Thanks to Manuel, Andrea, Cicco and Papa

Manuel Coppola and Marco di Vaio

This evening at 19.00 hours the transferperiod in January ended in Italy. Genoa sold 4 substitutes: defenders: Andrea Masiello (Bari, Serie B) and Francesco Bega (Brescia, Serie B), midfielder Manuel Coppola (Siena) and striker Papa Waigo (Fiorentina). Only Francesco Bega is sold definitively, 50% of the ownership of the other 3 is still in Genoa’s hands.

Genoa also bought 4 players: Domenico Criscito (substitute of Masiello), Anthony Vanden Borre (Bega), Matias Masiero (Coppola) and Wilson (Papa Waigo). The new players are younger and all very talented, so let’s hope they can improve with Mr. Gasperini.

Genoa Club Amsterdam wants to thank Genoano of the year 2005-2006 Manuel Coppola for the special friendship and we hope “Coppolino” returns after this season in his loved red and blue shirt. On the other hand we are happy that Marco di Vaio stays with us and we hope he will play and score again very soon, like he did always and everywhere.

Milan beats good Genoa: 2-0

Fabiano stops Pato

Without 4 line-up players (Criscito, De Rosa, Leon and Wilson) Genoa played a good match and lost only in the last 21 minutes. It was youngster Pato that scored in the 69th and 83rd (offside ?) minute both goals. Actually the match was over after 70 minutes when our goalkeeper Rubinho got a red card after saving the ball with his hands outside the penalty-area. Next week against Catania in Luigi Ferraris we surely miss Rubinho (red card) and Milanetto (4th yellow card), but let’s hope the 4 missing line-up players of today can return in the team of Mr. Gasperini.

Mr. Gasperini has defensive problems

Giuseppe Meazza

Genoa-coach Gian Piero Gasperini has defensive problems for tomorrow’s match against Worldchampions A.C. Milan. Domenico Criscito is banned because of his 4th yellow card, Andrea Masiello was sold this week to Bari while Cicco Bega and Gaetano de Rosa are injured. Only 4 defenders are left in the selection of 18 players:

goalkeepers: Rubinho, Scarpi 

defenders: Bovo, Ghinassi, Lucarelli, Santos

midfielders: Danilo, Fabiano, Juric, Konko, Masiero, Milanetto, Pato, Rossi, Vanden Borre

strikers: Borriello, Figueroa, Sculli

Besides the defensive problems, also the strikers Leon and Wilson are not healthy enough to play tomorrow in the biggest stadium of Italy. Because of the rivalty between Genoa- and Milanfans it is forbidden to Genoani to visit the match. 

Serie A halfway: Genoa (shared) 6th

Inter 49    19 15      4    0   43 13
Roma 42          19       12   6 1   37 19
Juventus 37    19 10   7 2     36   16
Fiorentina 34    19 9   7 3   30 18
Udinese 32    19 9   5 5   23 22
Atalanta 25    19 6   7 6   27 26
Sampdoria 25    19 7   4 8   25 24
Genoa 25   19 6   7 6   20 25
Palermo 25    19 6   7 6   27 33
Milan 24    17 6   6 5   28 16
Napoli 24    19 6   6 7   29 29
Catania 22    19 5   7 7   18 22
Livorno 21    18 5   6 7   22 28
Lazio 19    19 4   7 8   22 29
Parma 18    19 4   6 9   22 29
Torino 17    19 2  11 6   17 24
Siena 17    19 3   8 8   22 30
Reggina 17    18 3   8 7   15 26
Empoli 16    19 3   7 9   15 26
Cagliari 10    19 2   4 13   13 36

Halfway the season Genoa is on the shared 6th position. A fantastic result in our first 19 matches after 12 years in Serie A. The statistics say that 40 points is enough to stay in Serie A and 55 means Uefa-cup football. The target of the club for the first year is to remain on the highest level, so we need at least another 15 points.

Genoa beats Atalanta Bergamo: 2-1

Figueroa scores the winning goal against Atalanta

In a fantastic match Genoa booked the 3rd victory in a row, just as in the beginning of the championship. Honestly, Atalanta deserved at least a draw because the Lombardian team hit the post 3 times and their second goal was annulated, but that’s football and if there is one team which is hardly never lucky it is our Genoa.

Genoa started the match with the expected team: Fabiano returned in midfield and Marco Rossi substituted injured Leon as right-forward. In the first half an hour Atalanta was the boss in the field, but luckily for us they only hit the post twice. After 30 minutes Gasperini changed the tactics and the following 15 minutes Genoa was the best team in the field, but the score halfway stayed 0-0.

After 22 minutes in the second half Konko did not stop Floccari regulary, so referee Pierpaoli whistled a penalty. Doni scored from the penaltyspot: 0-1. In the 72nd minute everything looked over to Genoa, but the second Atalanta goal of Floccari was annulated because of off-side. One minute later topscorer Marco Borriello scored his 11th goal of the season: 1-1. In a fantastic atmosphere Genoa was not satisfied with a draw and in the 84th minute substitute Lucho Figueroa headed a corner near the second post inside the goal: 2-1. In the last 11 minutes Atalanta did everything to score the equalizer but all they got was another bal on the post of Muslimovic and a red card to trainer Del Neri because of protests. The score did not change anymore: 2-1, so Genoa ends the first half of the season with 25 points.   

 Figueroa celebrates his goal by showing a t-shirt with a foto of his brother that died in a car-accident

Belgium Anthony Vanden Borre 4th arrival

After days of rumours, tonight it was finally official: 20 years old Belgium international (17 matches) Anthony Vanden Borre plays the next 6 months with Genoa, while Papa Waigo has to wear the purple shirt of Fiorentina the rest of this season. Of course as the official Genoa-supportersclub in Belgium (and Holland) we are very proud and happy that again a player of our countries plays with Genoa.

Anthony Vanden Borre in Champions League with Anderlecht against Chelsea

Anthony Vanden Borre (1.85 x 78 kg) is born on 24th October 1987 in Linkasi (Congo) with a Belgium father and a Congolese mother that died last year. As football-player he raised in the youth of Anderlecht together with his friend Vincent Kompany who changed Anderlecht into HSV Hamburg in the summer of 2006. Anthony was selected at the age of 16 (!!) to the Belgium National team after only 5 matches in the first team of Anderlecht. On 28th April 2004 he played his first match with the Belgium National team against Turkey. As usual it is not easy to act normal if you are such an important football-player at such a young age and Anthony got some problems with his attitude.

After 69 matches in 4 years with 3 national titles he left Anderlecht last summer. The Belgium club did everything to keep the great talent in Brussels, but Fiorentina payed around € 3,8 millon and Anthony moved to Florence. The multi-functional player (right-defender, right-midfieldplayer, defensive midfielder) only played 5 matches (2 in Serie A, 2 in Uefa-Cup and 1 in Coppa Italia) in the viola-shirt. With Genoa he probably can raise as fast as in the beginning of his career. Mr. Gasperini is an expert in making young players very good in a short time, so it is a good move for both Anthony and Genoa. Welcome at the most beautiful football club in the world: Anthony Vanden Borre.

Today the transferdocuments of Matias Masiero arrived from Uruguay, so our new number 10 is, just like recovered Danilo, one of the 20 players that is now in the Sheraton hotel near the airport of Genova to prepare themselves for tomorrow’s match against Atalanta Bergamo. Not selected are: Bega, Coppola, Di Vaio, Leon and the arrivals of this week: Wilson and Vanden Borre.

Preziosi shows his South-American diamonds

Mr. Preziosi presents Wilson and Masiero

This afternoon in the press-room of Genoa headquarters in Pegli president Enrico Preziosi welcomed our 2 new arrivals from South-America: Wilson Rodrigues Fonseca (22) from Brasil and Matias Masiero (19) from Uruguay. Both players liked to play with number 10 on their shirt, but Masiero already arrived last week so he could choose first. Because the tranferdocuments did not arrive yet both players can not play against Atalanta Bergamo next Saturday.

new wing-striker Wilson Rodrigues Fonseca

As promised Mr. Enrico Preziosi today bought our new wing-striker: 22 year old Brazilian striker Wilson. The player of Corinthians is born in Araras (just like Danilo) on 21st march 1985, is 1.79 tall and weights 73 kilo’s. Tomorrow-morning after the medical test Wilson will sign his contract and goes to the trainingfield to meet his new teammates.

Wilson 3rd new arrival of Genoa

To introduce our new Brazilian striker hereby a compilaton of his goals with Corinthians:

[youtube xfNpevwiKqk]

In short time is also expected the arrival of 20 years old Belgium international (!) Anthony Vanden Borre. The youngster is raised in the youth of Anderlecht and was tranfered last summer to Fiorentina (€ 3,8 million). The 1.85 tall defensive midfielder probably will be changed for 6 months with Papa Waigo. We already contacted our Belgium-member Tim de Smet and as soon as the transfer is official we give you all the information about this great wonderkid that is born in Congo.

Despite all the good news, today also a medical test made clear that Leon is injured and he can not play for the first 20 days. We surely have to miss him against Atalanta, Milan and probably Catania.