), Labros Choutos (former Greece International) and Stefano Dall’Aqua as a substitute. But their midfield and defense aren’t as strong as their forwards. My team gave “VDG” very few goal ocassions (only 5 shots against 14 of Verona) and dominated every aspect of the game (regardless of the final result); my team felt like they were playing at home. Andy Selva managed to get his first goal at Verona but the Man of the Match was Bruce Abdoulaye.

As you can see, my new players have adapted very well, with Mifsud bagging 8 goals in 7 matches and Abdoulaye and Voss playing very well too. Pinsoglio has conceded 7 goals, but he hasn’t been responsable for any of them. Colombo had also made his contribution with 6 goals in 7 matches. Di Gennaro will have to be very careful, Colombo could take his place.

Unfortunately, I can’t post Serie C1 league standings because I got a little excited and played the whole month of September too and didn’t get any screenshot after Valle del Giovenco’s game. I thought about posting September in this post too but it was too much work for Jason. So, I will include it in the next post, I’m sorry. But if you do the math, 16 points out of 18 it’s enough to be on top of the league, don’t you think?