Freiburg in Breisgau. Vincenzo Grifo is one of the key players at SC Freiburg. But even with him, the Breisgauer have been playing a moderate season so far. That should change on Sunday against Mainz. Also thanks to Grifo, who should start the game with great self-confidence.
Christian Streich took a close look at these two goals by Vincenzo Grifo on the screen. First, the 27-year-old slid the ball into the far corner, “in his typical way with the inside,” as Streich said. Then Grifo easily converted a penalty.
Neither of these should be unusual for the SC Freiburg coach, who knows the qualities of his midfielder very well. Nevertheless, Grifo’s brace had something special for the coach this time too: The goals in the friendly against Estonia were his first goals for the Italian national team.
“He’s confident, he’s proud. You don’t even score two goals for the Italian national team when you come from Pforzheim, ”said Streich. In fact, even for days after that, Grifo could hardly believe it. He took the jersey from the game with him, it is now hanging in his hallway at home. “I scored two goals for Italy on 11.11.2020 wearing jersey number 11 – it’s amazing!”, He reported in an interview with the “Pforzheimer Zeitung” on Saturday. The only thing he couldn’t take with him to Germany was the shoes on that special evening. “It tore the kick boots in the middle. I gave it to our kit manager. “
But besides the jersey, Grifo should at least have brought new self-confidence with him. At least that’s what his coach hopes, who recently addressed the Freiburg team’s lack of goal danger several times. On Sunday (3.30 p.m. / Sky), the sports club will now face the still winless FSV Mainz 05, at first glance an ideal opponent for the proud Grifo. He had even been a little annoyed that he had been substituted for the Estonians in the 80th minute, as Streich reported. Because then the Italians received another penalty, which was then converted by Riccardo Orsolini.
“But I thought two goals are good for Vince too, maybe he’ll have something in the quiver for us for the next game,” said Streich. “I said to him: ‘Don’t worry, Vince, then you’ll be scoring another goal for us soon’.” The 55-year-old would prefer it to succeed against Mainz. Because in the Bundesliga the SC has been without a win for six games. And it shouldn’t only be nice if that changed as soon as possible.
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