Atlético Madrid
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Elias Mendes (25) was officially presented today as an Atletico player, signing a four and a half year contract with the club. He had been integrated into the squad a few days ago and has said his hellos while Camacho and Asenjo were saying their goodbyes. Elias mentioned that his teammates Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos at Corinthians recommended that he sign for Atletico. And what better way to show respect to their former club than to hold a giant “ANTIMADRIDISTA” scarf: Read the rest of this entry »
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Tonight against Espanyol we say goodbye to a hero of the Vicente Calderon who has been nothing but class and (arguably) a work horse for the club. Since signing for Atletico three and a half years ago for €20 million, he has scored many important goals and has fulfilled his duty as the set piece maestro, even helping his fellow teammates (Reyes, Aguero, Forlan) become badass free kick takers as well. Now he leaves to Turkey while Atleti simply get 2 million back. Pathetic.
He has been an undisputed starter since signing and is now one of the captains of the team, now leaving for Besiktas of the Turkish league (…why exactly?). Say what you want about his dip in form last year, but he is easily one of the most skilled players at the club and to replace him will be difficult. If you thought the Jurado sale was foolish, this one takes the cake. Simao is leaving because the club didn’t offer him a new deal in time and he will be joining a Portuguese contingent at Besiktas, who have Portuguese fever just like Real had Dutch fever and Schalke has Spaniard fever. Best of luck to you Simao, and hopefully the team can adapt to the new formation that Quique wants to use, and/or Merida steps up and takes his place.
Anyway, the Copa del Rey returns tonight and Atletico host Espanyol, a club that they last faced in this tournament in the final of 2000 which Espanyol won. This tournament is literally all there is left to play for now that Atleti is out of the Europa League and has no chance in hell to catch up with Real or Barca for the Liga title (although they can totally affect their title race). It’s hard as hell to get to the final of this tournament where each team (even the weaker ones) is pretty much evened out, and the clubs that make the final are always two new teams sans Getafe who made it a few times in the past years. For Atletico to make the final again would be great, but Espanyol is doing much better than us in the league and are in better form, despite the fact that they were whooped 1-5 in the Catalan derby last weekend. They even beat us 2-3 a few weeks ago too! But the Liga form never translates equally in the Copa, so the result tonight could be nothing like it was in the league.
Quique will be counting on a full squad, maybe even giving some bench warmers some playing time (Diego Costa, Antonio Lopez) and maybe Godin will make an appearance again, currently being benched because of bad form. Simao will play his final match as well, and after this holiday break we will see a completely new Atleti, having Elias on the squad and an adjusted formation. So before things begin to change at the club, enjoy this great match between to clubs who will give it their all.
Aupa!
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The reigning champions have been dumped out of the Europa League. All it took was two losses against a small Greek side to lose us enough points to get knocked out at the group stages of the Europa League. Today, Atletico faced a Bayer Leverkusen side with nothing left to play for on a bad pitch (it was really snowy, then it got muddy) and struggled with finishing chances. Unfortunately, Rosenborg played like crap against Aris and lost 2-0, ending Atleti’s title defense in shame. No more European football until at least August of next year, folks. Read the rest of this entry »
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Without a question, Atletico has shot its foot to the point where they are practically out of the Europa League. They aren’t necessarily eliminated from the tournament quite yet, but are in 3rd place in the group and need to win today at Bayer Leverkusen AND Aris Thessaloniki need to lose or draw at home to Rosenborg in order for us to progress. It was all due to the shocking and pathetic loss to Aris a few weeks ago, and due to the shabby defending the loss was well deserved. Read the rest of this entry »
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That almost rhymes. Desperate for fresh blood, Atletico have completed a deal to sign midfielder Elias (25) from Corinthians for 7 million euro on a four year contract. Elias was recently called up for the Brazil squad (!) and has had big clubs following him for years, and Atletico battled with Benfica to sign the player. Elias plays center midfield but can also play on the right wing if needed. Some newspapers in Brazil call him the “next Lampard” and he is a fan favorite in Brazil. He has scored some insane goals and was essential in Mano Menezes’ Corinthians squad of the past three years. Read the rest of this entry »
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Little to my knowledge, I realized that Greeks have a huge presence on the internet and whenever I would watch Atlético streams, there would usually be a person under a username such as “Aris90001″ or “Arisfan82835″ that would type things on the chat box such as “1-0 DO U REMEMBER” and other nonsense. Not like it offended me, but it was an interesting observation seeing how much crap the Aris fans liked to talk crap all over the internet, and on this very blog especially. Then again, it was probably one of the biggest wins in their history.
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The page is back after a two week hiatus, which I should have warned everybody about. No, I didn’t die, and I did indeed watch the embarrassing loss to Real Madrid and the win over Osasuna. I’ll save my excuses and just get to the bottom of things once again. Man, if only I had a co-blogger… Read the rest of this entry »
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It isn’t easy being an Atletico Madrid supporter when you are predisposed to disappointment every year, no matter how good the squad is and how high the hopes are at the beginning of the season. It’s in the Atletico DNA to be bipolar: great one day, awful on another. The past few years have been no exception, and when the footballing world began taking notice of Atletico when they were doing well in the Europa League, they wondered “how can they beat Barcelona but then lose to a lower table team like Xerez the next?”. These erratic results have stripped us of much hope and the chances at titles, and all the supporters know that it’s a love that hurts. Read the rest of this entry »
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In the freezing Norwegian cold, Atletico was able to secure a second consecutive win against Rosenborg and ensure that they are on a good track to progressing to the next round in the Europa League. It was not an easy match, considering that De Gea did not have a good game at all and Atletico was clearly affected by the cold. In the end, it was a Tiago wonder strike that settled the match in the end, and secured us another 3 points. Read the rest of this entry »
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It’s hard to concentrate on an arguably easy match such as this one when next weekend is the glorious Madrid derby. In fact, players are already being interviewed and talking about the match as if it were going to happen tomorrow. Atletico still needs to iron out certain things (the passing game, Forlan’s inability to score) before the big derby at the Bernabeu, and this match is more than perfect for that. Especially since Almeria is a club that Forlan has no trouble scoring against, and he will likely do so again. It’s difficult seeing him under so much criticism and seeing Diego Costa (deservedly) make the starting lineup in his place.
The match tomorrow against Almeria should not be too difficult considering that Atletico hasn’t failed to perform against small teams in the Liga this season. They are in 16th place at 7 points, only six less than Atleti. Last season, they drew against us at home at the Calderon 2-2 but that was when our club was in crisis, and then Atletico won 0-2 the next time. If Atletico doesn’t win this one, it’s because their head isn’t clear and that’s about it. They should win it with ease.
The only player that will be out is Diego Godin, who is out for a month and will unfortunately be excluded from the Madrid derby. Otherwise, Valera is back and the rest of the squad is available. Diego Costa is in great form, and has already scored 5 goals in the month and a half or so that he has been starting matches. The match on Wednesday, which ended 0-5 in Atletico’s favor, was a good scrimmage and a chance for each player to tally up some goals (and for Fran Merida to get his first as well). Winning tomorrow and also winning at Rosenborg on Thursday will be great preparation for the hell that will ensue at the Bernabeu next week.
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