A tale of cigarettes, grappa, time travel and hopefully goals

Season 4 – 2000/01

The new season begins a little bit backwards, as we cover Mini Dazza’s involvement in the Euros.  He is called up to the squad a gets his first cap in a 2-0 friendly victory over Denmark.  A few days later he makes another friendly appearance, bagging a brace against Saudi Arabia.  Big Dazza tells little Dazza the Saudis won’t always be push over, there is some big money investment coming their way in the future.

Mini Bisonte and his new buddy Delli P make light work of Scotland in their first game at the Euros.

They follow this up with another win and another goal for Hubs.

After a few quiet games from the Bison he pops up with another goal in the semi-final against France, unfortunately it’s not enough, Paddy Loko scores the winner taking France through to the final.

After disappointment in both the Coppa Italia and the Champions League finals at the end of last season it’s another blow for Dazza in his hunt for individual honours. France lift the trophy, beating Portugal in the final.

In the board room Pappa Bison has been working hard, securing a £15 million cash injection, he uses this to help rebuild the squad, making eight summer signings.

The team go a small way to redeeming themselves by smashing Torino in the Supercoppa Italiana, although little Dario is outshone by strike partner Robbie.

Dario starts the season very slowly, you have to wonder if all the cigarettes and alcohol are starting to catch up with him, at the ripe of age of 20.  Juve make a slow start too, losing to Inter in the Coppa Italia 2^nd round and then in their first league match of the season.  However they win the next three on the bounce, 3-1 against Real Madrid in the Champions league, a 1-0 away win at Perugia. In the third game Tatanka gets his first goal of the season in a 4-3 win away at Padova. The last seven minutes were a little dicey but Juve avoided the embarrassment of throwing away a three goal lead.

After failing to score in the 1-1 draw away to PSG, Dario slots home a late penalty to help Juve to a solid win against Udinese.

Dazzy and Fowler are on the score sheet again as Juve beat PSV in the Champions League, seven points from the nine available puts them in a strong position to qualify from a tough group.

After PSV, Bisonte is heading back to his original stomping ground, the Pierluigi Penzo stadium.  He show Venezia how far he has come racking up two goals a few shots of grappa and some cigarettes.

Dario has found himself in a rich vein of form, after three goals in the last two games against PSV and Venezia he scores another four in the following three, making it seven in five games.  Unfortunately one of those games was the away loss to Real Madrid.

After failing to score against local rivals Torino, where Juve lose 2-3, Dario is back with a goal in an excellent win against Lazio.

The results this season continue to fluctuate as Juve and Dazza struggle to find consistency.  The demolition of Lazio is followed by a 1-2 loss to Roma, a 2-0 win against PSG and a 1-1 draw with Sampdoria, little Bison failing to score in any of those matches.  He is back in the goals as Juve beat Atalanta at home.

However, he fails to find the net as Juve win in Holland, progressing to the Quarter finals of the Champions League.  He is also unable to prevent a 0-1 loss to Cagliari.  While Dario is struggling for goals Robbie is flying, he scores four against Napoli, with Dazza getting the other.

Another big win is followed by some poor performances, this time it is a pair of 1-2 losses to Bologna and Parma, Little Hub does manage a consolation goal in one of the games though.

After a couple of disappointing results Juve manage to win six on the bounce with Bisonte scoring four in six games.

There are high hopes as Juve head into the Champions League quarter final against Barcelona, however in an incredibly one sided game Barce manage to smash and grab a 1-2 victory.

Dario and the team try their best in the 2^nd leg and at the end of the first half it looked like a well deserved victory and passage into the Semi finals was on the cards.  Unfortunately, that was not to be, and try as they might in the final 13 minutes Juve just couldn’t get that much needed fifth goal.

With the League being the only chance for Dario to get himself a trophy this season the Bisonte takes it upon himself to try and knock Inter off top spot.  His first club Venezia, fall victim to a Tatanka brace.

 And he bags a hat-trick against local rivals Torino.

And then another brace in a disappointing away draw with Roma.

In the next game two goals in the final three minutes help Juve snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

 Dazza just can’t stop scoring important goals at the moment, a 77^th minute winner away to Atalanta means Juve move to within three points on Inter with three games left to play.

The Hubs scoring streak stops against Cagliari but Juve still get the win.  It’s been an incredible run of goals, 10 in the last six league games.  The win also means Juve are now only a point behind Inter with an away match in Naples and a home game against Bologna.

Bisonte Jnr scores two in Naples but it is not enough for the win, an exciting 3-3 draw, but it is two vital points dropped. Fortunately Inter draw as well and so it all comes down to the final day of the season.  If Inter drop points we could be in for a play-off or even an out and out title.

Dazza doesn’t manage to find the net in the final game of the season, however Juve do all they can, winning the match.  It’s been a fantastic end of season effort by Hub and the boys.  12 goals in the final nine league matches, will it be enough?

As the Italian version of the Vidi-printer rattles off the results we discover ………

It just wasn’t meant to be.  Inter also win their final game of the season.  The season ends with Juve mostly silverware-less, the Supercoppa Italiana doesn’t really count, does it? Dario’s only honour this year, joint top scorer, tied with Robbie on 31.  At least Juve have Champions League football to look forward to next season.

A quick round up of the team stats sees Del Piero leading the way with 16 assists and Denilson getting player of the year with an average of 7.80.

All in all, it’s not been the best season for Dazza and the gang.  Big Bison makes it clear there will need to be some personnel changes in the off season if Juve are going to compete in all three competitions next season.

The customary table sees us bit farewell to season four.  Full disclaimed, accuracy of half the information in this table (cigarettes and grappa numbers) is questionable at best.