Reflections on the Last Game of 08/09

By: Cesar | May 30th, 2009

I went back to my 2008/09 Season Preview from late August ‘08 today and here’s what I thought Valencia would do this season.

So although my heart says we’ll win La Liga, the UEFA Cup and storm into next season’s Champions League, my brain tells me we’ll finish mid-table and be forced to buy what we needed this season next season.

So my guess? 7th … UEFA Cup, here we come.

It pains me to say this, but we’re still not good enough. We’ve still got a lot of work to do. Let’s see what happens before the transfer deadline. Maybe we’ll buy an Ayala replacement after all??

Not too far off, eh?

We finished 6th, qualified for next season’s UEFA Europa League but never found that quality Ayala replacement.

Overall, although there’s a slight bitter aftertaste to the season, we did pretty good.

We’re in Europe. We survived a murky budget mess. And both Davids have stated time and time again that they’d like to stay here.

Now that the season’s over, the fun begins.

Will our finances be straightened out? Who’ll run the club after the big meetings of next week? Will we be able to buy any one this summer? Will our stars leave? Who WILL leave?

And on and on …

For now, we had a game to play, the last one of the season, a comfortable 2-0 win over Athletic Bilbao.

Villa, who is still a Valencia player as far as I know, scored both. His two goals gave him 28 for the season, 4 behind Spanish Pichichi Diego Forlan and tied for the most goals in a season in Valencia history with Mario Kempes and Pedja ‘Judas’ Mijatovic.

The game wasn’t anything special. For the people who watched it on the blog’s live chat on the internet stream, it was an exercise in frustration, as the TV channel kept switching between two other simultaneous matches.

Still, I’d say we enjoyed ourselves. We’re a special group, I tell ya!

Our Beloved went ahead after just seven minutes, when Villa latched onto Joaquin’s fabulous cross and fired clinically past Gorka Iraizoz from close range. Joaquin was on fire at the beginning of the match, looking like a man possessed. Today was his 100th league match with Valencia. Will he reach 101?

The Joaquin/Villa combination almost brought a second goal four minutes later, but Villa failed to make decent contact.

Valencia were all over Athletic, though, and a second goal looked imminent.

Villa, Edu and Pablo Hernandez all came close as the home side piled on the pressure in the lead-up to half-time, but Athletic somehow managed to get to the interval just a goal down.

Edu was denied by Gorka as Valencia continued to dominate after half time.

But Valencia also had Cesar (me?) to thank in the following minutes.

Goalkeeper Cesar (oh!), who deserves all the accolades we can throw at him for his awesome, other-worldly play this season, did brilliantly to deny Ion Velez in a one-on-one situation and came out bravely to clear the ball off Fernando Llorente in the 60th minute.

Normal service was resumed after that and Valencia peppered the Athletic goal in the final stages.

Gorka made fine saves to deny Edu and Villa, and the latter also shot straight at the Athletic keeper with five minutes left.

But the Spain striker wrapped up the points for Valencia in the final minute when he swept home Pablo’s cross following a quick breakaway attack.

Fernando Morientes and Curro Torres, whose departures this summer have already been confirmed, came on late to warm applause from the Valencia faithful.

But there was also a feeling that Villa may not reappear in the club’s colors. The unemotional striker, who barely celebrated his two goals, was given a furious send-off by the Mestalla faithful after the game.

Villa said all the right things after the match, claiming he had years left on a contract he wanted to fulfill. But who knows what he’s really thinking? Some of the continent’s biggest teams will be queuing up to sign the prolific Asturian. With our financial situation, can we afford to keep him? Is that the wisest decision we can make for ourselves – and for El Guaje?

Time will tell.

Our Beloved finish a crazy season in sixth place, with 62 points.

18 wins, 12 losses and 8 ties.

For comparison, here’s how we did since 2003-2004.

2003-04 - 23 wins, 7 losses and 8 ties = 77 points, League Champions
2004-05 - 12 wins, 8 losses and 16 ties = 58 points, 7th place.
2005-06 - 19 wins, 7 losses and 12 ties = 69 points, 3rd place.
2006-07 - 20 wins, 12 losses and 6 ties = 66 points, 4th place.
2007-08 - 15 wins, 17 losses and 6 ties = 51 points, 10th place.
2008-09 - 18 wins, 12 losses and 8 ties = 62 points, 6th place.

Our average the last 5 seasons (this one not included)?
17.8 wins, 10.2 losses and 9.6 ties. Rounded up?

18 wins, 10 losses and 10 ties. 64 points.

Pretty much what we did this season.

The numbers basically say we had a very average Valencia season. Nothing more, nothing less.
So maybe we should be happy? What do the mathematicians out there think? I know we have some economists out there … are my numbers correct?

Anyways, I just wanted to justify to myself that this wasn’t a disappointing season. If anything, it was much like the rest, save 2003-04, when we won the title.

Actually, let’s take the title season away (not including this season) and see what we come up with.

16.5 wins, 11 losses and 10 ties. Rounded up?

17 wins, 11 losses and 10 ties. 61 points. So we actually did BETTER this season.

Of course, there are some funky numbers there. Last season’s Koeman disaster didn’t help as far as wins and losses. And Claudio Ranieri’s half-season in charge resulted in a crazy amount of draws.

Still, we didn’t do so bad. We did just about what we always do …

So that’s the final match of the season. 6th place. Lots of changes in store. A successful season in overall terms. MUCH better than last season’s calamity, no doubt.

What does the future hold in store for Valencia CF?

Stay tuned. I’ll be updating the blog often during the summer months. (Maybe a Spain Confederations Cup chat? Stay tuned …)

Something tells me there will be a lot to talk about when it comes to Valencia Club de Futbol.

As the Mestalla turns …