GIALLOROSSI YORKSHIRE BLOG
It's the 21st September, 2016. Roma are playing against Crotone, and Francesco Totti has been handed a rare start by Luciano Spalletti, just under a week before his 40th birthday.
Leading the line against the Serie A newcomers is Edin Dzeko, who has already scored two goals in the early stages of the league season. The powerful striker is about to add a third. Roma have taken a two-goal lead into half-time, thanks to strikes from Stephan El Shaarawy and Mohamed Salah. The team have, as expected, enjoyed most of the possession and chances, and look all set to bounce back to winning ways, three days after their loss to Fiorentina. However, nothing is certain in football, so a good second half performance is essential. Three minutes into the second half, and Roma have started comfortably. They have possession deep in their own half, with Crotone sitting back. Leandro Paredes receives the ball just outside his own penalty area and looks up to see his captain, Totti. Il Capitano is stood in his own half, adjacent to the centre circle. Paredes feeds him the ball, and Totti goes on to show that his football brain is still performing at its maximum level. Without even looking, Totti curls the ball around his shoulder first time, playing a long aerial ball forward. His 50-yard pass falls straight into the path of Dzeko. The Crotone keeper rushes off his goalline, but there's nothing he can do as Dzeko strokes it over his head and into the back of the net. What a combination. Within five seconds of Totti receiving the ball in his own half, Roma had scored their third of the game. Totti didn't need to see where Dzeko was; he knew his teammate's position by instinct. He only needed one touch to play the number nine in with a magnificent first time pass. As the saying goes, talent hits a target no-one else can hit, but genius hits a target no-one else can see. Francesco Totti, at the age of 39, was still a genius. Totti made the goal out of nothing. In an age where build up play is everything and teams are scared to take risks, Roma's loyal captain bucked the trend with a sensational piece of creativity. He had a telepathic understanding of where Dzeko was, and played a pass that only a few others in world football have the ability to. Totti made the goal, but nothing should be taken away from Dzeko's finish either. He showed the calmness and composure that would later come to define him. But let's not forget that this was only the fifth game of the season. In the previous campaign, Dzeko had wasted a lot of chances, ultimately being dubbed a flop. That season, he turned the tables and went on to break all sorts of records, but at that point, he still hadn't built up a rhythm. This was the watershed moment, where he became a lethal finisher once again. Totti and Dzeko, two phenomenal footballers, had combined to create a beautiful goal. Number nine and number 10, both experienced professionals who have contributed to hundreds of goals in their careers. What a partnership this could be. In fact, this wasn't the first time they had linked up to create a goal. The goal against Crotone was almost a carbon copy of a goal that Dzeko had scored in pre-season, just two months earlier, against Terek Grozny. Again, Totti drifted back towards the half way line to pick up the ball, and again, he whipped it around the corner first time. Again, the ball landed right at Dzeko's feet, and again a goal was the outcome. The ex-Manchester City man used a different type of finish, sidefooting it past the keeper, and Totti's pass was a little shorter than the one he would play against Crotone, but other than that, it was virtually the same goal. And so, the Totti-Dzeko combination had its explanation. This intelligent partnership had come from the experience of playing together and understanding each other's movement. Crucially, it was about having two players with extraordinary skill levels to make such moves effective. Totti and Dzeko could create a lot of goals for Roma. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see as much of that partnership that season as some would've liked. While Dzeko went on to score a massive 39 goals that season, Totti didn't start another game in Serie A. Consequently, his assist for Dzeko in the Crotone game was the last time he would ever set up his Bosnian teammate. Playing time restricted, Totti was robbed of the opportunity of creating more goals in his final season as a professional footballer. Even though Dzeko didn't struggle without Totti, the combination could still have been used more often. In some tight games that season, Roma struggled to break defences down, but Spalletti was still reluctant to use Totti. Totti who, in that same season, had created a goal out of nothing within five seconds. He understood Dzeko perfectly, and the link-up between the pair could have seen Roma turn some draws into wins, or losses into draws - or even second place into first place. Totti was still capable of making goals for Roma, but ultimately, Spalletti decided not to take advantage of this. Roma were just four points away from the Scudetto that year, and who knows whether or not more involvement of Totti could have changed the scenario to one where Roma won the title. Likewise, after Totti's retirement, goals have sometimes been hard to come by. Meanwhile, someone who could still create them with ease is watching in the stands as a director. Francesco Totti and Edin Dzeko are two forwards who have played at the very top level. They have both made their own pieces of history for this club, and have done things many others can only dream of. It's just a shame that their paths didn't cross sooner, and we didn't get to enjoy more of their combinations for Roma.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
samuel bannister
Founder and editor of Giallorossi Yorkshire, who is also a columnist for Roma's official website about the women's team. Categories
All
Archives
October 2019
|