Battered And Down From The Clouds

By: Al | March 23rd, 2009

Typical Atlético. It should be illegal for a team to be this unpredictable.

It’s not yet time to start getting frustrated at the team because there’s plenty of season left, but seriously? 2-0 loss to Mallorca? No offense to the islanders, but they are (or were) relegation fodder, the sort of teams that we’re so good at defeating. Stupid losses like these are the reason Aguirre got sacked. It was one bad match, but playing it a day after both Sevilla and Villarreal win their respective matches should be enough motivation for Atlético to at least attempt to win this match.

MALLORCA 2 – ATLETICO MADRID 0

All the credit obviously goes to Mallorca, who played a more relaxed and intelligent game than we did. Their first goal was great, which was a skillful flick of the ball over all of the defenders to an unmarked Aduriz who chipped it over Leo Franco. Mallorca pushed the ball up and even scored two more times (once denied for being offside). The second goal was all Leo Franco’s fault. I know that keepers are supposed to move forward during one-on-ones, but why was he outside of the damn box so quickly? That’s the fault that I have with Leo Franco: he strays from his area and lets it some easy goals, as seen last week against Villarreal, during the first goal.

We were unfortunate to have two defenders carried off the pitch. Antonio Lopez had a bad collision and was replaced by Seitaridis soon after. Heitinga had an even worse collision, so bad that he was sent to the hospital and now looks like he’s wearing eyeliner. Once Johnny was carried off, Resino sent out Sinama and left the team with 3 defenders on the pitch.

Even more inconsistent than the team itself is Kun Aguero. He had two perfect scoring opportunities: a header from a Simao set piece (which he overpowered) and an unmarked chance to score, which he literally kicked the ball closer to the corner flag than the goal itself. What makes Aguero so great is his ability to score any “given” chances, and although he didn’t get to touch the ball all that often, he needs to work as hard as the rest of his teammates. Just look at Forlan, who is a bit of a klutz himself, but he tries and tries and has 6 more goals than Aguero this season. Create your own offense, Kun, don’t feed off of the feed.

Maxi: Are you serious? That was a complete sitter!

Kun: Y’know, the baby is making me tired and yesterday I was up all night and…

Maxi: You play like your shorts are hiked up your @ss, like Seitaridis.

(Seitaridis looks at the ground in shame)

Hell, all the possession belonged to us. Part of the “typical Atlético” curse is to end up doing nothing with so many chances. There weren’t even that many chances for the team to score, and the best chance was a cross inside the box to Maxi who was barely denied by the Mallorca keeper. For the past month, the team had been pounding the ball towards the goal post with lots of luck. And what did it do? It won us matches against Villarreal and Barcelona, and a draw against Real Madrid. Did Maniche suddenly introduce the squad to donuts so now they all miss chances and play slow? There’s no other reason.

Fourth place is 5 points away. Once Villarreal and Sevilla play Real Madrid and Barcelona, we’ll talk about our chances to end up in Champions League zone. For now, stop playing like crap!

As for Heitinga, all that I have to say is… OW!