It should have been better, but it could have been so much worse. The outcome of the Strait derby for Reggina can be summarized like this. Despite any efforts in storytelling, it wasn’t such a good day for the amaranth colors. Talking about a decline, for a team that has returned from ten wins and two draws, would be ungenerous and perhaps unfair. Even if we narrow the field to the last four complicated matches, the statistical data (two wins and two draws) remains flattering.
However, it seems clear that the growth process has at least stopped. Torrisi’s men did very well until it came time to get back into the running to win. Something started to go wrong when it was time to transform the exhilarating run-up into the ability to become the dominant team of the tournament.
Statistically, always winning would not have been easy, but for a few weeks it seems clear that the opponents have found countermeasures made more effective by the fact that the individual amaranths have somewhat lost the ability to make the difference.
Messina preferred the 3-4-3 to avoid numerical inferiority on the wings, placed a five-man defense with three physically strong central defenders, kept the lines low and narrow so as not to give depth to the amaranth attack. Others have already done it, perhaps everyone will do it from now on. This is a choice that had already created problems for Reggina in the past who, when they don’t find the goal immediately, have great difficulty and often only manage to get through in the final minutes.
It is a fact that new solutions are needed, Torrisi has the task of finding them also through a wide and rich list of alternatives. What, however, had a negative impact on Sunday was the performance in the first part of the second half. For a few minutes someone saw the ghosts of the first leg derby team again. It was just a bad thought, canceled out in the analysis by what had been a good start to the match and by the final reaction of pride. It’s not enough. Furthermore, in some situations the perception of little tranquility in the break-outs almost gave the idea that the tension for the match was not a marginal factor. Considering that there are ten decisive matches on the horizon, in Reggio they hope that it remains an isolated sensation.
Finishing second in Serie D would be another failure that would erase every positive trace of this season. Very few remember last year’s string of victories, all of them the direct clash lost at home against Siracusa. The evolution of the derby offers a big hand. If Messina had equalized in the 88th minute the atmosphere would have been more negative today. Palumbo’s goal, in addition to giving great joy to a boy from Reggio who grew up in amaranth, offers the possibility of starting again in peace.
