2010 is not just another year for SS. Lazio 1900. By 1900 I mean the incision date to a historic franchise. As of this Saturday, January the 9th 2010 Lazio will embark on a new decade of celebrating 110 years as the First team of Rome. Stay tuned later this week for the homage I’ve created in honour of this special achievement. Turning the page on a new year we look back at the highs and lows the 2008-2009 brought us, along with a mid-season report or letter grade on the entire roster up to this point.
You would think the 2008-2009 seasons would be looked at as a positive campaign considering the Coppa Italia. However, a 10th place finish with 50 points along with poor stretches of losing streaks left most of us feeling that there was a lot of room for improvement. Granted the final 2 months of the season was more of a reward than anything for the hardships we as fans suffered throughout out the season. Those highlights of course being the 4-2 demolition of our hated rivals on Easter weekend, along with the triumphs of Juventus and Sampdoria to capture our 2nd Coppa Italia in the decade. A brief historical look at what transpired in 2008-2009:

September 2008- Lazio defeats, Cagliari and Sampdoria in quick succession to top the table for the first time in over 5 years. Our high was quickly erased at the hands of AC Milan the following week but the another fantastic result against Fiorentina made it look like Lazio could be scudetto challengers for the first time since 2003.
October 2008- The month of Simone Inzaghi’s minor renaissance back in blue in white colours. The career European goals leader for the squad marked his comeback from injury with a top performance against Atalanta in the Coppa Italia followed the next week with a last minute goal to save the blemishes versus Lecce. We would also later find out through the press the beginnings of the struggles between Pandev’s and Ledesma’s agents with Lotitio over failure to offer renewals to their contracts. Meanwhile Lazio wastes no time in renewing Stefano Mauri’s contract and cap off the month with an embarrassing loss to Bologna.
November 2008- Lazio outplays Roma in the first edition of the Capital Derby but succumb to a tricky corner by Totti and Roma escape 1-0 victors. This game is significant because it marks game one the winless streak Lazio suffers all the way to the end of December as a result of this derby hangover.
December 2008- Transfer speculation becomes rife in the capital with proposed exits and incomings. Players from Cribari to De Silvestri to Siviglia are mentioned in exits while names are thrown around like Escudero of Villareal and Elano of Manchester City and even further crazy proposals as Javier Mascherano are mentioned. Sadly nothing materializes. Highlight of the month is Zarate and Pandev combining to beat AC Milan at the San Siro to advance to the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia in extra time.
January 2009- Lazio is teased into 2009 with a hat-trick by Pandev the first in what felt like a century for any Lazio player. No transfers in with last minute hopes of a Veron returning are pushed to summer talk. Faster and faster Lazio continue to drop in the standings with the importance of the season taking shape as the Coppa Italia remains our guiding light after advancing to the semi’s with a rocket from Mauri at the end of the month vs. Torino.
February 2009- In terms of results…The worst month. Losses pile up between Sampdoria, Milan, Fiorentina and the list goes on. A highlight would have to be Siviglia saving the blemishes for us in a home tie vs. Torino 1-1 but mainly because his celebration of turning to the curva nord and egging them on to applaud him after a month of disaster. This is also the month where Lotito%3A+ famous speech to the press comes out that every player, coach and staff are on trial due to the string of poor results.
March 2009- Leg one goes to Lazio over Juve at home with a tight affair that sees us scrape away with a 2-1 win. Lazio begins to gather back some confidence from that and begin to rely on a Rocchi-Zarate combo to get them there. Pandev also briefly got our hopes up by claiming that he intended to resign before the end of the campaign.
April 2009- Lazio hides into a ritiro or retreat from the people calling for the team’s heads after a humiliating loss to provincial side Siena. The only way to salvage this was the only way Lazio knew possible. Beat the ever-loving crap out of our hated rivals. As such they complied with a resounding 4-2 victory and overall performance that sparkled to make it look like we were top of the table contenders again. Cue some wonderful individual displays by Zarate and Kolarov in April and wins against Genoa and booking a birth in the finals of the Coppa Italia and you got yourself arguably the best month for the Biancoceleste.
May 2009- The seasons comes to a close with losses versus Udinese and Inter to start the month. Yet something very special had already begun to take shape on May 13th, 2009. Here in Canada a small group of us turned out to our local Curva Nord and watched as we were treated to 120 minutes of intense championship soccer between Lazio and Sampdoria before 70,000 fans at the Stadio Olimpico. The only true way to determine a clear cut winner was via the dreaded penalty shoot-out. As always unlikely heroes emerge as Ousmane Dabo the only member of the squad present for the last Coppa Italia in 2004 slots home the winner and Rome is turned upside down as Lazio recapture their first silverware since ’04.
June/July 2009- Offseason acquisitions (Bizzari, Eliseu, Zarate,Cruz,Matuzalem) and the angry players that partitioned (De Silvestri, Rozehnal,Carrizo, Zauri)

August 2009- After having won their fifth Coppa Italia the previous season,[ Delio Rossi decided to leave and was replaced by Davide Ballardini, the former Palermo manager. At his first competitive match, he led the team to the victory of the 2009 Supercoppa Italiana against Internazionale at the Beijing National Stadium on August 8th, 2009.

Amidst what looked like a promising start with wins in the Super Cup, a winning start to the campaign and qualifying for Europe, we’ve come to know that it’s fair to say that Lazio has left us with a lot to still be desired entering 2010. Dissidenti debate is now 75% complete with Pandev rescinding his contract, something that might finally bring some closure to this team. We’ve also learned that Davide Ballardini for better or for worse is incapable of coaching this team. And finally, Claudio Lotito entices another black eye to our 110 year history while maintaining a frugal stance on our expenditure. A record of 3-7-7 is shocking while the lowest goals forward total is downright embarrassing.

As we await the Epiphany we also anticipate a rebirth of sorts for the Bianco Celeste come January 6th, 2010. As we wait it’s important to look back at the season that was minus all the lows. Enjoy the goals,

Happy New Year Lazio Fans
-Michael Di Mascio

*Note Zarate is featured in 9 of the 15 goals which for me still is enough to warrant the 20 million we spent on him this year.