4th Place, Who Wants It?

By: Al | April 13th, 2009

Screw the title race. Barcelona is 6 points clear and Real Madrid is hot on their tail. Yawn. The only fun there is seeing which of the two will lose first. No thanks. You glory hunters have fun with that…

How about we move down the table a little and focus on something much more exciting: the fourth place race (try saying that ten times fast, fourthplacerace fouthplacrace poutflarface).

You see, there are currently only 3 points separating fourth place from seventh place. Valencia, Villarreal, us, and Malaga are the contenders. All four teams are having trouble maintaining something called a good streak and when one team loses, another wins. We have 9 matches left. Excited yet? You better be…

This is what the 4th place race looks like right now…

“But Al, what about Sevilla and Deportivo? Shouldn’t you include them too?”

Uggh fine

I was shocked when Valencia won yesterday, because I thought that their game would end 2-2, then Mata had to score and win the match. They’ve been doing good, and by “doing good” I mean that they’ve won three matches in a row, which sounds pathetic for a team of their calibre. Villarreal on the other hand, were shown a lesson from direct-contenders Malaga and lost a game that they should have won. They were probably resting up for Arsenal, but I really can’t complain.

I originally wasn’t going to include Sevilla but considering that they’re only 8 points ahead of Valencia, any more slips could even open up a chance for a little contest for third place. I doubt that though, as Sevilla has been a pretty consistent team this season and their cushion right now looks to be kept. Right now, they’re holding on to that 3rd place spot, hissing at everyone below them, and talking to it as if it were their child. Okay creeps, you can have 3rd place, sheesh.

Yesterday we defeated Deportivo La Coruna 1-2 which kept us in the fourth place race even after a bad streak (2-0 loss to Mallorca, 2-4 to Osasuna) the past two matches. I’m still in disbelief. We lose at home to a team like Osasuna (no offense but they’re not that good) yet we can score twice on a stacked team like Depor. It’s inconsistency at its best. This is why we’re not in fourth place already, because nobody knows what the hell is going on in the players’ minds, or when they will win. Like the rest of our direct competitors.

But watch the highlights and look at all those great plays. Atleti looked hungry and the only player on Depor that tried his balls off was Guardado, who I wouldn’t mind on our team. Simao also scored the club’s 4,000th goal in its history. Woot!

The clear advantage that we have over Valencia, Villarreal, and maybe even Sevilla, is the fact that we don’t have to play Barcelona or Real Madrid anymore. These two teams aren’t exactly invincible, as shown when we last faced them, but both teams are capable of winning their games. Even if our fourth place competitors tie against Barca and Real Mandril, it still slows them down and gives us (and Malaga, they don’t face them anymore either) a chance to catch up.

Even with the good chance of being able to catch up, considering that we’re 3 points from our desired end of season finish, our Atlético squad has a bit of a problem comprehending what “no more screw ups” means. Our schedule for the rest of the season doesn’t even look easy anymore, only because of the loss to Osasuna. We underestimate the little teams and show up against the big teams (sometimes). There are some things that I can’t explain, like why Forlan sucks so bad at one-on-ones or why Heitinga shaved off his Ajax hair, and I won’t have too much luck pinpointing why Atleti is so inconsistent.

If we end up getting fourth place, I probably won’t be celebrating, but laughing hysterically in disbelief instead. Our season has been a joke, compared to last year at least, and I’m still shocked that we’re still in the battle for a Champions League spot. We’re two losses away from matching last season with this “revamped Champions League squad” and it’s obvious that we’re in need of some new players and new mentality. We don’t really deserve to be in the Champions League, and I’ll push my Atleti bias aside to admit it, but whoop dee doo if we end up there. The UEFA Europa spot would be better for us in the long run.

Speaking of next season, there’s obviously rumors linking our best players to other clubs. Why wouldn’t there be? Forlan is being linked to Man City (gag) for about 30+ million euro, and Aguero is being linked everywhere, mostly to Inter. I think that Aguero will end up staying at least another season, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Forlan ends up leaving. The guy is getting old, he’s almost 30, and even though he said that he wants to play somewhere where he can win titles, Man City doesn’t seem to be the club that will be able to do that. As for Aguero, some people get antsy and angry that he’s not at a big club, but Aguero as a player “isn’t quite there”. He’s a tricky and solid finisher, but the guy is at the right club, whether you want to believe it or not. Robinho told the press that he wants Aguero at City. Funny because, the last time the two met (over a year ago in the Madrid derby) they were going at it, with Kun giving Robinho a love tap, and now Robinho wants him as his teammate? Funny how things work.

Maniche, the donut collussus, is rumored to sign for Sunderland. Seriously, Sunderland? He’d be better off here instead of battling relegation and hurting his national team chances, if he still has any. The only reason that he’s not playing is because of his attitude, which caused problems with the old coach Aguirre a while ago. In this case, Maniche told the press after the first Porto match that Resino “got his tactics all wrong” and Resino doesn’t like that kind of sh*t so he benched him and gave the centre midfield spot to a Spaniard (who else?), Raul Garcia.

I hope you all enjoy mid-week Champions League this week, but I already can’t wait until next weekend to keep on following the true race in La Liga.

Aupa!

And I love this picture so much that I thought I’d put it in here: