Serie A 2012-13 season review: Evaluating each club

What can be said about Juventus’ season? True, it wasn’t as dramatic as the last: they didn’t fly through the season unbeaten, they fell in the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia, and winning the scudetto isn’t quite as thrilling the second time around (ok, maybe it is, but most fans of Italian football have no point of reference for this feat). Yet the reason Juventus weren’t quite as clinical this year is because they were also competing in the Champions League, and it’s certain that they’d trade an unbeaten season for one playing in the top tournament.

Juventus 4-0 Nordsjaelland (7 November 2012)

It’s not often that a side’s most significant match comes so early in the season, but Napoli’s loss to Juve in the eighth round set the stage for an uneventful title race. Prior to the match in Turin, the partenopei had claimed 19 points from a possible 21, and looked to be legitimate challengers for the scudetto. But the meeting between the two clubs showed the rift in quality between the squads -- or perhaps simply highlighted the differences between the managers guiding each.

Walter Mazzarri

Despite the addition of such a large number of new players, Fiorentina undoubtedly played some of the most exciting football in Europe in 2012-2013. If it wasn’t for the black hole that was January, in which La Viola didn’t win a single game, a Champions League spot would have been secured. But even without top European football, the word “miracle” remains on the tip of the tongue when describing the Fiorentina season.

Jovetic might be the team’s capocannoniere, with 13 goals, but the attacker just wasn’t there then he was needed the most. In January, when Fior were struggling, he failed to take the team by the hand, as leaders do, and to help them win few more points. In fact, during the second part of the season, JoJo was pretty much anonymous. He scored a few goals, but he wasn’t the same, decisive player he had been in previous years.

Inter Milan 2 - 5 Udinese (19 May 2013)

After storming up from mid-table, passing a free-falling Inter on the way, Udinese needed a victory on the final day to guarantee European football regardless of other teams’ results. Already on a run of seven consecutive wins, and with their opponents a bedraggled and injury-ravaged side desperate for the end of the season, Udinese went to the San Siro and played with a freedom and joy not seen by the fans of their opponents for some time. Five different players found their way on to the scoresheet to seal European participation in the most emphatic of ways.

The hiring of Zdeněk Zeman last summer brought fresh optimism to Roma. Their attacking talent combined with the most offensively-minded coach in Italy led to hope that they’d be more competitive this season. Unfortunately, while Roma were scoring for fun, their defensive lapses saw them drop too many points in winnable games, and the giallorossi fans and president ran out of patience in February. Zeman was shown the door.

It was the game that lovers of mad chain-smoking coaches in Serie A everywhere dreaded (and, ok, may have had a giggle at too), as it was in its aftermath that Zdeněk Zeman was fired. It a was a typical demonstration of ‘when Zeman goes wrong,’ in that his team hemorrhaged four goals against mid-table fodder, with a hilariously calamitous own-goal from goalkeeper Mauro Goicoechea compounding the farce at the Olimpico.

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<div style="float:right">7th; W18 D7 L13</div>

It’s been another season of two halves for Parma, who, after flirting with relegation before rallying back into the top half last season, did the reverse this time. They started well, though post-January with safety pretty much guaranteed, they eased off and their results tailed off. Still, tenth place is a good result for a side which continues to operate on a limited budget.

This win over Inter probably gave Parma fans the most fun they had this season, with boyhood nerazzurri supporter Nicola Sansone skipping past countless defenders on his way to slotting past Samir Handanović inside the closing 15 minutes. It was a magical goal, and kept the crociati within three points of a Europa League spot. Ultimately the results tailing off in 2013 meant dreams of Europe were never anything more than dreams, but it was very nice while it lasted.

Cellino’s appointment of Pulga took everyone by surprise, but the decision was a masterpiece. Prior to his appointment at Cagliari, Pulga was a coach in the Modena youth system and had never managed a professional side. But he (and his assistant Diego Lopez) brought good football to Sardinia, and more importantly, they brought results.

Marco Sau was playing in Serie C two years ago, but his performances this season put him on Cesare Prandelli’s list for the Azzurri in the Confederations Cup. Sau scored 20 goals with Zdenek Zeman’s Foggia in Serie C, then last season in Serie B he scored 21 goals with Juve Stabia. This season, his first in the top division, he was once again in double figures with 12 goals for the Isolani.