Roma Rise Above Inter with Pjanic Double

A little bit of a throwback to a time when Inter was not just one of the enemies, but the enemy and a little bit of no, not really. This Inter is not that Inter. Sure, the two Inters are spelled the same way, but if you look closely enough you can see that one clearly lacks an owner/chairman with a maniacal smile and spending habits, and more importantly, a scarf around Roberto Mancini's neck. Relatively speaking, this is a mediocre Inter. Mancini's return to Inter is all about two weeks old, so he's hardly had time to put his finger on the pulse of the squad but he's not the same man we remember, either.  Since that time he's very graciously aged a little bit - probably due to being pampered in England with baby blue attire, being called "Bobby" and becoming famous for answering questions with, "This is a football and it's very strange."

Niggling Bits

Still, a match had to be played and Roma delivered. It was entertaining, exciting, and of course, Roma also won. But not without some flies in the ointment. There aren't many, but I'd rather get them out of the way. There seems to be an issue with the squad, and I believe it goes back to the infamous defeat earlier this year. Whenever Roma has a lead, we tend to sit back and step off the gas a little bit. Or a lot, depending on the match.  Generally speaking, it's not a bad thing to attempt to "strangle a match" once in control of it but our defending has clearly shown that the manner in which we're doing it is not working. Roma conceded its first two goals at home this season in this match. It's a pretty good record, but Inter only ever seemed to threaten once we were in the lead. What's the deal here? Sitting back after going ahead does not mean taking a break. It means redirecting some effort from going for a goal to maintaining a lead - be it in retaining possession or pressing the opponents so they don't have time to come up with an attack. It doesn't matter as much in this match because we won, but there will be matches where Roma would have had to work a lot harder for the lead (pick any number of sides who you know will park the bus against us) than they did today. Full throttle, this match could have been a blow-out. We're just that far ahead in our project than Inter at the moment. But, I'll take a win and most people will, too.

Oh, ho, ho it's magic, you know!

Never believe it's not so. Granted, it wasn't exactly one of Mire's most awe dropping performances but even on quieter nights he is still one of the most elegant players on the pitch. He can touch the ball more than anyone else and start almost every attacking move, but people will call him inconsistent or unimpressive unless he creates a work of artistic genius. Thankfully, he did that today. Cleaning up with his go ahead goal on the hour mark was one thing, but that free-kick in injury time is something we've now come to expect from Giotto. Kicking from that distance, Miralem is what I believe the term I'm looking for is...money.

Jose Holebas, what?

First things first (I'm the realist - sorry), boys will be boys and what goes on between men in the dressing room (or Russian strip clubs) should stay there. Unless you put it all out on display in front of the entire world to see. It's nice to see the players are bonding. I guess. Perhaps Jose will think twice about scoring again.

Roma is a club where players can win over the supporters in a single moment. They can also lose them in the same amount of time, but let's not go there right now. I think it's fair to say a lot of us are still processing exactly what happened. It was an amazing goal, perhaps one of Roma's goals of the season so far. Holebas, a guy who not many give a second thought, dribbled around Campagnaro & Ranocchia, two very capable defenders in Serie A, before smashing the ball into the far side of the net as if it's something he does for a living.

I think now is a time better than any other, and perhaps that there ever will be, to get to know our current starting leftback. Jose Holebas, or Iosif Cholevas as some know him, is a German born, non-Greek speaking, and Greek international. His mother is Uruguayan and his middle name is Lloyd. He is the son of Achilles, yes, the Achilles (no, but let's pretend) so maybe we shouldn't be that surprised of what he did today. Unfortunately, that's almost all I know about him other than being on the cover of Greece Men's Health.

As always, grazie Roma.