Juventus 2 - Venezia 2: Initial reaction and random observations

In the 50th minute of Juventus’ game against Venezia on Saturday night, the Allianz Stadium was very much in a good mood. That is because Kenan Yildiz had just scored what we thought was Juve’s second goal of the night, then proceeded to do a little bit of dancing by the corner flag with Khephren Thuram.

It was that at the moment, we thought, that Juve’s habit of risking dropped points against teams in the bottom half of the Serie A table was going to (finally) be put on hold for a bit.

The happy vibes were short lived. Yildiz’s goal was ruled out for a hand ball after his headed effort unfortunately went right into the path of where his right hand was. And it was at that moment that everything just went straight into the pishadoo.

The only thing that prevented Juventus from suffering their first defeat to Serie A opposition this season was Dusan Vlahovic’s penalty kick in the 95th minute. It was about as unrewarding of a goal celebration as many of us have probably experienced this season, with Juventus dropping more points to a team they had no business doing exactly that against. And to make things even worse, if it wasn’t for Vlahovic staying perfect from the penalty spot this season, Juventus’ first domestic loss of the season would have felt totally justified and deserved despite the fact that they were playing a Venezia side with just two wins to their name entering Saturday night’s matchup at the Allianz.

It’s just another draw in a season full of them.

And like the Lecce draw a couple of weeks ago, it’s a draw against one of the worst teams in the league that very much feels like a loss.

Maybe because it almost nearly was exactly that.

The swing from being up 2-0 for about two minutes to having the goal wiped away and Venezia tying things up shortly after really just sums up so many things about this season. Just when we thought Juventus were on their way to recording a win over Venezia on a night when they weren’t playing anywhere close to the level when they beat Manchester City a few days earlier, the same things that have haunted Thiago Motta’s side popped up again.

That’s now 10 draws in the first 16 league games this season.

Let me repeat: Ten in 16! That’s a whopping 62.5% of Juve’s Serie A fixtures this season have finished in draws.

As of this writing, the top four teams in the Serie A table — Atalanta, Napoli, Inter Milan and Fiorentina — have 11 draws ... combined.

So it goes. This is a team that is consistently doing one thing this season — dropping points. At this rate, you don’t know when it will end because just when you think they will actually do it, something like what happened against Venezia and previously Lecce pops up. I can’t help but go back to the feeling after the Vlahovic penalty was scored because I just met it with such apathy. This game was headed to a loss — and a deserved one at that — against the worst team in Serie A so far this season, and even stealing a late point didn’t feel that way. It was just ... yeah, nothing to get even remotely excited about.

Call it a Champions League hangover or whatever you want, but Juventus have now recorded draws against teams who are currently 20th, 16th, 15th, 13th, 10th and eighth in the Serie A table. You turn even three or four of those draws into wins, and Juve’s basically right there alongside Atalanta and Napoli atop the Serie A table.

Instead, we’re left to sit here and see Juventus nearly lose against a Venezia team that had all of two points to their name away from home this season. Now it’s three — and that’s frustrating as all hell. (At least it’s not five, I guess, so there’s that if nothing else.)

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS Pre-game thought No. 1: Entering the stadium knowing you’re 10 points behind first-place Atalanta. That seems less than ideal. (But also, Atalanta can’t be stopped. What a machine.) Pre-game thought No. 2: Thiago Motta only had four defenders available to face Venezia. At least figuring out who was going to start was not a difficult matter, I guess. Pre-game thought No. 3: Hans, no funny business against your former club, OK? Pre-game thought No. 4: That Venezia keeper kit sure is something to behold. Hans nearly listened to us. Then Venezia’s second goal of the night happened. I preferred Hans’ marking of Yildiz on the second goal that wasn’t rather than Hans playing a major role in Venezia’s second goal. I guess we still can’t have nice things. Through the first 15 minutes, Juventus had 75% possession and basically nothing to show for it other than a Dusan Vlahovic free kick that was never going to hit the target. Ah well. We should have gotten used to it because Juventus’ midfield was totally nonexistent for much of the night. As one of the graphics pointed out after the final whistle, the three Juventus players who had the most passes in the attacking third were Danilo, Nicolo Savona and Yildiz. Where’s the midfield? Where’s the play down the middle of the field? Other than Thuram, no Juventus midfielder had a good day. Like not even close. Nod if you’ve heard this one before this season: Douglas Luiz commits a foul that immediately results in a Juventus goal. That was such an unnecessary foul that led to the free kick and Venezia goal. Frustrating as all hell, ain’t it? Vlahovic finished with 45 touches. I don’t know if it’s true, but that has to easily be one of the biggest totals for him since he came to Juventus. We’ve just become so conditioned to him having half that amount that when it’s anything that’s pushing or above 30 it seems like some kind of earth-shattering development. Personally, this game was much more tolerable when the announcer on the Paramount Plus stream was talking about how many goals Venezia had allowed on corner kicks this season and then Federico Gatti immediately scores from a corner. Yeah, much better to watch. (Even though, on the whole, it’s not like this was a good watch to begin with.) Take out the xG from the Gatti and Vlahovic goals and Juventus created next to nothing. That’s not exactly something that you would consider encouraging against one of the worst defense in Serie A this season. Venezia had two shots on goal. They were both goals. Not one Juventus player was credited with more than a single tackle. I’m not ready tp push the “I’m worried about Teun Koopmeiners” button yet, but I think I might be taking it out of the box and putting the batteries in just to prepare for further developments. Savona is a very large 6-foot-4 young man. There is no reason why he should be ducking when there is a ball coming his direction that he should be jumping up to clear away. Good on Alexandre Hugeux to just continue to keep the results the same with Thiago Motta suspended Saturday night. Strong work from Juve’s top assistant coach. Not the best look by Vlahovic to be barking at the curva after a result like that. Even worse when it takes multiple teammates trying to calm him down while he’s doing said chirping. So who does Juventus have next up on the schedule in Serie A after some midweek Coppa Italia action? That would be 19th-place Monza. Go ahead and insert your jokes about yet another draw because I’ve certainly already thought about it.