Francesco Totti - Il Gladiatore di Roma

Looks like a good season for you!!

Nice update

BayernAmerica: I hope so!

joethequin: Cheers bud

Great update Neal

What a run there mate DAYUMMM

Them kits are nice, some great results in pre-season too! Good luck w/ Roma, Knee-Y'all

pompeyblue: Cheers bud

NVDTahir: Let's hope it carries on to the proper season!

Nick: Agreed, Joe did great with them. Thanks Knick

It was a fine, warm day at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, perfect weather for kicking off the Serie A season with AS Roma hosting Sampdoria. To make the game even more special, it was to be player-manager Francesco Totti’s first competitive match in charge of the Giallorossi, and in the end ‘Il Gladiatore’ completed his coaching debut in style.

Roma got off to the perfect start as just six minutes in, Adem Ljajic broke the deadlock, continuing his deadly goalscoring form from preseason. Left back Federico Balzaretti had thundered down the flank on the break and whipped in an excellent cross to the far post for Ljajic to tap home with ease. 1-0 to Roma.

One the stroke of half an hour, the capital side struck again. This time the “Third Triumvirate of Rome” as they are becoming known of Totti, Ljajic, and Florenzi combined seamlessly. The veteran striker beat his man before laying the ball off the Ljajic. The Serbian played Florenzi through with one touch, who made no mistake with the finish to double his side’s advantage.

Five minutes remaining in the half, and Roma wasn’t done yet. This time it was Florenzi who turned provider, utilizing an intricate backheel pass to put Francesco Totti through on goal who scored a delightful chip over the onrushing Da Costa. Totti celebrated by kissing the badge, a great way to mark his first match of managing from the pitch.

Ten minutes after halftime, Totti was at it again, looking inspired. He delivered a corner from the left which Leandro Castan flicked on, incidentally directly to his center back partner Mehdi Benatia, who volleyed home easily from close range to make Roma’s advantage 4-0. The Giallorossi were cruising.

Totti made then perhaps his only foolish change of the match, though it was forced upon him. Maicon had to be substituted off of the pitch after picking up a knock (he will miss two days of training with a hurt knee) and one came Vasilis Torosidis at right back. Sampdoria’s left midfielder, Matias Rodriguez, absolutely tormented him.

An hour gone on the clock, Rodriguez was twisting and turning in the box, and after one fake too convincing, he was on the floor after a poor challenge from Torosidis. The Greece man was lucky to stay out of the book. Enzo Maresca stepped up to the spot and had no trouble hammering his penalty into the corner, giving De Sanctis no chance to keep the score from becoming 4-1.

It wasn’t over there, though. Rodriguez then managed to swivel his way past Torosidis once again with only a few minutes remaining and slot home past De Sanctis, who again had no chance. The Argentine winger’s celebrations were muted, however, as even though he had done brilliantly, it was clearly too little, too late for Sampdoria.

Soon after, the final whistle blew, and the Stadio Olimpico burst into cheers. Totti was quick to run over to Aurelio Andreazzoli, who had run the match from the touchline in his stead and give him a quick embrace before finding Sampdoria manager Delio Rossi to shake hands with before finally exchanging jerseys with Matias Rodriguez.

After the match, Totti, with Andreazzoli beside him, told the press, “We played outstanding football today offensively, anytime you score four goals your attack is in fine form. We had some defensive lapses in the second half, and we will work on that, but overall we are very pleased with our performance today and the three points.”

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Lol, well played lad,

#ForzaTotti

Great start to a new era at Roma

Good start, bud!

Imagine if we could do something in FM like in FIFA Ultimate Team, your Roma playing my Inter in an online fight to the death...

The winner is crowned King of Calcio, the loser can no longer wander about the streets of Rome / Milan without being heckled and jeered.

I'm starting to get carried away - I'll stop.

Great win, Ljajic seems like he will be key for you this season! Also, with this being in Italy, are you sure Torosidis wasn't bribed with some extra €€€

Waheyyy the start of a new Neal story with....ROMA? Bit surprised to see you stay in Italy and go with Roma but great start buddy and I'm sure Totti will emulate what Bergomi did at Inter

NVDTahir: #ForzaTotti, quite like the sound of that

pompeyblue: Here's to hoping for many more wins like this!

jason_connolly1987: We should do a network game, would be lots of fun

Nick: Nah, we aren't Juventus after all

k1rups: I just couldn't leave Italy, I love Serie A too much

ROMA 4-2 SAMPDORIA (LJAJIC, FLORENZI, TOTTI, BENATIA)
ATALANTA 0-2 ROMA (TOTTI, FLORENZI)
VERONA 1-2 ROMA (FLORENZI, CASTAN)

After a strong start to the Serie A campaign, AS Roma has gone from strength to strength in the league and has set the pace early with three straight wins and scoring eight goals in the process. They now sit atop the table, tied on nine points with two time reigning champions Juventus.

The Giallorossi, under new player-managed Francesco Totti, kicked off the season at the Stadio Olimpico with an impressive 4-2 win over Sampdoria. Goals from Ljajic, Florenzi, Totti, and Benatia led the way, a sure sign of offensive things to come from Totti’s new-look side.

The next match for the Romans was to travel to Bergamo and take on Atalanta at the Atleti Azzurri d’Italia. Totti made only once change to the side that had emerged victorious at the Olimpico, dropping Miralem Pjanic and starting the new man Kevin Strootman alongside Marco Verratti and Daniele De Rossi in central midfield.

Atalanta started strongly, battling Roma in midfield in the opening exchanges before their home fans, but 13 minutes in, it was Mario Yepes who turned the game on its head with a violent sliding challenge into the back of Adem Ljajic. The 37 year old veteran was shown a straight red card. The Giallorossi pressed their advantage, and it was Kevin Strootman who tore apart the Atalanta defense with a killer ball to put in the captain Totti who made no mistake with the finish, giving the capital side a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes. On 37 minutes, Strootman was at it again, slipping the ball between two defenders for Alessandro Florenzi, who doubled the advantage with ease. The match ended 2-0 to Roma.

“It was another good win for us,” said Totti. “Six points from six is exactly how we wanted to start, but we cannot get carried away. We need to focus now on our match with Verona coming soon.”

A week later, Roma did indeed make the trek to newly promoted Hellas Verona and looked to continue their perfect start. Totti again made just one switch, this time forced by injury, and started Vasilis Torosidis at right back in place of Maicon.

Verona gave an excellent account of themselves from the very start, actually managing more possession than Roma (52%-48) and limited the Giallorossi’s high powered offense to a mere 4 shots on target. It was right on the stroke of halftime, though, that Roma found the breakthrough. Adem Ljajic combined brilliantly with Alessandro Florenzi, and the Italian slipped the ball under the goalkeeper’s arms to take the lead.

With 5 minutes remaining, though, Verona gave Roma a huge scare. Left midfielder Emil Hallfredsson whipped in a desperate ball from deep, and after taking a bounce off of Samuele Longo the ball ricocheted off of Michael Bradley and rolled into the bottom corner of De Sanctis’ goal, making the score 1-1.

Just 3 minutes after that, Leandro Castan restored Roma’s lead and sealed the three points with a thundering header off of a Francesco Totti corner, silencing the Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi aside from the vociferous traveling section of Giallorossi fans.

“Verona played very well today, I was impressed,” said Francesco Totti. “We need to focus more late in the match, but in the end we showed great character from immediately bouncing back and scoring to win the match.”

The new manager has actually played all 270 minutes of Serie A football thus far, surprising many people who thought ‘Il Gladiatore’ would play others and sit on the bench more often. However, it seems the captain has other ideas and still feels the ability to play in his veins, leaving the touchline responsibilities to his trusted assistant Auerlio Andreazzoli.

After those matches, the Serie A table is as follows:


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