Post-Game Thread: Starters Become Subs and Then Save the Day Against Genoa

For 45 minutes, things looked bad. Really, really bad. Juvenuts' usually fantastic defense looked all sorts of confused. It wasn't just Ciro Immobile causing them problems, but even Marco Borriello — yeah, that Marco Borriello — was giving the Juve's D issues.

To sum up the first half, I'll go deep into my dictionary and describe it as this: YUCK.

But whatever it was — halftime adjustments, getting screamed at by Massimo Carrera in the locker room — it was a different kind of Juve that came out after the break. It wasn't necessarily the best of games, but it showed that this Juve team won't let one poor half let it get to them. That's character. Championship-winning character.

And I do know this: Carrera got it right with the subs.

The entrance of Mirko Vucinic and Kwadwo Asamoah in the 55th minute totally changed things up. The players they replaced, Alessandro Matri and Paolo De Ceglie, weren't doing much of anything. I don't even want to think about the miss Matri had right in front of the goal. (Then why did I just mention it? Dammit.)

While Juve were starting to play better — although, it seemed like it couldn't get much worse — as soon as the second half began, getting the lineup back to basically what it had been in the season's first two games. Asamoah gave Juve a presence on the left flank again. Vucinic showed that his creativity and ever-growing partnership with Sebastian Giovinco is what was needed to get consistent chances in front of goal flowing.

My Man of the Match: As much as I want to pull out my goalkeeper card and say it was Gianluigi Buffon, the game Vucinic had was pretty damn impressive. For as much as we harp on Mirko, this is the kind of game helps him get back on all of our good sides. In the 35 minutes he was on the field, the man who rocked one of the worst mustaches I've seen in recent memory scored a goal and got the assist on two others. Translation: Vucinic played a part in every goal Juventus scored against Genoa. I won't go as far as to pull out this headline, but not bad for a guy coming off the bench.