April 14, 1929: Lazio Verona 3-0
- Simon Basten
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Quick and easy
Lazio score three in the first half hour demolishing Verona
Also on this day:
The season so far
The previous season had been awful. They came 10th in the National Division and were initially relegated to the First Division but a change in plan led to the creation of two divisions for the 1928-29 league. The top eight of each would play the first Serie A in 1929-30.
There were a lot of new signings: Aldo Spivach (Udinese), Silvio Griggio (Vicenza) and Aroldo Vaccari (Modena) to reinforce the attack, Francesco Rier (Modena) Giuseppe Valenti (Viterbese), Carlo Radice (Virtus Goliarda) and Marino Furlani (Pro Gorizia) for the midfield. Renato Sanero went back to Juventus after a year long loan and Camillo Fenilli was sold to Napoli. Manager Franz Sedlacek was confirmed.
Lazio’s first three games were all defeats: 6-2 against Bologna away, 1-0 at home to Brescia and 4-2 at Cremona. Sedlacek was sacked and in came former Lazio legend Fernando Saraceni. He brought some improvement. After the bad start Lazio gradually started to play well and accumulate points. At the end of the first 15 games the Biancocelesti had won three, drawn two but lost the rest. In came new manager Augusto Rangone as the Biancocelesti were still struggling, In the six games under the new manager they had won two and lost four. A win today was fundamental.
The match: Sunday, April 14, 1929, Campo Rondinella, Rome
Verona arrived in Rome without five first team players and based their game on merely containing the Lazio attacks. But already in the 2nd minute Libero Molinis gave the Biancocelesti the lead after a good combination between Marino Furlani, Silvio Griggio III and Gino Lamon. The Scaligeri did not have the strength and ability to react and in the 17th minute Griggio III rushed towards the Verona box and beat Guido Masetti with a precise shot. Ten minutes later it was Furlani who headed the ball in off a corner and once again beat the guiltless Gialloblu goalkeeper. In the second half, the game quietened down and Lazio did not exert themselves excessively, hence disappointing the crowd who booed the teams loudly. The goalkeepers had nothing to do and the referee's final whistle put an end to a game which in the second 45 minutes had been pretty dismal.
Who played for Lazio
Sclavi, Saraceni II, Bottaccini, Paganini, Furlani, Caimmi, Molinis, Spivach, Pardini, Lamon, Griggio
Manager: Rangone
Who played for Verona
Masetti, Rodini, Marini, Nobis, Castiglione, Gasparini, Bonesini, Buchi, Brenco, Agazzi, Altamuri
Manager: Bascheni
Referee: Ciamberlini
Goals: 2' Molinis, 17' Griggio, 27' Furlani
What happened next
Rangone was sacked after the next game which Lazio lost at Biella. Ferenc Molnar was appointed new manager. The Hungarian immediately made a difference and Lazio won three games in a row (including beating Ambrosiana Inter), lost against Genova 1893 but then beat Reggiana. Lazio were battling with Napoli for 8th place.
In the next match Lazio won in Turin against Juventus and Napoli thrashed Ambrosiana Inter 4-1. The other teams were out of the race. The final game of the season was Lazio vs Napoli. Eighth position would have meant Serie A for the following year. But the match was a goalless draw so both teams were forced to go to a playoff.
On June 23 1929 at the Stadio San Siro in Milan, Lazio and Napoli played to death but there was no winner. The match ended 2-2. A second playoff was scheduled for June 30 in Padova but it was postponed.
At this point politics took control. Serie A needed to have both Napoli and Triestina because they could not start a national championship with no southern Italian team or clubs from Venezia-Giulia that had become Italian only ten years earlier. As a consequence, Lazio too were admitted to the 1929-30 Serie A which instead of being made up of 16 teams, was now going to be of 18. The same happened for Serie B so Prato, Legnano, Reggiana and Fiorentina would play in the second tier.
Bottacini and Spivach were the players with most appearances (30) and Spivach the leading goal scorer (13).
Let's talk about Silvio Griggio III
Silvio Griggio was born in Vicenza on May 28 1906. He started playing football for his hometown with his brothers Gaetano and Umberto debuting in a Second Division game won 4-1 against Triestina on February 22, 1925 . He even scored on his debut.
In 1928 he signed for Lazio. He played a single season for the Biancocelesti with 26 appearances and seven goals.
In 1929 he went back to Vicenza and played there until he retired in 1937. He made 202 appearances for the Biancorossi with 46 goals. He initially was a winger but as he got older he played further back.
After World War II he was nominated vice president of Vicenza and had the job of supervising the rebuilding of the stadium which had been destroyed by the bombings. In 1946 he became President, a role he kept for three years. One of the last things he did was to name the Stadium after Romeo Menti, former Vicenza player who died in the Superga tragedy.
He returned as president for the 1951-52 season after which he left to become technical director, and later president, of Marzotto Valdagno.
He died in Vicenza on July 18, 1980.
Lazio career
Season | Total National Division appearances (goals) |
1928-29 | 26 (7) |
Sources
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