Out of Our Hands

And just like that, the joy evaporates, in the snap of our fingers.

Atletico Madrid’s controversial 1-0 victory over our Valencia CF further compounded a recurrent theme this season: we’re horribly inconsistent.

We play like the world’s greatest team in a 2-2 tie with champions FC Barcelona only to falter to relegation fodder Espanyol. Then we storm out of the gates against 2nd-place Real Madrid 3-0 only to fall back to Earth in a match of monumental consequences.

I’m not going to sound the alarms just yet.

As things stand, with two matches left in the season, we’re 5th with 59 points …

3 — Sevilla – 64
4 — Atletico – 61
5 — Valencia – 59
6 — Villarreal – 59

The rest of the schedule?

Sevilla: Depor (h), Numancia (a)

Atletico: Bilbao (a), Almeria (a)

Valencia: Villarreal (a), Bilbao (h)

Villarreal: Valencia (h), Mallorca (a)

We certainly don’t have an easy road to 65 points, the maximum we can achieve this season. So take away 3rd place for now and let’s concentrate on 4th.

Obviously, 4th place is out of our control right now. We need Atletico to slip up against either Bilbao at San Mames (never an easy match) and/or against Almeria. But of more concern now is our match against Villarreal. Anything other than 3 points and we can kiss Champions League football good bye.

In Spain, no one can predict the footballing tides from week to week. Look at our club’s inconsistency for proof of that. So for all we know, Atletico could lose their next two matches. Heck, Sevilla could lose their next two and we could automatically qualify for the Champions League.

You never know …

All I DO know is that next week’s match against Villarreal is super important for this very reason. We simply can’t afford to slip up. Villarreal are right behind us. And don’t look now, but Deportivo is in 7th place, with 57 points and nipping at our heels.

A bad slip up against Villarreal or Bilbao and we could conceivably finish 7th or 8th … that’s out of Europe altogether.

So what I’m saying is this: the Villarreal match is of utter significance. Forget the Atletico disaster. It’s all about our Villarreal encounter now.

As for yesterday’s match, some observations:

- David Villa didn’t look himself yesterday. But let’s be fair. There’s not much he can do when there’s no service. We played like Leeds United circa 1998 yesterday. Long ball after long ball. What was that about? Our midfield was a black hole yesterday. No one could get anything started. So let’s not be so critical of El Guaje. While I’ve argued that he does have a tendency to disappear during important matches, what could he do yesterday? Also, let’s give Atletico’s defense some credit. They did a great job stopping our attack – what little attack we had.

- Cesar had another outstanding match. How many saves was it? 23? Amazing job by the senior citizen. I dunno about you lads, but I think he’s deserving of a contract extension. He saved us from utter embarrassment last night.

- The Edu/Ruben Baraja midfield pairing just didn’t have it last night. Too many long balls. No creativity. No sustained pressure.

- That being said, weird replacements by coach Unai Emery in putting Morientes in for Pablo and Michel in for Edu. How about Joaquin for Pablo (Joaquin came in for Baraja)? Where’s Vicente? Morientes hasn’t played in like, 5 years … I dunno … just an idea …

- Our defense wasn’t up for this one. Too many failures in the box. Too many scrambles in the middle that caused heart palpitations for us all. The center back pairing of Maduro and Albiol looked frightful. Albelda did a decent job. Big boned Miguel was ok. But overall, the defense, save Cesar, was anxiety-inducing.

I can honestly say we missed the services of Carlos Marchena. I never thought I would utter those words. I missed Carlos Marchena.

- What the f*ck was referee Mejuto González thinking in awarding that penalty? You decide …

Can someone PLEASE tell me why Spanish officiating is so bad? In a spot like this? With so much at stake? Really? Also, plenty of bad offside calls against us in dire situations … really? Why is the officiating so bad? Dreadful? Utterly pathetic?

And did you see in the video where Cesar chastises Kun Aguero and the Argentinian Greg Louganis smiles because he knows he’s been caught diving? ‘Why yes, sir. I did, I say I did dive …’

I may be whining here. Sorry.

- Emery begs to differ. We sucked. That’s that.

“Atletico Madrid were better than us. That’s the only explanation for this result,” Emery told reporters after the game.

“They were better in almost everything, they had many more chances and pushed harder. We wanted to, but weren’t able to. Atletico were superior, so the result is fair.”

Sergio Aguero appeared to dive to earn the match-winning penalty (appeared to dive? He dove!), but Emery admitted that he couldn’t complain about that when his team had let Atletico have so many other chances.

“If that had been the only goalscoring chance that Atletico had and it had determined the final result, it would have been a different matter, but the reality is that Atletico had many more chances than us and that’s what worries me,” he continued.

Valencia must now hope that the situation can change in the last two weeks of the season as they look to secure a Champions League berth.

“We’ve said goodbye to three points against a direct rival but we’re going to continue on our path,” he added.

“We have to lift ourselves as quickly as possible because there’s still some league games left.”

True words, my man.

- On a side note, Ronald Koeman got a new job. How?

- I could go on and on about how great the Guardian’s Sid Lowe is. I could also go on and on and on about how pathetic Spanish officiating is. But I digress. Lowe’s a fabulous La Liga reporter and his column today devotes much type set to Valencia’s disastrous showing yesterday at the Vicente Calderon … I’ve linked it below and included the story below … But first …

- Before that, let me digress again … let’s set the record straight. Valencia sucked last night. I’m not trying to make excuses. They couldn’t defend, employed a silly long ball tactic not seen since Leeds circa 1970, didn’t execute in midfield and didn’t take their goal opportunities when they had them.
So there. Just clarifying.

- Ok, back to Mr. Lowe’s article … enjoy …

It was the kind of smile that made you want to smash his face in. Certainly the kind of smile that made César Sánchez want to smash his face in. Under the nose of the referee. In front of 55,000 people. And live on TV. A smug grin, a thumbs up, a glint in the eye. A yeah mate, what’s the score? A talk to the hand cos the face ain’t listening. A “ha-ha” from Nelson Muntz. A sly smirk, followed by the clincher: a wink. Why you little … Let me at him, let me at him, I’ll pulverise him! As if it wasn’t bad enough that Kun Agüero had done what he’d done, he’d done it when he’d done it and he’d reacted to doing it by laughing about doing it. It was time to do him.

The time was half-time, 45 minutes through Atlético Madrid versus Valencia, week 36 in La Liga. More than a game; not just a partido, a partidazo. A “final”. A sell-out. A full house. A rocking Vicente Calderón. One of the stadium’s “great nights”, said coach Abel Resino. The match that would decide the future of two of Spain’s biggest clubs. With Barcelona proclaimed champions, Real Madrid safe in second and Sevilla five points clear in third, it was a battle for the final Champions League place – one that, gripped by debt, threatened by the departure of their best players, both clubs desperately needed. Separated by a solitary point, the winner would take fourth ahead of the loser and Villarreal with just two games to go.

“Eight months, 3,150 minutes of football, 137 goals, countless institutional crises, some horrendous disappointments and a handful of happy moments later,” said AS, “Valencia and Atlético come face to face with their whole season at stake.” “This game,” insisted Valencia centre-back Raúl Albiol, “decides everything.” And what decided this game was a first-half penalty, scored by Diego Forlán. It finished 1–0. And as El Mundo Deportivo’s online version had it – handily and instantly translated to save this column its normal hatchet job while it nips downstairs and pops on the kettle – “the Uruguayan decided from the point before the fateful Ché and places the mattress quarts.”

In other words, Forlán’s shot from the penalty spot clinched the match against Valencia – nicknamed the Chés – and took Atlético Madrid – nicknamed the mattress makers – into fourth. In other words, Sergio El Kun Agüero’s dive took Atlético to a Champions League place. After all, it was Aguero’s dive that got them the penalty in the first place.

One of the great Spanish sporting euphemisms is to “provoke” free-kicks and yellow cards, penalties and red ones. The most skilled agent provocateurs can be worth a fortune; Agüero is worth his father-in-law’s weight in gold. Fifteen minutes before half-time, he dashed into the penalty area and beyond César, waited for the keeper to go down and threw himself to the turf, kicking his legs out behind him, seeking an arm, a knee, a belly, any contact. There was none but referee Mejuto González still gave it – earning him, not Agüero, the reprobation of the media (which, let’s face it, is exactly the problem). Forlán sent the ball into the corner, Atlético virtually into the Champions League and Valencia into trouble.

Valencia spent six of the first eight weeks at the top of the table. But two months without being paid, an ageing squad and countless injuries saw them collapse, the chances of clinching a Champions League place gone as they failed to win in 10. They were threatened with the sack, accused of not pulling their weight and told that they were for hire, footballers available for weddings, bar mitzvahs and children’s parties. They were told they had no future and a bleak present. Yet still they recovered to win seven and draw one (against Barcelona) in nine, suddenly resurrecting their chances of a top-four finish; suddenly resurrecting their chances of institutional survival. And now Kun had snatched it away again.

No wonder César confronted him, bitterly furnishing his first name with a stray “T”. No wonder he bawled at him. And no wonder he had to be restrained, and pushed away down the tunnel when Kun grinned that grin and winked that wink. Agüero might have responded with a classic “Who me?” when one touchline reporter informed him after the game that replays showed there had been no contact in the move, but he replied, “No? really?” before bumbling, “Erm, well, I, er, you know, erm …”. Here was the proof that his cheek was bare-faced. Here was the proof, as César was still keen to insist at the final whistle, that Valencia had been cheated.

Only, they hadn’t. Well, they had. But not really. Because if Agüero’s cheating “provoked” the penalty, justice was done. César might have been doing his nut at the end of the game, but few of his team-mates were venting their spleen – least of all Albiol, who had his removed after a car crash three years back. Because Kun, quickly becoming the boy who cried wolf, should quite probably have won another penalty and Atlético should certainly have had more goals; because César didn’t limit himself to trying to beat up Agüero, he also beat away almost a dozen shots; and because while, without the evil machinations of Carlos Marchena and the creativity of David Silva, Valencia were poor, Atlético were worthy of their win.

On the biggest night of the season, the game that would make them or break them, Atlético were made. Not just pretty good going forward (in fact, you could argue that not even good going forward considering how many chances went begging). But, unusually, impressive at the back too. They even had a bit of a midfield. “I have no complaints whatsoever,” insisted Valencia coach Unai Emery. “There is no question that Atlético were the better side.” Nor is there any question that they find themselves well placed for an immediate return to the Champions League having taken 10 years to get there before, inventing a million comic ways of blowing it, each more improbable than the last. With two games remaining, against Athletic Bilbao and Almería, Atlético are fourth on 61 points – two ahead of Valencia and Villarreal, who face each other next week. “It’s in our hands,” beamed president Enrique Cerezo. And what better hands to be in, eh?

UGGGH! Amunt …

Category: Team News

Tags: Team News

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