No contest
Lazio crush a very weak Pistoiese thanks to Spivach, Cevenini, Bodrato and Griggio
Also on this day: November 4, 2020: Zenit Saint Petersburg Lazio 1-1, Champions League. As usual Caicedo scores in the last minutes of the game to secure a golden point. Player of the day: Mohamed Fares
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 Frulani (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 losses: 6-2 against Bologna away, 1-0 home to Brescia and 4-2 at Cremona. Sedlacek was sacked and in came former Lazio legend Fernando Saraceni. He did bring an improvement. Lazio had drawn at home to Pro Vercelli and beaten Fiorentina 4-0 away. Time to continue the positive trend.
The match: Sunday, November 4, 1928, Stadio Nazionale, Rome
Today's game practically lasted just 20 minutes. Pistoiese were far too weak to manage to put up any resistance at all. In the 20th minute Silvio Griggio gave Aldo Spivach the assist for Lazio’s first goal. Carlo Cevenini then scored in the 35th minute on a penalty and six minutes later Luigi Bodrato capitalised a Francesco Rier assist for Lazio’s third. In the 47th minute Griggio raced unmarked towards the Pistoiese goal and beat the keeper with a shot from 10 metres.
All very easy for Lazio.
Who played for Lazio
Sclavi, Saraceni II, Bottacini, Paganini, Furlani, Caimmi, Cevenini V, Bodrato, Spivach, Rier, Griggio
Manager: Saraceni I
Who played for Pistoiese
Costa, Vignolini, Vecchi, Lenti, Pizziolo, Simionato, Barni, Innocenti, Civinini, Ferrero, Gambino.
Referee: Enrietti
Goals: 20’ Spivach, 35’ Cevenini V (pen), 41’ Bodrato, 47’ Griggio
What happened next
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 and lost all the others. In came new manager Augusto Rangone. In the next 8 games Lazio won three and lost the others so Ferenc Molnar was appointed new manager. The Hungarian made a difference and Lazio were able to win 4 matches out of 6. The final game of the season was a decider against Napoli who had the same points as Lazio. 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 at 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 neither a southern Italian team nor one 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 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).
Lazio 1928-29
Competition | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goals scored |
National Division | 30 | 13 | 3 | 14 | 47 |
Serie A Qualification play off | 1 | - | 1 | - | 2 |
Total | 31 | 13 | 4 | 14 | 49 |
Top five appearances
Players | Total | National Division | Serie A Qualification Play off |
Bottacini | 30 | 29 | 1 |
Spivach | 30 | 29 | 1 |
Sclavi | 29 | 28 | 1 |
Caimmi | 28 | 27 | 1 |
Furlani | 28 | 27 | 1 |
Top five goalscorers
Players | Total | National Division | Serie A Qualification Play off |
Spivach | 13 | 12 | 1 |
Lamon I | 9 | 9 | - |
Griggio | 7 | 7 | - |
Cevenini V | 7 | 6 | 1 |
Furlani | 4 | 4 | - |
Let's talk about Aldo Spivach
Aldo Spivach was born in Udine on January 15, 1909. He started his football career with Udinese where he debuted professionally and in 1928 signed for Lazio. In his first year Lazio were in Group B of the National Division. The top eight would play in the next season’s first Serie A tournament. Lazio came joint eighth with Napoli and were forced to a play-off which took place in Milan. The result was 2-2 so there should have been a re-match but, in the end, both teams “qualified” for Serie A so Lazio were on the starting blocks in 1929-30 for the first Serie A championship.
The opening game was Lazio Bologna and after 15 minutes Spivach scored the first Lazio goal in Serie A. He continued to play for the Biancocelesti until 1932 when he signed for Padova. He stayed there a couple of years and in 1934 he moved to Bologna. After just one season he signed for Sampierdarenese (called Liguria at the time). The club would later merge with Doria and become Sampdoria. He stayed there four years before returning to Udine for the final two years of his career.
He was one of the few players who managed to get a degree (in Economics) whilst playing.
He died in Udine on January 6 1968.
He will be forever remembered in the Lazio history books for that first goal against Bologna. He was a good attacking midfielder and during his time at Lazio he made 74 appearances with 26 goals
Lazio Career
Season | Total appearances (goals) | National Division | Serie A |
1928-29 | 30 (13) | 30 (13) | - |
1929-30 | 22 (8) | - | 22 (8) |
1930-31 | 14 (4) | - | 14 (4) |
1931-32 | 8 (1) | - | 8 (1) |
Total | 74 (26) | 30 (13) | 44 (13) |
Sources
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