When he scored with his head last Saturday, many fans must have thought: “Like in Cagliari-Pordenone!”. If Alessandro Bassoli detaches in the area and punches the goalkeeper, one cannot help but think of the heaviest goal that the lizard defender has ever scored, the one that earned him the qualification for the legendary San Siro match for the first knockout rounds of the Tim Cup against the Inter.
It was November 28, 2017 (he had arrived a few months earlier): almost five years have passed and the Emilian defender, born in 1990, is still here, wearing the green and black colors and putting his own to unlock a match, that of Piacenza, then won 3-0 and earned the first mini-escape at the top of group A of Serie C (+2 on Renate).
GIFT
He still remembers how to score, Bassoli. Before the blitz in the penalty area opposing Garilli, the Bolognese central had stamped his last center on February 3, 2018, when with a bolide from a distance he signed the blitz of Teramo (1-0) of one of the last Pordenone of Leonardo Colucci. Shortly thereafter, the coach, on the bench on the day of the blitz in Sardinia, would have been sacked (and Fabio Rossitto would have been called up in his place). It seems like a lifetime has passed.
Since then more than a few coaches have been changed, many players have come and gone, but the defender has always remained at De Marchi. He hit the promotion to Serie C in 2019 and wore the neroverde in all three years of Serie B. And last summer, after relegation, he remained in Pordenone, extending the expiring contract to June 2024.
At the beginning it seemed he should have covered the role of central third behind Ajeti and Pirrello, but the injuries of the latter have relaunched him. Now who takes off his starting shirt?
COOPERATIVE
Bassoli in Piacenza collected his tenth appearance in the league, his eighth in a row as a starter, but he didn’t feel tired. Together with Ajeti, he led the defensive department, then dropped into the area to unlock the game.
Thanks to that soaked he was the eleventh player of the neroverdi on the net this season. Domenico Di Carlo’s Pordenone, which can look with great serenity at the meeting on Saturday in Lignano with Novara, is increasingly a formation that expresses itself at the top thanks to everyone. It is true that the Piedmontese are on the rise, given the three victories in the last four outings, but it is equally true that the green lizards currently fear no one: they are veterans of three successes in a row and their goalkeeper, Marco Festa, has already nine clean sheets.
There is enough to be able to keep the opponents on three points and thus avoid the engagement at an altitude of 26. And to drag the team, together with the other great “old” Burrai and Zammarini, there will always be Bassoli.