Roma 2, Chievo 2: Highlights and Mini-Review

Today’s match with Chievo was the dreaded 12:30 CET start time, which seems to be foisted upon us non-Europeans at least twice a year, and seemingly always on a Sunday, a day in which the United Nations deemed no one should do anything productive before 8 am.

Accordingly, and in all frankness, I was only conscious for maybe ten cumulative minutes of this match. I awoke to a 1-0 lead, an early one at that (literally and figuratively) and vaguely remember seeing Bryan Cristante register his first Roma goal.

Still, if you’ve followed this team for any respectable amount of time, you knew intrinsically that a 2-0 lead with an hour to play was never safe; not with this team. It doesn’t matter who’s standing on the sidelines, Roma’s penchant for sinking to the moment is well renowned.

And that’s precisely what happened, as Chievo was able to battle their way back to a 2-2 draw with a pair of second half goals. While Roma appeared dominant for stretches, at the end of the day there wasn’t much separating these two sides: shots were pretty well even and both sides favored the quick, forward pass rather than a kick and run style.

I apologize that I can’t give you more than that, sometimes the realities of time zones makes this job tough, but in all matter of fact, we’ve seen this Roma many times over the past several seasons. EDF’s current grasp on the team is beginning to look down right Rudi-esque, and I’m not sure how much longer they can sustain this and still have a chance at finishing in the top four.

With five points after four matches, Roma are mired in 8th place and, even after only four matches, things are looking pretty dire. Eusebio Di Francesco HAS to figure this out, he HAS to find a solution to Roma’s inability to play 90 effective and efficient minutes.

The devil is in the details, and the details may cost him his job if he’s not too careful.