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millossobek
The 3-Stars Cup
Reggina Europa League Preview!! (Forza Amaranto!!!!)
The Amaranth play a European Cup for the first time in their history!!
It's been a remarkable turn of events for us in the past 3 seasons, and we are coming into the Europa League on a really good streak, having won our first three matches in Serie A to start our fourth season! Two tough away wins against Udinese (0-1) and a very passionate match against SPAL (1-2) gave way to our home debut, where we were able to beat Sampdoria (2-1)!! 3 Matches. 9 out of a possible 9 points, and we couldn't be in better form going into our first Europa League Matchup!! Here is a great strike by our Korean midfielder veteran Lee Chang-Min to punctuate the win at home vs Sampdoria!!
Even though Season 4 is still very young, this 3-game winning streak has served us well coming into our first ever European fixture! The draws have been made, the Reggio Calabria papers and web portals are really buzzing all over the city as the Sports page has essentially become the Front page for the time being! Take a look at the latest edition of "La Gazzetta Di Reggio", which details all the important stories regarding our qualification! Some of the headlines read as follows: "Expereience and Youth, will the eternal Captain Lapadula start over our youthful promise Russo?" "An entire city celebrates!", "FC Utrecht, a strong adversary", and a "strong start to Serie A"! As you guys can see, our team has captured the imagination of the entire city, as everyone, young and old, downtown and uptown, from the docks or from the inner city, has taken this team to heart and the papers and journals have gone into a complete Italian-style media frenzy!
Which leads me to the nitty-gritty of the matter. Our Europa League Group Stage. We will be matching up against 3 sides with extensive European Experience!
- First up, and leading the group. is Bayer 04 Leverkusen! Even though Leverkusen has never won the Bundesliga, they have finished runners up an astonishing 5 times! In terms of international experience, they have won the UEFA Cup once in 1998 in a historic comeback against Espanyol. In addition, Leverkusen finished runners-up in the Champions League once in 2002 to a historic Real Madrid side, and have also won a DFB-Pokal Cup (with once again, 4 runner up finishes!). They have had a lot of international experience and very good results and have to be considered the favorites in the group.
- LOSC Lille have won Ligue 1 three times! (4 times in rl, 3 times in the ML Universe). Even though their glory years came mainly in the 50's, they did manage to win an international champioship, the 2004 UEFA Intertoto Club! They are definitely a club on the rise, having competed in the Europa League on 8 occasions and in the Champions League 8 times as well!
- And rounding off the group is FC Utrecht. The Dutch side has had 15 Europa League appearances, even though this is only the third time they have reached the group stage of the Europa League (the previous two times being the 2004-05 UEFA Cup and the 2010-11 Europa League). Despite the fact that they have not crowned themselves Dutch Champions in over 60 years, Utrecht has won its fair share of local cups and will be fighting to prove that their third Group Stage Appearance is not a fluke!
And finally, there's us. Our first international competition ever! (in which we will be debuting with Brand-New Kits, soon to be unvelied!) It is clear that we have as much to prove as anyone else in the Cup, as the other teams in the group clearly view us as the weak link, without much chances of qualifying to the next stage. But if there's something that our dear Amaranth has proven time and time again, is that under the leadership of Baggio and Lapadula, we have been defying the odds since day 1. We have reinforced ourselves with some nice players in the offseason, Center Back Veselinofic and DMF Bilogrevic (A Serbian-Croatian combination!), as well as 17-year old Brazilian Renatinho on the wing and Filippo Melegoni from Genoa!
One of the most interesting subplots (as detailed in "La Gazzetta") in our first European League will be, what will Baggio decide to do with Lapadula? Now 33, Lapadula is rated 71 and is clearly not the same physical specimen he was almost 4 years ago, when I started the ML campaign. On the other hand, perhaps my main protege from my youth system, Cesare Russo (21), has been emerging as Gianluca's backup for a long time now.. and has just overtaken Lapadula in the overall rankings! (72). It is abundantly clear that I have a huge decision to make, not only in my upcoming back against UTRECHT, but in the Europa League campaign in the long run! Following up are some interesting quotes:
Roberto Baggio: "If there's something that I've tried to instill in my players from day one.. Is that ego is the enemy of clarity.. I've attempted to influse our dear team with this mentality, and the players have responded in kind, seeing themselves as part of a big whole as opposed to individualities. I think that's been our biggest accomplishment! Yes, without a doubt I will make the best decision for our team, but many things have to be taken into consideration here..... Not only numbers or matchups, strategies or form, but also perhaps something more difficult to objectively define, which is the feeling of the game. I will do my best to read the moments of the match. But for now, I think enough philosophy. Let's just enjoy our first European League participation, as this one is dedicated to our fans, to the players!!!
Gianluca Lapadula: "I've been watching Cesare's progress steadily for over 3 years now, and all I can say right now is that I'm proud of how far he has come. I know that some members of the media, perhaps here and elsewhere, have tried to create some kind of story about who will start, who will come off the bench. And I can assure you.. This is not something that keeps me up at night at all. Of course I want to play, but I'll be happy with whatever Roberto decides. In the end, what matters most is the win, to start off on the right foot, and whether I start or finish.... That is entirely secondary to who wins. A Captain must think of the team first, I have left my ego at the door a long time ago!! I am 33 years old now, going on 34, and I know that I won't be around football forever.. I'm just trying to enjoy whatever I can and lead my team emotionally, on and off the pitch.. I really think the main story here is that we qualified.. Europe, here we come!!"
Russo got a bit emotional in his press conference:
Cesare Russo: "I've been grateful to being under manager Baggio's and Lapadula's tutelage these last 3 or 4 years.. It is really an honor to learn with such incredible professionals. Gianluca, especially, took me under his wing and has guided me at every step of the way... And for now for him to say that he doesn't care who starts or who gets to play... That just makes me incredibly emotional....... (long emotional pause).. you guys can't understand the respect I have for his humble personality and leadership, and I can't believe I am now fulfilling a childhood dream of playing European Cup Football. I don't now if I will start or how much I will play, but all I know is that win-lose-or-draw, getting to play with this group of teammates, with so much heart and humility, it's like we've all already won."
Stay tuned to the next edition of Millossobek's Master League Stories!
Comments are welcome!
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