Boring?

By: Cesar | November 23rd, 2008

Goal.com’s Arjun Miglani may call himself a football fan/journalist, but based on his assessment of yesterday’s 0-0 draw between Valencia and Sevilla, I’m not so sure of the former.

Here’s Mr. Miglani’s take on yesterday’s match …

Both these sides harbour ambitions of challenging for the title, but, on the basis of this performance, that appears to be an unrealistic goal. A game that was supposed to display the brilliance of La Liga ended up being a shamefully poor advertisement. The fans who attended the stadium would not be out of order in asking for their money back.

I’m guessing we didn’t see the same match.

I saw two teams play a fabulous, riveting encounter. Granted, it wasn’t the 1970 World Cup final.

Still, to watch this match and call it boring makes me think they’ve no idea who they’re employing over at goal.com Headquarters.

There were rough patches through out the match. That happens in every game.

But boring?

I guess our budget needs to cross the $100 billion thresh hold a la Real Madrid and Manchester United for them to find us ‘exciting’ …

Anyways, enough of my whining …

I watched the match at a local restaurant in upstate NY as the wait staff cleaned utensils and gossiped about their lives around me … not exactly Nevada Smith’s, eh?

I’ve never done this before, but I took a plethora of notes during the match. I think the best way to write my thoughts on the match is to focus on the players and tell you what I thought about them, sort of like a ‘Player Ratings’-type thing …

Here’s my take on the ‘boring’ match of last night, player by player and then generally …

Renan – Best game the Brazilian’s had since coming to us. Made a wicked save on Kanoute’s bicycle kick and a wonderful reflex save at the end of the first half. The defense helped him out as did Sevilla’s generally poor offensive display. But maybe Renan’s game is finally coming together.

Miguel – The big-boned Portuguese defender is quickly becoming my favorite Valencia player. This guy just keeps going and going. He’s up, he’s down. He’s a maniac on the ball and a fit for anyone to defend. He’s certainly come onto his own the past season. Made some excellent passes while playing up and defended well in his own area. He’s awesome … simply awesome.

Albiol – He did what he needed to. Solid game and made the center a no-man’s land for Kanoute and Fabiano. Then again, they didn’t really do much …

Alexis – Kind of invisible. But he’s been that since he’s been here. Which is a good thing … center backs should be seen and not heard. Good game by the defender. GREAT foot save at the end of the game to salvage the point.

Moretti – Ya know, he wasn’t so bad yesterday. Even rushed up into the offensive zone a few times during the match. Maybe we’ve been hard on the Italian non-international? Maybe he’s been reading the blog and gotten so frustrated by our hatred of him that he tried to turn in a great performance?
Whatever … he played well. And you know what he gets for it? An injury … We’ll see how long he’s out for … that would be a pain. Why? Because Del Horno is also hurt … the return of Curro Torres, anyone??

Marchena – I go back and forth on this guy. He had a wonderful Euro 2008 but too often plays a shoddy game for us. He did ok yesterday but nothing special. Anyone notice how Baraja pushed him out of the way to take a free-kick, only to sail it into the 3rd deck of the stadium?

Baraja – The old man still has a few tricks. Took his typical 80-yard field goal shot but laid on some decent passes to Villa and generally did a good job.

Fernandes – A beast. The lad’s a beast. He’s like Miguel: everywhere. This guy is only going to get better. He’s quick on the ball, has excellent pace and a good vision of the field. He makes errors here and there but overall, he’s growing into a very good player. I was confused by the Edu substitution.

Joaquín – Another guy that manages to frustrate every few weeks. The first few minutes he was everywhere. Ran a great ball through the middle before he was fouled. Then was invisible for about 30 minutes. We really need Pisha to step up and show what he’s worth. This is not the same player that came over from Betis. For those of you watching on GOL TV, how funny was it when the announcers cried foul when Joaquin was hit in the eye? They were growing tired of the play-acting, saying how awful it is for the game, making fun of Joaquin for putting his hands to his face … and they they saw the blood on his face … oh …

Mata – Put some weak shots on the Sevilla net and although he worked himself into good positions, wasn’t able to execute. Not the best game he’s ever had. Where was Morientes?

Villa – Isolated for much of the game. Worked hard but not much he could really do. Again, where was Morientes? Or Zigic? I think having someone else up front would have helped El Guaje. Still, an overall good performance.

Edu – The only sub to have any real time on the pitch. Made a nice move on some Sevilla defenders near the end of the match but couldn’t finish. He should get more time on the pitch. I think he’s good enough to help out if given adequate minutes.

So that’s it …

I think we played well and probably deserved the point we got.

After wards, coach Unai Emery shrugged his shoulders a lot and talked about the match.

“I’m happy with the image the team showed because it’s a good result. It could have been better, but not to concede in such a difficult stadium, against such a difficult opponent, is important. Therefore, we can be satisfied with the result.”

Elaborating on the encounter, Emery said, “We controlled the game, especially in the first half, and I would even say that we had the best chances. It’s true that both teams had some openings in which they did not want to risk a lot, and it prevented them from making the final blow. What is important is that we played as a team, that was the key.

“It was an intelligent game, we would have liked more points but so would they.”

And that’s that.

Boring? Hardly … I even heard Timothy Lakefront get a shout out on Gol TV! How is that boring??

Then again, I am a Valencia fan. I find their matches exciting for some odd reason.

AMUNT!!