This Week’s Rants and Penya NY-CHE?

By: Cesar | December 17th, 2007

Lots of fall out from Saturday’s 3-0 disaster against Barcelona.

If you have the stomach to bear it, here’s highlights of Barcelona’s goals. I watched it live. Once is enough …

Soccernet.com’s resident Spanish scribe Phil Ball posted some paragraphs about Valencia’s ineptitude today. Have a go at it here or at the aforementioned link:

Turning to Valencia for a moment, it was as if everything that Barça appeared to have, the home side lacked. It’s easy to say that Valencia have no Messi, no Iniesta and no Xavi, but less obvious to say that they have no Gudjohnsen.

Arizmendi began the game playing behind Morientes, because of David Villa’s absence, but his utter inability to link the play between the midfield and the forward line was horribly conspicuous.

Then again, it’s difficult to say exactly what constitutes Valencia’s midfield at the moment. Joaquín and Silva both prefer to play out wide, but if there is no-one to supply them (as there wasn’t on Saturday) they both move infield where they are less effective. When Morientes went off injured, Vicente came on, but played in a withdrawn position on the left, where he simply got in the way of the theoretical link between the awful Moretti and the strangely subdued Silva.

Valencia, when they do their stuff, are all about power and speed, plus a solid rearguard. But Albelda and Marchena look suddenly less comfortable now that Ayala has gone, and Helguera simply looks lost in some sort of fog of his own making.

Once upon a time in Madrid, Helguera played as a sweeper behind Hierro and did it very effectively, until, that is, he was asked to come out of that role and play as a centre-back himself. The truth is that he doesn’t do it very well. Barcelona looked (as did Chelsea last week) as if they could score every time they attacked anywhere near him, and in the end Albelda and Marchena resorted to the hard stuff in order to stem the tide.

It wasn’t a pretty sight, especially given that these two are still the fulcrum of Luis Aragonés’ national side. Another chap who no longer plays for the ’selección’, Cañizares, was just about the only Valencia player to emerge with any credit.

Ronald Koeman and his assistant, his old buddy José Mari Bakero, are not having an easy baptism, to say the least. It must have been strange for the two of them, sitting there watching their team playing so poorly. You got the feeling that if the two of them had got changed at half-time and donned the white shirts, the Valencia midfield would have started to function.

The two of them usually dominated a certain zone of the park, where opponents would fear to tread. But they were not simply destructive. Both of them could score goals, but above all they were supreme organisers, at the same time as they protected other, more skilful team-mates. At the moment, Valencia have no organisers at all. Albelda can do the job, but not all alone. With fellow-city dwellers Levante propping up the table, it’s looking like a bleak Christmas over Valencia way.

Yikes!

On we go to the Guardian Unlimited’sSid Lowe and his opinion on the calamity at the Mestalla. I won’t post the entire article here. Click to read. But here’s a few paragraphs:

Koeman has changed the training, changed the rules, changed the formation, changed players’ positions, and changed results – for the worse. When Quique was sacked, Valencia were four points off the top and still alive in the Champions League. Today, they are 13 points off the top and not just out of the Champions League but out of the Uefa cup too, having turned in the second worst Spanish performance ever in the tournament.

The day Koeman arrived he ripped everything up and started again, embarking on a kind of pre-season – even though the real season was a quarter gone. He was supposed to bring an attractive, attacking style to Mestalla but Valencia have only scored in one of eight matches under him and have now gone longer without a goal than at any other time in their entire history. Worse still, with Koeman complaining about the squad and leaving the club’s record signings out in the cold, the sporting director complaining about Koeman, the players complaining about everyone and everything, and the real architect of the chaos still squirming in his presidential chair, there’s little sign of things getting better in a hurry.

Uggh … my stomach hurts.

I leave you with the words of our ‘captain’, David Albelda, who says we may be developing a losing mindset. YOU THINK, DAVEY BOY???

“It’s a mental problem, players do not want the ball and there are no signs of improvement,” he said following Saturday’s display.

“You think everything is going wrong. Playing at home and believing that nothing can be done to stop another defeat is very difficult to cope with.” For you and for us, Dave.

The Spanish international believes that the only way for the team to come out of this trough in form is to collect their thoughts and remain positive that they have the ability.

“It’s difficult to give the fans a message of encouragement. They behaved well towards us. This is a time to show pride and character.”

Pride and character … let’s see if they exhibit that Wednesday against Real Union on Wednesday in the Copa Del Rey … can’t say I’m too confident at the moment.

**Penay NYCHE … it’s a dream I’ve had for a long time. Now, along with reader Daniel, I’m really interested in getting this going. I’ve contacted the Valencia club a few times in the past in vain. I believe their eligibility standards change as time goes on. Might anyone out there know how to go about this?

C’mon lads! Let’s have a go at it and start this thing!
I’m thinking we can make it an All-American penya centered in New York City. If you’re ever here, you know you can meet up with someone to catch a game, trade some stories or share your passion.

I know there’s a lot of you out there. So let’s band together and get this done.
What do you all think??

NYCHE? USA-CHE?

Whatever … let’s just try it once and for all.

I’m sick of talking about it. I want it to become reality. We have the numbers. We have a place to host us. Now let’s do it!

AMUNT!!