Marked for Patrick Posch
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 May 2041
The run at home goes on for Triestina
15 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Match11 May 2041
The wait goes on for Triestina
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad13 May 2041
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Triestina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 May 2041
Fausto Salicioni falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad13 May 2041
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Thomas Lindner, and the manager let it.
Squad13 May 2041
58 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Boardroom13 May 2041
The Triestina debt reaches $25.8M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Match11 May 2041
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Market13 May 2041
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match13 Apr 2041
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Patrick Posch scored in the 85th minute, Vicenza had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Triestina took the lot.
Squad15 Apr 2041
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Triestina may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match13 Apr 2041
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad15 Apr 2041
Getting past Thomas Lindner has become the hardest job in the division
16 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
Squad15 Apr 2041
Kristófer Jónsson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match13 Apr 2041
Vicenza made Triestina work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad15 Apr 2041
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Triestina pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Player ratings15 Apr 2041
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.70 on the card, and the Triestina support went home talking about one name.
Player ratings15 Apr 2041
14 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Mar 2041
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 25 matches without defeat is a foundation Triestina did not have in the autumn.
Boardroom1 Apr 2041
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Triestina now.
Match30 Mar 2041
Triestina make home a hard place to visit
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Market1 Apr 2041
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad1 Apr 2041
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Triestina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Apr 2041
Words at Triestina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fausto Salicioni is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Boardroom1 Apr 2041
143% of the income goes out in wages at Triestina
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Market1 Apr 2041
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Michy Courtois has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Triestina.
Squad1 Apr 2041
Niels Kuppen gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Mar 2041
Still nobody has beaten Triestina
The unbeaten run reaches 23. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad18 Mar 2041
Christian D'Errico was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad18 Mar 2041
Words at Triestina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fausto Salicioni is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match16 Mar 2041
A 2‑2 draw with Renate leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad18 Mar 2041
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Vladislav Grekovich.
Squad18 Mar 2041
Ramsès Imbondo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Triestina will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Player ratings18 Mar 2041
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market18 Mar 2041
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Andrea Moretti’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Player ratings18 Mar 2041
Off the bench and decisive: Patrick Posch
The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. Triestina were going nowhere until he came on.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Sep 2040
Omar Rugginenti damages knee ligaments — 59 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 59 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match19 Sep 2040
Renate ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market24 Sep 2040
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Triestina, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Sep 2040
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad24 Sep 2040
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Triestina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Sep 2040
Kristófer Jónsson falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match22 Sep 2040
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings24 Sep 2040
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings24 Sep 2040
Marked 8.11 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Apr 2040
Kristófer Jónsson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match21 Apr 2040
Triestina cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Match21 Apr 2040
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom23 Apr 2040
Triestina cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Boardroom23 Apr 2040
Triestina are $25.2M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Squad23 Apr 2040
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hudson Davis, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Apr 2040
A season average of 7.21 with 7 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad23 Apr 2040
Words at Triestina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fausto Salicioni is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings23 Apr 2040
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings17 Oct 2039
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.75, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market17 Oct 2039
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad17 Oct 2039
Christian D'Errico was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad17 Oct 2039
Words at Triestina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kristófer Jónsson is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match15 Oct 2039
Three points for Triestina, 2‑0 the final word against Pergolettese in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings17 Oct 2039
Defensive actions: 17. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings17 Oct 2039
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings17 Oct 2039
Defensive actions: 16, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad17 Oct 2039
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.