Controversy from October Clash Will Loom Large over Juventus and Roma on Monday

The game between Juventus and Roma on October 5 was an ill-tempered affair marked by controversy.

Three penalties were awarded in the first half, two to Juve and one to Roma.  Roma's spot-kick was awarded after Stephan Lichtsteiner tackled Francesco Totti while a free-kick was in the air.  The call was fairly legitimate, although there were questions as to whether Totti had fouled Lichtsteiner beforehand and how far the incident was from the actual play.

Juve's penalties were far more controversial.  The first was called against Maicon for handling the ball during an Andrea Pirlo free-kick. The second was for a Miralem Pjanic foul on Paul Pogba.  Both calls came extraordinarily close to the boundary of the penalty area, and Roma were furious at both.  Roma manager Rudi Garcia was sent off after the first, and the controversy over the second bled into the second half.

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The game was locked at 2-2 for nearly the entire second half.  With four minutes remaining, Leonardo Bonucci scored a stunning volley after a corner kick.  The winner was met with another storm of controversy.  Roma insisted that Arturo Vidal, standing in an offside position, had obstructed the view of goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski and that the goal should have been disallowed.

But the strike stood, and the end of the game devolved as the irate Giallorossi vented their frustration, culminating when Kostas Manolas struck Alvaro Morata in reaction to a foul.  Both players received red cards.

In the aftermath, Roma openly criticized the result.  Some, like team captain Totti, even implied that impropriety had played a part in the game.  The Roma legend told Sky Sport Italia (h/t Football Italia) after the game, "By hook or by crook, they always win."

That kind of talk is both over-the-top and inaccurate.  There was nothing crooked going on in October—the Lega Serie A simply assigned a referee, Gianluca Rocchi, who was wholly inadequate to the task of such an important match.

Rocchi is not a good referee.  Goal.com compiled a laundry list of his more baffling calls after October's match, which English-language pundits like ESPN FC's James Horncastle almost immediately began calling the "Rocchi horror show."  UEFA even suspended him in 2012 after a poor showing in a Champions League game between Manchester City and Real Madrid.  How he's managed to make UEFA's Elite list—let alone stay there—is astonishing.

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In past years, a game of this caliber would have almost automatically been put into the hands of men like Pierluigi Collina or Roberto Rosetti.  Collina was one of the best referees of all time.  He was listed as the best official in the world six consecutive times by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics.  Rosetti was a three-time Serie A Official of the Year and was named the world's best in 2008 by IFFHS.

These men were unflappable in the face of pressure and excellent on-field refs.  Unfortunately, the only man of their caliber currently operating in Italy, Nicola Rizzoli, is unavailable after injuring his calf last month during a game between Genoa and Fiorentina.

The man who has been assigned to the game is Daniele Orsato.  Orsato is a solid arbiter, but he will be under immense pressure in this match.  Any major call that goes Juve's way could cause a massive outcry.

To add to that, he will be under the watchful eyes of nearly 70,000 Roma fans.  The psychological pressure of such an atmosphere is bound to affect almost any official (for a full explanation, I highly recommend you read Scorecasting, a book by University of Chicago professor Tobias J. Moskowitz and Sports Illustrated writer L. Jon Wertheim).

Given how the first game between these two finished, the atmosphere both on the field and in the stands is going to be hot.  Orsato will need to establish control of the game early and not allow the players to overwhelm him the way Rocchi did four months ago.  He will also need the courage to make a call against the hosts in the cauldron of the Olimpico if that is what the situation calls for.

The result of Rocchi's October ineptitude will color every action and reaction in this game.  It's unfortunate, and there's no changing it.  

The question now is whether or not the residual effects of that match end up deciding this one—and with it, potentially, the Italian championship.