Barca and Las Fallas
By: Cesar | February 1st, 2008
Wish I had more time, so here’s a short one …
I thought we played sufficient against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday. We weren’t great, but we weren’t bad.
Silly first goal, with the ball rolling in off Cleber’s leg. A goal is a goal, though …
Great shot by Mata for our second. Beautiful pass by Banega to the young striker, who rifled it past Falcon for the deciding tally.
Still, although the midfield looked strong (despite errant passes all over the field), our defense is such utter crap.
Helguera is done. The guy can’t even clear a ball off his line. Too often, he’d gift the ball to the Atleti attackers because he couldn’t kick the ball out of his zone.
Miguel is fat. Albiol is still kind of raw and I’m not convinced by Caneira.
Still, we lost but we’re through … and who do we get?
Barcelona.
Fun fun.
I strongly believe Ronnie Koeman’s going to go all out in this tie. He’s going to want to beat his old employers and bring Valencia something from this wretched season. I still see us in the final. I’m confident. Besides, Barca’s going to be concentrating on the league and on the Champions League. They can give this one to us, right? ‘Maletin’ anyone? (Look that one up. I haven’t the time to explain what a ‘maletin’ is right now. Basically, it’s a suitcase full of money, given by a team to another to … help them out … Phil Ball of Soccernet.com fame did a wonderful article a few years back on it … tried to find it but again, haven’t the time).
For all of you in Valencia or planning to go to the Turian capital, the second leg is March 19th, the final day of the wild Las Fallas festival. I had the pleasure of going a few years back and I STRONGLY recommend it.
I was lucky to see Arsenal play Valencia in the Champions League the last day of that year’s festival (called ‘La Nit de Foc,’ the night of fire when the giant papier-mâché structures are burnt to a crisp), a John Carew double sending our boys to the quarters in dramatic, heart-stopping action. The stadium went wild, the city reveled in the last day of the ceremonies, dancing in the streets, drinking wine, setting off firecrackers and burning the large Fallas down to the ground all around the city.
Those were the days, huh?
Let’s see if Mr. Koeman can conjure up some old Fallas magic against his former squad.
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La Fallas es la ostia!
I was drunk for days.
Also, Carnival in spain is the best thing ever. Last year we dressed up as clowns, then drank and partied all night in my small town. Then at 9am, we got on a train, still dressed in clown suits and went to Madrid for a Estudiantes basketball game, and had to wonder around madrid still in the clown suits. Needless to say we got on the jumbotron and it was a good old time.
Posted from
United States
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I have to say, I’m pleased with our draw. I think we’ll provide some serious sparks simply because by the time the first leg comes around, neither team will be thinking about the league in any truly meaningful way. We’ll be settled in 2nd absurdly firmly with little shot at the top (one assumes by current form, though I hold onto my hope) and will be looking for some hardware. We will not be taking these games lightly at all. And remember, it starts with us and ends with you, so if you can’t win at the Mestalla, we’re going to go through.
I don’t see the current Valencia side doing anything other than capitulating. They were second best in both legs against Atleti and were lucky to get out of there…must have played their get-out-of-jail-free card…I think that Messi and company will destroy your back line, which is too slow. Your midfield is solid and your forwards are obviously top notch, but there’s some sort of mental block between the two. Neither of your goals against Atleti were real goals (the first was at least legal, the second was after a foul, but who am I to talk about illegal goals in the Copa?) and Thuram and Milito won’t give up anything easy. Don’t forget we’ll have both Toure and Eto’o back by the first leg, which spells even more disaster for your back line.
I honestly don’t see Valencia winning this unless Barca gets more injuries (Puyol will probably miss the first leg) or Rijkaard has a (very possible) mental breakdown and starts a second-string team. The thing you have going for you is that the first leg is right before a trip to the Vicente Calderon and you know Atleti is looking for revenge after last year’s, uh, “professional embarassment” (0-6 if you don’t remember…).
Interestingly, we play you in the league between the Copa legs, so that’ll be weird.
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United States -
I hope I didn’t come off as disparaging Valencia’s talent, I just think that Barca matches up well in a 1-on-1 sense with Valencia’s defense far too well to outweigh the talents up front for Los Che. That’s all. It should still be a fantastic couple of matches.
I can’t imagine what happened in the Mestalla in December will happen again. Probably not for several years.
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United States -
That’s bizarre as that was the last time I was in Valencia as well. 2002. I remember every second of that match against arsenal and not a single moment of that evening’s festivities
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United States -
@Isaiah
You must have sight problems. We weren’t second best in both ties, we raped Atletico when we played at the Mestalla.The second goal was not after a foul, and I won’t sit around discussing fake goals with a barca fan. Henry’s goal was 100% correct, right?
About our slow and shit defence, we didn’t fall in 05/06-06/07. THE SAME DEFENCE. Maybe it’s your defence that’s going to get owned by the one and only.
I HOPE Victor starts as GK, we all know how much he loves Villa.But then again we have Koeman, who’s getting his paycheck from Barcelona. He’ll somehow start the worst team possible, montoro and the likes will start the game cause koeman would want to see a barca win.
AMUNT VALENCIA!
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United Arab Emirates -
Barca is the worst opponient of VCF, but let’s hope Koeman will succeed!
Posted from
Armenia -
Yeah Koeman’s dream is to coach at Barca, so I would watch him closely. Valencia was my pick in the beginning of the year to take the Copa, so you never know.
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United States -
JJ, I suppose we did, indeed, watch two different games in that first leg. Because I saw a Valencia that was desperate for a win, but couldn’t find a way to do anything against a team with 10 men. In the second game they were by far the worse team for 99% of the game. That isn’t to say they aren’t talented, but it is to say that they were by far the worse team for 99% of the game. I was rooting for Valencia, but thought Atleti deserved to go through. I suppose, though, that 1-0 is “raping” these days…
And about your comment, “Henry’s goal was 100% correct, right?” I will refer you to my first post: “but who am I to talk about illegal goals in the Copa?” That should clear you up on whether I thought Henry’s goal was legal, but if that’s not enough, go ahead and visit my blog and see what I said about it.
I haven’t found any video evidence that the second goal wasn’t legal, but I also haven’t seen the whole move. As I recall, there was a foul before the ball bounced around in midfield and then was flicked to Banega who slotted it in to Mata. I could be wrong, of course. I’m not all that infallible.
I also don’t imagine that Koeman will hold off against Barcelona. Schuster, for example, hasn’t, and I think Koeman wants to win so that maybe one day he can become Barca’s coach. If he just loses for several more months, why would we want him? That doesn’t make any sense to me.
We’ll start our best 11, you start yours, and we’ll see what comes of it. I think we win all 3 encounters. But that, of course, is a biased opinion. We’re the better team, but if you out-hustle us, you can beat us, of course. Look at Almeria-RM today, for an example of that. Still, I think oddsmakers would give us the advantage.
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United States -
My bet is that This Game will go down as the game Silva Joaquin and Miguel click and set up Villa with some tasty goals.
AMUNT ! FALLAS will see us through send the Catalans back across the range.
Posted from
Canada -
we win 2-0 !!! yay Koeman gets an away win gratz!
Posted from
Canada -
Good win for us, I really like Maduro in the midfield.
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United States -
Valladolid 0-2 Valencia CF
Villa
Mata
We won!
I’ve told I beleive in Koeman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Posted from
Armenia -
I still dont believe in that Guy called Koeman……….Lets just keep waiting.
A win against Valladolid aint something to cheerPosted from
United States
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