Roma Update

A lot has happened for Roma recently, sorry about the lack of posts, I've been pretty busy. In Serie A, they finally got out of that horrible slump that we saw in the beginning of the season, which was one of, if not the single, worst in the club's history. They got back on track at the end of October, but solidified their rise with a huge victory against Lazio in the derby.

In the Champions League, they recently beat Basel, which has left them in second place behind Bayern Munich, who they will face at home this week (get tickets if you can!)

Tonight they play Udinese in Serie A at home, game starts at 6!

Bad Start For Roma

Bad start for Totti and the boys. First there was the 5-1 loss at Cagliari. Now to be fair, the season is young, and despite the lopsided score sheet, it counts the same as a hard-fought 1-0 battle.

But then there was the 2-0 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League. Again, it's still early and Bayern is clearly the stiffest competition Roma will face in the group.

However, if we remember last year, Roma started horribly, yet picked up their game to finish oh-so-close to the top spot in Italy. In hindsight, if it hadn't had been for that bad start, and all other results remained the same, they would have handily won.

Now it's easy to look back and speculate, hindsight is always 20/20, but maybe, just maybe, could we learn from the mistakes of last year and not take two months to get our game going?

Roma Cesena 0-0

Not much to say after Roma's 0-0 tie yesterday against Serie A newcomer Cesena. Lots of opportunities, no finishes. Let's hope for more than that when they travel to Cagliari in two weeks.

Inter wins Scudetto

That's all she wrote, folks. Even though Roma beat Chievo today, Inter did what needed to be done against Siena, maintaining their first-place position and thus securing the championship.

Despite all the "what ifs" about this season and the fact that it was such a heart-breaker to come so close, nothing but good things can be said about Roma. After an extremely poor start and coaching change, the giallorossi pulled it together the second half of the season to make an incredible run at the title, challenging an extremely strong Inter team that rarely makes mistakes.

Now, the only thing left is to see if Inter can complete their championship trifecta by winning the Champions League on Saturday against Bayern Munich (the other two were the Coppa Italia and Scudetto). Apparently coach Jose Mourinho was in tears after the win at Siena today, but I'm not buying it. If Inter wins next Saturday, I wouldn't be surprised to see Mourinho high-tail it out of Italy to the highest bidder (ehm, Real Madrid).

Forza Lazio?

That's what Luca Toni says, and I guess it's the only hope we've got. Since Inter is one point ahead of Roma, they need to either tie or lose one of their remaining games, the most difficult of which is Lazio this weekend.

For most, it is a lost cause, considering Lazio won last weekend, and so is neither in danger of being relegated to Serie B nor is in contention for a top spot. This means that the game is wholly meaningless to them in terms of points. Considering also the animosity between Lazio and Roma, I wouldn't put my money on Lazio showing a feat of strength to beat the powerful Inter squad, knowing full-well that it would mean delivering the championship to their city rivals.

You never know though, which is why they play the games. If Lazio has any pride, they won't give the game up on purpose, but the fact remains that they are playing an Inter that is not only the strongest Italian team, but also playing very well right now.

Bah...

The title-hunt just got a lot harder. After our 1-2 loss tonight against Sampdoria, Inter is in charge of Serie A once again, one point ahead of Roma. All is not lost, of course, but Inter must either lose or tie in the remaining games and Roma must win them all (or at least more than Inter).

We do have an ace in the hole, however, which is that if Roma and Inter finish the season tied in points, the scudetto would go to Roma based on head-to-head competition. Let's just hope Inter tires itself out with Barcelona on Wednesday...

Roma faces Bologna tonight

Well Serie A is really heating up right now, as the race for the championship gets closer and closer. Roma has real hopes of winning their first championship since 2001, which would turn the entire city into a giant party/mess/frenzy/riot/celebration for about a month.

Tonight, Roma travels to Bologna for a must-win game, before hosting Inter this Saturday for what is being anticipated as the biggest game of the year for the giallorossi.

Roma (sigh) misses another opportunity

Roma had an opportunity to close in on first place this weekend, but failed to capitalize, tying Livorno 3-3 on Sunday. Instead, they paved the way for Milan, who, after beating Chievo 1-0, is within one point of Inter. Can I get a che palle?!

In other soccer news, Inter will face Chelsea tonight for the second game in the Champions League round of 16. This is doubly important for Italian soccer because if Inter loses, Italy will only be granted three spots for Champions League next year, instead of their usual four (the top teams in each European league earn a spot in the Champions League, and the best leagues get more spots).

So, from Roma's perspective, this would be bad, because it means that making a mistake that bumps them to fourth place would destroy Champions League hopes for next season.

Inter loses Saturday, there's hope for Roma!

Wow. So Inter blew it last night. After their loss to Catania (3-0 nonetheless!), the title race for Serie A is up for grabs. Assuming that Milan and Roma win tomorrow, they will be 1 and 4 points, respectively, behind Inter, which is not such an unsurmountable task, considering that Inter has dominated the table the entire season.

Roma takes on struggling Livorno tomorrow, which is a must-win (or, better, a must-not-screw-up) for the giallorossi, who will have Luca Toni available. Game's at 3 in the afternoon in Livorno.

Roma ties Milan 0-0

Well we can look at Roma's 0-0 tie last night against Milan in one of two ways: 1. it could have been worse 2. a missed opportunity. It leaves Roma comfortably in second place, six points in front of Palermo. However, they remain three behind Milan and nine, assuming Inter wins tonight, from first place.

In my last post about it I said that this game would make or break the season, and, basically, this did neither decisively. While it didn't hurt Roma significantly, it made winning the scudetto (a long shot as it is) virtually unreachable, without a miracle. Take a look at the updated table here to figure out the different possibilities.

Next Sunday they travel to Livorno to get back their winning ways.