Keep Your Pants On, Catania Wins

By: Chris | November 17th, 2008

No shortage of Rossoblu headlines this week. Lets begin with the result.

Beppe Mascara recorded a hat-trick, including one from an impressive free kick as Catania outpaced Torino 3-2 at home. This may have been an audition for Mascara, who is rumoured to be courted by Il Toro. His free-kick goal garnered world-wide press — Catania players in the wall dropped their shorts below their knees so that Matteo Sereni was unable to see the kick as it was taken, resulting in the goal. Tasteless? Yes. Illegal? Maybe. Effective? Definitely.
Pants down

Following a recent slump, the Sicilians have bounced back by collecting 6 points in 2 games against Cagliari and Turin. The team is starting to separate itself from the bottom of the table, and they have done that by beating teams that they are expected to beat, and collecting additional points from unexpected places. They now sit tied for sixth in the table, and have two more winnable games upcoming before facing AC Milan in the first week of December. If all goes well, they will have secured their stay in Serie A by Christmas.

Zenga can’t seem to keep out of the headlines these days. Following the Torino game, he got into a shouting match with journalist Enrico Varriale, who took Zenga to task for not showing up for the post-game interview last weekend. Varriale claimed that Zenga owed it to the press to make himself available, since they gave him a job when he was all but forgotten by the football world prior to his days as a manager. Mayhem ensued. Expect Zenga to be fined by the club.

Finally, from the we-hardly-new-ya department, Zenga has confirmed that Romanian national midfielder Nicolae Dică will be leaving the team. His early lack of form quickly relegated him to the bench, and his apparent lack of desire kept him there. Fearing the loss of his place on the national side, he began making noises about leaving last month, and Catania were happy to oblige. For me, I’m happy not to have to use the letter “ă” anymore.