Review: Palermo 2 – 0 Siena. – The Glass Ceiling.

By: Matthew | December 18th, 2008

With both teams entering the match midtable and a point apart, it was always going to be an important result. Both teams have so far built their season on solid home form and therefore the safest bet would’ve been on i rosaneri to sweep up the points, but Siena as been characteristic of them this season would battle tooth-and-nail to make sure that the points were at least hard earnt..

This game gave further evidence to my belief that Serie A still has a firm divide between the big and smaller teams. The match seemed to follow this season’s script, as the result seemed somewhat inevitable. La Robur came out firing as they have done all season, creating early chances that, if taken, could’ve not only rewritten the script, but torn it up and burnt it! However, the brilliance of nazionale ‘keeper Amelia made sure that there was to be no such alteration as he was called in several times early on to make important saves and very bravely smother a promising chance for Kharjah. Right on cue, Palermo welcomed the space that Siena seem to be freely handing out this season, and came into the game with former Juve and Torino man Balzaretti causing a constant nuisance down the left flank.. By this point the tedious sense of inevitability began to creep in and, as has so often happened this campionato, the home side took the lead helped in part by a large slice of luck. Cassani’s attempted cross from the right sliced off his boot and gently floated over the embarrassed Gianluca Curci in the Siena goal who had been anticipating the cross. Half an hour gone and Cassani was celebrating his first goal of the season. Despite the strong sense of déjà vu, the one thing that will always keep me glued to a Siena game is there refusal to give in.. if only the character they show on the road could be matched by their finishing! However, what you have to be willing to give up away, from home is the safety in knowing that your normally impenetrable backline will get peppered with chances, and that was once again the case as Palermo doubled there lead as a slip from the substitute Moti putting Succi and Simplicio through for a two-on-one with Curci, with Simplicio calmly chesting home the dinked cross to seal the win for the home side.

Going into the game Siena had the chance to leapfrog their more illustrious opponents and into a very respectable 11th place, flirting with the top half. However, what transpired was a classic case of there still being a sizeable divide between the league’s big teams and the smaller ones. Sure, week-in-week-out its a league where any team can upset a big gun, but ultimately come the end of the season, it’ll be the same teams scrapping out the bottom as it will be for the Scudetto. Good scouts and excellent work in the loan market can assemble you a good team, but under the surface it is ultimately money that will by you strength in depth that can cause that new impetus coming off the bench or generate that extra bit of luck.

There was an interesting statistic that came out this weekend, this weekend’s Serie A games saw an incredible 41 goals scored, with only Siena, Lecce, Catania and Reggina not to score..

Roll on Inter this weekend!

Palermo: Amelia; Cassani, Bovo, Carrozzieri, Balzaretti, Nocerino, Liverani, Bresciano (Tedesco 90); Simplicio (Kjaer 87); Cavani, Succi (Lanzafame 79)

Siena: Curci; Zuniga, Rossettini (Moti 28), Portanova, Del Grosso; Vergassola, Coppola, Galloppa (Calaio’ 81); Kharja; Ghezzal, Maccarone (Frick 53)

Goals: Cassani 30 (P), Simplicio 54 (P)