Gianluca Busio has grown into a consistent starter for Serie A club Venezia, but the American midfielder could now be faced with a spell on the sidelines.
Busio was substituted at halftime on Saturday in the club’s eventual 3-1 road defeat to Sassuolo with an injury. The former Sporting KC midfielder started for Paolo Zanetti’s side, but suffered an early knock in the match, which eventually forced him out at halftime.
Busio’s injury was a tough blow.
In the second half, we haven’t had the same balance. Especially difficult with Vacca also missing tonight.
Just as Zanetti seemed to have found his best midfield in Busio, Vacca, and Ampadu.
75’ | Sassuolo 3-1 Venezia#SassuoloVenezia
— Venezia FC (@VeneziaFC_EN) October 23, 2021
Despite a 32nd-minute opening goal from Venezia’s David Okereke, the visitors pulled one back when Domenico Berardi scored in the 37th minute. Sassuolo scored twice more in the second half to claim its second win out of the past five matches.
Busio left the match at halftime, ending what looked to be a promising performance by the 19-year-old. Saturday marked Busio’s eighth league appearance for the club following his transfer from MLS, all of which had been starts.
“We had the right initial approach in a difficult arena against a team that has a lot of quality,” Zanetti said in a postmatch interview. “Unfortunately, until the own goal we were more than in the game and could even have gone into the break 2-1 up, as the goalkeeper performed a miracle. That would’ve made it a completely different match.
“I will be honest, I did not like our attitude after we conceded in the second half,” Zanetti said. “We weren’t as aggressive as usual and also lost Gianluca Busio to injury.”
Busio helped Venezia to a 1-0 league win over Fiorentina on October 18, playing 90 minutes in his central midfield position.
Busio remains an option for the U.S. men’s national team after playing out the final 12 minutes of a 2-1 World Cup Qualifying victory over Costa Rica back on October 13.
The knock Busio suffered on Saturday will bear watching, with the next round of World Cup qualifiers three weeks away. The USMNT faces Mexico on November 12 in Cincinnati before traveling to Jamaica for a November 16 clash.
Venezia sits in 16th place in the Serie A standings, two points clear of the relegation zone.
Venezia has a quick turnaround, hosting Salernitana on Tuesday before matches against Genoa and AS Roma.
the team fell apart without him in the 2nd half. I actually thought they had a good chance of getting a point but then the 2nd half happen
I kept thinking that Sporting Kansas City might be better. Salloi would definitely be an upgrade over their frontline. Okereke has a ton of potential but he doesn’t really have any sense of how to combine.
Ah crap, and I thought he was starting to develop a promising partnership with Ethan Ampadu. Hopefully, it’s just a knock.
Amen
Hope it’s not much and he’s back soon. Been exciting to see him progress and was really wanting to see him play a part in Nov qualifiers.
He slid in and won the ball in the box in third minute the other player kicked him right in the shin just below the knee. Players quickly called for sub, trainers iced and magic sprayed him and after about three minutes he walked off with two trainers supporting most of his weight. Trainers told them to hold the sub and after about another minute on the sideline Gianluca ran back on with no noticeable limp. Played the rest of the half running around as normal. My family was eating lunch so I did not see the players go off at half, perhaps Larry is just trying to be poetic with descriptions.
Thank for that description. I wasn’t able to watch the match. That sounds like the definition of a knock. Hope to see him back in action sooner than later.
Went back and watched the replay on the very last play of the half Busio goes up to challenge for a corner. As he lands he bends over and grabs his leg. On the replay they then immediately cut to the second half, so Larry’s description could be accurate.
boo