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[STTBS] Cronaca Juve – Thursday, February 16th, 2012

February 16, 2012

by Aaron Giambattista

February 16, 2012


 

Hello everyone! Happy Thursday to you. Here in New Orleans, we have a wonderful event coming up this weekend called Mardi Gras, celebrated in other Christian countries (except the rest of the US, lame) as the start of Carnival season. It’s one last time to participate in a bit of hedonism before Ash Wednesday which the beginning of Lent- 40 days of penance before Easter.

After the stinker of a match that was Parma, Juventus host Sicilian side Catania this coming weekend. There’s been a lot of controversy and disappointment surrounding the club this week, most notably in the disappointing offense and complaints directed at the referees. Let’s hope Juventus participates in a bit of hedonism themselves this weekend- a nice thumping victory against Catania would be just the tonic the club needs before perhaps a number of austere “ground out” wins during Lent.

  • The big discussion in Italy after Juve’s 0-0 draws against Siena and Parma this week, is two-fold: one covers the Bianconeri’s inability to beat the smaller sides, the other some questionable refereeing non-calls in the two events. Despite dominating possession, Conte’s side still is looking for a way to break down opponents. Though the attackers (and midfielders) have simply not been scoring, the overwhelming debate has been over the referees’ performances in these games. Many, however, Juventini and non-Juventini alike, have stated that penalties or not, Juventus should be finding a way through these smaller sides.

  • Antonio Conte, Andrea Pirlo, and Pavel Nedved all had strong words about the state of refereeing after the match (see embedded videos). Juventus very well could have had two penalties: Giaccherini was tackled in the box, and Andrea Pirlo was taken down (embellished, but the foul was there) by Fabiano Santacroce in the 90th minute. The three stated that Juventus was simply not receiving fair treatment from the referees this season, which is probably backed up by the amount of penalties Juventus have been awarded this season: 1 (one!). Not since Siena in 2004-05 has a team been at this point of the league without more than 1 penalty. Conte, Pirlo, and Nedved have taken a fair amount of heat for their statements, but the club officially backed them up today by declaring “Juventus seeks equal treatment, including on the pitch”.

  • The fury of many Juventini (myself included) is that these complaints have been ignored as rambling delusions by much of the press. There has been a seemingly coordinated effort to discredit Juve’s appeals by the Italian media: RAI made no mention of Juve’s penalty claims against Parma in their brief match report, yet noted Giovinco had a penalty shout. Gazzetta claims we are not the only side with only 1 penalty received, stating Bologna and Udinese are part of the “club” as well. Most interestingly, Mediaset (yes, the Berlusconi-owned station that drummed up the war against Milos Krasic) stated in an article that the Rossoblu and Zebrette not only had the same count, but also received “the same treatment” as Juve. For the record, Bologna have received two penalties and Udinese four, as indicated by this helpful Tuttosport summary:

  • The penalty situation brings up a lot of other questions: Juve have had a shockingly low amount of penalties with several valid claims, and yet, the Rossoneri have had many. When looking at the last 5 years, a disappointing trend comes out. Since Calciopoli, AC Milan have had a stunning 29 more penalties given to them compared to how many they’ve conceded, Roma at a fairly large 21 (you may recall they broke the record last season for most awarded to them), Internazionale with a more sane 11 (one “strong” year boosting them up) and Juventus with a paltry +3 balance. Juventus have certainly not earned “their due” and Milan probably more than their fair share.

    What bothers me most about the situation is that it isn’t a one-off, but like Inter’s generous 2007-08 season it’s a pretty consistent pattern: whether it’s a coincidence or not is the subject of a massive debate in Italy (worth noting, in the 5 years pre-Calciopoli Milan still had a significantly bigger “balance” of penalties than Juventus, though the Bianconeri had a “healthy” +18 in favor).

  • In non-controversial news, Juve’s Primavera had another great win in Viareggio. After defeating Vicenza on penalties in the Round of 16, they faced Paraguayan side Club Guarani in the quarterfinals. Despite going down 1-0 (and having Padovan sent off for a foul that remains to be clarified) the Primavera mounted a great comeback and beat their opponents 3-1, with goals from Gouano, De Silvestro (who had a great game) and our newest signing, Bouy, who scored yet another wondergoal. Bouy has already scored twice in the tournament thus far and looks indeed to be an inspired signing. Full extended highlights of the 3-1 victory can be seen here on YouTube (Bouy’s goal is at 7:00). The boys will take on Parma in the semifinal, Saturday at 15:00 CET.
  • Moreover, the Regional Director of Tourism and Juve’s Head of Marketing hailed the influence that Juventus Stadium has had on tourism in Turin. It’s become a hot spot for businesses, for events, meetings, and conventions. The stadium tours have been a big success, and the soon-to-be-opened museum promises to be a big attraction as well. The two noted that many tourists recently have chosen Turin for their trips, partially due to the business and social offerings that Juventus Stadium has.

That’s it for us today at STTBS. Do you feel Juventus are being punished by the referee, or it’s just the club complaining because we missed out on 2 points? Are Juventus deflecting criticism of the strikeforce or cracking under the pressure? Give us your opinion over at The Shoutbox.

Tomorrow we’ll be back with more STTBS and likely a nice little Catania preview for you to kickoff the weekend with. Have a good day all!
 

[STTBS]: Cronaca Juve is a daily feature where the JuventiKnows editorial team discusses the JuveNews stories you need to read, without the “Messi signs for Juve on loan thanks to Nike” kind of nonsense. What does [STTBS] mean? You’ll have to guess that for yourself. We wouldn’t tell you even under pain of torture… (though we do take bribes)

Permanent link to this article: http://juventiknows.com/sttbs-cronaca-juve-%e2%80%93-thursday-february-16th-2012/

  • Anonymous

    Few other comments I wanted to add but didn’t know where to do so.

    -As Conte says, Marotta asked earlier for Juve to get fair treatment from the referees.
    -Back in January, Matri was asked about a penalty incident and shrugged it off saying “we don’t get penalties anymore.” 

    Some outlets have stated Juve are only complaining now, but it’s not just now.
    In light of Conte’s words (a ref needs to think 1,000 times before making a call for Juve) it makes me think of Vucinic’s red card against Bologna. Initially the referee ran over and told him off but did not give him a second yellow- only after being swarmed by Bologna players did he change his mind. I don’t want Juve to swarm the referee, and it probably would make no difference, but goodness. Bologna gets more respect than us.

    • Anonymous

       Aaron, you’re no 5.5 anymore. That’s for all your twitter troubles.

  • Bassel

    Nedved’s style is still like a footballer, not a directer, funny how much he swings in his interview. 
    ♥ Pavel ♥  

  • http://twitter.com/JulianDeMar Julian De Martinis

    It’s a shame that I feel like I have to preface this before saying what I’d like to say, but I think it’s necessary
    given the context of what the internet’s like nowadays. I’d like to comment on Aaron’s analysis of the Juventus penalty situation from a different point of view. Now, full disclosure: as I’m sure many of you know, I’m a
    Romanista through and through. I come here not as a Romanista, nor as some kind
    of Juventus hater, but as someone who’s very weary of allegations like this as
    they harken back to a dark time in the history of calcio (whether or not that
    time is valid is another story; it remains a dark time nevertheless).

    So first of all, I’d like to congratulate
    Aaron on finding these statistics. It must have been rather time consuming and
    as I’d expect from him, there’s not simply one fact isolated but a bunch of
    stats together to support his claim- that being that Juventus are not getting
    as many penalties as they should be, or at the least, other big clubs are
    getting more penalties in their favor than Juventus are.

    My argument is that this is undoubtedly true
    if we look at the numbers provided, but I think Conte and Juventus are going
    about the wrong way here, for a number of reasons. First of all, if a team’s
    strategy is to play until a penalty is awarded and then win based off that,
    something is wrong. I don’t think Juventus are doing so, which Aaron quite
    rightly points out, but that obscures a bigger 
    picture here- if the likes of Matri and co. were breaking down these
    defences as they should be, then this would be a very quiet discussion. This is
    coming up now, for better or for worse, because Juventus are having so much
    trouble breaking down sides that they really should be able to, at least on
    paper.

    Second, pressuring the referees is only going
    to result in the same problem in the opposite direction. I’ve always been
    against teams calling for penalties, whether it be Roma or someone else. If
    this pressure from Conte and the club results in referees giving dubious
    penalties to the club, has any progressed really been made? Yes, you guys get a
    penalty, but if fair play is the aim, then no.

    Next, the argument Aaron makes relies on the difference
    between penalties awarded and those conceded. Looking at the numbers, though,
    Juventus have had quite a few awarded in years’ past. For example, Juve (6) had
    more than Inter (4) and only one less than Roma in 08/09. Similarly, the club
    had only one less than Milan and Inter (6 each) last year. The real difference
    seems to be to be the defence, which has conceded nearly as many as has been
    awarded in each case. Is it any surprise that a defence featuring an aging
    Grosso and Cannavaro conceded 5 penalties in 09/10, one more than was awarded? Or
    the 8 conceded two years earlier with the likes of Gyrgera and Molinaro in the
    side? Or that the Milan defense, which features titans like Nesta and Silva, or
    Inter’s with Lucio and Samuel, conceded many less in years’ past? In the long
    run, it makes sense to me that Juventus have conceded just about as many as
    they’ve earned given the usually mediocre players featured for the side.

    All that being said, 1 for this year is rather low. It’s
    been a pretty low year overall though. Roma, at 3, are nowhere near close to
    last year’s 13 or even the 11 awarded the year before. Inter’s 4 also ties
    their lowest amount in 5 years, and Milan usually get more than 6. So while it
    does seem like a low number, it seems to me that the referees are being harsher
    on all of the traditional big 4 sides.

    So, in conclusion, the lack of penalty calls is curious, but
    at this point I’m not sure I’d call it anything more than that. At the end of
    the day, Juventus aren’t winning because the likes of Matri are stalling and
    Vucinic is disappointing.

    • Anthony

      I get what your saying Julian, but just simply watching the games you could see that Juve have been denied legitimate penalties all season. And the fact that the newspapers are reporting it as if Juve are whining is annoying. It is true that Juve are complaining about refs which I hate to see, but something tells me if Milan, Inter or Roma had this same problem that they’d be complaining too.

      Juve have been accused of lacking style, but they also have to stand up for themselves. Through the media is now the only way to communicate with refs which is unfortunate. It was better in the past when everyone was allowed.

      The strikers are stalling and that is the bigger problem, but that doesn’t mean the poor decisions aren’t a problem too.

      And no one is asking for dubious penalties to be awarded to Juve. Juve just want the legitimate ones called. Equal treatment is all they’ve talked about. Will all this talk pressure the refs to award a few undeserved penalties? Perhaps it will. But I really hope not. I only want legitimate penalties given.

      • http://twitter.com/JulianDeMar Julian De Martinis

        Well Anthony I don’t disagree with you, but my fundamental point still stands- if you guys were scoring, this wouldn’t be an issue. Bigger problems that Conte must address (and for what it’s worth, I think Conte is both mature enough and smart enough to realize this. I think he’s a superb coach.) As for penalties, they only become a problem when the strikeforce isn’t enough- though I won’t deny Calciopoli has swung this kind of stuff against Juve’s way.

        • Anonymous

          It doesn’t help that fucking opposition goalkeepers all become superman against us. Seriously, the pagelle rating for them combined is better than anyone in A. Never seen Agazzi have a game like he did in Juve-Bologna, never seen Parma’s keeper play like that, 3-4 goalscoring saves. If they were human, Mirko Vucinic might not be a total waste. 

        • Anthony

          I believe Conte is bringing up refs also to take the attention off his players and put it onto himself. He’s a smart guy and knows what he’s doing. He may be covering for the fact the strikeforce is struggling, but I’m sure he isn’t deluded and knows that penalties not being awarded isn’t the root of the problem.

    • Anonymous

      Juventus actually had pretty stellar defenses in the Ranieri years. Mock Molinaro and Grygera if you’d like, but they were reliable under Ranieri. 

      I think the problem with your argument is you’re assuming Juventus have had too many penalties given against them. That was Ranieri’s beef in 07-08. If you look at the stats, the poor differential comes more from the fact that we’re not getting any penalties, the same problem now. Milan’s lowest penalty count is 6 penalties, which is Juve’s 2nd best. (1st best is 7 penalties) Roma’s worst season is 7 penalties. We’ve had 7 penalties, 6 penalties, 4 and 5. The other teams all have hit double digits, and many of them like Roma/Milan, on multiple occasions.

      1 for this year isn’t just rather low, it defies all logic. We have been far more attacking than the likes of, oh, at least half of Serie A, and yet we’re the only club with 1 penalty, the lowest at this point in Serie A since 2004-2005 Siena’s team. And you simply cannot argue that Juventus have not deserved more penalties- we’ve attacked more, and there have been SEVERAL obvious penalties waved away.

  • http://www.reflyhadiwijaya.net/ Refly

    I believe, this is Awesome Bouy’s third goal, not second. And this is hi second wonder goal out of three. Ready for the first team?

  • Joshua

    Breaking news: AC Milan sounded out in their attempts to bribe designated match officials in attempts to gain unfair penalty treatment. AC Milan will be relegated with immediate effect, replacing Sassuolo who will be promoted to the Serie A by virtue of being top of the Serie B table.

  • fedriza

    Add Buoy to first team..:D. 
    Well, if we did finally get the penalty, and then someone didn’t succeed to convert it to a goal, then final result would be same : 0-0. Or, we managed to changed the scoreline 1-0, and then Seba equalized, what happen next? Or, Seba scored twice and we lost, i believe we all would be extremely furious. And another reason, would raise up. 

    IMO, yes, truly we deserved to get a penalty (foul on Giac, which is very very obvious), but don’t take it as an ultimate reason or black goat why we only got one point that night. I would rather be happy if Conte’s post match comment pointing at Vucinic or Matri for their bad performances. Admit it, we don’t perform well against lower ranks clubs. Surely it’s a problem that Conte would have to solve it ASAP. Btw, Great penalty analysis from Aaron, but that just a statistic, not proving anything. Best prove for the fans, is just win the game, win and win. But as everybody had already talk about our achievements until this week, it is very outstanding & remarkable how we’ve recovered from our disasters in the last 2 seasons : injuries, lack of spirits & inconsistency. 

    Lets hope our Juve will gain more points in the next matches and meet the early season’s targets. It’s forbidden to say (or even to think) about that S word. Just play like Old Lady has to be..

  • Ivan

    referees are not giving us penalties anymore mainly because of calciopoli. the sooner juve proves its innocence at the court the better. or else we wont get a penalty for another 10 years. referees not giving penalties is just a consequence. the cause needs to be resolved, and that is calciopoli 

  • Darkhorse1234

    I wonder how Milan were able to score against a defensive siena?

    • Anonymous

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