The Abyss of Segunda
By: Cesar | May 5th, 2008
NADA … that’s what Valencia gave us yesterday. Nothing … As today’s front page of Foroche puts it, that’s what Valencia gave us. And there’s nothing more to say …
We’re now staring into the abyss, two points from relegation with three games left.
As it stands, we’re at 42 points, two above 18th-place Osasuna.
Here’s the standings:
13 - Getafe - 42 points
14 - Valladolid - 42 points
15 - Valencia - 42 points
16 - Zaragoza - 41 points
17 - Recreativo - 40 points
18 - Osasuna - 40 points
19 - Murcia - 30 points
Murcia and Levante are relegated.
We’re in the fight of our lives, with a game this Wednesday against 16th-place Zaragoza followed by battles with city rivals Levante and Atletico Madrid.
And that’s that. Season over.
Either we celebrate staying in La Liga.
Or we cry over the unthinkable: Relegation.
Here’s my thoughts on yesterday’s humiliating 6-0 loss to Barcelona …
I don’t have any thoughts. I didn’t see the game. I’m GLAD I didn’t see the game.
Reader Daniel provided me with text updates along with various other friends expressing shock and dismay at what used to be a great Valencia team …
What happened? Here’s what I think happened … no one cares anymore.
Sure, we the fans care. We buy the shirts, spend our time watching the matches, blog our thoughts, frequent forums, etc.
But what do the players care? Most of them won’t even be here next season … some don’t want to be here …
What does it matter to them if we stay up or not?
Our defense is rubbish. Our play, lackluster … what more is there to say? Once a team is down by three goals after 10 minutes, the game’s pretty much about saving face. Which is something we didn’t do yesterday …
Aggh, this is so frustrating …
Look, call me negative but I’m not the only one that feels this way … Valencia’s squad was met by a group of angry fans when they arrived at the city’s airport on Sunday evening after being heavily beaten by Barcelona.
The supporters were furious following our beloved’s toothless display at the Nou Camp.
Fearing an altercation, the club opted to keep the players on the plane until the team bus could be driven onto the runway to collect them, rather than have them meet it outside the airport entrance.
Cries of ‘Less millions, More backbone’ were heard, along with accusations that the players were ‘mercenaries’ and ’shameless’ after such an inept display against Barcelona.
Uggh … You know our goal difference this year is -21???
Negative 21???? What the f&CK??? Remember when we used to have the best defense in Europe?
My, how times change …
The president is GONE.
QQ is GONE. Koeman is GONE.
You know who is still here?
Villa. Joaquin. Silva. Caneira. Miguel. Marchena. Vicente. Mata. Etc etc etc …
You get my drift.
You know what?
I was against selling Joaquin, Villa and Silva just a few days ago.
But since we turned into the New York Knicks of European football, here’s an idea: Sell all three of them.
In fact, sell them all!!
We can’t win a game with Joaquin, Villa and Silva on the team anyways …
So what makes anyone think they should be part of the rebuilding process here?
Just leave our club, make your money and leave us alone …
If you don’t want to be here … if you want to play for Madrid, Tottenham, Inter or freakin’ the New York Red Bulls, just leave …
Sorry for this emotional post, but 6-0 is unacceptable … it doesn’t matter if we looked good for a few moments in attack, if Timo played well, if Henry dove a few times, etc etc …
6-0!!!!! Six goals for them, none for us! Unreal …
I’m done ranting … 6-0 really makes me mad … (Can you tell?)
By the way, nice to see Albelda back …
And CONGRATS to Real Madrid on their 31st league championship …
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Comments
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I’ll add a little more detail for those of you who were lucky enough not to have seen yesterday’s excuse for a football match. I scarcely had time to begin sippin my brew when the rot began. The less and less convincing Alexis hacks down a free flowing Messi for a penalty in the fourth minute. As I type a text message to update Cesar, Xavi hammers in a second. As I correct my earlier message, Henry’s in with a third. You get the point. The most important take away here for me is that the Albiol-Alexis central defensive partnership CANNOT WORK. Despite the potential both of these young players have, we need an experienced stalwart to marshall and lead the backline and provide the leadership we lost when Ayala left. I’ve never seen the team play with such a lack of commitment.. and what’s with this joker Voro talking about: “at halftime I told them we should try to keep the score down”. WTF!!! Are we Real Murcia?? I agree with Cesar 100%. Sell everyone who wants to leave. ALL OF THEM. A massive clear out, leaving only those who are willing to run out under the Mestalla lights for our club. We supporters deserve better than this.. whether we deserve Champions League action, UEFA Cup play, a Copa del Rey trophy or La Liga status is all up for debate, but without question we deserve commitment from every player wearing a Valencia shirt on the pitch.
Posted from
United States
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we have a phrase that says ” when a problem becomes extreme it becomes funny ” and thats exactely what that turned out to be! i was laughing when i was watching the game with my heart burning! my friends kept calling me after each time they score making fun of Valencia since most are barca fans! i couldn’t say anything! they had the right to make as much fun and comment as much as they could! i kept quiet and after they were done i hung up each time!
i have said before letts sell Villa and jaquin! juaquin is done! he is fast but he looses the ball toooo much! he is not efficient! he falls 90% of the time! id let silva stay!
The defence! lol i woulnd clear them all out but the thing is we cant dream or think on which player to buy like most clubs are now! you know why? because we might get relegated therfore no one would want to come and why bother buy players!.. Uefa?? haha we would be kicked out by the first team if we play like that!.. and Voro says letts try to keep the score down?? omg how many more slaps and why are the slaps are coming from every direction? -SOler, Voro Koeman. QQ each and every player!.. and btw where the hell is banega and why isnt he playing? i dnt no bout you guys but im getting a Vcf with banega on the back! screw all them old players! i dont respect names i respect performance!
Our team is exhalng its last breaths… My condolences Valencia fans…Posted from
United Arab Emirates -
I feel like the team died a terrible painful death, however i don’t believe it was the defense’s fault, it was the midfield i said a couple of weeks ago Voro would panic and pick the old guard. Againest Barca we needed non stop running from midfield to attack but more importantly defend rarely have i seen Valencia so ill prepared to face Barca the tactics were all wrong its still no excuse for the lacklustre performance. Maduro and Banega although young would have been alot more mobile than both Marchena and the terrible Baraja. Beating Zarazorga is a must and i pray our confidence hasn’t totally evaporated. Any more transfer rumours???
Posted from
United States -
Rumors abound on some of the internet forums from Valencia that Banega is not playing and will be sold in the summer because he was caught drinking and driving again … this is rumor mongering but it’s what I read online … Take it for what it is …
Posted from
United States -
i dont have adequate words to describe how i feel.its like im at a funeral ,trying to say something to the poor relatives left behind,there are no words for whats happened, what can anyone say. feel my pain people.
Posted from
Spain -
it better be a rumour. otherwise he will most likely be sold for less then we bought him and add yet anather streak of million to the alreake impressive debt bill for like 2 games played.
Posted from
Netherlands -
Put Marchena in as a CB and let banega play the hodling midfield
Posted from
United States -
i dont blame banega! he wants to forget how bad his team-mates are playing!
Posted from
United Arab Emirates -
well then he better starts yelling at them so it actually gets better
Posted from
Netherlands -
Reading the above post/comments was actually really alarming - and that from a Real Madrid fan. I’ll come out and admit that I have no love for Valencia, though I root for them when they play Barcelona. Still, they’re a part of the Primera - one I wouldn’t want to be without. That said:
I’ve never actually been worried that Valencia might be relegated… until right now. And Cesar was the one to put things in perspective when he pointed out that the current squad has little to play for - they’re all wearing price tags, so that might give them a little incentive, but since they’re on their way out, they have little incentive to keep the team afloat. For a club in Valencia’s position to announce that they’re going to sell the players that stand to save them? Remarkably idiotic.
When Barca scored their second goal, you could visably see the players’ shoulders drop, and they just stopped playing. They, apparently, believe they’re as bad as their results. No confidence, no drive - do I sound like I’m describing a team fighting to stay up, or doomed to go down.
I really don’t mean any offense by any of these comments, in fact I want to wish your club the best of luck. But that even the fans are jeering and cursing the only men that can save them - the players - is a pretty bad sign.
Posted from
United States -
thnks john,, hearing cvomments from Valencia fans hurts but yet they r like a family, wt hurts thm hurts me! but from a RM fan… u just sprayed salt mixed with viniger on my open wound!! none takin (offense)
Posted from
United Arab Emirates -
John, how’s it feel to rob a small, beloved club like Osasuna and put them into the relegation zone? I’m just glad Arizmendi owns you.
Posted from
United States -
To be honest, I thought throughout the game that Valencia was making tactical mistakes, not mistakes in desire. They were stuck out there without midfield pressure and with an attacking mentality. That means they left the midfield open and the backline alone to be cut to shreds by Barcelona. Who wouldn’t succumb horrendously to such a tactical mistake? I know nothing about their new coach, but he made the largest mistake you can make against Barcelona: letting them play.
And he let them play for 90 minutes. Of course we were going to win and once that first goal had gone in and no resistance was really put up, it was always going to be a long night for Valencia. It’s sad to say because I think that Valencia is ridiculously talented, but they’ve been screwed by bad coaching all season rather than by players not caring. All players care not to get hammered. That’s embarrassing. But you as fans should be blaming the coach for that loss and demanding a better tactical approach to games.
Villa, Joaquin, Mata, Silva, Vicente…you have that kind of talent and you can’t use it correctly? Bullshit, I say. Figure out how to use them and figure it out now. Get Banega on the field if that’s going to stop the bloodletting — not that I would ever ever condone drinking and driving, but get him some help or get him a chauffeur and get your ship back on course. It’s not only not too late, its high time it happened.
Posted from
United States -
Hi all, I’ve been following this blog for about 2 months now, great blog and nice job!
Now, imho, what were we expecting from this match? Being realistic we knew that it would be almost impossible to repeat the copa performance and those 2 games against barca. I mean, personally, I wasn’t expecting much from this match because I think barca also has some motivation to play well these last games, and boy I think they would jump on the first opportunity to take revenge for the copa. To put it bluntly, I think that for this particular match, they were more motivated than us and it is really no surprise they went out to kill the match in 15mins, say what you will, it is still barca, they are the better team this season.
Now putting that aside, I think this next match is the real deal, anyone realistically making predictions on the results we needed to keep up, most likely counted the barca match as a loss. I think that how we played against osasuna and how we will play this next match, is, imho way more important than how we lost to barca. I do hope we will bounce back and win the next one, because if not, then I’ll be right beside all of you singing “it’s all over…”
Peace.Posted from
United States -
I understand the point you’re trying to make Isaiah, but regardless of whether we have QQ, Koeman, Voro or friggin Helguera as coach, absolutely nothing can condone the incredibly toothless display these “players” put on Sunday. Totally unbelievable.. I’d prefer us lose 10 - 0 with some fight and gusto than what I saw yesterday.
Posted from
United States -
I didn’t watch the match even though they were showing it because I had some work to do and because I knew it was gonna be over after the first 3 goals were scored. From what I have heard, from neutrals and editorials in the papers, Valencia played a terrible game and the players were deflated. Since I didn’t watch the match, I’d prefer not to give an opinion and to just look ahead to the next match, though it’s very hard to actually look past this. When I saw the final result, I wasn’t upset. I was more numb than anything, in a way I almost expected it. What has become of this club? It is a shadow of what we once were. And I am sure all the fans feel pretty empty right now as well, because naturally we’d want our team to do well. Bad results, I can forgive, I would forgive a team if they played well and results didn’t go their way. But if it was a bad team display from the start…I highly doubt that all 6 goals were flukes, 6-0 pretty much shows what a gross display we put up.
That said, I am trying not to apportion blame to anyone in particular, IMO I think the players and the coach are to blame. It’s a different thing if we were to talk about who is more to blame, but in any case both parties are to blame. The coach, for bad tactics and bad advice (3-0 down the coach should be telling them to fight back, not to keep the score down! Is he happy that the score was only 6-0 and not 16-0?!) and the players for presumably a lack of motivation.
The next game against Zaragoza, I can bet, will be very very tough. They are fighting relegation as well, they have as much going on than we do. The game against Levante would also be tough even though they have already been relegated, but they are our city rivals and no way will they want to lose against us. And please, playing against Atleti would be difficult, I can imagine they’d still be fighting for the Champions League right to the end.
It is sad to see the club fall like that. Just look:
At the start of the season, we were fighting for the title.
After we got kicked out of the CL, we were fighting for a Champions League place.
After that was not possible, we were fighting for at least a Uefa Cup spot.
Right now, we are fighting to stay on top.Ridiculous.
End of rant.
Posted from
Singapore -
For those of you that did not see the match, try and find it online and just see the first 10 mins and you’ve seen it all.I was looking forward to a good fight that could go either way with the edge on Barca as they were now out of the Champions and had Messi back (missing for the COPA).To say the game started is a joke I thought the ref had swallowed his pea.It was slow motion camera for four minutes, Valencia were content to contain the ball in there own goal area then Messi suddenly came on the scene, 3 zombies came to life,surrounded him,Penalty,and they went back to zombie land rest of the match.The defence were awful,slow and always in the wrong places.On a shot from the corner Messi was left on his own with one defender BEHIND him, result, Goal.It was slow, slow, and no attack the midfield hardly existed
and nobody was taking the ball forward.You have to see it to believe it.The contrast to the Zaragoza v Dep on Saturday was fightening.It was fight, fight, fight from the whistle at top speed with Zaragoza 1 up at the end, but 4 up might be a better portrayal of all the shots at goal.If they play like this then there will be a few more goals in the Val.net. Our main survival hope is that
we have Rec and Osa 2 points behind, so if they lose when we do then we have no problem because we are at least in front.Of the teams also on 42 with us, Get. and Vad. they play each other the game from last so one of them must lose some points there. So we do have chances.
We must keep on as supporters and not be as destructive as the stadium fans who chant “get out” at the first opportunity (at Quique when we were only 4 points from top). The team have had an unbelievably demoralising trainer with Koeman, then after the win in the Copa and the Liga they read that they were all up for sale to help pay off the bank overdraft, that this news should break now shows the mentality of the Directors.If the apple is rotten in the core it affects the rest.
Thursday morning we will have a better idea of the future but as I said, it relies perhaps more on the results of other teams…………AlmendrasPosted from
Spain -
Remember sagnol valencia wanted to sign earlier.. milan r realy close to land him! All Valencia does is claim they want great players like VDV and huntelaar and sagnol and riise and maxwell and they end up gettng ivan helguera and alexis! and instead of huntelaar they get arizmendi and zigic! lol damn those stupid signing! the thing is valencia prolly wants to be like Arsenal but the thing is they dnt have the experienced look to eye the good player tht wanger got!
Posted from
United Arab Emirates
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