Totti’s Two Assists Tame Astra Giurgiu

As we’ve mentioned several times here over the course of the years, CdT is a crew of volunteers, so, as much as we try to stay on top of everything and provide you with at least little snippets on a daily basis, sometimes the real world intervenes and prevents that from happening. And sometimes, that happens at the worst of times, like when Roma, propelled yet again by Francesco Totti, waxed Astra Giurgiu 4-0 yesterday afternoon.

By now you’ve no doubt seen the highlights and read all the superlatives about Totti’s fantastic 40th birthday celebration, but let’s run in back so we can quickly absorb what this man has accomplished over the past several weeks.

Days removed from his 250th career Serie A goal, his sixth goal in his last 13 league matches, to go along with five assists, Totti flat out dominated Astra yesterday, ripping off three shots, contributing five key passes and registering two official assists—three depending on how you view the Fazio tap in that followed Totti’s thunderous free kick.

But that may not even be the most impressive stat from his performance yesterday. Totti took a total of 140 touches, second most in the match. This wasn’t Totti as a decoy or Totti as a last minute energizer, this was Totti the orchestrator, Totti the engineer and Totti the be all end all. It was simply a magnificent and magnanimous performance from Totti, and sure the level of the opponent was a factor, but you don’t see any other 40-year-olds doing that, do you?

Beyond Totti’s incredible turn, Roma received stellar performances from Leandro Paredes, Kevin Strootman, Diego Perotti and Mohamed Salah, among others, perhaps indicating that things are starting to gel. Astra isn’t fit to sniff Roma’s jock, but this could be the resounding victory the club needed to remove all doubt from the equation.

So while we apologize for the late match review, this one sort of wrote itself, didn’t it? I’ve been penning odes to Totti for nearly five years now, and he continues to amaze me. There simply is nothing this man can’t do with a ball at his feet, but we’ve always known that, what we’re witnessing now is a man rewriting history as he sees fit.

His myth and legacy was always secure, what he’s doing now is just absurd. You can’t describe it simply because there is no it...this has never happened before.

We have Francesco Totti and you don’t, and I’m starting to think maybe we don’t even realize how lucky we are.