Looking at the Serie A table going into last weekend, the Lazio/Juventus matchup presented the most promise.  Each team had won its first two games.  Would this game produce beautiful, flowing football that might serve to entice a Serie A neophyte?  In a word, no.

The first half was almost completely forgettable.  Other than Aleksandar Kolarov’s exceptional run past two Juve defenders, which ultimately led to a fine save by Buffon, there was little to keep a mind from wandering until Lazio had a goal disallowed in stoppage time.  Referee Andrea Gervasoni made the correct call to disallow the goal as Julio Cruz clearly impeded a Juve man in the box to free up room for Sebastiani Siviglia’s shot.  Maybe the players were distracted by the magenta kits worn by the referees.  Words cannot describe their hideousness, and I cannot find a picture anywhere on the intertubes.  You’ll have to take my word for it.  Speaking of uniforms, Lazio appears to be following Man U and Everton in their attempt to be outfitted as ugly as possible this year.  When you have such a great blue as your color, why would you screw it up by adding a vee-neck stripe thingy?

Watching Serie A on FSC is perplexing.  The match announcer added almost nothing to my experience.  When watching sports, I don’t normally appreciate a color man in the booth.  However, in a game where I know very little about either team’s backstory, it would have been helpful.  As it was, the announcer was Captain Obvious, adding nothing helpful to any viewer with two working eyes.

The game started to finally pick up as each team began to get stuck in around the 64th minute.  Juve had an excellent display of passing, and began to look threatening, only for David Trezeguet to meekly roll the ball towards Fernando Muslera.  Tiago replaced Mauro Camaronesi in the 69th minute.  I can’t determine what I think of the Oriundi.  He certainly has talent, but I get the feeling he thinks he is better than he truly is.  That overconfidence leads to him wasting opportunities.

Juve new boy Martin Caceres opened the scoresheet in his first game for the bianconeri in the 72nd minute, pouncing on a ball in the box and slotting his shot past the Lazio keeper.  As Lazio pressed for the tying goal, Juve got their second goal in the 4th minute of added time as David Trezeguet scored his first goal of the campaign.

The teams were pretty evenly matched on the day, but Juventus finished where Lazio could not.  As it were, Juve completed the “away to Rome” double by week three.