Atlético vs. PSV: CL preview

By: Al | November 25th, 2008

A day without fans.

Un dia sin aficionados.

Een dag zonder fans.

It sucks in any language that you put it. The Powers That Be didn’t allow the UEFA to let us slide with our punishment and the “no fans allowed” punishment is something that some Italian teams are very used to.

75 people will be allowed into the stadium, which includes the players and both teams’ staff. The only supporters will be outside of the stadium, and any goal will be celebrated by the players with echos traveling down the tunnels of el Calderon. The teams will be without any of the fire and passion given by the support and they’re just going to have to pretend there are people chanting, I guess. Let’s just hope it doesn’t affect the mentality of the players in a bad way.

This is Champions League matchday 5 and the feelings of an Atlético fan couldn’t be any more mixed.

Onto football matters…

Atlético

I’m not even going to talk about La Liga, as I’m still crushed by the last-minute equalizer that Numancia scored on Sunday. Simply put, we’re not in good form and are 6 points from 4th place.

The Champions League seems to be a completely different beast as we’re doing fantastic in the group. We are currently the leaders of the group with 8 points, only on top of Liverpool from higher goal differential. We’re as good as through if we win tomorrow. If we draw and Marseille wins tomorrow (unlikely), they can defeat us in Matchday 6 and go through if goal differential permits. So basically, we’re completely safe if we win tomorrow.

And if the ref gives PSV a last-minute penalty tomorrow, I’ll probably punch a hole through my laptop.

PSV

Oh PSV, how inconsistent you are. PSV has been Dutch champion the past 4 years and their best recent run into the Champions League was two seasons ago when they made it into the quarter finals, only to be thrashed by Liverpool both home and away. Last season, they didn’t even go through to the round of 16 and were demolished by Fiorentina in the UEFA Cup.

This season doesn’t look to be too great for PSV either. They are currently 5th in the Eredivisie, fresh off of a 4-0 victory over SC Heracles. They were recently given the wake-up of the season two weekends ago by getting thrashed 4-1 by Ajax. Ouch.

PSV has much to prove and they probably learned their lesson after our visit to the Philips Stadion, in which we won 0-3. Does that mean that we’re going to win 3-0 this time also? The cocky Atlético fan inside me says yes, but I expect a very defensive match that could end in a draw or a 1-0 in our favor.

Much like Atlético, PSV may be inconsistent and often underperform but their talent is definitely there. Within their defense plays Carlos Salcido and Francisco “Maza” Rodriguez, a Mexican duo that form a classic partnership that goes back to their days playing for CD Guadalajara back in Mexico. In the defense also plays Erik Pieters, a rising Oranje star that is beginning to make his mark.

In the attack lies occasional Oranje starlets Ibrahim Affelay and Danny Koevermans, the latter being one of PSV’s best players in the season so far. Ecuadorian Edison Mendez is also a player with a powerful shot and one that can cause trouble, although he may not be a starter in the match.

The boring stuff:

Referee: Massimo Busacca, “hailing from the Italian speaking park of Switzerland”, in the words of the ESPN commentators.

Stadium: Vicente Calderon, Madrid

Spectators in attendance: 0

Atletico roster: Unavailable, Aguirre lets us know the starting XI but the roster is nowhere to be found yet…

Confirmed starting XI:
Coupet; Seitaridis, Heitinga, Ujfalusi, Pernía; Raúl García, Maniche, Maxi, Simão; Forlán y Kun Agüero.

PSV roster:

GK: Isaksson y Cássio Ramos.
DF: Rodríguez, Addo, Salcido, Bréchet, Pieters y Wuytens.
MF: Simons, Méndez, Zonneveld, Afellay, Bakkal, Culina, Dzsudzsák y Ojo.
ST: Koevermans, Lazovic y Nijland.

Let’s seal this once and for all.

Aupa Atleti!