Cassano back to form

Antonio Cassano, 26, is one of the finest talents Italian football has produced in recent years.

Yet, his curriculum vitae is quite modest due to ill-behaviour when it comes to his relationship with team-mates and coaches. The Bari-born striker has an abundance of talent and still has to offer a lot. His future lies in his hands, or better, in his actions.

Cassano seemed down and out ever since his protracted move to Real Madrid in January 2006. In Spain, Cassano never really found his feet. He never adapted to living outside Italy. The Spanish language was a barrier for him. Besides, he was never considered to be a first-choice striker by Real.

Sampdoria's interest in Cassano in 2007 was providential for him.

He had reached a point of no return. Either he puts all his focus on his football career and return to the player he was before moving to Spain or else his career was in danger of ending abruptly due to poor fitness and an unappropriate lifestyle.

In the 2007/08, Cassano contributed significantly to Sampdoria's brilliant campaign as he scored 10 goals in 22 appearances. At the end of the season he was rewarded by then national coach Roberto Donadoni with a place in the Euro 2008 squad at the expense of veteran Filippo Inzaghi, of Milan.

Cassano has been quite consistent with Sampdoria. This season, he is playing even better than last term. So far, he has scored five goals in 12 league appearances for the Blucerchiati. But above all, his contribution to the team has been excellent.

At this stage, one asks why has current Italy coach Marcello Lippi overlooked Cassano from his selections ever since he took over from Donadoni last summer?

There is pressure from the Italian media on Lippi to give Cassano a chance. Lippi is constantly assessing and evaluating Cassano's progress with Sampdoria. Although he might be convinced of his recovery on the field of play, most probably the Italy coach is still uncertain about Cassano's behaviour elsewhere.

On Monday, in a short interview, the shrewd Lippi confessed that Cassano and Alessandro Del Piero should continue to score, and wait patiently to be selected with the national team.

The World Cup-winning coach knows only too well that he is spoilt for choice in attack.

It is no secret that Cassano has performed up to his very best only when he was the undisputed first-choice striker in a team set-up.

That is, perhaps, why he is doing so well at Samp but failed miserably during his stint in Spain. Cassano is a primadonna in Liguria but barely played in the Primera Liga.

As things stand today, Cassano would not be Lippi's first-choice striker had he decided to select him. Luca Toni, Alberto Gilardino, Mauro German Camoranesi, Antonio Di Natale and Del Piero are all ahead of him.

In such scenario, Lippi's concern would be how to handle a possible rebel within his squad.

One should not forget that Lippi's Italy went on to lift the 2006 World Cup without Cassano. If there was one characteristic that distinguished Italy from the rest of the other teams in the World Cup two years ago was the unity within their squad.

Lippi is the type of coach who avoids controversy. He makes his selections based on the skill of his players but also taking into consideration their ability to adapt themselves to work within a squad structure.

And in this regard, it is still to be seen whether or not Cassano has made a much-needed leap in quality.

In the not-so-distant past, Cassano's antics hindered him from winning titles with Italy U-21 before being omitted from the 2006 World Cup winning team.

One augurs that Cassano has done his soul-searching and if selected by Lippi one day, he would be a positive contributor to Italy's cause.

His future lies in his hands.

Serie A statistics

1st defeat for in-form Juventus after seven wins on the trot (five in the Serie A and two in the Champions League) as they went down to Inter 1-0 at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium. This was Juve's first defeat in Milan since April 4, 2004 (3-2). Champions League hopefuls Fiorentina made a strong second-half comeback as they overcame Udinese 4-2 at the Artemio Franchi Stadium. All Udinese have to show from their last four outings is a 2-2 home draw with Genoa. In a balanced encounter, Torino and Milan shared the spoils for the first time since April 16, 2000 (2-2). Milan have now slipped three points behind leaders Inter.

2 successive wins have enabled minnows Reggina to recover lost ground at the wrong end of the table. On Sunday, the Maroons scored twice inside the opening 21 minutes to hand Atalanta their third straight away defeat. Bologna came within a whisker from recording their first win under new coach Sinisa Mihajlovic as they conceded a Davide Succi equaliser deep into stoppage time against Palermo. Bologna have now stretched their winless run to six games (three draws and three defeats). Cagliari grabbed a precious 95th-minute equaliser against Napoli to leave the San Paolo undefeated for the second year running. These were the first points dropped by Napoli at home this season.

4th straight home win (vs Bologna 2-0, Torino 1-0, Lecce 3-2 and Catania 3-0) for Sampdoria as Walter Mazzarri's side beat Catania at their Luigi Ferraris Stadium. This was Catania's second successive away setback following the 0-1 reverse to Lazio. Roma pursued with their winning streak of late thanks to a comprehensive victory over Lecce at the Via del Mare Stadium. This was Roma's first win in Lecce in over four years. Mario Beretta's Lecce are without a win in their last eight outings (five draws and three defeats).

6 penalties were awarded by referees in the past weekend. Romanian forward Adrian Mutu drew Fiorentina back on level thanks to an early second-half penalty goal. Later on in the same game, Antonio Di Natale made Udinese's defeat in Tuscany less sour thanks to a penalty conversion. Chievo-Siena were heading to a goalless draw. However, the visitors were awarded two penalties inside the last seven minutes from which Daniele Galloppa and Massimo Maccarone made no mistake to give Siena three precious points. Alessandro Rosina equalised for Torino from the spot. Elsewhere, Diego Milito saw his effort from a penalty going wide. Meanwhile, one player - Gianluca Comotto of Fiorentina - received marching orders.

6 defeats in a row (Cagliari 0-2, Lazio 1-2, Palermo 0-3, Juventus 0-2, Milan 0-1 and Siena 0-2) have hindered in no small way Chievo's progress on their return to top flight football. The change of coach - Mimmo Di Carlo on for Giuseppe Iachini - still has to bear its fruit for the Verona side. Lazio came from a goal down to salvage a home draw with Genoa. A Lazio home win over Genoa has been missing since March 19, 1995 (4-0).

31 goals were scored on the 13th day: 17 coming from the hosts and the remaining 14 from the visitors, who managed two victories. Foreigners contributed with 11 goals while there were 20 second-half goals. Total number of goals scored so far amount to 307. Neither own goals nor hat-tricks were recorded. Three players - Bernardo Corradi (Reggina), Antonio Cassano (Sampdoria) and Riccardo Montolivo (Fiorentina) - grabbed a brace each to help their respective sides to home wins over Atalanta, Catania and Udinese respectively. Two players, Antonio Di Natale (Udinese) and Davide Succi (Palermo), came on as substitutes and scored. Genoa's Diego Milito still leads the scorers' list with 11 goals.