There will be no victory parades or wild celebrations in the streets in Veneto this year.
Lightning rarely strikes twice in the same place, and it already hit Veneto, a vast region of five million inhabitants tucked away in northern Italy, back in 1985 when Hellas Verona upset the natural order of Italian soccer by improbably securing the Scudetto, the first and still the only time the team has been crowned champions of Serie A.
The current Verona side sits fifth in the Italian standings, 24 points adrift of league leaders Juventus with 16 games to play. So a second league championship is not in the cards, and this Verona team won’t be joining the legendary 1985 side in the soccer pantheon any time soon.
But there is something special about the current incarnation of the Gialloblu, nonetheless.
Sassuolo Calcio may have been the best story in Serie B last season when it finished top of the division to earn promotion to Serie A for the first time in its 92-year history. But it was Verona who won the hearts and minds of neutral fans with their attacking and adventurous brand of soccer. Buoyed by Daniele Cacia’s Serie B-leading 24 goals, Verona finished in second place to claim automatic promotion and a return to the Italian top flight for the first time in 11 years.
While Sassuolo and fellow promoted side Livorno currently languish in the relegation zone, Verona sits comfortably in the European zone, and is contending for a Europa League berth.
What’s been the key to Verona’s success this season? How come they’re in fifth place, while Sassuolo and Livorno seem dead certain to drop back down to Serie B?
For starters, they’ve benefited from the fact that traditional heavyweights such as Inter Milan (sixth place) and AC Milan (10th) have struggled, while Udinese and Lazio have gone off the boil after both posted top-seven finishes a season ago. Verona has taken full advantage, managing to sneak into fifth to some extent because of the shortcomings of others.
But it’s more than that. Critically, Verona has not strayed from the attacking principles that served it so well in Serie B.
While a lot of promoted clubs believe "parking the bus" is the way to secure survival, Verona have netted 37 goals through the first 22 matches of the campaign, an impressive tally for a modest provincial side. Having also conceded 35 times, the message that Verona has sent out is crystal clear: "If you score two, we’ll score three."
Credit for this must go to Andrea Mandorlini, Verona’s coach since 2010, who has instilled a sense of belief and confidence in his players that they can, in fact, compete with the best in Serie A. It’s been Mandorlini’s attitude, not to mention his insistence on playing a quick and counterattacking style, that has helped Verona overachieve in Serie A.
Results away from home have been hard to come by for Gialloblu, who have won only three road games. Verona’s form at home, however, has been sensational, winning eight of 11 games at the Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi, including an upset win over AC Milan in the first week of the season.
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More than anything else, though, it’s the collection of players that Mandorlini has brought together, and the way he has kept key figures from last season’s promotional side, while at the same time adding some useful newcomers.
Foremost among them has been Luca Toni, the aging Italian forward (he turns 37 in May) who was long ago written off as over the hill. Toni has never quite been the same since the 2007-08 season when he bagged an impressive 24 goals for Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. Since then, he’s been a disappointment as he’s bounced between a host of clubs, including Juventus, Genoa and Fiorentina.
But Verona still saw something in the tall and somewhat awkward striker, and signed him to a one-year deal last summer. While not rediscovering his best form, Toni hasn’t been far off, scoring a team-leading 10 goals, good enough for sixth-place in the Serie A scoring race.
Mandorlini’s loan signings have proven to be just as astute. Brazilian Romulo (on loan from Fiorentina) and Argentine forward Juan Iturbe (from FC Porto) have combined for 12 goals, relieving Toni of some of the team’s scoring burden.
Romulo, in particular, has been a revelation, both at right back and in midfield. He’s played in all 22 games and proven to be a dangerous and creative attacker, registering a team-leading six assists. With Brazilian midfielder Jorginho sold to Napoli in January, look for Romulo to have an even greater role in the Gialloblu’s attack.
The future beyond this season looks bright, too. Mohamed Fares is a French midfielder of Algerian descent who is an emerging star with Verona’s youth squad—so much so that the 17-year-old is already being monitored by Liverpool and Manchester City.
Chances are Verona won’t be able to hold onto fifth place. They’re starting to fade, as evidenced by their recent three-game losing streak, and the loss of Jorginho is big.
But a top-10 finish? That’s entirely possible. And for a team that hasn’t won any silverware since that miracle season three decades ago, that’s not bad at all.
John Molinaro is Sportsnet’s chief soccer reporter. Follow him on Twitter.