As you could probably understand, I was rather worried about how the final hours of Juventus' 129th birthday might actually go. Not because of who they were playing, but mostly because of what they did the last time they took the field. They looked like a team that was on the cusp of even more badness — which, in all fairness, could still be the case a month or two from now.
But on this night, Juventus showed they still have some fight in them.
You combine that fight and mindset with two absolute beauties of goals from Kerim Alajbegović and Jérémie Boga, Juventus actually showed that they can function as an actual team compared to the performance from midweek in Genoa. The 2-0 win on Sunday night over Napoli and old friend (yet suspended) Max Allegri does not fix the problems that we've seen for much of this season, but considering this team spent the last couple of days in ritiro, was called out in a team meeting by their still-new CEO and had a certain section of the fan base protesting their recent efforts in the couple of hours leading up to kickoff.
Those goals, though.
Those beautiful, beautiful goals.
Just when you were waiting for somebody in that black and white home kit to do something on a night when Juveentus' two strikers struggled mightily to do much of anything in front of goal, leave it to a young man who turned 19 years old all of six weeks ago to deliver this kind of goal when his team desperately needed it.
Just look at that strike. For as good as Boga's goal was to seal the win, the way Alajbegović struck that ball and sent it to a place where Napoli goalkeeper Alex Meret had absolutely no chance was simply lovely. Then you get the kiss off the far post and just realize how much velocity the ball had on it as he bounced across the goal line and into the other side of the net, it's highly unlikely that he could have hit the ball any better than he did.
And, again, Juventus needed that.
Boy, did they need that.
One win over a Napoli team that has had its own struggles and was without two of its most important pieces, Stanislav Lobotka (injury) and Rasmus Højlund (illness), won't be the thing that suddenly makes us believe that Juventus are a well-oiled machine again. As much as Juventus were the better side for much of Sunday night's game, this was a scoreless affair until the 70th minute. Juve defended well for much of the night, but they also struggled to test Meret for much of this game. Even as they saw Napoli have much of the possession for large portions of the game, Juve were the team who were getting into the box more, causing more trouble for the opposing defense but not actually testing the opposing goalkeeper.
Before Alajbegović's goal, Juve had all of two shots on targets — and it's not every time Meret was tested all that much, although the young Bosnian tested the Napoli keeper earlier in the game that forced out a big save.
Then came the big right hook — ironically with a left-footed bullet — after Alajbegović collected a pass from Edon Zhegrova, weaved his way through a couple of Napoli defenders and found a window to shoot. And we sure are glad he did just that.
Because this schedule between the first two international breaks of the season is unrelenting, Juve have all of a few days before they have to try and do it all over again. For all we know, they can revert back to the kind of performance level we saw against Genoa. But if they can, somehow, channel a little bit (or a lot) of what they did against Napoli on Sunday night when they head to the Netherlands then it might be a sign they could get out of this whole mess.
At least for one night we were reminded that this team can actually put out a solid performance when possible.
A red? To a player from the team playing against Juventus? In this economy?
The camera shots to Max in the stands after Juventus went ahead 2-0 were what you expected. That was a man who was none too pleased about what he was seeing from his team.
Napoli didn't score on their first shot on goal. Or, the better phrasing should be that Juventus didn't allow a goal on their first shot on goal against.
It took one heck of a save for that to happen, though. Bravo to you, Vic.
And that turned out to be the only save that Guglielmo Vicario actually had to make on Sunday night. Hey, that sounds like a pretty good reason to say that the defense played well in front of him.
With how good Alajbegović's goal was the shot that Boga took for his will maybe get lost in the shuffle a little bit. But fret not, friendos, that was still a damn good hit and we shall acknowledge him for it!
Easy assist of Andrea Cambiaso's career on Boga's goal? Didn't exactly take a lot of football mastery.
Cambiaso only was able to recorded that assist because one of Sunday's biggest surprises starters, Juan Cabal, had to come off injured. Cabal, for his part, put in the kind of solid performance that has me struggling to remember when he actually played that well. It's been a while, that's the only thing I know for sure. So if Cabal wants to keep that coming, he's more than welcome to because Cambiaso's struggles have left the door wide open for playing time.
Goals from the left wing with shots from outside of the box like Kenan Yildiz likes to do? Not a bad route to follow, I'd say. Keep them coming because we damn well know the strikers ain't scoring much these days.
Speaking of those strikers, Nick Woltemade and Randal Kolo Muani combined to take all of one shot.
That is important because, well, they are strikers. They're not defenders who only come up on corners.
Juventus finished with 18 shots as a team, by the way.
Edon Zhegrova had more shots by himself in a three-minute span than Kolo Muani and Woltemade had in the entire game.
Whole lot of whistles for Kolo Muani as he was subbed off in the second half. Not great, Bob.
Whole lot of whistles when Cambiaso came onto the field, too. That wasn't great, either.
The biggest early sign that this could be a different kind of game than what we saw against Genoa was just that they looked like they were actually up for it. I hate that this has become some sort of requirement that needs to be mentioned any time Juventus don't put forward an absolutely terrible performance, but this is the current state of the club. They showed up on Sunday — and they need to keep that as the norm going forward.
Weston McKennie reportedly came off with an injury at the half. Because that's what this Juve squad needs right now, right? More injuries! Who's excited about that?!?! (Nope, not me. Never, ever me.)
Napoli had four shots in the second half. Two of them came in the final two minutes of stoppage time. That'll do when it comes to a defense playing well.
And a clean sheet … in this economy?!?!?!
This is the first time in a long time I can remember a Napoli game that I've watched in which Scott McTominay has looked as completely ineffective as he did against Juventus on Sunday.
Teun Koopmeiners' defensive effort needs to be recognized because he did a whole lot of it against Napoli.
Watch out because Lorenzo Lucca just tried to flop and get a foul again.
Five key passes for Douglas Luiz. That'll do.
Prayer circle for Kerim that his asking for a sub right after his goal was nothing more than just a minor thing because he is not the kind of player Juve need to see get hurt with all of the other players who are currently out injured. Please be OK, Kerim, because Juventus need you in these next couple of games before the November international break.
Not feeling completely devoid of positive emotions after a Juventus game this season … what is this newfound thing? Can it continue? I am sure happy that Juventus won, played fairly well and didn't do much to piss me off. Hey, sounds like something they should do more often!
Nice way to finish the weekend. Congrats, everybody.
