Almanac Soccer – When in Bologna: Bologna v Lecce

 

Image: Wikimedia Commons

 

When in Bologna do as the Bolognese do. On the evening of Sunday 12 April that meant nipping out to the historic Stadio Renata Dall’Ara for the Serie A match-up between Bologna FC (the Red and Blues, or Rossoblu) and relegation-threatened Lecce, from the downtrodden Puglia region in the shoe of Italy.

The opportunity to go to the game had arisen because I was in Bologna as handbag and chief baggage carrier for my wife Caz Goodwin [cazgoodwin.com] as she attends the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. Caz is a writer of some renown, at least in children’s literature circles, and Bologna has been on her bucket list.

Attending a Serie A game has been on my list ever since I fell in love with the Azzurri and what I regard as the Italian style (technical foot skills, ball at feet, keep it on the ground unless crossing) during Paolo Rossi’s 1982 World Cup. And for once our interests coincided. Caz had been invited to a Sunday night exclusive welcome event – by that I mean I was excluded – so it was no skin off her nose if I went off to a twilight football game.

I warmed up by watching the second half of Sunderland v Tottenham live in the hotel room before I ventured off. Spurs lost 1-0 and never looked like a threat to win. As a result they have moved beyond ‘relegation-threatened’ status into the ‘probably doomed’ category. At the time of writing they occupied 18th spot on the Premier League ladder. They now have no recognisable system of play. This is what must be expected when you mow through four different managers in nine months. The heady days of Ange-ball’s wing play in 2023/24, when Spurs were creating 15 to 20 scoring opportunities a game (albeit often duffing the final shot) and observing a ‘don’t shoot from outside 20 metres’ rule have now given way to chaos. The ball is airborne much of the time and there are frequent speculative shots from way out by selfish players.

I jumped on the Spurs bandwagon during Ange’s two seasons there (a period when I was living in Malaysia) and I’m full of admiration for what the big man conjured: a philosophy of football and a united dressing room. The way his tenure played out was beyond a joke; it was sickening. And I’m not talking about the club powerbrokers and the media who behaved as might have been expected. I’m referring to the conduct of the broader supporter base, jumping on social media or standing pissed off in the grandstands hollering for Ange’s head, and not accepting a position on the league ladder below what they considered their God-given right. Successful clubs have cultures that unite during adversity. I peaked inside the Spurs tent during that period and – like many other Aussie sports-fans – I did not like what I saw. Call it cultural dissonance. I’m now as off the Spurs wagon as it’s possible to be. But I digress.

Bologna FC is a different beast – a happy camp with their community behind them and a discernible style of play. Last year they unexpectedly won the Italian Cup knockout competition, so they’re in the Europa League this year. In the first half against Lecce they deployed a 4-3-3 formation, which is usually the most fun to watch, and so it proved here.

Bologna employed two left footed wingers – Cambiaghi worked the left side, with star Orsolini running down the right flank and cutting back inside, Messi/Salah style. They were the stars of the first half, along with Costa the centre forward and right-channel attacking midfielder Remo Freuler, the first half goalscorer who headed in bravely on the goal line after Orsolini’s shot bounced down off the crossbar. It was thrilling to watch their attacking approach. This team has a method Ange could relate to.

For a side staring relegation in the face Lecce lacked desperation. Their best players throughout the game were their central defenders Siebert and Tiago.

Italian football oozes tactical sophistication so it was no surprise when, despite their first half dominance, Manager Vincenzo Italiano soon after half time switched Bologna to a predominantly 5-3-2 formation. The mission was now to defend the one goal lead, keep shape and try to score a sealer, deploying 3-man counterattacks. Eventually that was achieved – via Orsolini – in the ninetieth minute, in injury time. There was lots of writhing and rolling out on the pitch in the second half as the Bologna players ran down the clock.

That’s enough about the game. What about the venue and the atmosphere? The 38,000 capacity Stadio was constructed nearly a hundred years ago in 1927 with the ardent support of the new Mussolini regime. It has an old athletics track around it. Much of the track is overlayed with artificial grass carpet along the sidelines on match day. The modest scoreboard didn’t offer action replays, and the venue lacks mod-cons like handrails on stairs and a roof over three quarters of the ground. I had wimpishly purchased a seat in the covered stand, which was just as well because the sprinkle of rain that was there at kick-off ramped up to a solid hour-long shower.

But the passione of the supporters is outstanding. Behind the goals at the city end sit the main factions, with their banners proudly displayed – the Freak Boys, Bologna Commandos and Forever Ultras. They let off copious numbers of flares at key moments. The club songs – operatic – were sung with impressive tunefulness throughout the evening.

On my way to the game I had walked through the main city square, the Piazza Maggiore. This being a Sunday afternoon there was a demonstration on, but a surprising one. About a thousand Iranian expatriates stood chanting encouragement to the USA and Israel to sustain their efforts in their conflict with Iran: “Viva USA”, “Viva Shah”. They were waving three flags – the pre-revolutionary Iranian flag (the one with the yellow lion in the middle), the Stars and Stripes and the flag of Israel. I found myself wondering how many of them might have later in the afternoon switched flags to take up the red and blue colours. Were they sitting behind the goal as members of one of the supporter groups? The intensity of the chanting was comparable in both settings.

I had taken care to dress in red and blue, to avoid antagonising home supporters sitting near me via an inadvertent splash of Lecce yellow. I had learned this lesson in 1987, in Thatcher’s Britain, when I naively wore red to an Everton v Manchester United game at Goodison Park and ended up off-side with some home team skinheads. I realised, as I walked to Bologna’s Stadio, that the red Adidas spray-jacket I had donned to wear to this game was the very same item I had worn to Goodison 39 years ago. I’m sure this confirms that if you wait long enough classic sporting apparel comes back into fashion. Or maybe not.

Bologna will be playing their quarter final, second leg tie with England’s Aston Villa in Birmingham on Thursday night, 16 April. They need to bounce back from a 1-3 defeat in the first leg at home. The Lecce game was a valuable tune-up for them.

Result: Bologna 2, Lecce 0

Best for Bologna: Orsolini, Costa, Freuler, Cambiaghi

Best for Lecce: Siebert, Tiago

 

To read more by Dave Goodwin click here.

 

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