After a rather short break, the Italian Serie A resumes today with a round of entertaining fixtures. In my opinion, the highlight of these fixtures will be the Parma vs Juventus Fixture. 5th place Parma host 2nd place Juvenus at the Stadio Ennio Tardini at 2145hrs local time tonight in a match that Juve have to win to keep up with both the Milan teams.

Juventus have a slim 2 point advantage over Parma and another negative result will leave club president Jean Claude Blanc with no  option other than sacking head coach Ciro Ferrara. Ferrara has had a run of bad luck ever since Bayern Munich thrashed them 4-1 in Turin to bundle them out of the Champions League.

Two more subsequent loses in the Serie A to minnows Bari and Catania have hugely dented their hopes of lifting the scudetto this season. As Juve look to put their house in order, another potentially entertaining fixture will be at the San Siro where AC Milan will host mid table Genoa. David Beckham is expected to feature in this match with Leonardo hinting that the England International could play at right-back.

Milan need to keep wining if they are to seriously contest for the scudetto. A loss tonight will give their arch rivals Inter Milan a massive advantage in the title race and probably send them into disarray. Inter have an easy fixture away to Chievo Verona. Even in the absence of their top Striker Samuel Eto’o, the Nerazzurri still have enough fire power in Balotelli and Milito to get all the 3 points.

4th place Roma who are 11 points off the title race pace set by Inter Milan are away to Cagliari. Totti is expected to marshal his troops to a victory. Being the clubs top scorer, he will be under a lot of pressure to get the win and hope that 3rd place Juventus drop points at Parma. All the top four teams know a win will bring them closer to wining the scudetto if not then it will at least help them maintain their status as Italy’s finest.

This is not the first time that Chievo Verona has deserved the honor of Serie A League’s Best New Club.  In 2001/2002, when the club made their Serie A debut, the Mussi Volanti were among the best performers of the season and concluded the year with an impressive fifth place finish.  The club was able to maintain strong play over the next four years remaining a top ten team for three of the four. 

But the 2006/2007 season saw the club relegated to Serie B.  In Serie B, Chievo Verona regained their form winning the league title and facing promotion.

This season Chievo Verona was not spectacular, but good enough to survive relegation as a first year team.  Actually at the beginning of the year Chievo Verona was arguably the worst club in the league.  The Flying Donkeys earned only nine points in their initial seventeen matches.  They also lost twelve of those first seventeen matches and only won two.  As the year went on Chievo’s performance picked up though and the club reminded fans of their championship play last year.  They were the best club in March.  During the month they won three matches, never lost, and tied once.  They only allowed one goal over the four matches as well.

Most importantly though was that Chievo Verona survived the season despite only scoring thirty-five goals and winning eight matches.  The Donkeys will be joined next season by other first-year going on second-year team Bologna.  Bologna and Chievo Verona were both able to successfully remain on the top tier at the end of the 2008/2009 season.

Nickname(s): The Flying Donkeys (seriously)

All-Time Ranking: 38th

2007/2008 Finish: 1st (Serie B)

2008/2009 Position (as of 04/07): 16th

Coach: Domenico De Carlo

Key Players: Sergio Pellissier, Michele Marcolini, Mario Yepes 

History:

Since its founding by a cake company in 1929, Chievo has not had much success other than a memorable and shocking 01/02 run during their Serie A debut. That year, the small squad managed to remarkably finish fifth in Serie A and qualify for the UEFA Cup. Unfortunately, the rest of Chievo’s long history has been full of disappointments.

Chievo tragically lost their last match of the 06/07 season and was relegated as a result, but it bounced back to win the Serie B title last year and get back into the big leagues. Sadly, Chievo is once again teetering on the edge of relegation and will need to finish this season with a flourish in order to avoid being sent back down once again.

American Sports Doppleganger:

Chievo reminds me of the story “The Little Engine That Could” because it has always been the “underdog” and the team has thus far failed to cement itself as a consistent team in Serie A. Thus, I will compare them to the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks, who other than one Super Bowl appearance have failed to show they can compete with the top teams.