Wolves win home finale
When the St. Catharines Club Roma Wolves were looking for a head coach, Federico Turriziani was at the top of the wish list.
The 41-year-old native of Assisi, Italy, has extensive experience at a variety of levels in Italy and was also familiar with Canadian soccer after attending coaching clinics and serving as a guest coach in Ontario.
“When I talked to Davide (Roma technical director Davide Massafra) about the program we thought he would be the perfect guy,” Roma director of soccer operations Carmine Provenzano said. “He’s really good with these age groups. This is his niche.”
Provenzano met Turriziani through Massafra — the two went to university in Italy together and are close friends — and quickly struck up a professional relationship.
“You have to somehow make it worth his while, but at the same time, he loves to coach and he’s been over here and understands the culture,” Provenzano said. “I think some of our kids take it for granted because they don’t understand the level of coach that’s here.
“He has unbelievable credentials.”
Turriziani jumped at the chance to be Roma’s first coach at the League1 level when the team formed in 2021.
“When they started this program and were looking for an Italian coach they called me and it was a pleasure for me to come,” he said. “Soccer is my job. It is my life.”
The COVID pandemic delayed Turriziani’s arrival last season but he couldn’t be happier to have a full season under his belt as the Wolves 2022 regular season winds down.
“I’m very happy about the season,” Turriziani said. “Very proud of these guys. After five months we still have 20 players on the pitch. The commitment is very hard with a long season. Most of these players work during the day and to be here every night from 9 to 11 all summer is something that is not easy.
“We missed some points along the way but overall I’m very happy.”
Turriziani believes in Roma’s philosophy of building the team with as many good, young local players as possible.
“We are very young team playing premier but we are happy because 99 per cent are from Niagara and that’s the goal of this club, to develop players from Niagara Region to compete with teams likes Vaughan,” he said. “We just started and I think we’ve done an amazing job.
Turriziani has had to adjust his mindset after working in Italy where winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing
“The pressure there, that sometimes that hurts the development process because if you have to win you have to worry about the result and don’t worry so much about the players,” he said. “Here, it’s the reverse.
“We can work hard every day and fix our mistakes and teach these guys a different mentality, a European mentality, and train more in a European way and slowly every week we are better. Even during the game we manage the ball better and can keep control of the game. When we start sometimes we are lost but now they have the experience which is very important for next season.”
The Wolves wrapped up the home portion of their schedule Friday with a 3-2 win over Prostars FC.
Conrad Czarnecki broke a 2-2 tie with the winner at the 89-minute mark. Alessandro Donato and Nicholas Andreola also scored.
The win improves Roma’s record to 5-11-4. Their season finale is Saturday, Aug. 20 at Electric City FC in Peterborough.
Turriziani, who will head back to Italy after the season to become the head of International Relations and Scouting for Viterbese, is already looking forward to next spring.
“I will get ready for next pre-season to try and do better and be more competitive,” he said. “This has been something amazing. Even more for me, it is part of a learning process to grow every day and learn from these guys.”
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