So What Should I Write About?

By: Cesar | September 17th, 2007

So what do you think I should be writing about today?

The three points we ‘earned’ at the hands of Valladolid? The graceful, stylish play our club is showing? The tacticul genius of our coach, Quique Sanchez Flores?

I might be overreacting here. But this game is testament to what I and other readers here have been saying: Quique is not the man for this team.

I had the pleasure of watching the match with Daniel, one of the regular readers of this blog. Finally, I wasn’t alone! Unfortunately, we were surrounded by the Real Madrid penya of New York City, whose game wasn’t telecast in the United States.

As they received updates on their match via Blackberry and as our game droned on, the beer flowed and the vitriol started.

‘Your team is so boring!’ (As the picture above points out, that sentiment was shared by many … the sign says, ‘Quique, I’m bored’ and was hung at the Mestalla this weekend.)
‘What’s wrong with you guys? You know Valladolid just got promoted, right?’
‘Hala Madrid!’

Frustrating isn’t the correct word for how I felt. Drunk might be more like it. But actually, just unease. What could I say? They were right. Valencia looked out of sorts again, poor in quality and fitness.

Let’s just say what Valencia were Saturday: Lucky.
Another word for our victory? Undeserved.

They stole the game, 2-1 with a last minute screamer from David Silva past ex-Valencia keeper Ludovic Butelle.

We were outplayed, outcoached and horribly inept in many aspects of our game, like confidence and defense (we miss Ayala, huh?).

After the game, the whistles were in full bloom, the rafters screaming Quique Vete Ya! (Quique, Leave!), white handkerchiefs waving in the air. Even Quique had to shake his head in disbelief, apologizing for the team’s poor performance.

Some fun stuff for you to pour over as you drink whiskey and slam your head against the wall in horror from our winning performance:

- ‘Highlights’ of Saturday’s match. Watch Valencia stomp and trample the opposition. Oh, wait. This isn’t 2002. Nevermind. Watch some guys in Valencia kits pretend to be our team. Click here!!!

- For a more thorough thrashing of our team in English, click here!!!.

- Are we overreacting? The famed Spanish footie blog Notas De Futbol says so. Click here to read about how short our memories are and how Quique needs to stay. Sorry, it’s in Spanish. But worth the read in Babelfish if you’re so inclined.

More game tidbits:

- Poor save attempt by Canizares in the first half, when he gifted a goal to Valladolid. But great save later in the 2nd half from close range to show why he’s still in the nets for us. But really, why did we get Timo Hildebrand, a world-class ‘keeper, if he’s not going to play?

- Manuel Fernandes impressed. I think in time, this guy will be brilliant. He looked good on the ball, despite being played out of position. Good job and let’s continue to play him.

- Sunny looked ok. Baraja? Please. No more. Just play Fernandes and let Baraja play in the Copa Del Rey games.

- I mean, really. How much do we miss Ayala right now? The defense looks out of sorts without their general.

- Arizmendi started. Ok … where was Zigic? He did play this week during the Euro qualifiers. So why did we spend 25 million Euro for this guy? Can someone PLEASE remind me why we didn’t buy Sneijder and Trezuget when we could have? Sneijder looks like the second coming of Cruyff at Madrid and Trezuget is leading Italy in scoring. Go figure.

- Speaking of Arizmendi and the others that started: Nice vote of confidence by Flores in quickly taking off the new troops for the old guard (Villa and Silva). Nothing instills confidence more in a team than playing them and then taking them out when the going gets tough.
I give QQ credit for this: He took responsibility after the match for his poor coaching and the poor play. Let’s see how this translates to Tuesday’s game against Schalke 04, our first Champions League group stage match of the season. More on that later today …

For now, I can only say … aggh. Three points are three points. But I don’t want to see our team play like this.

Poor performance. Poor match by the players and coach. Poor game and a vote of no confidence against the coach.

On to Germany. Let’s hope things improve there.