Barca and the Euro Vase
By: Cesar | December 5th, 2008
Tomorrow, it’s our second game in 48 hours when Valencia CF travel to the capital of Catalunya to face 1st-place FC Barcelona at the Nou Camp in the match of the weekend in Spain.
I’ve never hidden my disdain for all things Barca. I’m not even sure why I dislike them at this point.
My feelings for them are multi-layered, like an onion. Hard to explain, hard to get to the core of.
Regardless, this game isn’t about my feelings. It’s about playing a squad that’s been firing on all cylinders as of late, playing other-worldly football as they hold onto first place in La Liga.
Luckily, tomorrow’s match will see the absence of mercurial striker and Spanish Pichichi Samuel Eto’o, who is suspended and Andres Iniesta, who is injured.
Having said that, what does it matter when you can count on Thierry Henry, Xabi, Bojan and Lionel Messi?
It spells trouble.
On top of that, Our Beloved are in a bit of a defensive crisis. Emiliano Moretti is injured, Alexis is out for two months with an injury, Marchena is suspended after last week’s red card and Roberto Ayala plays for Real Zaragoza …
Compound that with their replacements (Helguera, Del Horno) and you see what I’m getting at …
That word again: Trouble.
I’m not a tactics guy, so I’m not sure how this will play out. Do we still play with 4 in the back? Possibly a formation with Miguel, Albiol, Helguera and Del Horno in front of Renan? Or do we play three in the back (Miguel, Albiol and Del Horno) and decide on Maduro on the Marchena role, leaving Helguera to serve drinks to Vicente Soriano and Joan Laporta?
I’m not sure. Also included on the list of hopefuls are Valencia B defender Jaume, who played in yesterday’s UEFA Cup game against Club Brugge and forward Michel, who scored a gorgeous goal against Portugalete in the Copa Del Rey a month ago.
Whatever we do, let’s hope space isn’t given to Barca’s forwards, who could have a field day with us should they decide to. Remember last season’s 6-0 thrashing at the Nou Camp?
Anyways, that’s in the past.
Coach Unai Emery thinks we have a chance. I tend to believe him.
“Barcelona have a great team but if we play like we know we can, we can win,” he declared.
“We’ll have to play well though, since Barcelona have many dangerous players. The more time you give them, the more danger there will be. We must defend together, pressure well and when we have the ball, make it count.”
The coach also stressed the mental side of the game, brushing off suggestions of tiredness following our UEFA Cup match on Thursday evening.
“We will be prepared mentally, so that the mind rules the body,” he promised. (So Zen-like, that Emery …)
“The team has personality and plays without fear, they are at a good level and have been consistent.”
Barca star Xavi thinks we’re strange. “Valencia are an awkward team that have conceded very few goals away from home (three),” he said. “They feel comfortable as the away team and are very dangerous on the counter-attack. It will be difficult to beat them.”
Awkward? Ok …
At least the match takes us away from the week’s news about bankruptcy and the like.
I love my football, but hearing we might sell David Villa, David Silva and now Juan Mata and Joaquin does my head in … why can’t following this team be simpler?
Anyways, this should be an exciting game. While our defense is shoddy, our offensive capabilities are second to none. Factor in that Barca might (I said might) be thinking ahead to their mega-clash with Real Madrid next week and we could surprise the Catalan giants.
Don’t be surprised to see us sneak out of Catalunya with all three points …
Then again, this is Barca. And our defense is destroyed. Don’t be surprised to see Barca expose the spaces in between and knock us for a loop … I’m crossing my fingers that doesn’t happen.
Any one want to see another howler from Barca ‘keeper Victor Valdes against David Villa? Would love it, but let’s just pray we get out of their with a point at least.
By the way, for all of you in the New York City area, please come out and watch the match with me at Nevada Smith’s at 4pm EST.
I’ll most likely be there alone, surrounded by the Barcelona supporter’s club who make their presence very well heard throughout the pub. I’m talking over 200 of them … screaming, yelling, singing.
Heck, even Barcelona president Joan Laporta hung out with the club last year, watching a match with them at the famed pub. (I doubt I’d share a pint with Juan Soler. But I’d split a horchata with Vicente Soriano …)
Now that reader Daniel is gone (come back Daniel!!!) and Timothy Lakefront is in DC, I’m all alone.
So if you’re around, please stop by. I’ll buy the first pint.
Some news tidbits:
- Valencia played yesterday in UEFA’s consolation prize, the UEFA Cup (aka Euro Vase). A 1-1 tie against Belgium’s Club Brugge that sends us into the next round of the tournament.
I watched some of the match and thought Pablo Hernandez looked amazing. This guy is going to be special … if he isn’t already. Also, Zigic should play more. What a giraffe that guy is … all he did was stick his neck out, put his forehead on the ball and *BOOM*, it’s in the back of the net … Not bad if you ask me.
So now we top the group if we manage to eek out a win against St. Etienne in 2 weeks. How about we send Valencia B out for that match?
- Check out this cool video of an interview with Juan Mata and Thierry Henry ahead of tomorrow’s match.
- We’ve a new sponsor. According to reader Siva, it’s Swiss based online gaming company Unibet, who will pay EUR 1.5 million for the remaining of the current season and EUR 6 million for the 09/10 season. So we’ll have both sponsors on our shirt until next season.
Thanks to Johnnie Walker, who uploaded a pic of the new shirt … wow, that’s … special … don’t think I’ll be buying that one …
- Big game tomorrow, lads. Wherever you are, make your support known. Valencia CF needs us now more than ever … through bankruptcy, shoddy web sites, transfer rumors, bad presidencies and sh*t managers, we’re still here. Let’s hope the team gives us something magical to cheer about tomorrow …
AMUNT! See ya soon …
Category: Team News
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Comments
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GUys dont get too upset…Yes it is terrible to see our team like this…BUt comeone the mentality change has to happen over a period of time….
we need to be more attaking to force teams like barca on the defensive only then will they be worried and not over attack..ALl we saw yesterday was they were so confident that they were playing from our half line..that should not happen.Emery is a good coach and he would have seen that..i am sure our team will come all guns blazing against espanyol!!! Amunt valencia!!!Posted from
United States
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Am I the only one here that regrets we got rid of Sissoko so easily? He might have solved our defensive midfield problems as he is so much better than Albelda now.
Posted from
United States -
Anyway I think Banega (even with his lack of experience) is better than what Baraja is like at the moment. For one thing he knows how to hold the ball and his passes are more accurate.
I know Atletico have an option to buy him, but does that mean that we cant refuse to sell him if they meet that price?Posted from
United States -
Fayez.. talk about not only Sissoko.. talk about Aurelio and Ayala too.. Banega will come back that’s for sure.. Baeaja is dead already, he is giving yea.. but he’ll die from a heart attack.. he showed some stuff in the 1st half, but he was silent the 2nd.. man i love Fernandes.. he should stay.. he must.. and he must be Captain! forget about Marchena or even Villa.. Fernandes got the people running around him.. he was the heart of the team last night..
Posted from
United States -
and who doesn’t miss Timo against Barca..
too bad Emery fucked up with him..Posted from
United States -
7amanito: Exactly Fernandes will make an excellent captain (although he still has problems outside the field so he should fix those first). Anyway I think Joaquin will make a better captain than Albiol and Villa.
Posted from
United States -
Man what a match by Madrid and Sevilla! But you gotta respect Madrid for their performance! See the players of Madrid are real men and real winners unlike our losers. They never gave up when they were 3-1 down in 1st half. They have more stress than we do, they have a terrible injury crisis, they dont even know who their coach will be in a week, yet they tried with all they could to turn the match around and against Sevilla who we couldnt even score one goal against.
Thats the winning mentality im talking about that we are missing. Raul and Higuain are not better than Mata and Villa. Drenthe is no where as good as Vicente. And Robben was brilliant but Joaquin gives a better yield than he does if he tries. Fernandes is miles better than Gago or Guti.But all they have that we dont is that winning mentality, they dont accept defeat no matter what. Raul is over 30 yet he runs like an 18 year old with passion and determination. We need players like that. That’s why I respect these Madrid players more than the greedy girlies that wear our shirt.
Posted from
United States -
@ fayez
mate, now you are crossing a line. We have just lost against a team which is totally superior to every team in la Liga. This is just too much!!!Ok last week we should have fought more, but in the end we started fighting and running for every ball again! And we scored. And not to forget, against a Betis side which was displaying some very good football as well.
But what you are now saying is very disrespectful to our players and not at least undeserved. If you let your head down as easy as this, how can you judge our team for doing the same in your eyes than??
Amunt Valencia!!!!!
Posted from
Switzerland -
@Fayez
I do agree with John boy Walker here. I saw a Valencia yesterday who was tacticly out-played. I saw a Miguel who was sloppy in the first half. But i also saw the fighting spirit from Villa, Fernandes and not to forget Del horno. How do you explain the harsh fouls they made? because they didnt care? Because they were frustrated by their own play…its because they care about it.
Besides Madrid is critisised a lot by the Madridistas for the “attitude”. If you look at Guti you’le notice that he is playing sloppy in most matches, he doesnt fight for it as much as you think. I have seen lots of Madrid matches where they had to come behind before they started to work for it and most of the time its too late. I think your over estimating situation in Madrid…
Posted from
Netherlands -
Let’s show that were only second to Barca, and beat Espanyol and Real Madrid in the next couple of weeks.
Posted from
Australia -
@ Johnnie & qsh0x :
At Betis we were winning by two goals not losing by 3 to 1. And Betis isnt Sevilla when you are down by 3-1 at half time and only losing at the last 5 mins by 4-3. Sevilla have one of the strongest defenses in la liga and Madrid were unlucky they didnt get two penalites. They had almost 24 shots on goal. They dominated.
If Madrid have attitude problems then the whole Valencia squad need to see a psychologist for clinical depression. Its not disrespectful for the players what im saying, they are playing in a big club then they should give all they have. They shouldnt do what they did against Barca i.e. lose hope when they are 2 down.Even if Barca were better the team switched off. I remember when Atletico played against them they had more shots on goal and they lost by more goals. I dont support Madrid and I love Valencia as a team, but these players have to stop acting like spoilt brats. The only two players that deserved the shirt were yesterday were Renan and Fernandes, as they didnt give up until the end. Even though Renan isnt a great keeper IMO, he gave all he had to save some lovely shots when our girlie defenders were being out-muscled. Seriously I have never seen Messi out-muscle someone before the match yesterday.
Others like Baraja, Albelda, Villa, Mata (did he even play in the 2nd half?), Albiol, and Maduro just switched off. They dont care if we lose or draw and thats what hurts. They gave away the ball so cheaply.
Im not saying we should have won this match, but how many shots on goal did we have?Madrid had 24 shots on goal today against Sevilla. Guti had 2 shots and helped 4 others in assisting them. Raul was shouting like a true captain. He would even run and get the ball for Palop to hurry up. Did you see Albiol do even half of that? Or Villa? Even though I hate Guti he would clap for his teammates when they gave a wrong pass. See thats what makes a team great, its not givin up no matter what. They tried until the final whistle while we gave up when it was 20 mins and 2-0.
Anyway what fighting spirit did Villa show? When he kicked Alves? Frankly he barely did anything and was too selfish in the beginning of the match when it was still 1-0.
I want to see the team fight back from being 2 goals down. I just want to see that done once. We have NEVER done it in the past 3 years. Real Madrid and Villarreal do it every week. We cant be expected to score first or not go down ever match, we have to bounce back from those.
There is nothing wrong with saying that Madrid are better than us in something and there is nothing wrong with criticizing our team when they do something wrong. Our team should learn from them, especially when on paper we might have a better squad.
Technically speaking we werent outclassed tactics wise, as 3 of the goals came from mistakes (the only real goal was the Borjan to Henry pass). All the rest were stupid defensive and covering errors. Do we bounce back? Of course not. I support the team dearly but I dont support this behavior from players that dont give all they have. I dont mind losing, however when players dont give all they have then they dont deserve to be in a big team. They are being paid millions so they should produce results or they can go play in a smaller team.
Posted from
United States -
to be completely honest, i was not surprised whatsoever at the game yesterday, i partially expected it. i was hoping for a win, but i knew it would have taken a perfect performance from our guys. we should just accept that barca are a far better team than us right now, and we should realize that champions league qualification is an ambitious enough goal considering we finished 10th last year. barca is the best team in the world at the moment, and we should not be surprised to get beat badly by them. in the end, a loss is a loss, whether its 4-0 or 4-3. we are still in 3rd place and have a chance to cement that place against a reeling puta madrid.
Posted from
United States -
Albelda is a shit! i love this guy but he doesn’t do anything in a match!!! he doesn’t run,he’s slowly pfff please.. every ball that he plays, he plays to the defence:S I hope next season EVER Banega will play instead of him!
AmuntPosted from
Netherlands -
Hi Fayez, yes Sissoko was an unbeliveable stupid move that only Valencia could be capable of.He became the rock in the midfield of Liverpool and was man of the match many times.On a lesser note, I was sorry to see Reguiero disposed of when we had no left footer to cover.I remember when he took Vicente`s place for many games owing to his injury, and he played better. He would take 3 bad tackles in one match and bounce right up and chase the ball.Notice how often our guys are holding up their hands for offside when it isnt. They should be running like mad where the action is.You stop when the ref blows his whistle , not before. Deduct a months money from those that protest his decision because you cant change his mind. You are no use to the club with a pocketful of yellow cards. If you get them because of tough play , then fair enough. I agree with your pschology comment because I think of last year. The SAME TEAM nearly ended in the 2nd div. Yes I know we had Shrek Koeman who dumped 3 guys we wanted but all the team spirit went with them. Thats how fragile their mental process is. They may have hated Koeman but they didnt want to go down to 2nd div just to spite him surely, but that is what they played like, Adios Almendras
Posted from
Spain -
@Fayez
Its pretty unfair to compare Barca with Sevilla, we got totaly out-played. We didnt have one chance because we didnt play as a team but as individuals and frankly with the wrong tactical decisions from Unai. If you compare that to yesterday you could see the mistakes the Andulusian side made, some silly mistakes with free kicks and corners. I didnt see Barca making one.
The fact that you don’t see a person in a match is not because they don’t care or fight but because we were positionaly out-played, in my eyes a huge difference.
Posted from
Netherlands -
@ qshox: You must remember that almost the same Barca players played against us last season when we kicked them out from the Cup. We had a terrible coach back then but the team gave it all they have.
Im not saying we should have won but at least lose with some dignity. Last year at the 6-0 defeat we were definitely outplayed, this year it was 3 defensive error goals and one great one. If the players gave all they have they could have gotten at least 2 goals.Did you notice Fernandes’ attitude? Thats what im looking for! If EACH of our players used his mentality we wouldnt have lost that badly! I dont mind losing but our players were able to play better than on Saturday. If a player gives everything he has (like Madrid and Villarreal) then there is nothing wrong with losing. Our team dont have their heart in this, sometimes they make me feel like theyre mercenaries.
I think all our players just gave up. Im 100% sure if Madrid lose against Barca next week they would try their best not too. They have pride and we should have some pride too.
Posted from
United States -
guys lett it go…. we got our ass kicked, all teams do… thts football! next season we might shove 6 goals up thier asses, no one knows,! so letts look at the future now! we r looking for a goalkeeper! good we need one!
Posted from
Kuwait -
Valencia lost that game because they played without a proper centerback… it is not really a hard thing to understand without Alexis or Marchena the defensive positioning and coordination was off thats how Barca scored the first two goals Maduro was out of position and that allowed Barca to get a clear shot on goal. and after conceding so easy it Valencia has to push forward against Barca which further exposed the makeshift defense. the only Valencia player i am disappointed in after this match is Albelda because its his role to babysit the defense and if Maduro who is not a CB is playing at CB then Albelda should have been playing twice as hard and covering twice as much ground to compensate but Albelda did not put much effort into this game. if Emery is coaching Valencia Valencia will never be beaten 1:0… this 4:0 is not surprising remember Emery said he would rather loose 4:3 than 1:0, when Valencia are down Emery will make them attack more which will also increase the chances of the opposition scoring. 1:0 or 4:0 a loss is a loss you gain no points hopefully next week Valencia will win.
Posted from
United States -
i watch the game and man did we get our ass kicked. To be honest mata didn’t do anything in that game either i would of started vicente who in my opinion is better than mata. Fernandes is the man. I was fustrated when valencia loaned him out last year and bought ever banega. Ever and fernandes would be a great combo. combind with vicente silva,joaquin,villa. If i was emery i would start pablo but not in joaquin place i would say for the old baraja or abelda. These two are useless, and grandpas.for the future i recomened villa, silva vicente, joaquin, fernandes, banega,raul aboiol as a left back, marchena alexis and miguel. subs pablo, mata, albelda, baraja, morientes, zigic
Posted from
United States -
Hi Somebody mentioned goalkeeper. According to todays press (for what it`s worth) Valencia are looking at Westerveld. He is free at the moment 6ft 3 and did some useful keeping for Almeria and for Real Sociadad when they finihed 2nd in the 1st div.
Posted from
Spain -
@Almendras
If we don’t need hildebrand we certainly don’t need westerveld. Its about time that Guiata gets his minutes after being the third goaly for so long. Westerveld did not play well when he played for Sparta last year. Its not something i would sign for, especialy with our current financial situation. (altho he does not cost much its still a waste of money)
Posted from
Netherlands -
apparently we’re after Cesar, the former Zaragoza keeper who is now at Tottenham. he’s pretty good – made some great saves for Zaragoza last year. that said, he’s older than hell. but he will be a good backup. please tell me that somebody has found some responsible journalists that have rubbished all these transfer rumors – villa to city and silva to madrid.
Posted from
United States -
Guys i have good news for all you guys….
Silva is ready to train normally and he will train along with the first team as anyother this week and will get a few minutes against espanyol and st ettien..but the best news is he will be ready to start against madrid and effectively close the topic on silva’s transfer to madris as he would have played five matches for us and the FIFTH against madrid!! He he…also guys please lets all stop this valencia bashing….
yes i am really upset with the team as everyone else but at the end of the day we lost….nothing more to it….
we are still in third place and let keep it that way next week and get a win against espanyol….its no use crying over spilt milk!!!…what happened has happened!! whatever happens hapens for a reason!!!whatever happens happens for the good!!!
This loss will help our team to understand that they are not the best which will make them work more towards becoming the best!!!
DOnt worry guys ,lets start building towards espanyol and with silva back!!! it will be good…
i would ideally like a 4-1-2-1-2 formation when everyone is available…
renan-miguel-albiol-alexis-delhorno-fernandez-jaoquin-vicente-silva-mata-villa
subs zigic-pablo-albelda-edu-moretti-marchena-guaita
Posted from
United States -
@ Timothy
since Silva will play some minutes in the Espanyol and Madrid match, he will have played in 5 games and therefore not b able to be transfered to Madrid, or any Spanish team for that matter
About Villa, well rumours are always there, and they will be with Abu Dhabi backing them…@ Fayez
I still think you are wrong today, just cause we have shown heart last week in the second half and ONLY this week really sucked! And that can happen. Of course i think all our players should fight till the death, and a lot didnt against Barcelona, but it is not true and also not justified to say our team constantly lacks heart and mental strength.Btw, Fernandes had an interview with LP, and they asked him about Koeman. His reply was: I would not like to talk about Koeman, and neither should Koeman about Valencia if he had the least bit of respect for the people… Guess we’re not the only one who hated him
Posted from
Switzerland -
i hated him more.
las p also said today that my aging but still dashing hero albelda is a third division player,how dare they.i shall go pay them a visit in the morning and breathe all over the sports desk.Posted from
Spain
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