parla calcio?

Pessimistico

I could have predicted this weekend’s result. Even with only a quarter of a season as a Pro Vercelli follower behind me.

In fact, I think I did near enough suggest what the result might be in the final paragraph of my previous piece. Could there have been any other result as Foligno, rooted to the bottom of the league with only one draw from 10 games – travelled to Vercelli; the side “destined” to move up in to the play-off places.

Football fans are, in the main, a pessimistic bunch. If you support a team like Manchester United or Barcelona – there’s a chance you go in to every game with an arrogant swagger – as if no team can touch you. If you support a team like Chelsea, Manchester City or Paris Saint-Germain – then depending on how long you’ve actually been a supporter of the club, you might still have your reservations about a result, no matter how lowly the opposition might well be.

As a Tottenham Hotspur fan I still experience a tremendous amount of doubt, no matter what kind of run we are on. QPR at home turned out to be a fairly comfortable 3-1 win – but then a local derby, against a newly promoted side – there’s always a part of you that thinks the worst.

 I remember that very same feeling when Swindon Town were promoted to the Premier League in the 1993-94 season. The recently promoted side had started their season without a win from 11 games, and a nervy 12^th saw Spurs’ blushes saved thanks to a 1-1 draw at the Lane. I was at that game – and to this day I still think we should have been Swindon’s first Premier League scalp.

In Italy, a lot has changed since the glory days of the Sacchi, Capello and Lippi’s managerial eras. The big teams don’t command every game like they once did. Lecce putting the frighteners up the champions, Milan, before a Kevin Prince Boateng hat-trick pulled a 0-3 deficit back to register a 4-3 win in the second half, is no longer a surprise result.

Consider therefore the plight of the Pro Vercelli fan that has been waiting since 1922 for their next Scudetto win. Who has watched the club play sides throughout the lower reaches, none of which have any kind of comparable history to their own – yet do they think they will always win games they should do?

Or do you think they welcomed Foligno with a sense of anticipation that was intrinsically linked with equal measures of foreboding? Only a fool would think a side that has spent the last 64 seasons outside of the top two divisions would manage any kind of result expected of them.

Oh to be a fool.

Image: Tifosi della Pro Verclli (Tuttoprovercelli.com)

 

Scrivi quando stiamo vincendo

That’s what we second team fans tend to do.

Imagine the amount of blogs that will remain unwritten, thanks to Manchester City’s demolizione (demolition) of their near rivals, United. Fans who spent Sabato pomeriggio (Saturday afternoon) wishing for a United win, so they had something positivo (positive) to write about – as they watched their first team lose out.

Well it’s no different in the lush, grasslands of Lega Pro.

Technical glitches keep posts from the public domain when a sconfitta (defeat) casts doubt over what we might want to write. Two posts in two days greet a much needed win; especially one that pushes the side in to the spareggio (play-off) zone.

Opposition tifosi (fans) have to remember that there is a lot of bluster one could write about Pro Vercelli’s march back towards the dizzying heights of Serie B. All those scuddetti the club has on the back of the shirt – looking down on the likes of Roma or Lazio with their paltry titles – not enough between them to warrant a debate on the greatest of sides. Let alone Tritium Calcio 1908 who enjoyed back to back title successi (successes) – but what titles, Serie D and Seconda Divisione? Pah – come back when people write chapters about you.

“We” shouldn’t even be in the Prima Divisione. Five teams dropped out to present Pro Patria with the opportunity, but then new financial style, pay-to-play in the lower leagues meant that Vercelli went from licking their wounds to leapfrogging their way up the leagues.

So occasionally we know our place. We take our points, our draws, with silence and good grace. Though we don’t go away – we don’t falter from our aims. We wait, we vincere (win) and then we post.

But then if we don’t scrivere (write) about our successes, no one else will. None of the top blogs will give us our day in the sun – give us a fair crack at the column inches.  

2-1 through an own goal and a 90^th minute strike may not be the greatest win in the history of the game – but it’s a start. It signals a move up the table, swapping places with the vinti (vanquished) – hot on the tails of league favourites, Sorrento.

Next week brings Foligno – a side that remain rooted to the foot of the table without a point this season. Fans know not to tempt the dei (gods). Know not to risk the collera (anger) by counting the points before the game is done.

So today we rallegrare (cheer) our win. Tomorrow we’ll work out how to explain away the possibility of an unlikely defeat.

Image: Pro Vercelli players celebrate during their game against Tritium

Lo Stemma

I like a badge.

As a kid I would collect badges of my favourite bands; wearing them with pride - albeit hidden under the lapels of my school blazer. Turning them over when talk got to musica (music) - with someone who didn’t know what bands you were in to.

I also like the idea that I play a sport - yes Lawn Bowls is a sport - where the biggest reward the average bowler can hope for comes in the form of a blazer badge; something to be proud off, even if it has the merest hint of scuola uniforme (school uniform) about it.

Then there are lo stemma (club crests) - the sort you find on football kits.

I used to think the badge was sacrosanct. An indelible part of a club’s history. Then, whilst planning to write a piece about the crests of Lega Pro Prima Divisione sides, I had a quick check of Tottenham Hotspur – my “other” club’s crest storia (history).

I count at least dodici (12) variations on a theme – which is hardly the sacrosanct position I thought to be the case. I say theme, as some were changed to commemorate an anniversary, others by adding a frame – though they all retained the classic gamecock in some form.

The ‘90s saw three changes alone – possibly linked to changes in kit manufacturers?

The club takes its Hotspur name from Henry Percy, the 2nd Earl of Northumberland – who was nicknamed ‘Hotspur’. The crest is derived from Percy’s much admired riding spurs and gamecocks (not sure I want to check the translation of that). The Percy family were great landowners in the Tottenham area – hence the connection.

Although there is the individual link, what is missing is any reference to Tottenham itself. The 1990s brought with it a badge that borrowed greatly from the coat of arms of Tottenham, something a number of calcio sides tend to favour, but this was dropped after just two seasons – returning back to the gamecock that is used to this day.

A town/city or even regional stemma (coat of arms) usually dominates the badges of the sides in Lega Pro Prima Divisione. Pro Vercelli’s is a simple crest showing the cross of St Ambrose (identical to the St George’s Cross) which is also used in Milan and other areas of Northern Italy. Vercelli the city uses the exact same emblem on its coat of arms.

Animali (Animals) tend to dominate a number of regional badges, with leoni (lions) taking centre stage on five badges – including those of Frosinone and Siracusa. And lupi (wolves) appear to be popular in the folklore of both Piacenza and Avellino.

Avellino provides an interesting juxtaposition on their badge in relation to the local coat of arms. The local area’s crest is that of a pecroa (sheep) – where as the club have gone with a wolf. As if the club holds a different set of values to its home. A similar position exists in Foggia where the city’s crest is of a religious phenomenon – with the club flipping that, and going for two little Satan figures.

Great badges are those that lean on folklore the most – with Taras the mythical son of Poseidon front and centre, riding a delfino (dolphin) on Taranto’s badge - or the famed strega (witch) of Benevento dominating the club’s crest. Boring badges are those that go for the obvious – I’m looking squarely at Pisa’s artistic take on their torre pendent (leaning tower) or Viareggio’s Juventuslike kit mock up.

If I was to pick a best, I’d struggle to look past Reggiana. It is a simple crest with a football in the middle. A classic, panelled football, which gives the badge a retro feel - as if it is of a time, possibly a better time, when the need to update a crest was genuine, and not merely a means by which to control the copyright over it.

Scuse

Scuse (apologies) for the break in posts - I’ve been on vacanza (holiday); somewhere modern technology (mobile coverage, the internet, the 1990s) is seen as the work of the diavolo (devil), rather than a daily necessity.

I’ve also had a slight mental break from my plans for world domi… err, I mean, learning Italian.

I hit a bit of a wall the other week when I found out that I couldn’t do a course I had planned to. Unfortunately the people of Leeds seem to have little interest in taking their plastic covered, pictorial menu experience beyond understanding the two uses of Prego (What would you like?/No problem).

Two beginner’s evening classes were offered by the local college network – unfortunately there was not enough takers to get either off the ground. This is the second time this has happened.

I know I have plans in place to utilise books, CDs and website tools to assist my language development, but then there is a massive part of me that knows I would benefit greatly from a gruppo( group)/aula (classroom) environment, just to keep my interest and practice levels up.

As shown by the break in posts of late.

Ah well – we’ll have to look in to other centres that might offer a course we want to go with. It might cost a bit more, but then I’m sure it will be worth it.

At least I guess, even through an apology I am back in the swing of things once more.

Domani (Tomorrow) we’ll get back to seeing how Pro Vercelli are progressing this season.

Foggia

There is a difficoltà (difficulty) with this blog in knowing exactly what angle to take with each post.

Clearly the basis is in the development of my Italian lingua (language) skills, which is directly linked to my continued – albeit – limited understanding of Lega Pro and Pro Vercelli.

The difficulty comes with trying to show how quickly, if at all, those language skills are developing. For I am still wholly reliant on resources like Google translate and Wikipedia to form the basis, at least in part, of the posts I put up here.

But which version of Wikipedia should I use to show this development?

Take Foggia as per an example. It is a city of approximately 153,000 inhabitants – which is a similar size to that of say Oxford, or 10,000 less than Peterborough – of which the city is twinned with.

If you look at Foggia through the Inglese (English) eyes of Wikipedia, it’s hard to actually build a decent understanding of the città (city) – even less to convince you to go there.

Its name derives from the Latin for pit – basically grain stores. Its storia (history) was made up of a number of Re (Kings), earthquakes, an aqueduct and a prominent battle zone during World War II. It is an agricultural heartland and was one of the earliest places to get a train station in Italy – all “riveting stuff”, but very bland and basic in content.

That same English version claims that Foggia has produced only seven famoso (famous) people – that’s just one more than the number of towns/cities it has been twinned with.

Now compare this to the Italian version of Wikipedia.

Firstly the name doesn’t mean pit, or where grain is stored – it might mean mouth of a creek, watershed, and grave or it is linked to candles floating on water as part of a religious legend.

Although there are still only eight towns/cities twinned with Foggia, there are now 10 times (80) as many famous people linked to the city through birth, family or residence.

We find out that 50% of all pomodori (tomatoes) that are grown in Italy come from the region around Foggia. This is quite an impressive fact; given that most Italian famiglie (families) will pile through thousands of tomatoes in one form or another each year.

It lists paragraph after paragraph of buildings, monuments and sites of interests – including Palazzi (palaces) and chiese (churches).

It has 11 sports teams, rather than just the one football team listed on the English site.

This entire boring preamble is to get to the point that the Italian site name checks Zdeněk Zeman, where as the English version doesn’t.

Now if you have had any kind of interest in Italian football since the 1990s you will undoubtedly know who Zeman is. Often outspoken, and technically the polar opposite of the perceived view English fans have of Italian football – Zeman has chain-smoked his way through half (exaggeration abound) of the lower reaches of the Italian league system.

He claimed a number of Juventus players were actively doping in the late ‘90s (without evidence to support this stance); he has had 17 professional contracts – regularly sacked or resigning from those posts – and his stock will either rise (if you love him) or fall (if he hasn’t taken your team on) depending on which way you look at him.

But beyond all that, where his true legend lies is in the fact that there are very few managers in the game that are blessed with having an era of a club attributed to them by name. The obvious stand out in England is the ‘Busby Babes’ of Manchester United – in Italy, they had ‘Zemanlandia’. Zeman took the much unfancied Foggia, first to a Serie B title, and then on an impressive run of top half finishes in Serie A – which almost culminated in a UEFA cup spot. Eventually the club’s top players were sold, Zeman moved on to Lazio and the club were relegated.

He has had three stints at the club – the final one failing to live up to the same glorious heights as his previous; yet still he is both a legend of the club – and of the Italian game in general. 

Can you therefore really have an entry for Foggia without mention of Zeman?

Pro Vercelli drew 0-0 with Foggia, in a fairly drab Lega Pro Prima Divsione encounter last Sunday.

Image: Zdeněk Zeman in typical pose

gia visto

I’m currently clearing out the sala da pranzo (dining room) at mia casa (home) in anticipation of costruttori (builders) arriving to knock through and create a bigger cucina (kitchen).

In doing so I have found a number of CDs and libri (books) all belonging to the same theme – that of imparare italiano (learn Italian) – or whatever a better translation of teach yourself might be.

It’s not quite a sense of déjà vu – as I can remember buying the packs - I just didn’t realise how many variants of the same theme I had; more so now that I have borrowed a really basic version from my local biblioteca (library).

But now it is different – or at least I try to convince myself that on a daily basis.

For I have a reason to learn – to fulfil that sogno (dream) of standing on a curva in Vercelli, debating the merits of “our” team. It’s amazing how focused the mind can become when dreams are involved.

Be sure to tell that to your Capo (boss) or Insegnate (teacher) next time they accuse you of dreaming in a negative way.

Già visto- Already seen (once again tumblr doesn’t like accents in the title)

Romanticismo

If you are looking for a word to describe the relationship fans have with their football clubs - or which readers have with the written words used to describe the highs and lows associated with the beautiful game - then you would be wise to look no further than, romance.

Football may have changed over the years in terms of the money involved and the attitude of those that both run and play the game – but there is still a romantic notion in the way fans and writers express themselves when talking about football.

Never has this been more evident than when bad weather brought proceedings to a halt in the Calcio Como v Pro Vercelli game – on the opening weekend of the Lega Pro calendar. With the stadio (stadium) in Como positioned like a tourist’s dream on the banks of the lake, Stefano Pasquino, press officer for Pro Vercelli was drawn to use the following sentence to describe why the referee chose to call the game off, deep in to the second half:

“ma il campo era ormai tutt’uno con il lago” – “but the field was now one with the lake.”

I appreciate that it is easy to find something beautiful in a sentence in its original form, where the reader is none too wiser to its translation. Ma (but) even in translation there is still something poetic, near romantic about the imagery used here to describe a waterlogged pitch. It is as if, by an act of the Roman god of the water – Neptune – the lake rose over the cover of the stands, and near washed the playing surface away.

Due to the sospensione (suspension) of the game, Calcio Como’s 2-1 lead (Como scored twice in the first half, with Vercelli reducing the deficit early in the second period) will now be expunged from the record books. The score will be returned to 0-0 and the full game will now be played sometime later in the season.

This means that Pro Vercelli’s season will now effectively get under way at home to Foggia on Saturday.

Romance is also the term used to describe the family of languages that Italian belongs to.

Como

There must be a time in every experiment where the chief protagonist stops and wonders if what they are doing is for the best.

As if they find themselves, but for the grace of a decimal point, a miscalculation or a followed hunch, ignoring a path that might have seemed wholly plausible when they first started out.

I knew as soon as the Prima Divisione Girone A (Lega Pro First Division Group A) fixture list was released, that there was something about Calcio Como 1907 which would give just that opportunity to reconsider my own ‘precise’ formula.

With Lake Como seen as one of the many, Italian playgrounds of the ricchi e famosi (rich and famous), it is ideally suited to a family holiday or a shot hop over – ticking boxes for both location and hook. Well, if it’s good enough for the likes of George Clooney, then surely it’s good enough for mia famiglia (my family)?

On top of that, the club can also boast the likes of Marco Tardelli, Paolo Rossi, Pietro Vierchowod and Gigi Meroni amongst its illustrious alumni to have played in their light blue shirts – Tardelli being the only one from that list not to start off with the club.

Calcio Como 1907 have had a patchy decade or so in the top five divisions within the Italian league set up. They were last in Serie A in 2002-03 when the squad included Luis Oliveira, Daniel Fonseca and Benito Carbone. They dropped out of the division after just one year with the side winning just four times, and were even banned from playing their home games in Como due to crowd trouble. The side were never higher than the bottom two for the whole of that season.

The club then spent the next three seasons plummeting through the divisions before being relegated to Serie D due to financial irregularities in 2005-06. Calcio Como 1907 would then be refounded with new ownership for that season.

Fortunes improved, and the side have enjoyed mid-table finishes within the Prima Divisione over the last two seasons.

Calcio Como’s chances of progressing through the original selection grid, ended at Stage Three – by virtue of their “recent” Serie A status, and the need to get down to just 10 sides at that stage. Faith in the formula aside, if you care to think too long about the fact that the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia sits on the banks of Lake Como – it’s hard not to romanticise about where I could be this weekend; had my experiment progressed down another, wholly plausible path.

The Lega Pro season kicks off at 2pm (BST) this afternoon.

Augusto glossario

Pro Vercelli finished the preliminary group stages of the Coppa Italia Lega Pro with a 1-1 draw against Montichiari; a result that was enough to see Pro finish top of their group.

I won’t be dedicating a full post to the game, as – well, to be honest, there’s very little information to be had on Montichiari as a town - even less if you want it in English. It is part of the province of Brescia, Lombardy - near Lake Garda and in the same region as Milan and Bergamo.

So instead, I thought it was a good opportunity to recap on August as a month, and start to build a glossary of words, terms and links that I have used thus far. So here goes:

Words

Calcio – Football

Nuovi inizi - New beginnings

Come scegliere una squadra di calcio - How to pick a football team

Un incubo  selezione - A selection nightmare

Caffè – Coffee

Orecchio verme – Ear worm

Una sola parola – Just one word

Il migliore – The best

Favorito – Favourite

Funambolo – Tightrope Walker

Scudetto – Little shield (Serie A Championship)

Grinta – Grit

Sorpress – Surprise

Romani – Latin for citizens of Rome

Improbabile – Unlikely

Cuva – Bend (what we would call a stand)

Sud – South

Nord – North

Ovest – West

Est – East

Incerto – Uncertain

Recupero – Recovery

Precaria – Precarious

Inferno – Hell

Pasticcio – (a) Mess

Sciopera – Strike

Caotico – Chaos

Divertente – Entertaining

Preoccupante – Worrying

Speranza – Hope

Rinascita – Resurgence

Lavoro – Work

Sbornia – Drunkenness

Mal di testa – Headache

Birra – Beer

Ciao – Hello/Goodbye

In crisi – In crisis

Tifosi – Fans

Uno – One

Prima Divisione – First Division

Seconda Divisione – Second Division

Distrutto – Shattered

Malato come un pappagallo – Sick as a parrot

Tutto bene – All good

Trasferimenti – Transfers

Calciomercato – Transfer market

Cavo – Hollow

Augusto glossario – August’s glossary

Spiegazione - Explaining something

Links

http://www.soccerway.com/teams/italy/us-pro-vercelli-calcio/

http://www.fcprovercelli.it/

http://www.lega-calcio-serie-c.it/

http://mkidj.tumblr.com/

http://iltifosi.tumblr.com/

http://juventiknows.com/

http://www.thefootballexpress.co.uk/

http://giancarlorinaldi.tumblr.com/

http://www.labottegamilanese.co.uk/

http://www.divaitaliana.co.uk/

http://www.sabotagetimes.com/author/matt-barker/

http://swissramble.blogspot.com/

http://www.football-italia.net/

http://www.zonalmarking.net/glossary/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/jul/15/learn-italian-phrases-football

Image: From the Guardian’s ‘Learn Italian Gestures’ feature: Spiegazione - Explaining something

 

 

Cavo

I knew this day would come, but I didn’t expect it to be so early in the season.

A day when my main team, Tottenham Hotspur, were so outclassed by a main rival, that there would be the temptation to almost forget the result as I checked on the fortunes of Pro Vercelli.

This is going to be a fairly language light post. I did ask @Adz77 what the best translation for ‘gutted’ would be in Italian after the Spurs result - his recommendation was ‘distrutto’. I could also throw in the odd cliché such as ‘malato come un pappagallo’ (sick as a parrot) or that the Spurs result was ‘Incredibile Fredo’ (unbelievable Jeff) – but the manager’s moaning and team selection suggested something like this could happen.

So here was a test. Could I go from ‘distrutto’ to ‘tutto bene’ (all good), just from following the text feed of Pro Vercelli’s Coppa Italia Lega Pro group game against Monza? Well – no.

And that’s a, quite clearly no.

I will be honest in that I have actually been more interested in the team news, interviews and manager’s views from the Pro Vercelli camp in the run up to this weekend’s matches – but that is solely down to the desire to improve on my Italian, more than a knowledge of the Italian lower league system. I guess it was also a good enough excuse to avoid the same nonsense that was eminating from the Spurs camp in relation to ‘trasferimenti’ (transfers) or ‘mercato’ ((transfer) market).

Yet on the day, there was only one geuine interest - wanting Spurs to win above any other result. I simply wouldn’t be happy with myself if it was any othere way.

They didn’t win. But then Pro Vercelli did. 2-0, to move to the top spot in their Coppa Italia Lega Pro group. It means that a win against third placed, Montichiari tomorrow night will see the side through to the first round knockout stage.

It didn’t change how I felt. The win was ‘cavo’ (hollow) in terms of satisfaction, but then the longer Pro Vercelli stay in the Coppa Italia Lega Pro – then the more posts I get to put up here.

At least that’s something positive to come from this weekend’s matches.

Image:Pietro Iammello, scorer of the first Pro Vercelli goal. His first as a professional for the club