Can Chievo Keep Aloft in Year of the Horse? : The Flying Donkeys Make Hearts Flutter
Wednesday, December 26, 2001
In Italy, it has become an immutable fact that donkeys fly. But do horses?
.
From early summer, right up to the eve of Christmas, a small Italian suburban team called Chievo lorded it atop the Serie A championship, usually the domain of corporate giants. The term "Flying Donkeys" had been scornfully aimed at Chievo by fans of Hellas Verona, its big neighbor, who said that, yes, they might see a Serie A match against Chievo — when the proverbial donkeys fly.
.
Well, 'tis the season to be charitable, so let's observe that both Verona clubs are comfortable in the top flight. Hellas is in mid-table, and Chievo, representing the 2,700 inhabitants of a working class district of the city, is in the top three.
.
Reality was suspended up to the final game of 2001, when Roma, the defending champion, came north and sternly, pragmatically imposed greater talent and organization on Chievo as it won, 3-1, robbing the pretender of top spot and destroying its unbeaten home run.
.
So now, with the spell broken, Hellas fans, and perhaps other Italians who have a stone for a heart, anticipate the descent. The curmudgeons might be right. On the other hand, wise men from the east tell us 2002 is the year of the horse; and though a donkey is not a horse, Chievo is not what it seems either.
.
After 15 games, we cannot go on believing Luca Campdelli, the cake maker who owns the club, or Luigi del Neri, the coach. The pair have ridden claims of modesty as far as they can go. Chievo has stolen up on bigger clubs, doubtless while some of its multimillionaire opponents were distracted by European and World Cup ambitions.
.
Donkeys the Chievo players are not. Eriberto, the Brazilian winger, has a swiftness of movement and a devilish desire to counter attack. Praise del Neri for spotting it, and for working on Eriberto until an erratic, wasteful talent learnt to work consistently. The task now is to persuade Eriberto that half a season is not a whole and that he must sustain the same urgency and athleticism as defenders, once taken by surprise, seek ways to discourage him.
.
Christian Manfredini on the other wing is a professional in mid-career, born in Ivory Coast, raised by an Italian family, at 26 he is being talked of as a player for Italy's World Cup squad. The winter break, in which clubs buy and sell, will also test the rumors that Roma will come for Manfredini with more lira than Chievo can resist.
.
Eriberto on the right, Manfredini on the left — that shows how expansive, almost how old fashioned, Chievo has been in using the width of the field to attack. Certainly Massimo Marazzina and Eugenio Corini have benefited from their service, to such extent that the strikers of Chievo are up there with Italy's best.
.
Only Inter Milan, with a couple of useful men in Ronaldo and Christian Vieri, has scored more than Chievo. And Ronaldo, whose slight thigh strain will not spoil his best Christmas for three years, is generous in his praise of the Chievo "miracle."
.
On his Web site, Ronaldo acknowledges the spirit of the smaller Verona club. Inter is top, Roma is second, and Chievo, with a game in hand, third. But Ronaldo recognizes, in the way Chievo beat Inter in the San Siro two weeks ago, that there is a work ethic coursing through the newcomer to Serie A that should not be underestimated.
.
The cynics who viewed Ronaldo's almost perennial struggle with knee injury and called him the world's wealthiest invalid, did not heed that, for all the fame and all the money, he remains at heart a boy who wants to play soccer. The belief Ronaldo has in himself, the defiance of all cynics, is something he identifies in Chievo's teamwork.
.
There are plenty who never gave Alaves, a similarly unpretentious Spanish club, credit for showing that small can be beautiful. Alaves not only took part in one of the most memorable UEFA Cup finals — it lost, 5-4, to Liverpool — but is still keeping pace with the Spanish elite a season later.
.
Where Alaves led, inspiring the imagination of so-called lesser clubs during the first half of 2001, Chievo followed. The churlish say Chievo fouls a lot. Its players are vigorous, to be sure, and ten minutes before the end of the Roma game, Eriberto was sent off for barging into Francesco Totti. But Chievo was as much sinned against as sinner; Francesco Antonioli, the Roma goalie, had received a red card 25 minutes earlier for deliberately fouling Marazzina to prevent a goal against him.
.
And though the final score looked emphatic, Bernardo Corrado, Antonioli's deputy, had made more last ditch saves than Cristiano Lupatelli until two late goals exaggerated the margin. The test for Chievo may yet come from inside, rather than outside, the club.
.
The coach keeps repeating that hard work is the core of his team. He knows that it would take only a couple of players to be tempted away, or to get inflated ideas of their worth, to unravel it.
.
"There is no secret to Chievo," said Campedelli, at 33 by far the youngest president in Serie A. "You need a plan, and you need to avoid making change for change's sake." If it were so simple, clubs from Lazio to Parma to Fiorentina could save fortunes and find stability by not hiring and firing of coaches on a whim. But for that to stop, pigs, never mind donkeys, would have to fly.
In Italy, it has become an immutable fact that donkeys fly. But do horses?
http://www.iht.com/articles/2001/12/26/soccer_ed3__22.php
Wednesday, December 26, 2001
In Italy, it has become an immutable fact that donkeys fly. But do horses?
.
From early summer, right up to the eve of Christmas, a small Italian suburban team called Chievo lorded it atop the Serie A championship, usually the domain of corporate giants. The term "Flying Donkeys" had been scornfully aimed at Chievo by fans of Hellas Verona, its big neighbor, who said that, yes, they might see a Serie A match against Chievo — when the proverbial donkeys fly.
.
Well, 'tis the season to be charitable, so let's observe that both Verona clubs are comfortable in the top flight. Hellas is in mid-table, and Chievo, representing the 2,700 inhabitants of a working class district of the city, is in the top three.
.
Reality was suspended up to the final game of 2001, when Roma, the defending champion, came north and sternly, pragmatically imposed greater talent and organization on Chievo as it won, 3-1, robbing the pretender of top spot and destroying its unbeaten home run.
.
So now, with the spell broken, Hellas fans, and perhaps other Italians who have a stone for a heart, anticipate the descent. The curmudgeons might be right. On the other hand, wise men from the east tell us 2002 is the year of the horse; and though a donkey is not a horse, Chievo is not what it seems either.
.
After 15 games, we cannot go on believing Luca Campdelli, the cake maker who owns the club, or Luigi del Neri, the coach. The pair have ridden claims of modesty as far as they can go. Chievo has stolen up on bigger clubs, doubtless while some of its multimillionaire opponents were distracted by European and World Cup ambitions.
.
Donkeys the Chievo players are not. Eriberto, the Brazilian winger, has a swiftness of movement and a devilish desire to counter attack. Praise del Neri for spotting it, and for working on Eriberto until an erratic, wasteful talent learnt to work consistently. The task now is to persuade Eriberto that half a season is not a whole and that he must sustain the same urgency and athleticism as defenders, once taken by surprise, seek ways to discourage him.
.
Christian Manfredini on the other wing is a professional in mid-career, born in Ivory Coast, raised by an Italian family, at 26 he is being talked of as a player for Italy's World Cup squad. The winter break, in which clubs buy and sell, will also test the rumors that Roma will come for Manfredini with more lira than Chievo can resist.
.
Eriberto on the right, Manfredini on the left — that shows how expansive, almost how old fashioned, Chievo has been in using the width of the field to attack. Certainly Massimo Marazzina and Eugenio Corini have benefited from their service, to such extent that the strikers of Chievo are up there with Italy's best.
.
Only Inter Milan, with a couple of useful men in Ronaldo and Christian Vieri, has scored more than Chievo. And Ronaldo, whose slight thigh strain will not spoil his best Christmas for three years, is generous in his praise of the Chievo "miracle."
.
On his Web site, Ronaldo acknowledges the spirit of the smaller Verona club. Inter is top, Roma is second, and Chievo, with a game in hand, third. But Ronaldo recognizes, in the way Chievo beat Inter in the San Siro two weeks ago, that there is a work ethic coursing through the newcomer to Serie A that should not be underestimated.
.
The cynics who viewed Ronaldo's almost perennial struggle with knee injury and called him the world's wealthiest invalid, did not heed that, for all the fame and all the money, he remains at heart a boy who wants to play soccer. The belief Ronaldo has in himself, the defiance of all cynics, is something he identifies in Chievo's teamwork.
.
There are plenty who never gave Alaves, a similarly unpretentious Spanish club, credit for showing that small can be beautiful. Alaves not only took part in one of the most memorable UEFA Cup finals — it lost, 5-4, to Liverpool — but is still keeping pace with the Spanish elite a season later.
.
Where Alaves led, inspiring the imagination of so-called lesser clubs during the first half of 2001, Chievo followed. The churlish say Chievo fouls a lot. Its players are vigorous, to be sure, and ten minutes before the end of the Roma game, Eriberto was sent off for barging into Francesco Totti. But Chievo was as much sinned against as sinner; Francesco Antonioli, the Roma goalie, had received a red card 25 minutes earlier for deliberately fouling Marazzina to prevent a goal against him.
.
And though the final score looked emphatic, Bernardo Corrado, Antonioli's deputy, had made more last ditch saves than Cristiano Lupatelli until two late goals exaggerated the margin. The test for Chievo may yet come from inside, rather than outside, the club.
.
The coach keeps repeating that hard work is the core of his team. He knows that it would take only a couple of players to be tempted away, or to get inflated ideas of their worth, to unravel it.
.
"There is no secret to Chievo," said Campedelli, at 33 by far the youngest president in Serie A. "You need a plan, and you need to avoid making change for change's sake." If it were so simple, clubs from Lazio to Parma to Fiorentina could save fortunes and find stability by not hiring and firing of coaches on a whim. But for that to stop, pigs, never mind donkeys, would have to fly.
In Italy, it has become an immutable fact that donkeys fly. But do horses?
http://www.iht.com/articles/2001/12/26/soccer_ed3__22.php
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