There is bitterness, inevitably, for such a heavy deficit in a final that awarded the tricolor. But above all, there is immense pride for a season that will remain in the club’s annals. Yesterday, Vado yielded 6-0 to Scafatese in the final act of the Serie D Scudetto Playoff, a match irremediably marked by a double expulsion that left the Ligurians with nine men as early as the thirtieth minute of the first half.
At the end of the match, the red-and-blue coach Marco Sesia presented himself to the microphones to analyze a sportingly dramatic afternoon, but one that does not diminish in the slightest the sensational run of his group, capable of winning Group A, overcoming the fierce competition from Ligorna, and bringing the red-and-blues back among the professionals.
The coach does not seek excuses but describes a match compromised too early to be played on equal terms, thanking those who point out the peculiarity of the afternoon: “It was truly a strange match,” explained Sesia. “It’s the first time in my twenty-one-year career that I’ve found myself playing nine against eleven as early as the thirtieth minute of the first half. It was a match that started like that and ended like that.”
Despite the lopsided score, Sesia showed great sportsmanship, acknowledging the merits of the Campania opponents: “I congratulate Scafatese. I believe they are perhaps the absolute strongest team in this category, and it’s right that they win the Scudetto.”
The defeat in the final does not, however, erase the extraordinary achievement of reaching this point. Vado approached the Scudetto Playoff as a protagonist, and the coach is keen to remember it: “My players, in my opinion, have done something great in this competition too, because we managed to beat teams – I’m referring to Barletta – perhaps even stronger than ours. So, I don’t have to say anything to the lads. I just have to thank them for what they’ve done. Surely, today’s match (yesterday for the reader, editor’s note) is a match that in no way affects the path and the work done by these players and this club.”
Finally, a thought on his arrival mid-season, when the team needed a boost to reach the promotion goal, overcoming the powerhouse Ligorna in a tight duel: “The championship was won by the strongest team. I came in during the season, and obviously, there were some problems before. But we managed to solve them, to increase and improve the numbers. And so we are absolutely happy with all of it.”
Vado thus closes its season with a defeat that is painless in terms of glory: Serie C is already in hand, and the future is yet to be written.
