Italian coaches seek dream duo

August 25, 1999
SportsServer

By Trevor Huggins

Milan - They may have the world's most expensive strike pair in Ronaldo and Christian Vieri, but Inter Milan aren't the only Italian team counting on a marriage made in heaven this season.

In Italy, the two men up front are known as "goal couples" and every Serie A chairman wants one. Money has changed hands at an alarming rate this summer as clubs look desperately for a partnership to set the league on fire.

The spotlight is bound to land on Inter, who have the best couple on paper.

Ronaldo was the most devastating striker in Europe before being laid low last season by inflamed tendons, a painful sequel to the World Cup finals.

Now recovered, the Brazilian faces the challenge of returning to his world class form after Inter almost broke the bank to build a team around him.

"I want to have a great season," Ronaldo said. "I deserve it, after all I've been through."

Ronaldo will be helped by the presence of Vieri, the brawny, bustling centre-forward of Dino Zoff's national side who is bound to distract attention and defensive marking away from his teammate.

"I'm not the sort who goes around making predictions," said Vieri. "But if the pair of us can stay fit, we are going to have fun, that's for sure."

The two men can also count on creative support from the likes of Roberto Baggio and Uruguayan Alvaro Recoba.

The dream of landing a partnership worth about 60 goals a season has already come true for Juventus, who will again turn to Alessandro Del Piero and Filippo Inzaghi.

Del Piero should be back in league action on Sunday for the first time since injury in November, 1998.

The Italian idol scored one and made another for Inzaghi on his recent return in the Intertoto tournament, while his superb winner over AC Milan in the Berlusconi Trophy was just what the doctor ordered.

Inzaghi, Italy's most dangerous man in the six-yard area, is meanwhile on fine form, scoring half of Juventus' 14 goals in their Intertoto campaign.

And "SuperPippo" warned their rivals: "Nine months have gone by and yet with Del Piero everything is just as it was before. We can find each other with our eyes closed."

The deadly duo will again be backed by the creative skills of France's World Cup and Golden Ball winner Zinedine Zidane.

Parma fans are pinning their hopes on Brazilian Marcio Amoroso, the Serie A's top scorer last season, who has arrived from Udinese to partner Hernan Crespo of Argentina.

Crespo, like Inzaghi, is wonderfully agile and has a knack of being in the right place at the right time, while Amoroso is quick on the break, a good dribbler and blessed with a potent right-foot shot.

Lazio have five attacking options between Roberto Mancini, Chilean Marcelo "the Matador" Salas, Croatian Alen Boksic, back from long-term injury, plus new signings Simone Inzaghi, younger brother of Juve's Filippo, and Bologna's Swedish giant Kennet Andersson.

Inzaghi jr.'s stock is high after combining well with Salas, Boksic and Andersson in pre-season friendlies.

Coach Sven Goran Eriksson said: "This really is a strong Lazio squad. We know Salas, Mancini and Boksic well, Andersson has a lot of experience in Italy and I'm convinced Inzaghi will be the revelation of the season."

Though twosomes are still popular, many coaches are also turning to threesomes in their search for goals.

Fiorentina hero Gabriel Batistuta has two new partners in Yugoslav Predrag Mijatovic and Italy's Enrico Chiesa. Mijatovic is a natural finisher while Chiesa is devastatingly fast down the wing and has one of the best long-range drives, with either foot, in the Serie A.

Batistuta is nevertheless the figurehead for a team who dominated last season until he suffered a knee injury in February.

The Argentinian has a great tactical sense while only Lazio's ballistic free-kick specialist Sinisa Mihajlovic can match "Batigol" for firepower.

Roma are also opting for a trident with talented newcomer Vincenzo Montella, Marco Delvecchio, a man so unpopular last season that he was once booed by the home crowd for scoring a goal, and local hero Francesco Totti, now an international.

Totti, the skipper, tends to move in from further back while Delvecchio and Montella, who hit 43 goals in 63 matches for Sampdoria before ankle surgery last October, are both good finishers.

AC Milan have added Dynamo Kiev's Andriy Shevchenko, the man who knocked holders Real Madrid out of last season's European Cup, to their line-up of German Oliver Bierhoff, the best header of the ball in Italy, and Liberian veteran George Weah. Shevchenko has ball skills and speed, but Bierhoff should still wear the trousers in Milan's odd couple.
.