Squad, goals & more: Virtus Bozen starts the season

The Italian Cup qualifying round starts at 16 p.m. away against Levico. If the score is tied after 90 minutes, a penalty shootout will be held immediately to determine the winner. The winner will face Dolomiti Bellunesi away on Sunday, August 28th. The former FCS sports director Luca Piazzi is now in charge there as general director and is aiming to make the leap into the professional sector with the club in the medium term.

Championship operations were scheduled to begin on September 4th. As of now, however, this date is more than questionable, because there are two appeals against the exclusions from Serie C of the clubs Teramo and Campobasso. The relevant administrative courts (TAR) have already rejected the objections. The State Council will deal with it on August 25th. Only then will we know which clubs are eligible to play in Serie C. The appeal of the Sicilian club Giarre, which was excluded from Serie D, is far more serious. The objection before the Lazio Administrative Court will not be heard until September 7th, i.e. 3 days after the planned start of the season. Afterwards, if the outcome is negative, Giarre would also have the opportunity to lodge an objection with the State Council.

At least the youth rule that will be applied in Series D this year is fixed. One player each born in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004 must be on the pitch for over 90 minutes. This happened in the summer Due to promotion to Serie D, Virtus had to cope with some notable departures in the summer. In particular, the changes from attacker Matteo Timpone to Obermais and midfield director Michael Bacher to Val Gardena had to be compensated for. There was particularly great joy at the return of the prodigal son Arnaldo Kaptina. The 29-year-old midfielder played for Clodiense Chioggia Sottomarina last season and narrowly missed promotion to Serie C.

Arnaldo Kaptina returned to Virtus Bozen. © Matteo Groppo

Emil Grezzani is also returning. The 20-year-old was most recently under contract with Levico Terme and was used there 30 times. The club around coach Alfredo Sebastiani presented Emanuele Busetto as the new central defender. The 30-year-old played consistently in Serie D and made 276 appearances and 19 goals. The young midfielder Samuele Catino (2002) comes from the Gardolo national league.

In attack, President Robert Oberrauch's team struck twice. With Andrea Isufaj, a native of Brixen is in the service of trainer Sebastiani. Despite his young age - he is only 2 years old - the attacker has already experienced a lot in football. Trained at Chievo Verona, he played 22 games in Serie C with Paganese and Lucchese, among others. Last season he was in the squad in Serie D, initially at San Donnino and from January onwards for GSD Ghiviborgo VDS.

The 2nd new striker is David Okoli. The 22-year-old played for Delta Porto Tolle (Serie D) last season. In total, the attacker has 40 Serie D games and 2 goals. There are also a number of youth players: Noah Mayr, Manuel Nicotera and Fabian Zandonatti come from FC Südtirol, Nicolò Prando, Fabio Corradini and Mattia Zeni from their own youth team. That's what Alfredo Sebastiani says How are the preparations for the Serie D season going? Alfredo Sebastiani: “We started training on July 25th. Training took place 5 times on the Bolzano Talferwiesen. To check the form, we carried out test matches against Stegen, Bozner FC, Inter’s Primavera team and our own juniors.”

What is the goal?

“The goal is to stay in the league. The team and the club digested the relegation two years ago well, we fell down, but got back up straight away. Basically, staying in the league with this team should be a realistic goal - provided that nothing unforeseen occurs again. Two years ago we were in the middle of the table when the championship was interrupted. After that we couldn’t get going and were unfortunately relegated.”

Do we still need reinforcements to be able to survive in Series D?

“We have strengthened all areas and compensated for the departures. In attack I have 5 strikers. Arnaldo Kaptina is back in midfield. We are well positioned.”

Series D size C Italy	SP	TV	P
1. Chioggia	34	49:17	80
2. Dolomiti Bellunesi	34	56:25	66
3. Treviso 1993	34	51:37	60
4. Bassano	34	35:30	54
5. Campodarsego	34	42:26	51
6. This	34	44:33	51
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Squad, goals & more: Virtus Bozen starts the season

The first competitive game of the new season awaits Serie D promoted Virtus Bozen on Sunday. S+ spoke to coach Alfredo Sebastiani in advance.

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