FOOTBALL: OH THOSE HEADERS!

Whoever said that using your head is the way to success wasn’t kidding. This past Sunday will be remembered as one of the most prolific ones as far as airborne solutions was concerned. And some of these managed to save the lives of some titled football clubs. Let’s start with Bari, the most troubled team in the fight for Series A survival. It played home against Lecce in the annual red-hot Apulian Derby. Twice trailing behind, Fascetti’s eleven athletes garnered their strength and rose up to victory in the final 90th minute. Guess how? With a header by Paolo Poggi. Three fundamental points that brought the Pugliese club back in the running. The same spark was lighted by a goalie, Taibi, of the Reggina club, at the close of the match against Udinese.
The Calabrian team was beating a burdensome path. After halting the top ranked Roma in its tracks, the club’s only hope to get back to safety was to dominate the Friulan adversaries. However, Colomba’s team was frozen by a powerful right kick by Alberto and was left scrambling to regain control of the situation. The only player who succeeded was, surprisingly, the man responsible for guarding the Reggina goal posts, Massimo Taibi. With a break of a centre forward just minutes before the end of the game, Taibi managed to score at least one hopeful point for the crimson jerseys. If we move on from the troubled teams of the Series A to the clubs higher up in the classification, here we find the Milanese duo headed for Champions League.
On the Perugia home pitch, Inter can thank Vieri (triple win) and his headers, which flattened the home team and gave his team an historic three-in-a- row winning streak, a feat they had not accomplished in a very long time. For the new Milan, led by Tassotti and Cesare Maldini, the obstacle put up by Lazio was the first important test of the resistance of their return to the top. And breaking up the boredom of a rather uneventful match, leave it to Zorro Boban to stir things up with yet another Sunday header halfway through the second half. Even the high flying Roma was forced to look to aerial solutions in order to champion over Verona, which took a surprising lead early on at the Olimpico stadium. Montella (just 165 cm!!) gave the safety net his stamp of approval on the stroke by Cafu. Then, on a perfect day for playing tricks, there were those whose headers took turns for the worst. This was true for Juventus, who first with Zidane and then with Inzaghi (offside goal) was unable to give the final coup de grace to Brescia. No, Brescia bravely fought back with a splendid Pirlo-Baggio combination, tying up the match with Juventus at 1 - 1. A banner held by some Brescia fans at the “Delle Alpi” stadium said it best: this had to be the best April Fool’s Day trick of them all. Roma must be especially pleased, as it now enjoys a 9 point advantage over its Juventus rivals.