August 15, 1961: Vulsinia-Lazio 1-3, friendly

Dag Jenkins
1 day ago
6 min read

Good practice game on lake

Lazio score three first half goals against strengthened amateurs

The season so far

The previous season Lazio had been relegated to Serie B for the first time in their history. For the first ten matches the manager had been Fulvio Bernardini and then former player Enrique Flamini had taken over with Jesse Carver as technical director. The only highpoints were beating Roma 2-1 and reaching the Coppa Italia final which they then lost 0-2 to Fiorentina. Top scorer was Orlando Rozzoni with 13 goals (11 in A).

This season the manager was Paolo Todeschini. He had played for Lazio in 1948-49 and had recently coached Milan (with Giuseppe Viani as T.D). The lower category brought numerous changes to the squad.

The main new arrivals were defenders Vincenzo Gasperi (Atalanta), Gilberto Noletti (Milan - on loan), Gianni Seghedoni (Bari), Diego Zanetti (Novara), midfielders Nello Governato (Como), Graziano Landoni (Messina) and forward Dimitri Pinti (Vicenza).

Some big names left, these included keeper Bob Lovati (would retire early in season but never leave Lazio), defenders Franco Janich (Bologna), Franco Carradori (Brescia), Bruno Franzini (Bologna), midfielders Pierluigi Pagni (Cosenza - on loan, he would return and stay another 6 years), Ugo Pozzan (Pisa), Egidio Fumagalli (Novara) plus forward Amos Mariani (Napoli). Eight players with 550 league games between them.

Lazio had only been training for five days and this was their first summer friendly. Serie B would start on September 3 away to Cosenza while the Coppa Italia would begin on August 27 at home against Genoa.

Vulsinia are an amateur club from Bolsena in the province of Viterbo in northern Lazio. Volsini was an important Etruscan town which was destroyed by the Romans in 264 BC . It was then rebuilt as Volsinii Novi and is modern day Bolsena, situated on the what was known as Lake Volsinio, now also Bolsena. It is the biggest lake in Lazio and 5th in Italy.

In the 1960s, 70s and 80s Lazio would often play friendlies in small villages around the region. These were festive occasions where you could see the players up close. I saw one game in Cerveteri as a boy in the late 1970s where I was literally kneeling a metre from the pitch.

The match: Tuesday, August 15, 1961, Campo Sportivo Comunale, Bolsena (Viterbo)

A large crowd turned up for this big event for the village. The pitch was short, narrow and uneven making passing difficult and increasing the risk of injuries.

Lazio were already missing defender Adelmo Eufemi and forward Mario Maraschi out injured.

Lazio mixed up the cards playing a combination of regulars and reserves.

A curious fact was that in the official line-ups Franco Adorni, Nello Governato and Graziano Landoni had different surnames. This was due to the fact that they were doing their military service so officially were not allowed to be playing.

Vulsinia on the other hand had former Lazio keeper Nicola Giannisi in goal, as he was from Bolsena and currently between clubs plus two Serie A players, two from B and three from C, all under false names…

The game's script was written in the first half. Lazio took the lead on the quarter of an hour mark with Claudio Bizzarri.

The Tusciani surprisingly equalised a few minutes later with Giovanni Casciani. The Bolsena-born winger had recently played for Lazio reserves against the first team in a practice game.

Lazio soon stamped down their superiority with goals by Longoni in the 23rd minute and Juan Carlos Morrone in the 34th.

For the second half the locals made five changes and Lazio ten although Longoni and Pinti continued in place of other substituted players.

The game lost momentum and the main thing was to put minutes in the legs and avoid injury. Unfortunately the irregular surface of the field caused one victim as Diego Zanetti suffered a slight ankle sprain but soldiered on.

A good day out on Lake Bolsena. Next up were more difficult preparation games against Bologna and Partizan Belgrade, both in Rome.

Who played for Vulsinia

Giannisi, Focarelli (46' Casaroli), Bellini (46' Labardi), Cardarelli I, Bianchi (46' Focarelli), Rossi (46' Pani), Baruzzi (46' Cardarelli II), Neri, Casciani, Menichelli, Serra

Who played for Lazio

Cei (46' Pezzullo), Zanetti, Prini (46' Adorni), Carosi (46' Noletti), Seghedoni (46' Napoleoni), Gasperi (46' Vignoli), Bizzarri (46' Longoni), Mecozzi (46' Landoni), Pinti (46' Rozzoni), Morrone (46' Governato), Longoni (46' Pinti)

Manager : Todeschini

Referee: Meneghini

Goals: 15' Bizzarri, 19' Casciani, 23' Longoni, 34' Morrone

What happened next

Lazio finished 4th and narrowly missed out on promotion by one point. Todeschini was replaced after the twenty-first fixture by Bob Lovati for five games and then Carlo Facchini took charge for the last eleven games. Lazio won 14, drew 14 and lost 10. Top scorer was Juan Carlos Morrone with 15 goals (14 in B).

It was therefore not a great season but it could have been enough for promotion had it not been for an extremely controversial episode. On March 4 Lazio played Napoli at home. Lazio were 4th on 27 points and Napoli 5th on 26, so it was an important game. In the 76th minute Giovanni Seghedoni took a free kick for Lazio and scored with the referee pointing to the centre circle. Lazio celebrated wildly and Pontel, the Napoli keeper, looked gutted but had no complaints.

Then however the unexpected happened, the linesman claimed the ball had not gone in as a ball boy had picked it up outside the goal and he convinced the referee to disallow it. The ball had obviously gone in and then out again through a hole in the net. The Lazio players found the hole but the referee was not interested. The TV images would later show the goal was perfectly valid but it was too late. At the end of the season Napoli were promoted one point ahead of Lazio…with Genoa and Modena.

In Coppa Italia Lazio beat Genoa 3-1 and Palermo 1-0 but then lost to Roma in the last 16 on penalties after a 0-0 draw (Pedro Manfredini scored all 6…).

Lazio would play Vulsinia again on January 24 and the result was the same 3-1.

Let's talk about Nicola Giannisi

Nicola Giannisi was born in Bolsena (VT), on July 9, 1936.

He joined Lazio as a boy and played in the various youth teams until the 1956-57 season when he went to the first team's pre-season training camp as third goalkeeper behind Bob Lovati and Nello Orlandi.

In the autumn of 1956 he went out on loan to Casertana in Serie D. He played 24 league games and the Rossoblu finished 3rd in Group H.

The following season he came back to Lazio and made his Serie A debut on September 8 in 1-3 defeat at Padova. This would remain his only official game as for the rest of the season and the following one he played in the Reserves League. The main keepers were still Bob Lovati and Nello Orlandi.

In 1959-60 he played for CRAL Cirio in Serie C. This was a club from Naples (connected to Cirio Food Consortium) which competed from 1935 to 1964 when it merged into Internapoli FC. He played 32 league games and the Neapolitans finished 9th in Group C.

In 1960 he signed for Foggia in Serie B and stayed one season. He played 2 league games and the "Satanelli" were relegated.

In the summer of 1961 he was briefly without a club so turned out for his local team Vulsinia from Bolsena. They also played a friendly against Lazio.

In 1961-62 he was with Ternana in Serie D. The Rossoverdi from Umbria finished 15th in Group D.

In 1962 he signed for Anconitana in Serie C and stayed five seasons. He made 96 league appearances. The Dorici finished 7th, 11th, 12th, 16th and 6th. His managers included former Lazio player Renato Spurio

He then retired and settled in Ancona and worked in a bank but always returned to Lake Bolsena in the summer.

He played 1 game in A, 2 in B and 128 in C.