Juventus 2 – Atalanta 1: Initial reaction and random observations

Saturday evening in Bergamo proved to be one final test and measuring stick for Juventus manager Igor Tudor before things start to count for real next weekend. And just like the previous weekend in which they faced one of the best in Germany, the trip to face one of the most competitive teams in Italy for the better part of the past decade was about as much of a dress rehearsal as Tudor could have gotten.

(No offense to the Next Gen, of course. But that friendly is always going to be a little one-sided at minimum.)

So, how did Juventus look eight days before their season starts for real?

There’s more than just a couple of commonalities between last weekend’s win over Borussia Dortmund and this one. The final score, for one, was the same, with Juve recording another 2-1 victory. The point in time when Juve allowed their lone goal of the game was around the same, with Atalanta scoring right on the brink of second-half stoppage time a lot like Dortmund did. But unlike seeing a surprise goal scorer in Andrea Cambiaso pop up, it was Juve’s biggest summer signing to date this year, Canadian striker Jonathan David, get on the scoresheet for the first time since moving to Turin and then Dusan Vlahovic finding the back of the net for the third time during the friendly calendar within a five-minute span to give Juve the win and close out the preseason.

With it came the Trofeo Achille e Cesare Bortolotti. Who said this team won’t win silverware this season!

OK, so I say that totally in jest. A preseason trophy doesn’t mean much of anything, if ever.

But at the very least, ending the preseason with wins over Dortmund and now Atalanta can give this team a little extra pep in their step as they head into a new season in which the roster still looks a lot like the one that struggled to barely finish in fourth place and qualify for the Champions League.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the first time David has scored in a Juventus jersey — yeah, yeah, it’s a friendly and it won’t count on his official tally, but whatever — looked a little something like this:

That’s pretty good! I am wholeheartedly in favor of David doing that as much as he wants. They don’t all have to be of the bicycle variety, but a little extra style points have never hurt anybody if you’re scoring on a regular basis.

But hey, whatever you want to do is fine with me, JD.

Just as was said after the win over Dortmund, there were good things besides the goals to take out of this one. It was nice to see David make an impact with that kind of goal after a somewhat quiet kind of game in the Atalanta penalty area. It was very refreshing to see Cambiaso have another strong showing after such an injury-hampered second half of last season. Teun Koopmeiners was solid if not unspectacular. Some of the dribbling from Kenan Yildiz and Francisco Conceição was just absolutely dizzying. And, for all of his faults, João Mário has shown us in the small sample size with Juve thus far that he is very much a threat going forward, with his assist on Vlahovic’s goal being quite the impressive run.

Plus, Juventus taking the final friendly of the summer seriously and playing — the first half especially — with some serious zip will never not be a positive.

All in all, for all of the faults this team has and maybe hasn’t totally been able to address yet on the transfer market for very obvious reasons I won’t rehash here, it does feel like it’s been more positive than negative summer on the field for Juventus. The developments when it comes to the summer mercato are another matter, but when it comes to how Juve have played in their to friendlies against top-flight opposition, I definitely come away with the sense that it’s been more positive than something we can just blow off and scoff at.

We obviously have absolutely no clue what will happen eight days from now when Juventus open their 2025-26 season at the Allianz against a Parma squad who just sold arguably their most valuable asset. That is always the catch with summer friendlies — you could look great and then the season starts and things just go to hell. So, for all we know, Juventus could struggle against Parma and it’s a season-opening draw. Or, David could very well score another overhead kick and we’re off and running this season. Only time will tell, my friends.

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS

• Gotta say, that captain’s armband looked pretty good on Bremer’s bicep. (Then again, what wouldn’t look good on Bremer? Well, probably the jersey of the club that was close to signing him before Juve swooped in a few summers ago.)
• Another Bremer note: It was a friendly, but that battle with Gianluca Scamacca was a pretty good one for this one not actually counting for much other than match fitness. That’s just two very large and strong humans going up against one another and a pretty good gauge to see where Bremer is at in his journey back from his ACL surgery last October.
• One more Bremer note: That was a damn strong 80 minutes of game time for him. For him to look the way he did and show some stamina throughout is a huge step as we sit here a week out from his much-anticipated to an official match. Juve certainly have played it right when it comes to how they’ve managed his entire rehab process.
• Actually, now one more Bremer note: I am so happy he’s back.
• You all can rest a little easier because I just read that Tudor said Federico Gatti came off late in Saturday’s friendly due to cramping. No injury. No need for a prayer circle. We can all hold that for somebody who needs it more.
• Same as Bremer when it comes to Gatti — knowing that he’s dealt with fitness issues ever since the spring, seeing him get nearly a full game’s worth of minutes in his legs is a big deal ahead of a new season. Sure, it ended with cramps, but Gatti looked pretty good before he had to come off with a few minutes to go.
• All that being said, why did Kenan Yildiz play into second-half stoppages? That’s the one player not named Bremer you can’t risk at all with some sort of late-game weirdness. Thankfully, nothing happened. Thankfully — and I can’t emphasize that enough.
• Personally, I’m not a fan of Juventus allowing these late-game goals no matter what the score is. Hopefully this is something that is left in the past and the shuffling in of an entire new backline is a reason for all that.
• Those long and ranging Khephren Thuram runs forward will never get old. Now we just need to him to turn them into more goals and assists, right? That sure would be nice when it comes to a player who many feel like has the chance to take a big step forward this season.
• Chico Conceição found himself surrounded by three Atalanta players late in the first half and juked the living hell out of all of them. That was nifty as hell.
• Guessing Lloyd Kelly is probably going to be happy that there’s a few weeks before Juve play Atalanta in their first Serie A matchup of the season because Charles De Ketelaere sure did give him the shakes a couple of times.
• Credit where credit is due: Vlahovic played with the kind of fire lit underneath him that it feels like we haven’t seen in a while. Who knows why that was the case, but if there is the chance of him actually staying at Juventus, hopefully he plays like that going forward. (One can only hope, right?)
• Also glad Dusan decided to shoot with his left foot based on what happened last weekend when he tried a shot from around the same area of the 18-yard box with his right foot.
• Douglas Luiz coming on in the 89th minute in what looks to be his last Juventus performance before he heads off to Nottingham Forest sure does feel appropriate for how his 14 months in Turin went.
• That David goal. Still thinking about it.
• Iceman. Air Canada. Whatever you want to call him works.
• The season is almost upon us. It’s been a weird summer considering we’ve dealt with the Club World Cup, an abbreviated break for the players and a transfer market that has been anything but impressive. But in eight days, the games count in the standings and hopefully we’re able to take some positivity out of facing Parma like we’ve been able to do against Borussia Dortmund and now Atalanta.