Day 11: No Game?

By: Cesar | March 27th, 2009

In my haste to make something of my life, I forgot that Valencia CF doesn’t play this weekend.

That’s a bummer!

In their place, my allegiance moves to Euro 2008 champions Spain and their match against Turkey in 2010 World Cup qualifying this weekend.

Normally I’d be happy to see so many Valencia players with La Furia Roja. But this time around, there’s a small, sardine-like bone to pick with Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque and the national team.

David Silva and David Villa will line up for Spain this weekend. Yet they’ve been hurt for Our Beloved for the last few weeks. What gives?

Speaking ahead of last weekend’s victory over Racing Santander, coach Unai Emery sounded resigned to the two not playing for Valencia, but playing this weekend against Turkey.

“It is a shame for Valencia because we see that on Sunday we are probably not going to be play both of them and then next week they will be playing for the national team,” he declared.

“It is pure coincidence, but it is unfortunate for Valencia.”

Today, he said it would be ’stupendous’ if the two turned out for Spain. But his teeth were gritted and his fists were clenched, a sign of his frustration with the national team.

He went on to say that he wouldn’t tell Del Bosque what to do, that if Villa or Silva were ready to play, that’s just great … but read between the lines and I think we have a frustrated coach.

Besides that, Emery feels it’s important for the players to want to play for Valencia CF as much as they want to play for the national team.

He feels there’s a bad environment around the club and thinks they players should be ‘happy, confident and united like when they are summoned to the Spanish team.’

In his view, it is necessary to ‘create an atmosphere among all the players to want to work one hundred percent and where the players are full of confidence, unity, enthusiasm and passion.”

He said the club ‘has some shortcomings. Not the players, but the club. Right now we need stability.’

And how. Insightful comments from our gaffer.

87-year old Ruben Baraja picked up where Emery left off and said the season’s not over yet. We have some matches left to play and all is not lost until the season ends.

“We were on a good run and where we wanted to be, but now we have suffered several defeats and dropped points at home that has meant that we now face a struggle,” AS quote him as saying.

“We have suffered a crisis of confidence and the team has been slow to react. It appears that any team can cause us problems, when in reality Valencia have been stronger than most teams we have played against.

“There are ten games left and I think it is still possible to qualify for the Champions League. What will be most important will be the game against the teams around us. We cannot lose points against them if we have already beaten Getafe and Sporting, who we play next.”

So true … we really need to win these matches against squads we should be defeating.

Because we know what’s coming up: Those belly-ache matches against the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, etc.

That’ll be telling, eh? Rack up as many points as we can now, because those matches, in our current state, will not be pretty …

¡¡Qué Viva España!! Amunt Seleccion …