Ugly Football

By: Al | January 19th, 2009

That’s how the Spanish commentator described the way that Atlético played against Almeria: with ugly, ugly football. And it’s true, the team is completely missing spark and can’t connect well. When you have Simao, Forlan, Sinama, and Kun f-ing Aguero on your team (the “Fantastic 4″ if you replace Sinama with Maxi) taking on ten men in the last 40 minutes of the game, how can you get walked on so easily? Only this Atlético squad, my friend.

Almeria was truly the better team, and on our biggest slip, they took advantage and scored. On countless occasions, Almeria took the ball from our players like nothing and ran havoc on our defense. The usual saying, “they could’ve scored many more” holds true for this match. For a few moments, I kind of wanted some mercy from Almeria. Uggh

Highlights:

Uche’s goal was absolutely pathetic on our part and smart on his. Not really Leo Franco’s fault, as balls can indeed slip from your hands, but for that split second the defense just looked at the ball while Uche smashed it in. Uche had a great match and even schooled Perea once or twice, and was key in Almeria’s solid match. Almeria’s players also did well in holding the ball and connecting with each other

Thankfully, Simao and Sinama’s great set piece connection (as demonstrated twice against Barcelona) saved Atleti’s arse with a neat header. That was definitely the only positive thing in Atlético’s performance, as the team couldn’t really do too much anyway. Some players, notably Ever Banega (who got sent off in the dying minutes of the match, second time this season), Sinama-Pongolle, Ujfalusi and Forlan played a solid game and deserved much more. If the rest of the team had the same fire that these players had, we would’ve won for sure. Especially since Almeria were a man down for most of the second half. Atlético should know better.

We are three points from the Champions League spot. I’ve said countless times something along the lines of “Atlético aren’t in that bad of a position” and even right now, they really aren’t. But with such a talented team, you can’t let easy points slip. If all the “what if” moments this season actually happened and Atlético didn’t lose points like idiots, they’d be in a very secure place up high in the table. I’m still sticking with my theory that this team has little motivation, and it’s shocking how the team that finished off Schalke 4-0 as if it were nothing at the beginning of the season is the same team that played like grandmothers against Almeria yesterday.

Aguero reportedly apologized personally to his teammates and the coach about not being able to score. Sad news when our best player is going through a goal drought and has to apologize to his teammates for not being good enough. You don’t hear often about any other superstars personally apologizing to their teammates, and that’s just more proof of how crap Atlético is doing right now.

The next match is against Malaga, who are surprisingly tied with us at 31 points. Normally I would’ve been like “psh, they’re a weaker side, we can take them” and we even smashed them 4-0 on opening day. But considering how we’re doing right now, a victory isn’t such a feasible task right now.

Too clumsy, too boring, and too lifeless.