Four wins in the first five league games. Raise your hand if you'd have bet on it, after a summer that saw the arrival of several young players but also the departure of players like Gaetano, Palestra, and Esposito.
Cagliari has been a dream team in this first, brief, part of the season. Only in the historic Scudetto year of 1969-70 did the Rossoblu start with four wins in their first five . The fifth in that case was a draw, this time a narrow defeat against the mighty Inter.
Pisacane's team thus enters the long break—the national team having been sidelined for two weeks—just one point behind top spot in the table, shared by Roma, Inter, and Lazio. They are ahead of Como, Milan, and Juventus. And when they return to the Domus, it's Juventus, whom the Sardinians will be able to look down on for once.
History repeats itself. That year, after five games, Gigi Riva had three goals, one of which was a penalty . The Legend is incomparable: but yesterday Daniel Maldini scored his third consecutive goal, all of which were decisive goals for the victory. He too, after five games, has three goals, one of which was a penalty .
Yesterday, the striker put the controversy surrounding the accident behind him, playing for almost an hour despite the slight bruise he sustained in the crash with his Porsche in Milan. And Pisacane is embracing him: "When the news came out, I deliberately didn't even want to talk to him on the phone. I was sure he was perfectly clean , and what happened today confirms the boy's good faith," he said yesterday after the match in Udine. "If he hadn't been, even by one percent, he certainly wouldn't have had the satisfaction of scoring today. He's a talented boy, and he wasn't even 100% fit, because he had sustained a bruise in the accident, but I never doubted putting him on the pitch . It would have been a mistake, given the chemistry that's developing."
Yesterday we also saw the return, in fine style, of Yerri Mina , who played a practically perfect game. And then there were the lungs of Michel Adopo, the young talent of Paul Mendy ready to blossom (he was born in 2007), and the extraordinary saves of a sensational Elia Caprile , who kept Cagliari alive at 0-0 and saved them after they had taken the lead.
There's a sense that a wonderful chemistry has developed between the many young players and the few more experienced ones. And the credit for this group undoubtedly goes to Fabio Pisacane: having arrived quietly, amidst a little too much grumbling, he's managed to make the second-best start in Cagliari's history . And while fans are always allowed to dream, "we must keep our feet firmly on the ground," explains the coach. The goal remains survival, and thanks to this year's record start, that can be achieved early and without too much worry. To give the fans a year without tribulations. And make them dream, at least for a while.
(Unioneonline/L)