Super Copa Tidbits

By: Cesar | August 18th, 2008

Valencia’s 3-2 victory over Real Madrid in last night’s first leg of the Spanish Super Copa feels like the beginning of something special.

Sure, the game’s technically a pre-season friendly.

But Valencia exhibited a flair, an offensive hunger and a resiliency that was missing last season under the QQ-Koeman regime.

Las night’s game at the Mestalla was the first time in a very long time that Valencia looked like a contending team.

Again, Real Madrid didn’t exactly field their championship-caliber team. They went with youth, they went with bench warmers. They played tentative.

But who cares? We needed this game more than they did.

The team needed to show their fans that things were different, that optimism is in the air.
After all we’ve been through, with Soler, Koeman, Villa and Silva’s pending transfers, etc., didn’t we deserve that?

Boy, did we get it!

Unai Emery’s Valencia look like world beaters. If this team gets some breaks, learns to play some defense (still creaky) and plays up to their ability, we’re in for a fun, exciting season.

Some tidbits regarding yesterday’s game:

- Mata is a brilliant little player. He runs, he scores, he’s everywhere. Thanks to the Real Madrid youth system for this one!

- How great was it to see Valencia come back after going one goal down and not sulk and look defeated like they used to last season? Somewhere, Tintin Koeman must have been watching this game going, ‘I used to coach that team??’
The team showed wonderful resiliency. They fought and fought. And the fans showered them with praise, which was nice to see. It’s like the fans have so badly wanted to cheer the club for a while now and they finally have reason to.

- The defense is still shaky. Alexis and Albiol didn’t look that solid in the middle. Marchena will plug that hole nicely. And Moretti was beaten pretty badly for the first Madrid goal. He can do better than that.
Still, better than last season.

- The offense looked amazing. First touch passes, flowing play, on-target strikes. Excellent stuff. And did you notice that Valencia built from the middle and the wings and wasn’t just plopping it to the sides like we did so often last season? Ahh, so so refreshing to see …

- Silva is a monster. Villa is an absolutely magnificent striker. How wonderful it is that we have both of these super talented players on our team. More importantly, how LUCKY are we that they want to be here?? Would anyone have blamed them if they left after last season, when every big club in Europe wanted them? I think they showed their character by staying with us. Top-notch players. Top-notch people.

- Speaking of Villa, he was offsides about 5 times yesterday. With a little positional tweaking, he’ll be just fine.

- Big-boned defender Miguel looked awesome last night. He still carries a beer belly, but who cares when he plays like he did last night?

- Baraja needs to stop taking those long-range missile shots that end up hurting people in the third deck of the Mestalla. Just dribble a little bit, Ruben!

- So nice to see Vicente score. When he’s on, he’s one of the best wingers in the world. Having a healthy Vicente would mean so much to the team, from an athletic standpoint to a morale one.

- Manuel Fernandes impressed. So did Pablo Hernandez. Joaquin provided some great passes along with some wonderful play as well …

- Timo looks tentative. I’m not that confident in the German backstop. I think the competition with new ‘keeper Renan Brito will bring out the best in him.

- Emery sure looks like a genius after yesterday’s match. (Doesn’t he look like a Basque Kevin Costner?)

“We have been working for little more than a month and we are, bit by bit, trying to provide calm to the team so they can express themselves with confidence,” said Emery, looking over at his Oscar for ‘Dances with Wolves.’

“They were all comfortable on the pitch, they had good motivation and had a great bond with the fans. The team have shown their best side. Against Madrid we have maintained the line that we showed in the friendly against Vitesse. This is not created either in one day or in six months. We are trying to fix a base and be able to carry on in this direction.”

He added: “What we have seen against Real Madrid is the identity that we want our team to show.
To maintain this is not easy, but it is the path that we want. I have been brought here because my previous teams had a personality. We had a good night for Valencia.”

A very good one. And what did Madrid coach Bernd Schuster think of us?

“Valencia are coming back to being the team we expect them to be. None of us understood what happened to them last year. They mostly have the same players. I think they are on the right path to improving.”

I hope Schuster’s right. Things are on the up and up.