On the banks of the Adige River, a hero has quietly emerged for one of Verona’s football clubs.
Veteran goaltender Albano Bizzarri’s heroics for Chievo in the closing portion of 2014 and all through 2015 have galvanized the Flying Donkeys into staving off the drop, and put the team on course for a potential finish above their town rivals Hellas going into the final round of fixtures of the 14/15 season.
Bizzarri arrived at the Stadio Bentegodi after ping-ponging around Spain and Italy, with spells at clubs as varied as Real Madrid and Catania. The 37-year-old was seemingly signed as an experienced backup to Francesco Bardi (on loan from Inter), and for the opening act of the season that is what he was. However, a series of failing by Bardi and the Chievo defense in the first quarter of the season left the team second from bottom, taking just four points and suffering a staggering seven defeats in their opening nine matches. Rolando Maran opted to give Bizzarri his first start in the 10th round, against Sassuolo, in a bid to switch things up and try to get a result. A clean sheet against the neroverdi on his debut gave the new signing a place in the next fixture, and he went on to galvanize the team into a 5 game unbeaten run, during the course of which Bizzarri held three shutouts (against Sassuolo, Lazio, and Cagliari) and conceded just twice.
Pleased with the work the Argentinian was doing, Maran made the man with the 1 on the back of his shirt Chievo’s real #1, and left Bardi on the bench for all but one of the ensuing fixtures. Despite a somewhat fortunate run in his first several games, Bizzarri’s quality did not drop significantly in subsequent starts. Routinely keeping the opposition goal-dry, his heroics between the sticks gradually began to lift Chievo up from the relegation zone and into the relative safety of 15th-17th place.
After losing seven of the club’s first nine games, Chievo lost just seven in the following 28, with Bizzarri overseeing six and Bardi, given a chance to redeem himself two weeks ago, at fault for the seventh. However, just two of the losses, away against Empoli and Sassuolo, suffered with the Argentinian tending the goal were inflicted by teams not challenging for European places. Juventus, Napoli, Fiorentina, and Inter all came away with three points from the Flying Donkeys, but even against these Serie A big boys, Bizzarri managed to limit his opponents to no more than two goals each.
From his debut in November to Chievo’s 1-1 draw with Atalanta this past Sunday, the 37-year-old kept a stunning 13 clean sheets and conceded just 21 goals, the second-least of any shot-stopper with over 25 starts.
Despite having the best season for an Argentinian goalkeeper in quite some time, Gerardo Martino neglected to call the veteran to his 2015 Copa America squad. Instead, from Serie A he elected to bring Sergio Romero and Mariano Andujar, from Sampdoria and Napoli, respectively, to be part of the 30-man preliminary roster. Romero and Andujar, who combined not only played fewer matches than Bizzarri, but managed to let past more goals. A monumental oversight of a player in the twilight of his career, who completed one of, if not his best season as a professional.
Not only becoming the key to Chievo’s salvation, Bizzarri has emerged as this year’s unlikely hero, and the undisputed keeper of the season. Almost seven months on from his debut with the Flying Donkeys following a spell of just two league games in two calendar years stretching from November 2012-14, Bizzarri has gone from an “old man” preventing a future Azzurri hopeful from getting the necessary playing time to develop, to one of the first names on the lips of the Chievo faithful.
The post Albano Bizzarri- Chievo’s Unlikely Savior appeared first on Italian Football Daily.
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