Lazio

Take notes, Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi: This is how to stay classy.

Within the first five minutes of a Serie A match between Napoli and Lazio on Wednesday, Lazio seemed to open the scoring as a swung-in corner ended with the ball hitting the back of the net.

However, Napoli's players immediately raised their hands and ran to the referee with shock on their faces. A quick look at a replay revealed the reason for their anger: Striker Miroslav Klose had used his hand to direct the ball past the keeper and into the net.

This wasn't the first time for such an occurrence. In the 1986 World Cup match between Argentina and England, Diego Maradona clearly used his hand to score a goal that many called "The Hand of God." In a 2007 La Liga match against Espanyol, Lionel Messi scored a goal with his hand. In each case, the Argentine perpetrator pretended the goal was legitimate, and the referee allowed it.

So what happened in Italy on Wednesday? The German legend immediately raised his arm to alert the referee of the infraction. Then, while all of his teammates attempted to hold him back, Klose went to the referee and had him disallow the goal.

To be fair, Klose did not look like he was attempting to use his hands, but rather was trying to emphasize a foul and accidentally allowed the ball to strike his hand.

Even the Napoli players were shocked by how honest Klose had been, patting him on the head and acknowledging their thanks of his sportsmanship.

From there, Lazio went on to lose 3-0 to Napoli as Edinson Cavani netted a hat trick. Hence, it is understandable for one to say that it was foolish for Klose to own up to his mistake.

However, on a moral level, the move was one of the most high-class acts in recent sporting memory.

For a player who is second all-time by one goal in World Cup goal scoring, such a down-to-earth approach to the game is more than refreshing.

Klose has become the model of professionalism in football and is someone whom all young footballers should look up to.

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Lazio's best ever player and the North American Soccer League's all-time leading scorer, Giorgio Chinaglia, died at his Florida home on Sunday, two days after suffering a heart attack.

He got his professional start playing for Swansea, but first made his name starting in 1969 with Italian club Lazio.

In more than 200 appearances, the striker scored 98 goals. And despite a sometimes fractious relationship with fans at the time, Chinaglia was voted Lazio's best player ever during celebrations of the club's 100th anniversary.

Called into the Italy squad for the 1974 World Cup, the legendarily difficult Chinaglia threw a fit after being substituted during a group stage match against Haiti. The striker publicly insulted then-Italy manager Ferruccio Valcareggi.

The incident, coupled with Italy's subsequent elimination at the group stage, saw Chinaglia receive the scorn of Azzurri supporters. His international career ended after just 14 caps.

Two years later, the forward made the move to the New York Cosmos of the NASL. Pele is the player even casual fans remember. But Chinaglia is the player who told the Brazilian legend to play out wider to avoid getting in the Italian's way.

In 254 matches in America, Chinaglia scored a mind-boggling 242 goals. In 2000, he was inducted into the United States National Soccer Hall of Fame.

After his retirement, Chinaglia got no less controversial. He was part of an ownership group at Lazio that saw the club relegated in the 1980s.

Later, a takeover attempt at Lazio led by the former player resulted in an extortion probe. In 2006, Italian authorities issued an arrest warrant for Chinaglia that saw him unable to return to his native country during the last years of his life.

In the past, Lazio have always been lacking the final step to reach the "big" Serie A clubs. While the club has always been competitive under Claudio Lotito's control, they have never managed to push into the highest echelon of Italian football/soccer. Yet this season it seems that Lotito has created the perfect team. With the two brilliant signings of Djibril Cisse and Miroslav Klose, Lazio has now become a side which looks ready to compete for the scudetto.

It has been the former Bayern Munich striker, Klose, who has truly prospered at his new club. His six goals in the Serie A campaign have allowed Lazio to rise into third place, just one point from the top of the table. His latest goal was in this weekend's 3-0 away victory over Cagliari, a well placed diving header. It was Djibril Cisse who provided Klose the perfect cross, and the two forwards have shown fantastic chemistry throughout the entire season.

This weekend's victory was Lazio's fifth of the season, and it maintains their unbeatable away record. While Lazio suffered a loss at home early in the season to Genoa, after that Edy Reja's team has had few problems. A 2-2 draw away against AC Milan, and the 2-1 victory (Klose scoring the late winner in the final minutes) in the Rome derby over Roma show that this team is prepared to compete with the greatest of the Serie A.

Next week Lazio will have to travel to face Napoli in one of the biggest tests of the season. It is important that Reja manages to strengthen his defence, as Napoli's trio of Lavezzi, Hamsik and Cavani have few problems creating goals. Of course, for Lazio we'll see Klose and Cisse up front with the trequartista Hernanes behind them.

It is going to be a massive clash, as both managers are astute tacticians and will have to find ways to shut the other side's forwards down. Yet Klose has shown that it's almost impossible to keep him quiet, as his movement and experience tears through defences. The German has been impeccable in front of goal, and he has propelled Lazio into third place. Whether or not his great scoring form will continue into next week at Napoli's San Paolo stadium, we'll just have to wait and see.


What are your thoughts on Klose's magnificent form in Serie A? Can he lead Lazio to victory over Napoli next week? Can Lazio push for the scudetto? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

In a long-awaited transfer move, German international Miroslav Klose has left FC Bayern München to sign a three-year contract with Serie-A side Lazio Roma.

According to reports by Sportbild.de, the Italian Euro-League qualifiers will pay Klose a little over two-million € per year for his services and have given him his preferred number 11 jersey, in a step seen as symbolic of their intention to have the German national team's best active scorer play a leading role in their attack, next season.

After his glorious World Cup campaign in South Africa, Miroslav Klose (age 33) has struggled through injury and saw only occasional action for his former club FC Bayern München in 2010-2011, as Bayern manager Louis van Gaal settled on Mario Gomez as his center-forward of choice.

With Gomez going on to take the "Cannon" award as the best scorer in last year's Bundesliga and Bayern offering only a one-year contract extension instead of the two years the veteran had demanded, Klose's future as a starter in München seemed bleak.

The surprise signing of German hopeful Nils Petersen, who led the second division scorer's list at Energie Cottbus, showed that Bayern was already planning ahead, indicating that Klose would be assigned a mere bench role if he stayed.

This further compromised his hopes of leading "die Mannschaft" in attack at the next Euro 2012, which  takes place in Poland, Klose's country of birth. 

Germany head-coach Joachim Löw has always kept faith in Klose's goal-scoring instincts for the national team, and the hard-working, soft-spoken and unpretentious striker has always justified his confidence - dependably rising to the challenges of major tournaments, even when his league performances before had been merely mediocre.

Yet recently, Löw has started to field Gomez and apparently has heightened the pressure on Klose to see more regular playing-time in order to ensure his position at center-attack.

Uncomprehensively, other Bundesliga sides in need of immediate help for their offenses, especially Hamburger SV or Werder Bremen, didn't come forward to snatch up the Golden-Shoe winner of 2006, who leaves Bayern without a transfer-fee as his existing contract expired.

Lazio will be more than delighted as Miroslav Klose will certainly become an important asset in their announced effort to close in on Serie-A top-guns AC Milan, Inter and Napoli in the Italian race for international berths.

Fans in Germany, disappointed at seeing yet another favorite Bundesliga star lured away to another league, are keeping their fingers crossed that "Miro" will replicate the stellar performances of Rudi Völler in the Italian capital and reclaim his spot on the national team.

Klose started his career with 1.FC Kaiserslautern and came to FC Bayern via Werder Bremen, scoring 121 goals and 74 assists in 307 league appearances. He has netted an impressive 61 goals in 109 nominations to the German national team, second only to former Bayern legend, Gerd Müller.

However, Klose has never played for a foreign club, and some worry that, despite his exemplary professional work ethics, his modest character and sound 'homeliness' could make it difficult for him to assimilate to his new environment.

A concern that he can prove wrong only through prolific goal production for Lazio, a task of which he is fully capable, and one which most friends of football would love to see him accomplish.

Reto Ziegler (Sampdoria wing back) is set to sign a contract with Lazio. The deal edges out Schalke 04 and Werde Bremen, who were interested in Ziegler.

The deal (according to La Gazzetta Dello Sport) will take affect during the next Serie A season. The contract between Ziegler and Sampdoria was set to expire at the end of the current season.

Ziegler was the center of transfer rumors between Sampdoria and Lazio during the January (2011) transfer window. During that time, Ziegler opted to remain with Sampdoria.

Reto Ziegler (from Switzerland) started his professional career with Grasshopper Club Zurich. He eventually moved to different clubs like the Tottenham Hotspur, Hamburg and Wigan Athletic.

Ziegler signed with Sampdoria in 2007. His record with the team (during the current Serie A season) is 29 games, one goal, one assist and 25 shots.

Reto Ziegler has also participated with the Swiss National Football Team in events such as the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Ziegler came close to signing with the Russian club FC Zenit at one time, but it never materialized. It remains to be seen what will transpire.

He is not the most popular man in Rome and he isn’t trying to be. He has faced death threats for much of his tenure as the owner and president of Lazio.

Although so many others have made their recommendations for the club, Lotito has followed his own gut feeling on how to run the club. It is now paying off.

Lotito took over the club in 2004. Two years before, the club’s then-president Sergio Cragnotti went bankrupt, leaving the club on the verge of collapse. Attorney Ugo Longo took charge of the team for the 2002-03 season, before handing it off to Lotito.

Since being in charge, Lotito has kept the club in Serie A. Lazio has remained in Serie A longer than all but three other clubs. He has trimmed payrolls, had confrontations with players and fans but has achieved the two main objectives of remaining in Serie A both statistically and financially.

Now after five matches in the 2010-11 season, Lotito’s club has snuck into a first-place tie with five-time defending league champion Inter with 10 points. Lazio is expected to stay at the top for long, but Lazio’s start certainly deserves an applause.

In the summer, Lotito sold wing back Aleksander Kolarov to Manchester City for about 20 times the amount he paid for him. He re-invested some of the money to buy Brazilian playmaker Hernanes, who so far has shown he was a very good acquisition.

Lazio will try to add on three points this weekend when it hosts recently promoted Brescia. Brescia has also started out the season strong. It has gained nine points through five matches and is tied with Chievo for third place with nine points.

The match should be interesting as one of the keys to Brescia’s success has been the play of veteran goalkeeper Matteo Sereni, who was once a Lazio player and is certainly not on Lotito’s list of best friends.

Week 6 of the Serie A schedule should be an interesting one.

The week starts with Udinese hosting Cesena on Saturday. While the season is still young, this match has become almost a must-win for Udinese as it picked up just one point and remains in last place. Cesena, with the lowest payroll in the league, is coming off of a 4-1 thrashing by Napoli.

Also on Saturday, AC Milan will visit Parma. The Rossoneri will be looking to pick up three points on the road, but it will be easy. Parma is without playmaker Sebastian Giovinco and Milan is still missing Massimo Ambrosini and Alexandre Pato.

In action on Sunday, Leece hosts Catania to start the day. Both sides will look to get three points as they both attempt to get to the 40-point mark (presumed number for salvation in Serie A) as fast as they can.

Marco Di Vaio-led Bologna hosts Sampdoria, which appears to be virtually at full strength. Antonio Cassano and Giampaolo Pazzini will be looking to show they are in top form so they can both get called to the national team for Euro 2012 qualifiers in October.

Chievo will host Cagliari in a battle of overachievers. Chievo could be without star attacker Sergio Pellissier, but Cagliari appears to have much of its lineup healthy, with the exception being veteran Daniele Conti.

Fiorentina will host Palermo in what should be an interesting match of two of the most talented sides in the league. Both sides have struggled in the early going,  but Fiorentina earned a weekend victory over Parma and Palermo defeated Juventus on the road last week.

Genoa hosts Bari in a match it will be looking to gain three points in. Genoa had a huge summer in the transfer market, but has just five points from five matches and is no doubt certainly disappointed with the start to the season.

Napoli will host AS Roma in a battle of two clubs with probably the most loyal fan bases of any clubs in Italy. Roma has struggled to start the season, despite a 1-0 weekend win over Inter. Napoli’s Edinson Cavani is tied for the league lead in goals with five.

The week wraps up with an Italian classic as Inter hosts Juventus.

Both sides could be tired as Inter will be coming off of a Champions League match with Werder Bremen and Juventus will have hooked up with Manchester City in a Europa League match. Both sides always bring their “A” game for this match as this intense rivalry is watched by many around the globe.

Who’s going to score all the goals this Serie A season?  If I knew for sure, I could easily get Juventus to cough up 50 million euros. 

It doesn’t take a genius to say that Pazzini, Milito, Cassano, Miccoli or Di Natale could have a big season, since they have a great track record. 

I like to focus on players who could take a big jump in production from past years.  There are typically two types of players who make the jump—great performers in limited minutes, and players who were on the cusp of better production. 

More minutes = more offence 

Looking at the SOAR number for Serie A forwards from last year, I filtered the list to show players with 1000 - 2000 league minutes played, and the highest offense rates.

While we’ve already bemoaned the loss of Balotelli to the EPL on the podcast at PSWG, the rest of the list gives the Serie A fan a group to keep an eye on. 

Davide Lanzafame would have been a great candidate to come up big this season until Juventus signed Milos Krasic, who will likely take his spot in the starting lineup now. 

Since Abel Hernandez had great production in limited minutes at Palermo, there’s a good chance he’ll have an outstanding year.  He did have some outstanding luck (see below), but I could easily see him scoring 12-14 goals this year. 

Lots of time, but poor shooting/luck 

Another way for us to evaluate whether a player could possibly score more is to look at the gap between their eSOAR and their real SOAR. Expected SOAR (eSOAR) assumes a league-average shooting percentage. 

A player who has a large negative gap is either a terrible shooter or just had some bad luck.  They obviously played well in the build-up, because their SOAR was good in the first place, but didn't finish off the chances they made. Take a look at the table below (click on it to make it bigger).

Unfortunately, we won’t get to test the theory with Stevan Jovetic after his recent injury. He passed our stat test and my own personal “eye test” as well. 

A more likely candidate to break out or “bounce back” is Mauro Zarate.  He either is the worst shot in Serie A, or he had some disgusting luck last season.  His gap between eSOAR and SOAR was three to five times the amount of most players on this list.  Given that he had 13 goals in the 08/09 season on the same number of shots, it could be a combination of both. 

I wouldn’t be surprised to see him tally 12 goals and five assists this season, especially with new addition Hernanes in the midfield to aid the attack. 

Another player I really think could step it up is Alexis Sanchez.  He underperformed compared to the number of shots he created, and he also had an excellent World Cup as a focal point of Chile’s attack.  He consistently drew fouls which is a sign of the danger he presents to defenders with the ball at his feet.

Hopefully this gives you a few players to watch intently as the season gets started.

Another week, another trip to Rome, and another win at Stadio Olimpico for Italy's Old Lady.

Sandwiched on either side of the international break, Juventus traveled to Rome for the second consecutive week, this time to face Lazio. The fixture pitted two of the four Serie A teams with perfect records against one another.

With the Champions League just days away, Juve manager Ciro Ferrara chose to rest regulars Fabio Cannavaro and Vincenzo Iaquinta. In their place, Nicola Legrottaglie and David Trezeguet made their first starts of the campaign, along with Martin Caceres who was making his Juve debut, filling in for Zdenek Grygera.

Lazio were without strikers Tomaso Rocchi and Mauaro Zarate, so manager Davide Ballardini fielded famed Juventus killer Julio Cruz alongside Pasquele Fogga up front.

Juve had the first real chance of the game 10 minutes in as Trezeguet unleashed a fierce volley that troubled Lazio keeper Nando Muslera, who palmed it to the touchline. He was called into action minutes later when Mauro Camoranesi's cross arched towards the far post.

The two scoring chances seemed to wake Lazio up, as from then on, they were the better team in the first half.

Gianluigi Buffon was called into action at point-blank range when Aleksandr Kolarov got free on the left side after he put the moves on Caceres. Moments later Buffon had to be at his best again following a Roberto Baronio free kick from about 20 meters out.

Is it safe to say that Superman is back on his best form?

However, seeing Buffon make clutch save after clutch save was overshadowed when the star of the season thus far for the Bianconeri, Diego, had to be substituted with one minute to go in the first half with a thigh problem. Sebastian Giovinco came on to replace the Brazilian magician, but it remains to be seen whether Diego will be fit for Juve's Champions League opener against Bordeaux.

The first half ended in controversy, as it appeared that Lazio had claimed the first goal of the match after a mad scramble in front of Buffon's net. However, the goal was disallowed after the referee said, and replays confirmed it, that Legrottaglie was pushed in the back by Cruz at the beginning of the madness in the six-yard box.

Juve had the first genuine chance of the second half when Giovinco quickly took a free kick, passing it to debutant Fabio Grosso, who then sent a heat-seeking missile across the box that missed a diving Amauri by inches.

Trezeguet almost broke the deadlock after fantastic combination from Grosso and Giovinco on the left flank. However, once the ball got the French striker, he could only turn and shoot and didn't get much behind it.

Lazio began to respond to Juve's pressure, but the Bianconeri defense was up to the task. Giorgio Chiellini seemingly got to every ball in the air and denied any Lazio chance when he was called upon.

Amauri wasted a quality chance on the counter-attack, but Caceres finally put Juve ahead 1-0 after he recovered a loose Claudio Marchisio cross and rocketed a shot to the far post to beat Muslera.

Another Juve player scoring on their debut...not bad.

The goal seemed to open up the game. Lazio came close when Cruz blasted one from just outside the box, but the shot didn't trouble Buffon whatsoever, who had to watch it through a crowd of players.

Even though the game was deep into stoppage time, Juve continued to push players forward. Trezeguet was finally rewarded in his return to the lineup when he put away a rebound at a sharp angle after Amauri almost scored a acrobatic volley.

You could see the joy on Trezeguet's face as he was mobbed by his teammates.

It wasn't the prettiest thing, but Ferrara's men remain perfect—nine points in three games.

Another trip to Rome. Another tough challenge. Another win.