This past Wednesday, Udinese crashed and burned out of the Coppa Italia, losing 2 – 0 (3 – 2 on aggregate) to Fiorentina at Stadio Artemio Franchi.
Do not like the score line fool you; Udinese played an excellent game, however they just weren’t able to score any goals. This, unfortunately in the end, is all that really matters.
The Zebrette played like the coherent, organized club that has been dominating their recent Serie A games; they had several good chances, but, unluckily, never once found the back of the net.
This was truly unfortunate, because they had won the first leg; having beaten the Viola 2 – 1 at the Stadio Friuli the week before; they were also coming off from a 3 – 0 win from the weekend against Chievo. However, neither of the victories were enough to give the Zebrette the push to recreate their success to advance to the Coppa final.
Where, mind you, they could have possibly won their first trophy.
Ever.
Scuffet – Udinese
In a more-than-a-century-old history.
But let us not add salt to the wound, vinegar to the lesion, or acid to the raw, inflamed, pustulous open sore by discussing the game in any detail. Instead, let us consider the positives and bring forward a candidate for Man of the Match — and possibly the Man of the Rest of the Season: Simone Scuffet.
Who?! You may ask, with just a slight hint of shrillness to your voice. But do not worry, you will remember the name, as he is being billed as the Zebrette’s Next Big Superstar. Like former Udinese goal keepers before him, he is following hot on the heels of Samir Handanovic and emerging from the historic shadows of Dino Zoff.
Scuffet is a 17 year old Gemini, born and raised in Udine. In his short youthful career, the Furlan can claim being chosen as a starter for the Coppa Italia semi-finals, having a clean sheet in all played Serie A league matches, and being runner up in the 2013 UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship.
All in less than a year-ish.
He made his debut for Udinese earlier this month, when he filled in for an injured-in-warm-up-somehow Zeljko Brkic. Scuffet rose to the occasion and anchored the team, the final result being a 2 – 0 over Bologna and Udinese slowly moving up the table. The his next Serie A game was a 3 – 0 over Cheivo just this previous weekend, continuing his “Serie A Clean Sheet” record.
Despite the unfortunate Coppa results, Scuffet has had a pretty impressive start to his career.
On the international level, he has played with the U-18 Italian National Team football team and, with a much bigger impact, with the U-17 team, recently playing in the U-17 UEFA Championship.
Scuffet had a huge impact on the tournament, having held a clean sheet in every regulation timed game—except for two—in the entire tournament. Italy eventually came second to Russia in the final, when after a 0-0 score in regular time, the game went into penalties, where, unfortunately, Italy lost 4-5. However, it was a mid-game save by Scuffet that was reason that the match resulted in a shootout, as he managed to clear a potential goal earlier in the game.
Scuffet undoubtedly has a bright future ahead of him, thus worrying the Friulani faithful. With the team facing an uncertain future with the inpending retirement of Antonio Di Natale, Udinese will have to/should work hard to keep their potential homegrown hero.
Due to the success of the recent U-17 Championship, Scuffet has already begun to attract big English clubs such as Arsenal and Manchester City, and he is reportedly been considered by AC Milan.
However, for right now, the Furlan kid is happy to be playing in his hometown, for the club he grew up with. And they’re more than happy to have him.
