Di Viao And Di Natale: Two Captains, 28 Goals, No Glory
Francesco Guidolin’s Udinese drew 4-4 against AC Milan at San Siro two weeks ago, and scored four more last weekend away to Genoa, winning 4-2. The most in-form side in Serie A did it again this past weekend, halting the instant improvement of current champions Inter winning 3-1 in a fast paced match.
Antonio Di Natale, a man who despite being from Naples is so at home in Udine that he turned down a move to Juventus this past summer. leads the league in goals once more. The Zebrette captain has 15 already, just months after winning the Capocannoniere title as top scorer last year when he ended the season on 29 goals.
Yet despite this fantastic haul, ‘Toto’ is not the man catching the attention of the worlds press. That honour goes to the 22-year-old Chilean Alexis Sanchez, a player garnering the admiring glances from Europe’s top clubs as he has been in absolutely scintillating form in recent weeks. This even goes back to last summers World Cup, where a number of top club officials would have been both surprised and disappointed to discover the Friuli side had signed the youngster way back in 2006 but left him to mature in South America.
Udinese president Gianpaolo Pozzi has stated he would not accept any less than €30 million, a figure almost ten times the fee paid to sign him in the first place, yet more evidence of the fantastic scouting network at Udinese, led and controlled by the owners son Gino. It seems a move will not happen no until next summer, meaning the very real prospect of helping his current side to a European slot before leaving for pastures new.
Not too far away from Di Natale, Bologna captain Marco Di Vaio has just two goals less than his rival and, despite one of the goals from his match-winning brace against Lazio being stunning, he too failed to grab the headlines. Facing the team where he spent his youth career and winning in spite of all Bologna’s off-field woes should have seen much attention for the Rossoblu but the away side ensured that would not be the case.
A complete melt-down flared as the game slipped away from Lazio. First a fight started after a tackle that led to Andre Dias pushing Diego Perez in the face after he reacted to a bad challenge on Ramirez. Dias was sent off while Henry Gimenez also saw red after getting involved from the bench. Then Mauro Zarate lost his cool, sparking another scuffle during which he accidentally clipped the assistant referee as he tried to punch a Bologna player.
This incident has led to a three match ban for Zarate as he and Sanchez, in very different ways, have managed to steal the story away from two goalscoring masters.
