To be honest, I didn’t really know what to expect from Juventus as we hit the 2025-26 season opener on Sunday night. It’s just been a weird kind of summer, with most of the business being done on the “trying to improve the squad” front quite limited. There’s been no grand proclamations about a new project being built at the Allianz Stadium like we heard ahead of Juve’s season opener last season.
If anything, it’s been a go-about-your-business kind of summer for the squad that Igor Tudor has at his
disposal rather than what we heard 12 months ago.
So when the lights went on at the Allianz and Juve took the field against Parma, you’ll have to forgive me for not feeling the same kind of buzz as what proved to be the massive flop of the project that was Thiago Motta at Juventus.
After the final whistle sounded? Well, things might be a little different.
Juventus opened their season with a hard-fought 2-0 win over Parma. It wasn’t the same kind of dazzling and thrilling performance to open a new season when Juve beat Parma over a decade ago when the Allianz Stadium opened its doors for the first time for a Serie A matchday. But this was a positive start to a new season in which this Juventus squad is not getting the same kind of build-up and hype as it did last season under Motta. Yet with their best defender back on the field for the first time in an official game since his season-ending knee injury last October, with their young No. 10 providing both of the assists for their new No. 9 and their current No. 9 who may or may not leave this summer, and Tudor having this team looking rather well-drilled overall, Juventus began their season the same way they did a year ago.
They got the win and the three points.
They got the shutout.
And a job well done.
Well, other than Andrea Cambiaso getting a straight red for something he knows he should never be doing.
Other than that, I gotta admit that I’m pretty well pleased with how Juventus played to begin this new season.
Was it perfect? No, of course not. You don’t rack up 25 shots like Juve did, only score two goals and deem it some sort of rousing success. For as many shots and as much possession as Juventus did have, it’s not like they were peppering Zion Suzuki in the Parma goal by any means.
It took nearly an hour for the breakthrough, with Jonathan David showing us what he brings to the table with a neat little finish on Kenan Yildiz’s first assist of the night. The man everybody expects David to replace, Dusan Vlahovic, capped a barn-storming counterattack less than four minutes after coming on to cap Yildiz’s second assist of the night. (Give some credit to Joao Mario, too, because he started the whole thing — which seems to be developing into a thing since he signed with Juve last month.)
So basically get the ball to Yildiz and good things will happen, right?
Well maybe it’s not that so simple. But for a guy who now has 12 goal contributions in 12 games in all competitions since Tudor became Juve manager, it seems like a pretty good place to start.
Same goes for having Bremer back in the lineup after 10 months of waiting for him to make such a return to action. And he didn’t disappoint, either, as Juventus’ defense did the same thing that took place in the first six Serie A fixtures of last season before he suffered his ACL injury in Leipzig — a clean sheet where Michele Di Gregorio didn’t have much to do in goal.
To overreact to one win knowing full well what happened after Juve’s season-opening win a year ago would be a little naive. We know how quickly things can turn, and we don’t have to look far back to see the prime example of that. But a lot like Juve’s friendlies against Borussia Dortmund and Atalanta, there were good things to build off of as we head into the new season.
Juventus did good things again on Sunday night — and they got the win because of it. Now, as this new season begins, we see what they can do a week from now before the dreaded first international break of the season arrives and we have to wait a whole two weeks to see just what happens next.
RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS
- As I sit here and watch the pre-game anthem sound out over the speakers and the players are shown one by one, I can only think of one thing: Ah, Bremer. I’ve missed. you. I’ve missed you so much.
- That wry little smile he flashed after his long-range shot at the 10-minute mark went well over the Parma goal was nice. My man has been waiting 10 months to try something like that again.
- Juventus’ first shot on goal of the 2025-26 season was a diving header from Francisco Conceição. Just as we all thought it would be an hour or two before kickoff, right?
- Just saying it right now: It’s going to be a while before my heart doesn’t skip a beat or two whenever I see Bremer on the turf following a challenge or tackle. It’s just that kind of thing that I won’t be able to shake. It was the same way with Federico Chiesa, and it’s now carried over to Bremer.
- Bremer had nine clearances in his official return to the field after missing over 300 days of action. He also had one of the biggest moments of the night with a fantastic blocked shot early in the second half. Boy did that man prove to be just as important as ever.
- He also got his head wrapped like Giorgio Chiellini after he banged foreheads challenging for a ball in the air. What a night for Bremer, folks.
- In case you were wondering, the newest Canadian player in Italy has a thing for scoring in season openers. So prepare your bets for August 2026 now, folks, because JD looks like a good one for next year, too.
- Real talk, though, that was the kind of thing that David adds to this team. And because he’s not the biggest No. 9 there is, just launching crosses into the box toward is general vicinity just isn’t going to work out well for all parties involved. So you’re going to have to do what Yildiz did — put in a low cross and let David do his thing. And that’s what they both did, and it makes you think of how things will look once they truly develop some rapport together after a few more months of game time.
- It’s really hard to decide which Yildiz assist was better. They were both just so good in their own kind of ways.
- Don[’t know how many people caught it, but it sounded like every single little kid in the tunnel wanted to give Yildiz a high five and say hi. The young man is popular in Turin.
- I made a joke right as he came on that Vlahovic being the highest paid player in the league and coming on with 10 minutes to go is pretty ironic with how much he makes. Basically a minute per million that his net salary is. Then a couple of minutes later he goes and scores a goal. Who knows if he’ll ever score another goal in a Juventus jersey at the Allianz Stadium, but at least this was one chance that he put away with aplomb.
- I still don’t know how Conceição makes some of these runs in the 75th minute when you feel like he’s dead tired. It’s like he’s got a secret battery pack and he can just feed into it one last time when he needs it.
- Andrea Cambiaso … brotha, what we doing?
- Like, come on. That’s just a stupid move when you’re team is up 1-0 and facing a team that is starting to push forward more than they have been in search of a tying goal.
- Tudor said after the game that Cambiaso will be fined — and he should. He’ll also get a couple of games worth of a suspension, thus ruling him out of the Derby d’Italia that’s right after the September international break. I guess we’re going to get Filip Kostic earlier than expected, huh?
- Hey, did you hear that Parma’s new manager is 30 years old? Just a reminder.
- Solid day for Lloyd Kelly. We should cherish them whenever we can.
- I’m not so sure Federico Gatti is feeling 100% just yet because that man was moving a little slow against Parma. He said he’s working back to 100% a few weeks ago, and it still looks like he’s not there just yet.
- Pierre Kalulu: not a wingback. I understand the desire to have him there for a little tactical flexibility in each phase of the game, but he’s not really somebody who works at a wingback — and I felt that way even before he was actually fielded as a wingback in this one.
- Khephren Thuram is good.
- Khephren Thuram is really good.
- Di Gregorio didn’t have to make his first save until the 85th minute. It was a good one, too.
- I like when Juventus win. I like when Juventus get a clean sheet, too. What a nice little Sunday this ended up being.
