We Are Not Championship Material

By: Al | October 20th, 2008

It’s obvious after our past three losses in La Liga. Even though we did lose to Sevilla, Barcelona, and Real Madrid, it’s no excuse. Two of those matches were played at home, and a true title contender wouldn’t have struggled.

Our match was almost a carbon copy of the Barcelona derby not too long ago. A last minute penalty clinched a derby victory for both Real Madrid and Barcelona. Both us and Espanyol can complain all that we want about the ref and every factor that led us to a loss, but the fault of the loss is still in the players hands. If we had played better, a last minute penalty wouldn’t have made us lose.

What I find very important is that our players fought until the end. Maniche had an okay game, and his bazillion shots were no problem for Casillas. The defense improved greatly from the Barcelona match, especially the center backs. Assuncao had a great match too, as he was able to fulfill some defensive duties and position himself well. Kun did his best Leo Messi impression and was able to speed through the defense a couple of times. Leo Franco was a great captain as his fighting spirit was an example for the rest of the team.

The match was very dirty and some of the fouls were absolute disgraces. Perea’s elbow to Sneijder was very unecessary and I almost felt bad for Wesley. His facial expression when falling down was reminiscent of Rocky. Van Nistelrooy’s sending off wasn’t deserved, but in the heat of the match, I was nothing but grateful.

Our players don’t know how to cross the ball. On two or more occasions, we had possession of the ball and all that we needed was a cross to achieve a one-on-one and an easy goal. Instead of doing those simple crosses, the ball was overpowered often and the ball rolled into the hands of the ballboys.

The first Real Madrid goal was very unfortunate. Much to our dismay, Ruud Van Nistelrooy is a phenomenon and whodathunk that he could’ve scored outside of the box (especially in 30 seconds)? It doesn’t exactly make it “okay” that he scored that goal, but it was very unfortunate and we couldn’t have seen it coming, so that’s where I cut the defense a little slack.

Manager man Aguirre claims that this early goal was what threw us off for the rest of the game, and I agree to disagree. It’s not an impossible feat to come back from one-nil down, and the last Madrid goal had nothing to do with the early goal. It’s okay to be shocked with an early goal, but our mistakes during the match can’t be backed up with that excuse.

I was going bananas after Simao’s free kick goal. It was so clean and perfect, and I thought that the draw was sealed. But no, Heitinga had to trip Royston Drenthe and cause a penalty in the 96th minute. That’s right, the stupid ass referee gave six minutes of injury time. You may be thinking “without that injury time, you wouldn’t have scored your goal” but we didn’t need six minutes, we needed one. And I’m not saying that the ref did a bad job, because he cut us some slack throughout the match, but SIX minutes? Jeez.

In the end, Real Madrid are laughing their way up the league standings. Yes, I’m disappointed that we lost the match and now our derby victory drought can’t be ended until 2009. However, we did fight hard in the dying moments of the match and we didn’t lose 6-1 this time. It’s one of those losses in which we should hold our heads up.

We haven’t been as fortunate as Valencia are with an early set of fixtures that can be considered a slide. The “four fixtures from hell” end when we face Villarreal next weekend but hoping for a victory against such a good team is a bit of a stretch at this point. Can we pull a Liverpool and suck it up in La Liga but do good in the Champions League? I think so, but Champions League success shouldn’t be consolation for doing bad in the league. Champions League success can be lucky, but a Liga victory can’t be a fluke. You must deserve it. And unless the Potential Top Four get bad results in the next few matches, we are as good as out of the running.

We are not in a crisis. Yes, we haven’t been doing so hot, and a UEFA Cup spot would feel hot and toasty right now, but we are still 7 losses away from matching last season. If we can do well against the rest of La Liga and produce some results the next time we play the four fixtures from hell, we can say hello to Champions League football again. The talent that we posess is incredible, and Aguirre is more than capable of helping us succeed.

Marca claims that Aguirre may be sacked if he loses the Liverpool match on Wednesday, but it’s almost guaranteed that he’ll be gone if he loses the next two matches. Some of the decisions by “El Vasco” haven’t been too wise, more specifically in his selection of starting lineups and inclusion of unfit players. I don’t want him to leave, last season went shockingly well and he brought us to the Champions League for the first time in over a decade. I’ll discuss this more after the Liverpool match.

We welcome Liverpool on Wednesday and I’ll have a preview up by tomorrow, and Liverpool Offside may have one up too. I can’t wait!

Aupa Atleti!