In other news, Quique Sanchez has the swine flu (H1N1) and will probably miss this weekend’s match against Depor. Jeez, it feels like I’m writing an injury report, except it’s about the manager. The “curer” of Atletico has been diseased…

Don’t F around with that babelfish translation shit, I translated it just for you. Warning: it’s quite long.

How do you see the dressing room after the elimination from the Champions League?

It hasn’t been too difficult because we knew that we had to win every single match in order to have a possibility to get into the next round. What we looked for against Chelsea was to find what Quique wanted, which was an adequate system for our team’s abilities. We had the match under control after Kun’s 1-0, but what we wanted was to find the rhythm to help the team function again.

What did Quique say after the match against Chelsea?

He didn’t say anything in particular. He shook our hands and talked about punctual things during the match. But nothing in particular. What’s true is that you really can’t say much right after matches.

Porto and Chelsea are both big clubs. But doesn’t it hurt to be out of the Champions League when there’s still two matches left to be played?

What’s difficult is not being eliminated, but to be so low in the group and to be in relegation zone. That’s what is difficult. In these first few months, we didn’t play well in the League nor in the Champions League. And now what we have left is to qualify for the Europe League.

Last year, the team didn’t lose once in Europe after 8 matches. In this one, you haven’t won out of the four. What happened to you guys in this competition?

It’s not only the CL. It’s general because we have only won one match in all competitions. The match against Chelsea was positive because we did well and we made chances. We controlled the match, something which is very positive. Just like they had chances as well. This is fundamental in order to keep on working toward what Quique wants.

Now it’s your turn to battle against APOEL for third place. Isn’t this an objective that wouldn’t be too ambitious for a squad like Atlético? Are you motivated?

The Europa League is still motivation for us. It’s true that the Champions League is an important tournament, but we’re not in contention any more and we must look ahead. And there’s nothing else but the Europa League.

And in that path, you run into Real Madrid. Do you think that a victory over your biggest rival will help you forget the disaster of being eliminated from the CL?

We were all aware of the situation. What we need to do is fight so that the team goes back to what it once was. We’re the same players and we need to gel as soon as possible.

Will Cristiano Ronaldo’s absence have an effect?

He is, without a doubt, one of the best players in the world. Real Madrid has played some matches without him, but they still have a squad with great players. They’re one point from Barcelona and that says it all. Cristiano is a great player, but whoever takes his place will do just as well.

You and Higuain arrived to Europe very young, to big clubs and you had to work hard to make your place. What do you think about the Argentine striker?

El Pipita is a great player. He’s growing more and more and his progression as a player hasn’t stalled.

Pellegrini was your manager at Villarreal. Do you still keep in touch with him? Have you talked about the crisis in Madrid?

No, I don’t keep in touch with Pellegrini.

What do you think about the new Real Madrid? Do you find the criticism a little exaggerated for a team that’s second in the league?

The criticism is understandable. The players at Real Madrid are very experienced and know that at big clubs, there are many comments and critics. But the league is long. They’re a point from the lead and despite that, there is always a but.

What do you think about the debate over Raul starting, the other number 7 of the derby?

He has been at Madrid for a long time and has scored an infinity of goals. He has sacrificed much. There aren’t words to define Raul. His career is untouchable. He’s a great player that doesn’t play in the position that he’s best in, inside the box.

Which one of Real’s weak points will you try to take advantage of this Saturday?

We have to try hard during these matches. We must give our all, despite them having a great team. The example that we’ll be following is the match against Chelsea. We played them well and we ended up achieving a draw.

What does a player at a big club think when he sees his team in the relegation zone?

It feels bad to see us in such an uncomfortable situation. But it was worse before, because in addition to being so low we weren’t doing well in the football aspect. In the last matches, we demonstrated that we’re more confident, worked harder, and were more united. We’re in relegation zone, but it’s still a long path. We’re sure that we’ll keep on working to improve and to achieve results fast.

Has the club’s institutional crisis affected the team?

We really don’t care. We need to isolate ourselves from that environment and from the problems. Our job is to work on the pitch for what Quique wants and asks of us. We have to work together more by the day.

Does the team really have enough time and quality to re-enter the CL like Quique said during his presentation? Which teams will be your greatest rivals?

It’s complicated. There are many teams that are just as strong and it’s hard just to say names. We need to work hard and collect points to climb back up.

How far ahead is Real Madrid and Barcelona from the rest of the teams?

We are very behind. In recent fixtures, some teams have equaled them talent wise. But Barcelona, in a football aspect, is a step ahead of the rest of the teams. In Spain and in the world.

Has there been contact with Real Madrid and Barcelona’s people in the past summer?

I don’t know if anything was certain. I knew there were rumors and I don’t know if they were true or not. I’m not interested.

Do you regret continuing at Atlético? Do you think you will finish your career here?

I haven’t signed the renewal yet. We’re almost there. I’m very happy and don’t regret continuing here, but it’s too soon to know if I’ll finish my career here.

Next week is the World Cup playoff against Costa Rica. What does this playoff mean to you and to a country like Uruguay?

The playoff is very important, and vital. What’s more important is to qualify because it’s important to the entire country. We need to win and go to South Africa.

At Uruguay you share the attacking roles with Luis Suarez, a forward that has been mentioned as a possible signing for your club. Do you think that he’ll join you in playing under the same Atlético badge?

I have a good relationship with Luis because we play together on the national team. If he signs here, he’ll be welcomed

Not too long ago you received your second Golden boot. Nobody has won this prize three times in Europe. Do you wish to win it a third time?

A third Golden boot would be incredible. But it’s nothing easy because like you said, nobody has done it yet. I’m already happy having won two. The first was nice. The second, incredible.

What has Quique brought within his first week? Do you notice his work?

Quique has worked a lot tactic wise, also in organizing the team in many aspects. There isn’t much time between matches and we need to assimilate quickly to what we’re learning.

Was sacking Abel the solution to the problems, or the obvious action for the club in a moment of crisis?

Unfortunately, in football you run into this circumstances and when a team isn’t well, the first thing to do is to sack the manager.

Do you want to send a message to the supporters?

To the supporters, I say that we aren’t well, but to have patience with us. We want to win and bring many joys to the people.

Quique Sanchez Flores has officially been presented as Atlético Madrid’s new manager this morning.

Speaking on behalf of the team’s slump, Quique stated the obvious: the morale has to improve:

“We intend to bring back up a team that has plenty of tools to do so, and to make a connection between the players and the supporters as soon as possible. Our first objective is to recover the quality from these footballers and to maximize the performance with the squad that we have.

It would have been impossible to say no to an offer like this. From outside, it’s very tempting to manage Atletico and from the inside it’s an honor to belong to this club. We intend to make life easier for the supporters, the director’s board, and to bring out the most out of the players.”

He watched Saturday’s match from the stands and held his first training session yesterday, which by the way, was heavily protested by unhappy supporters. About 50 supporters, most of them Atlético Ultras, demanded “explanations” from the team and captain Antonio Lopez went outside to talk to a group of them.

Also, check out this excellent article on ESPN about Abel Resino’s eight months in charge of the team. Very good read.

Ladies and germs, the new manager.

By the way, Valencia fans, tell me about Quique since he was your manager a few years ago. Anything that’s not “he sucks” or “he’s awesome”.

Quique Sanchez Flores, best known for his stint at Valencia a few years ago, will be presented today as the new Atletico Madrid manager. The fact that he is Madridista is something that the director’s board didn’t originally like, but his desperation for work enthusiasm impressed the club and now he will take over.

Michael Laudrup, of Barca treachery, good looks and Getafe managerial success, was the first name on the list. However, after sitting down and having a cup of coffee with the sporting director, Laudrup claimed to have “too many doubts” which completely canceled his candidacy. According to Jesus Garcia Pitarch, the Atletico Madrid job “must illuminate your eyes, not give you doubts”.

Quique Flores and Italian media whore Luciano Spaletti were the second two names on the list, but because of Spaletti’s high salary demands, Quique was the better option.

I can’t be any happier with this news. It was about time that Resino got the sack because his stay was a bit prolonged. There was no reason to keep him as the team was going absolutely nowhere this season with him in charge. He did ultimately get us in a Champions League spot and saved us from the wreck that Aguirre left the club in, but this season, we only kept on going in decline.

We will definitely appreciate some great moments from last season with Resino in charge, such as the legendary 4-3 comeback against Barcelona and the excellent 1-1 draw in the Madrid derby. He is truly an Atletico at heart, having played as keeper for the club back in the early 90’s, so this was his dream job. I expect him to keep on managing lower division clubs as he was doing before, and moving on up from there. Good luck.

Who knows if Quique is good as a long term solution, but all I know is that we could use about anything right now. Plus, Atletico is known for always winning their first match with a new manager, so I’m looking for his first match in charge (which isn’t this weekend because Resino’s assistant Santi Denia will take over).

A proper Quique Flores post is soon to follow.

Our very own Simao had a hell of a game, scoring a brace for Portugal and taking over as captain after Cristiano Ronaldo limped off the pitch. He played for 80 minutes. Portugal won 3-0 over Hungary.

Diego Forlan also scored the winner against Ecuador in Uruguay’s 1-2 away victory. It’s nothing special because it’s a penalty, but still awesome to see Diego be the man once again.

As for Kun Aguero, he sat out the game against Peru. Maybe he’ll get some minutes in the midweek match against Uruguay. Forlan vs. Aguero would be a bout to watch.

So to begin, a story of how it all started. Not trying to write my life story, but a little background on myself is needed

I wasn’t fortunate like many of you to have been supporting a club since youth, with a family of supporters. I enjoyed watching lots of games, especially the Champions League, but I needed a team badly. I’m a Chicago native, but didn’t really like the Chicago Fire. Plus, I don’t like the MLS. ANYWAY… I was a boomer from the 2006 World Cup, loved seeing big dogs in the Champions League after the World Cup ended, but I realized that I needed an affiliation with a club.

The sad reality of being an American sports fan is that you have to pick a club to support if it hasn’t picked you already. I always had a fascination with Spain, so hey, why not pick a La Liga team? Real Madrid perhaps? Nah, even when I was a footie newb, I associated Real Madrid with evil, so that wasn’t the way to go. FC Barcelona? That was a better option. My first club football match on TV was a replay of the 0-3 over Real Madrid from the previous season (this was still 2006). I tried following Barca, but I also liked seeing teams like Liverpool and Chelsea play. Pretty much, I was a glory hunter. I attended a Barcelona vs Chivas Guadalajara match here in Chicago, and it was cool seeing all the stars play but it just didn’t feel like my team. I felt like a glory hunter cheering on every Barca goal. Would I be a Barca fan if they weren’t such a good team? Hell no. And neither would most of their fanbase.

I always had an interest for Atlético since Gol TV sometimes showed their matches. I knew them as the “team of Fernando Torres”, they would win some and lose some. They were slightly above-average. They had a Mexican coach that I really liked, Javier Aguirre. They were anti-Madridista like Barca but obviously not as popular. So I thought, hey why not start watching this team. They are more low key than other teams, but neither are they a minnow that you can’t find information on. I gave in.

After beginning my Atlético support exodus in the summer of 2008, I learned about the team the boring way: reading stats, watching highlights videos, looking up each player’s Wikipedia profile, and obviously beginning to watch them play. I was still an Atlético newb and kept on referring to Johnny Heitinga (traitor btw) as “John Heitinga” and I couldn’t tell the difference between Pernia and Perea, one was the bald dude and the other was the fast ass black Colombian.

Atlético was playing in the Champions League 3rd round qualification against Schalke 04. I watched them lose the first leg at Gelsenkirchen 1-0, then a week later I saw the amazing 4-0 thumping that sealed their place into the group stages. What I saw was incredible: supporters going wild, solid and flashy football with touches of South American style, and a glorious European night. This Atlético team is pretty awesome, I told myself.

I was liking Atlético more and more, but I felt that I needed to “dedicate” myself in some way to this team. So I went on The Offside, to the Atlético Madrid page, and saw that there wasn’t a post since August of 07. Perfect! Maybe I’ll shoot Daryl an email and hopefully he likes my writing style. I love to write, so why not sharpen my abilities while writing for a team that I’m just getting into! That’s exactly what I did. I wrote a sample post on Atlético players in international week, and next thing you know I’m writing my first post, then first review and preview. It wasn’t easy. I got nervous but as time went on I began loving it. This was perfect.

So where is Al now? I love Atlético, I’ll tell you that much. The next step I have to take is to visit the Vicente Calderon and experience the atmosphere myself. My passion remains with my national team of Mexico, but that’s a completely different matter. I still obsess over Atleti, get pissed off at false transfer rumors, and all that stuff. The Atlético page of Marca and AS are the first tabs on my bookmark tab.

As for this website, it was one of the best decisions I have ever made to write it. It pains me when I’m unable to write posts on time or completely leave out certain news. I wish I had the time to catch every single game and write about every single thing. It can get difficult. It has become a great hobby though. I don’t really like being opinionated but I like how sports blogging works.

If you don’t support or follow a La Liga team, by all means, begin following Atlético. We aren’t a Barca or Madrid, but we have passionate (although sometimes extreme) fans and the team can definitely hold their own. I understand that there is a bigger following of La Liga after all of the huge transfers, so why not follow us? You’re all welcome aboard, and I’ll keep the posts on this page more simple so the neutral fan can follow.

So thanks to everyone that has stopped by or has skimmed through my posts. My goal is definitely not to have a high amount of page views like some other pages *cough* old Barca Offside *cough*. My goal is to spread the word of this club outside of Spain, especially in the football-deprived USA. Most Atlético news is all in Spanish, and thankfully I’m fluent in it so I can always incorporate news into my posts. Any questions will also gladly be answered if you ask in comments/email/etc.

September 16, 2008

I reiterate that. I’m interested in hearing from you guys. Anything thats on your minds, and suggestions would be great too. If you guys want more news posts, more previews, silly posts (baby photo posts, etc), go ahead and tell me.

Just this once… I’ll throw in my contact info. Twitter: @altalkstoomuch, mail: bread_eggs@yahoo.com, facebook: /wooyeah. Friend request me. Email me. Do it.

Aupa Atleti!

Three games into the season without winning a game. Instead of building on our success at the end of last season, the team is running around like headless chickens and getting walked on by Cypriot underdogs. What I saw during most of the game was Atletico being unable to score, and APOEL playing with their entire hearts. We were clumsy, and they were less fortunate but definitely not the inferior side of the night.

This was, on paper, the easiest match we had in the entire group stage, at home hosting an unproven fourth seed newcomer to European football. What was expected was three points that could give us the one-up into the qualification to the next round. Instead, we are hoping to move on with only a point in the bag, and a victory against Porto and Chelsea is absolutely necessary if we expect to go into the next round. Between the two, Porto is the more defeatable team.

It’s still possible, but who am I to say? Basically, the team needs to wake the hell up and begin a winning streak. There was no shadow of the Diego Forlan of last year, and no shadow of the amazing pre-season Kun Aguero. The team is a disaster, and the situation at the club (currently being protested by supporters like crazy) is not pretty.

We visit Barca next weekend, and if the team that played today shows up next weekend, expect a 4-0 thumping or worse.

Here’s to better days.

Negotiations were long, and despite minor interest from Manchester City, it didn’t seem likely that Forlán would leave the club at the end of the season. He loves it here too much and they treat him like royalty. He was by far our best player last season and aside from the Barcelona steamroller, Forlan was the man to watch last season in La Liga. He wasn’t Pichichi for nothing, he’ll school your ass.

The next step… to get Kun Aguero to sign a new contract. Make it happen, Pitarch.

The game in a nutshell… usual back and forth football match, Baha scored an awesome bicycle kick, Atleti had some okay chances of their own, Malaga got lucky from corner kicks, our coach was sent off for yelling and hitting a bench, and Kun Aguero remained our only true source of danger in the entire match. With a defense like this, we’re going to have an on-and-off season once again with nothing to complement our dangerous offense. There really was no point in seeing this match anyway because it’s one that I saw many, many times the past season.

We host Racing the next matchday in two weeks, and visit Barcelona the weekend after. Oh dear.

Here’s the video:

Malaga 3 – Atlético Madrid 0

1-0 Baha
2-0 Manu
3-0 Xavi Torres

Everton have purchased the defender for an initial fee of £6.2m and talks were stalled as Heitinga had to agree on personal terms. His salary was a little too much for Everton (£2.5m) but all is settled and Johnny is in Liverpool for his medical.

Heitinga isn’t amazing but he’s definitely our best option in the right back position, as he is great in helping out the attack. Everton are taking a huge risk if they sign him for the purpose of being a center back, because he’s prone to fouling inside the goal box and giving away unnecessary penalties, obviously why he was moved to right back where he usually plays in the Dutch national team. We still won’t forget losing the Madrid derby at home last year because of his foul.

I don’t understand this move at all: going from one of the top teams in Spain and playing in the Champions League to landing 5th place in England and playing teams from Macedonia in the Europa League. But it’s not always about how good your team is, but in this case, he had his starting position solidified and we were counting on him for the Champions League. Now, Luis Perea will do the honors unless we sign a new player. Smell ya later, Johnny.

Club Atlético de Madrid and Everton have reached a satisfactory deal to send John Heitinga to the club from Liverpool. The Dutch central defender, who was beginning his second season at the ‘rojiblanco’ organization, will play in one of the historic teams of the Premier League for the next five season, after the transaction was completed on the afternoon of Tuesday 1 September.

Club Atlético de Madrid wishes Heitinga luck in this new stage that he is going to begin in England and thanks him for the services that he gave to the institution and for the professionalism that he always showed while defending the red-and-white jersey of Atlético.