Like a car left in the garage with a half-empty tank and not used for some time, Udinese struggled to get back on track on Saturday 21 days after their last outing at the Maradona in Naples.
Result? A comeback draw in the test played behind closed doors at the Friuli stadium against the last strength of the Prva Liga, the Slovenian Serie A: low pace, and a whole series of more than predictable difficulties, because logic dictates that a team to which been broken the rhythm can reappear prim, especially if deprived of almost all of its big names.
Without the five long-term patients Rodrigo Becao, Gerad Deulofeu, Bram Nuytinck, Destiny Udogie and Jean Vcitor Makengo, who Sottil guarantees will be available for the resumption of the championship on 4 January in Friuli with Empoli, and without Jaka Bijol, Sandi Lovric, Lazar Samardzic and Ilija Nestorovski, the “national bishops” who went to play the friendlies that preceded the World Cup after Naples, it certainly could not have been the real Udinese that showed up yesterday at Tabor, “pardoned” also by the absence of “Tucu” Pereyra, left at rest.
However, the goal for the day was precisely to get back on track with a game, also because in six days there will be English side West Ham under the Rizzi arch and the level will rise, as will the requests from a Sottil who yesterday closed more than one eye, saying he was still satisfied in the end.
However, Beto still looked a long way from his best form, coming close to just one goal in 45 minutes, although his strike partner Isaac Success often sought and served him, in turn narrowing the net with a fine left footed drive.
The former Jan Koprivec put a patch on both, the goalkeeper who appeared feline as in the old days in black and white, and beaten only by the undersized incursion with which Mato Jajalo rebalanced the score in the 16th minute, served by Success, after in the 10th minute Ndzengue hadn’t made a mistake face to face with Silvestri, also facilitated by an unwatchable overall movement of the defensive line, pierced vertically.
Everything happened in the first half, a fraction in which Sottil replied to the blue coach Roberto Mancini by launching Simone Pafundi as inside right in the 3-5-2, free to create.
The 10 on his back didn’t weigh down the guy whose ball never gets hot at his feet. The problems, if anything, begin in certain conflicts in which he still can’t keep up.
No problem, at 16, time will work for him as well as for Leonardo Buta, the 20-year-old Portuguese left winger who has returned after breaking his tibia in July.
The left-footed full-back entered the second half with Udinese crammed with Primavera players and acted as opposite to Festy Ebosele who still showed tactical difficulties on the right on an individual level.