Valencia 2 – Atlético 2: Plenty To Be Proud Of

By: Al | September 26th, 2009

Who cares if it’s a draw… I’m extremely proud of the team for their solid performance today at the Mestalla. It was actually enjoyable to see the team play again, and despite the lack of goals it felt good to see the team in good shape. It’s still a shame that we haven’t won a game this season in La Liga but it’s not too late to improve. We have 33 games left to play! So what if we’re in like, 17^th place, there is plenty of time to catch up!

Once again, our attack was very clumsy but still worked hard. Aguero missed a few sitters and Forlán wasn’t having the best of days (how often does this happen) but they still caused some havoc and scared the opposition. The defense wasn’t as bad this time around despite Valencia’s midfield and Pablo Hernandez causing much trouble, and there were many, many chances to score. Valencia also played a great game, but I’d say that we were probably the most dangerous team, but not by much.

Everybody was surprised when Aguero put us in the lead after 7 minutes. You could even see Aguero’s “no way we’re in the lead for once?!” expression after he scored. Going ahead against the might Valencia? It was too good to be true, which is why Pablo Hernandez scored a fantastic goal and David Villa scored an easy shot to put Valencia ahead. The rest of the game was just good chances and bad misses, mostly for us. Maxi Rodriguez is, for the first time in a while, the team’s hero for his last-minute goal: an awesome close-range volley after a defensive blunder. He could definitely use the confidence boost and I’m happy for the guy. The midfield also gets some praise, for playing with more balls and strengthening our attack. Assuncao was a bit clumsy but still did alright. Cleber Santana helped our attack and almost scored a nice goal of his own.

I can’t lie, Valencia is a very scary team. Last season, they game us a hard time in both matches (even in the second one which they lost) and they didn’t seem to be any weaker this time around. Their attack is one that I’m very jealous of, and I’m surprised that they didn’t score more goals against our paper thin defense. Visiting Mestalla is also no walk in the park; not even Barca could defeat them there. I’m also happy to see Ever Banega (who played for us on loan last season) have a good game. His first assist for Pablo Hernandez was class. You can thank us for the step he took in maturing.

It really was a good match, and if we play like this against Porto on Wednesday we could definitely get the three points. However, I believe that we need to win ONE game for our season to really take off. It would be terrific if the first victory would come on Wednesday, because it’ll help our Champions League campaign and also give us the motivation to win our next few Liga games. We host Zaragoza next weekend and should win that one.

As for the league standings… I don’t want to talk about it xD

Enjoy the highlights.

Valencia 2 – Atlético Madrid 2