Palermo-Juventus Nonpreview

By: alessio | October 3rd, 2009

Brief thoughts-

We need 3 points, and so do Palermo. They haven’t gotten off to a good start, but they have a very solid squad, with quality and quantity, though I’ve never believed in Zenga as a coach. After all, what did he do at Catania? Not much.

International break is coming up so we can give it one last hurrah. Marchisio, Tiago, Sissoko, ADP will not be making it, though Cannavaro has recovered, it’s not certain if he will be playing.

All about the match in Palermo
Five former Juve players with Palermo and two former Palermo players with Juve. This is a further reason for the match between Juventus and Palermo to be a special one. Like before every match, Juventus.com brings you some information in order for you to be able to live the match at the Barbera more intensely.

PALERMO IN THE 2009/10 SEASON

In the first 6 matches of the championship, Palermo gathered 6 points thanks to a victory, 3 draws and 2 defeats.

The debut against Napoli was victorious: 2-1 which sees the Neapolitans finding it hard to digest due to the posts hit and a disallowed goal. In Florence, in the second match, Palermo lost 1-0 after creating 3 goal opportunities in comparison to the four created by the Tuscans. Things were better against Bari in the following match: The occasions created were 8-3 but the opening goal by the pugliesi forced the Sicilians to a real assault on goal which yielded the equaliser thanks to Budan during stoppage time.

In Parma, Zenga’s team was beaten: former Palermo player Zaccardo was the sorer. The occasions for both teams were very few (3 for Palermo and 4 for Guidolin’s boys). The 3-3 result against Roma was the outcome of an exciting match: under torrential rain came a match for fearless hearts. Palermo managed to equalize twice, before going ahead two minutes from the end of the match. A penalty scored by Totti fixed the result on 3-3, a result which was not totally appreciated due to the 8 goal opportunities created by Miccoli and friends. The result of the last match at the Olimpico against Lazio has a n opposite effect. The rosaneo were once again ahead and only equalized at the very end by Zarate, but the biancocelesti deserved the draw after Sirigu saved 14 shots on goal and 8 goal opportunities. It was a real siege with the 22 year old goalkeeper proving himself to be the hero of the day.

THE MOST FAITHFUL

Since they do not have any European football commitments, Palermo are more consistent in their starting line-up when compared to other clubs. This can be seen from the fact that 6 players have played in every match up to now. The most faithful are Federico Balzaretti, Mattia Cassani, Simon Kjaer, Antonio Nocerino, Fabio Simplicio and Fabrizio Miccoli. It is interesting to note that 4 of them are former Juventus players and the other two – foreigners Simplicio and Kajer – have often been quoted by newspapers as being of interest to Juventus. The former Juve players wore the bianconero jersey in the following seasons: Balzaretti (2005-07), Cassani (moved to Sampdoria in 2003 after playing in the Juve youth sector), Nocerino (2007-08) and Miccoli (2003-05).

PREVIOUS MATCHES IN OCTOBER

Juventus and Palermo played twice in Sicily in the months of October. The first match dates back to the 15th October 1933, in the time of the utter Juve dominion marked by the 5 consecutive championship titles. Juventus, coached by Carcano, won by 1-0 thanks to a goal scored by Borel II who beat his brother Giuseppe, a rosanero player (who would eventually join Juventus 2 seasons later and spend 3 years in Turin).

The second was played on the 8th of October 1961: the bianconeri arrived at the Favorita sporting the Scudetto on their chests and drew 0-0 against a team which – in a unique occasion – ended the championship before the bianconeri in the table. Amongst the Sicilians were two players who dedicated moments in their career to Juventus: goalkeeper Carlo Mattrel and defender Tarcisio Burgnich. The starting line-up of Juventus fielded by Carlo Parola was the following: Anzolin, Garzena, Bozzao, Bercellino, Sarti, Emoli, Mora, Rosa, Charles, Mazzia, Stacchini.