Profiles of Serie A Title Contenders
Copyright � 1999 Nando Media
Copyright � 1999 Agence France-Presse
MILAN, Italy (August 24, 1999 9:34 a.m. EDT http://www.sportserver.com) - Profiles of the seven teams tipped to contend for the Italian championship this season:
AC Milan
Unexpected winners last time around, Milan will be lucky to repeat the feat in its centenary season and seems more interested in the European Cup. Three things weigh in its favor. Tactically, it has already had a full season to get used to coach Alberto Zaccheroni's 3-4-3 system of play while psychologically it will benefit from being crowned champions, especially after two years as the laughing stock of Italian football. Thirdly, it has a
hugely-gifted new recruit - Ukraine striker Andriy Shevchenko. On the minus side, Zaccheroni still hasn't fully got his tactical message across, Shevchenko is the only notable signing and at nearly 33, George Weah is getting on. German ace Oliver Bierhoff needs to have a good season.
Inter Milan
Inter paid $50-million for Lazio's Christian Vieri but its best move was hiring Juventus coach Marcello Lippi. Last season's disaster has prompted a near-total clearout at the back and the signing of goalkeeper Angelo Peruzzi from Juventus, Marseille central defenders Cyril Domoraud and Laurent Blanc, plus Real Madrid's Christian Panucci, will clearly make a difference. Despite the arrival of ex-Juve/Lazio star Vladimir Jugovic, the midfield still looks a bit light after Diego Simeone's move to Lazio, hence the late scramble to try and land Panucci's ex-teammate, Clarence Seedorf. But with Ronaldo and Vieri up front, along with Roberto Baggio and Uruguay's rising star Alvaro Recoba back from loan, Inter should certainly be entertaining.
Juventus
After a season of failure, followed by the humiliation of appearing in the Intertoto Cup tournament after three consecutive European Cup finals from 1996-98, Juventus needs to make amends. Its only major 'signing' is the new five-year contract with last season's short-lived skipper Alessandro Del Piero, now back after nearly 10 months following knee surgery. In fairness,
though, coach Carlo Ancelotti doesn't need new players if the existing ones - Del Piero and Filippo Inzaghi, who scored nearly 60 goals between them in 1997-98, and erratic Frenchman Zinedine Zidane - finally play to their true abilities. Holland and former Ajax 'keeper Edwin Van der Sar replaces Peruzzi between the posts, while newcomer Darko Kovacevic looks a good workhorse up front.
Lazio
Lazio won the league last season, and then threw it away. Seven points clear with just a few weeks left, Sven Goran Eriksson's men missed out on the final day. Since then, an already strong midfield has become stronger still with the addition of Inter's Diego Simeone and Parma's Juan Sebastian Veron,
the best midfielder in Italy last season. Bologna's Swedish striker Kennet Andersson and Simone Inzaghi, the promising younger brother of Juve's Filippo, have joined the forward line. However, it still looks like a suicidal decision to have sold Vieri to Inter, even at that money. Worse still, Lazio failed to land Arsenal's Nicolas Anelka. France proved that you can win a World Cup with a great midfield. Lazio hopes the same is true of Serie A.
Parma
This is the team for gamblers to back. Parma has never won the title before, but then they've only been in the Serie A for 10 years. The arrival of Italian soccer's top scorer last season, Brazilian Marcio Amoroso from Udinese, will create an impressive strike pairing with Argentina's Hernan Crespo, backed by the creative skills of another Argentinian, newcomer Ariel Ortega. The midfield, with Diego Fuser, Alain Boghossian and Dino Baggio, looks solid despite the sale of Veron, as is the defence with Fabio Cannavaro and World Cup winner Lilian Thuram. Good enough to win the UEFA and Italian Cups last season, Parma is probably even better now. Whether or not their excitable coach Alberto Malesani can cope with the pressure is
another matter.
AS Roma
If Lippi is the key to Inter Milan's chances next season, then Roma's are no less in the hands of its new coach, Fabio Capello. Tough, authoritarian and ruthless in his pursuit of success, Capello has been hired to knock the stuffing into (or out of) a team which has never lived up to its full potential. Now with a scintillating strike trio of Marco Delvecchio, new signing Vincenzo Montella and skipper Francesco Totti, plus new Brazilian midfielder Assuncao, Roma should mount a serious challenge for the title. Capello won four in five seasons at AC Milan and knows what needs to be done. The fans and the pressure-cooker atmosphere which surrounds soccer at both clubs in the Italian capital will not, however, make his task any
easier.
Fiorentina
Fiorentina might have won it last season if skipper Gabriel Batistuta hadn't been injured in February and sidelined for six weeks. The scoring touch which brought him 18 goals in 19 games deserted him on his return and team morale withered. Now it is back with reliable Enrico Chiesa replacing the volatile Edmundo, plus Real Madrid's Predrag Mijatovic, the man whose goal broke Juventus' heart in the 1998 European Cup final. The trio, with playmaker Manuel Rui Costa, is an enviable strike force, while Juventus' Angelo Di Livio will add experience in the middle. Knocked out of the Serie A race by Batistuta's knee and kicked out of the UEFA Cup after a firecracker exploded next to the referee, Fiorentina had no luck last season. That could change.
