Sevilla 2 -Steaua Bucharest 0–¡Vamos mi Sevilla, Vamos Campeón!

By: Ryan | November 7th, 2007

Viva Manolo Jiménez!! Viva!

Sevilla continue their purple patch under the direction of one Manuel Jiménez with a 2-0 thumping of Steaua in Romania. Most of you wouldn’t think that a 2-0 win was a thumping, but Sevilla clearly dominated this match from start to finish.

The first half was all Sevilla. Upon firing up my portuguese bootleg signal today (which I pseudo understand) I was stunned to see Sevilla playing a 4-2-3-1 for what would be the first time in forever. The formation looked like this

—-Kanouté—-
—–Jesus Navas–Renato—De Mul—-
———–Poulson—-Keita——–
Adriano—Drago—Mosquera–Dani Alves

First thing that jumps out is Holy shit, it’s a different formation. I personally like this formation as Kanouté can keep the back four busy while Jesus Navas and De Mul can make runs upfront while Renato can drop back behind Kanouté and look for balls near the top of the box (aka his second goal). This also leaves Poulson and Keita to control the middle and limits the counterattacks and the spacing that can happen when Sevilla start to all out attack. Also Jesus Navas switched to the left which put Tom De Mul on the right with Dani Alves, giving the Dutch player a bit of support behind him.

The first half was completely dominated by Sevilla. They had plenty of opportunity, with Kanouté uncharacteristically missing on a few, especially a nicely given ball by Jesus Navas that Kanouté volleyed wide. On 24 minutes, Dani Alves whipped in a corner kick that was headed on goal brilliantly by Poulson and parried away by Zapata. The ball found Renato who calmly slotted it into an open net while the defender marking him simply stood still. The reaction by Zapata was one of sheer amazement as how the defender could have simply let his mark go. Sevilla continued to dominate until the end of the first half when I had to go to class (booooooooooooooo) I seriously contemplated not going to class, but I figuered now in a ph.d program, I kind of have an obligation.

The second half was more of the same for Sevilla. Steaua’s chance came as the referee called a Steaua player offsides after beating Palop. Upon seeing the replay he looked onsides to me, but of course I’m not complaining. According to the recaps that I have read, the ref also missed a clear handball in the box against Steaua, but thats an aside. Renato’s second goal came on a header that was served up superbly by Jesus Navas.

According to all reports, Sevilla were clearly the better team. Tom de Mul had a solid game, but he will need to play to gain some confidence wearing a Sevilla shirt.

Sevillista del Día

Clearly my SdD today was Renato. He takes to that withdrawn striker/center midfielder position so well, and with Keita and Poulson playing proper midfield roles, Renato is free to roam around and create. Renato can score goals, and even though I’m sure Luis Fabiano will be a bit disappointed that he is sitting the bench, maybe this new formation is the way to go. With Renato creating and scoring like this, I’m sold.

Here are the highlights.

Champions League (H): Steaua – Sevilla 07/11/07
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