Dybala Shines in Roma's Pre-Season Opener
Roma’s pre-season opened with a routine scoreline but a significant message. The first glimpse of Gian Piero Gasperini’s side this summer brought a 6-0 win over the Primavera team, and at the heart of it all, once again, stood Paulo Dybala.
This was not a veteran easing his way back with gentle touches and half-pace runs. According to TuttoMercatoWeb, the Argentine looked like the same talisman who dragged Roma through the final stretch of last season, stitching attacks together, deciding when to quicken the tempo, when to slow it, when to strike. He delivered an assist, scored twice, and, just as importantly for Gasperini, moved with the sharpness of a player who has treated the off-season as a launchpad, not a holiday.
Gasperini has been clear since his arrival: a fully fit Dybala changes the equation. The caveat has always been that fitness record, that fragile thread on which so many of his seasons have hung. For one afternoon at least, the signs were exactly what Roma wanted. Dybala’s touch was clean, his bursts into space were decisive, and his body language suggested a player ready to shoulder responsibility again rather than manage his minutes.
If Dybala’s display soothed old worries, Artem Dovbyk’s performance addressed a more recent one. The Ukrainian striker, who lost a crucial slice of last season to a tendon problem that required surgery, returned with the kind of urgency you expect from a man who knows his name has been floated on the outgoing list.
He scored twice and might easily have finished with more. His movement was aggressive, his finishing direct, the sort of centre-forward play that forces a coach to think twice before approving any sale. Those goals do not erase the months he missed, but they do reframe the conversation around him. Instead of being the expendable asset to fund new arrivals, Dovbyk now has a window – these coming weeks of pre-season – to prove he should be part of Gasperini’s core.
Roma’s internal friendly will not define their year, and the level of opposition means nobody at Trigoria will be getting carried away. Yet in a match that could have drifted into a fitness exercise, two players turned it into something more: a statement from Dybala that he is ready to lead again, and a reminder from Dovbyk that Roma might already have one of the forwards others are searching for.
