By Alton Costa
Juventus wanted to confirm their great performance against Udinese. . Palermo came to Turin determined to get the 3 points. A game which various soccer personalities forecasted to be a spectacular one.
Hopeful Juventus fans were given an early cold shower when Pastore and Co. surprised the distracted Juventus defense. Even though Del Neri emphasized a lot of his training during the week specifically on the defense, seems like there is a long way to go to achieve the inspired results.
The rest of the first half was quite balanced with both teams trying to score. The second half ‘s start was on the same wavelength of the first with Juventus holding possession and trying to unsuccessfully infiltrate the well organized Palermo setup. On the other side of the coin, almost every attacking effort from Palermo created havoc in the shaky Juventus defense, thanks to their young talents Pastore (who many are seeing traces of the legendary Zidane in his moves) and Pinilla.
Illicic and Bovo sealed the tomb on Juventus’s evening, which only Iaquinta’s late goal tried to fruitlessly revive.
Surely Del Neri has a lot of work to do to make the defensive sector act as a single unit rather than individual performers, but still he had some good crop to collect, especially Krasic with his devastating runs on the wing and the steady performance by the central mid field, composed by Marchisio and Melo.
My personal impression is that due to all the changes in the team, we will have to wait till the second round until we see the full potential of Juventus.
This is Palermo’s first championship win, a remarkable one indeed, confirming once again to be Juventus’ boogie team. A young Palermo side full of determination and creativity with more than a hopeful future, increasing their chances for a champions’ league placing.
