Leave Your Heart on the Pitch!!!

By: Cesar | March 19th, 2008

Today’s La Nit de Foc, the annual Night of Fire that concludes Valencia’s grand Fallas festival.

Along with the burning down of the huge papier-mâché figures around the city, known as La Cremà, the two events constitute the last acts of the Fallas festival.

Everyone drinks, goes home and gets ready for next year’s festivities.

This year is a little different because as soon as the party ends, the anxiety takes over.
The semi-final of the Copa Del Rey rides into town, FC Barcelona paying a visit and nothing short of our entire season is on the line …

Look at the picture of the guy with the Valencia tattoo on his back … talk about hardcore!

What the caption says is very true … Valencia need to literally ‘leave their skin’ on the pitch tomorrow.

A defeat in tomorrow’s game would leave us with nothing left to fight for but staying in La Liga for next season. There’s no way we’re getting into Europe with the form we’ve shown lately. This is our only shot, the winner of the Cup getting an automatic bid into next season’s UEFA Cup.

We need to leave it ALL on the pitch, give it everything we have.

Defeat and elimination would probably sentence Ronnie ‘TinTin’ Koeman to purgatory and send him packing. This could be a good thing, but not at this stage of the season. Fire him at the end of the year. But not now. Let’s just play with what we have. Let’s just give it our all tomorrow … Please?

I’m not good at prognosticating or writing previews of games. It’s not me. I just write what I feel, give you my opinions on the club, good or bad.

And this is what I feel about tomorrow’s game: We need the win! BADLY!

We need Koeman to figure out a way to motivate these guys to play the game of the season and show the fans this means something to them. Because we’re tired of expectations. We’re tired of shoddy play. We’ve had enough of the drama. We just want to cheer our lungs out this time. Give us something to cheer for!!

We need Timo Hildebrand to channel the spirit of the great Santiago Canizares and make some spectacular saves, like he made at the Camp Nou in the first leg of this semifinal.

We need Ivan Helguera and Raul Albiol to marshal the middle of the field and throw their bodies at balls.

We need Ever Banega to put the video camera and the whiskey down and pass the ball around like he’s been doing so gracefully so far.

We need David Silva to show up, Joaquin to stay on his feet and Mata to continue to play with high energy.

We need Marchena to play with grit and the reserve squad to be ready to play when called upon.

Most importantly, we need to get the ball to David Villa. And once he gets the ball, we need him to score. He can go to Tottenham or Chelsea or Dubai next season for all I care. Right now, he wears my escudo. And until he takes that bat off, he’s my player. I want him to score. We NEED him to score. Just show up and play, Guaje. Make it an audition for Manchester United, for all I care. Just score …

Like the front cover of today’s SuperDeporte says …

Do it because you’re from Valencia (or like most of us, because we support Valencia …)
Do it for your dad (that’s nice, eh? Father’s Day in Spain is March 19th …)
Do it for that girl you like …
Do it because you want it more.
Do it because a Cup is a Cup (how true …)

Tomorrow in Mestalla … give it your all, put your heart and soul into it, leave it all on the field …

Ronaldhino is out, Eto’o promises they’ll play better than in the first leg, Cruyff is coming back to play, etc etc etc …

I don’t care.

If we want this game more than they do, we’ll take it.

C’mon, Koeman and Co. Show us what you have. Give us this one bit of redemption. Make us believe in you and your project …

Amunt! I can’t wait until tomorrow ….