By Guest Writer Teo Tifoso

The referee isn’t supposed to be a part of a match narrative, but the facilitator.  Somehow I don’t think referee Nicola Ayroldi got the memo, given his overwhelming prominence in the end result.

The match started well enough for Napoli, with them maintaining an aggressive posture and intensity rarely displayed this year against weaker sides, especially outside of Stadio San Paolo. 

But in the 21^st minute, Parma striker Cristiano Lucarelli took a dive for a cross in the box with his arm firmly wrapped around Santacroce’s head, pulling him strongly to the pitch. 

The whistle blows, the yellow card goes up, but not for Lucarelli.

A penalty is awarded for Parma to the complete disbelief of everyone who saw it.  The commentators used the phrase “molto, molto dubbioso”, which is the television version of “utter horses@#t”.     
     
You could see the mental edge drain out of every Napoli player, Iezzo expressed it perfectly as he sulked almost until the moment the penalty was taken.   

It’s a good thing that replays aren’t available in Italian stadiums, as I have little doubt the large number of tifosi napolitani would have rioted has the seen exactly how egregious the miss call truly was.

Another two minutes pass from the restart following the successful conversion, and another questionable yellow goes up for a Napoli player; and I’m getting ready to smash my Sky decoder in protest. 

I felt as if my lungs had been ripped out, and started to mentally prepare to write this review about provincial racism, corruption, and politics in calcio (that can wait for another time).  But Ayroldi went on to show he wasn’t corrupt, just utterly incompetent. 

At the end of the first period, he awarded a red and a penalty to Parma midfielder Mariga for little cause (the missed call wasn’t as blatantly off as the one given to Santacroce, but still bad).  Two wrongs righted the ship, but the red put Parma at a man disadvantage, crushed the Parma morale, and sank any credibility Ayroldi might have had left.

The second half was ugly in every sense. 

Napoli pressed their man advantage offensively, but were abused for their efforts by Parma.  Halfway through the second period, Bogliacino finally converted with an ugly dribbler, but otherwise legitimate. A few minutes later, a hard pressing Lavezzi is brutalized for his efforts on an attack run, and Gargano comes to defense of his teammate.  He gets a red for his efforts, along with another Parma player involved in the fray. 

Two minutes later, Gasbarroni receives his own red with a hard cheap kick to the back of Garics’ leg, in from of Edy Reja.  I’m guessing that he must have said something accurate about the officiating within earshot of Ayroldi, because he was send off the pitch too.

Napoli now has a significant man advantage, and proceeds to squander it as only we can.  The final twenty minutes saw numerous good opportunities wasted to get clear of an equalizer, which can dangerously close to happening save for an offsides call (the only good call in the day).  The match mercifully closed without further interference from the referee, and Napoli took the three.

Ok, apart from what was already covered, I can’t believe that this alone will guarantee any security for Edoardo Reja.  Yes, it’s a win, yes we had more intensity initially, but it simply wasn’t good football.  We still have three bottom half teams to play,  wins against all will go a long way towards seeing him back for another year. 

Dalla Curva,

Forza Napoli!