In certain contexts, the word “redemption” implies the correction of moral failing. While Roma’s loss to Real Madrid last Wednesday didn’t cross any ethical lines, the Giallorossi’s 2-0 win over Genoa yesterday had a redeeming quality. The respective level of quality between Daniele De Rossi’s Grifone side and José Mourinho’s nouveau Galacticos couldn’t be starker, but Saturday’s win was anything but a cakewalk.
Roma may have won the possession battle in the first 45 minutes, but Genoa matched them
stride for stride in the areas that mattered most: shots, passing, defensive actions, and perhaps most impressively, touches in the box, where DDR’s side managed 12 to Roma’s 11, despite only seeing 39% of the ball.
It was shaping up to be your classic Roma-bottles-it-against-a-bottom-feeder fixture, the kind of match that has plagued the Giallorossi since time immemorial. But thanks to a pair of debut goals, Roma flipped the script in the second half, securing three critical points to keep the pressure on first-place Inter Milan and restoring the narrative after Wednesday’s collapse against Madrid.
So, it should come as no surprise that our goal scorers will lead the charge in today’s rendition of Sinners & Saints
The Saints
Santiago Castro
I love to write (obviously), but here we’ll let the pictures do the talking. In real time, Castro’s audacious in-the-box chip over Justin Bijlow was impressive, but this slo-mo, low-angle look is truly jaw-dropping.
The touch, the turn, the technique, the sheer audacity to try this with three defenders surrounding you; simply incredible. There are debut goals, and then there are debut goals. Castro’s first goal in a Roma shirt was one to remember and could very well become a Goal of the Year candidate come May.
As impressive as this was, it couldn’t match the emotional weight of a young Roman scoring his first professional goal in front of jam-packed Stadio Olimpico.
Emanuele Lulli
Matías Soulé may have done the heavy lifting in this sequence (more on him in a moment), but Lulli timed his run to perfection, slipping past the last defender a millisecond before a potential offside call. Bouncing around with a beaming smile on his face, it was easy to tell what this moment meant to Roma’s 19-year-old wing-back.
In addition to scoring his first goal for the Giallorossi, Lulli created two scoring chances, took six touches in the opposition’s box, played five balls into the final third, and recovered seven balls. We’d also be remiss if we didn’t include Lulli’s heatmap, which shows hotspots everywhere from the edge of Roma’s box to the edge of Genoa’s six.
He didn’t stray into the midfield very often, but that gentle arch of red, spanning the entire touchline from box to box, with a heavy concentration in the opposition’s box, is the very model of Gasperini wing-back play. Well done, Emanuele!
Matías Soulé
We’ll never truly know how close Roma came to moving on from Soulé, but the mere thought of it seems absurd. Now that he’s fully recovered from last season’s sports hernia, we’re starting to see the real Soulé emerge. Still just 23, Soulé is just coming into his own, but yesterday was a good indication of what he may become.
Slotted back into the starting lineup, Matí responded with match highs in chances created and successful dribbles (three apiece), while playing seven balls into the final third and setting up Lulli’s first career goal. But to truly appreciate the amount of work he put into that assist, we have to back the tape up.
Starting in the middle third of the pitch, Soulé’s entire arsenal was on display: touch, timing, close control, dribbling vision and sheer effort. The goals will eventually come for Soulé, but there aren’t many players in the league capable of replicating that sequence.
Leonardo Balerdi
The 27-year-old former Marseille man turned in the finest performance of the season against Genoa. Going the full 90, Balerdi was a busy boy, racking up an impressive 14 defensive actions (tied for the most in the match), including five tackles won and seven clearances. He also won an incredible 80% of his duels, including seven of eight in the air, while dominating the right side of defense and nearly added a goal to his tally when his 30th-minute header clanged off the crossbar.
I’m not quite sure who he reminds me of yet, but I love what I’m seeing from Balerdi.
Stuck In Between
Roma managed a cleansheet without any glaring errors, so we’ll stow away the pitchforks today, but these two midfielders deserved a shout nonetheless.
Niccolo Pisilli
We’ve been talking about Pisilli for so long that we forget he’s still only 22. And in his 88-minute run against De Rossi’s side belied his relative lack of experience: 60 passes completed (joint most), nine balls into the final third, seven defensive contributions and six balls recovered.
Marten de Roon
The Dutch midfielder continues to dial back the clock as he fills in for Bryan Cristante. Days after being one of the lone bright spots in the Real Madrid disaster, de Roon put in some hard miles against Genoa, sweeping across the midfield, taking the most touches in the match, and playing balls into the final third.
He’s the perfect spot starter/veteran off-the-bench option, filling that role better than anyone we’ve seen since Seydou Keita a decade ago.
Roma returns to the Champions League with a match against Slovan Bratislava on Wednesday, so let’s hope for more halos than their last midweek performance.
