Navas set the tone for the game in the first minute when he struck a volley beating Fabricio. On the 23rd minute Luis Fabiano added to the Galician’s pain as he capitalized off a defensive error, stole the ball, walked it around Fabricio, and slotted it in with ease. O Fabuloso put the first nail in the coffin on the 40th minute when the two Depor defenders crashed into each other and Fabiano was there to chip it over Fabricio, the game was over before we even reached half time.

It was definitely an encouraging display of football as everyone was getting some touches in and Depor didn’t really have any promising opportunities. Once again Jesús Navas was controlling the left flank and causing havoc every time he touched the ball, and with Capel doing the exact same on the left side, Depor didn’t know what to do. Fabiano and Kanouté were in sync and always a threat to the Depor defense, Romaric and Duscher plugged up the midfield so they couldn’t attack through there and when they finally managed to penetrate that, Crespo, Escudé, Squillaci, and Fernando Navarro played solid along the back line. A all round solid performance by my boys tonight.

On the 68th minute Omar Bravo went in studs up on Romaric which meant he was ejected with a straight red. There was no end to Depor’s troubles tonight, BELIEVE ME!!

In the 75th minute came my highlight of the match. My boy Chevantón was finally back from his knee injury that has kept him sidelined since October. If you’ve read my blog since I started you’d know that I absolutely love Cheva and think he’s the best supersub since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. His return will hopefully spark some more goals to come in the future, but for now it was for something else.

Palop got a straight red on the 82nd minute for tripping up the Depor striker and was given a straight red. Since all three substitutions had already been made by Manolo Jiménez it meant that a player on the field would have to play in goal for the remaining 8 minutes plus added time and also for the penalty. Chevantón stepped up and volunteered to play in goal knowing that he would first have to face a penalty shot. Up stepped Pablo Álvarez and tried to place the goal in the bottom left corner but struck the post and then went out for a goal kick. What a series of events in the final minutes, probably the most exciting game this whole season.

The boys ended the game in style just killing time and passing the ball around. Will Depor just go away now? I’m sick of writing about them and seeing them, we’ve beat you three times, we’ve finished our business with you. We now move on to the quarter finals of the Copa del Rey but are not sure who we will face yet. Whoever it is, they better watch out, because with the way they’re playing, I can’t off the top of my head think of a team that can stop us.

With 3 victories in less than a week surely our confidence must be sky rocketing by now right? We now travel back to Nervión to take on strugglers Numancia in a game that means a lot. We must build off our win last weekend to Depor and try and get our league campaign back on track and running. Barça may be out of sight but I’d consider it a great insult if Real Mierda finished ahead of us, they’ve been awful this year.

There’s some big news going on in Nervión, I meant to actually post it yesterday but I ended up doing the review for the game instead. Look out for tomorrow’s entry!!!

¡¡VAMOS MI SEVILLA
VAMOS CAMPEÓN!!

It’s at times like these that I feel such pride. I support Sevilla, the same team that got relegated not too long ago, got promoted again and dominated Europe for a couple years – all of this without crazy investment and limited transfer funds! I don’t care how much you hate us, anyone with common sense will admire our achievements from both a footballing perspective and even from the point where we proved that success is obtainable without money.

I mean just look at Man City (Shitty?) they’re probably one of the richest clubs in Europe right now, or at least have the highest investment but recently were knocked out by Nottingham Forest (Championship side – equivalent to the Spanish Segunda) in the FA Cup and sit in a highly respectable 13th place in the Premier League. It’s true, money can’t buy you happiness now can it? Think Robinho is regretting his move? He might not come out and say it, but I wouldn’t doubt it.

Glory hunters never seem to amaze me. I bet 99% of foreign Manchester United fans can’t even find Manchester on a map. Same goes for Liverpool, Chelsea, Milan and Madrid. It’s not ruining the game directly, but there are very few true fans anymore.

Once again, the pride in being a Sevillista, that small club from the south of Spain who was relegated not too long ago, fought their way back into the top flight and winning those 5 trophies just felt even sweeter. I mean if you’re winning a trophy everyday, the euphoria is lost, as in the case of some of Europe’s top clubs, it’s probably not appreciated as much as it could be, but when we won I can’t even begin to describe the feeling.

Anyway, in case you’re wondering, yes, this does have a lot to do with the transfer window. Money is ruining the beautiful game, everyone knows this. The youth academies of the smaller teams are virtually useless because the big rich clubs are just going to come and submit an irresistible offer for the young up and coming stars anyway.

At Sevilla we have probably the best sporting director in all of Europe, Monchi. He has found some of the now, biggest stars in Europe who were just average kids at one time. The likes of Dani Alves who started at local Brasilian club Bahia and was scouted when he was just seen as an average right back, Fredi Kanoute, the big Tottenham Hotspur flop who came to Nervion and was putting in goals left right and centre, and of course Luis Fabiano who played for Porto and were more than happy to let him go. These three once average players have all come to Sevilla and been more than successful, they were given the time and proper environment to develop. This however is all in vain if one of the bigger clubs in Europe come calling like we saw with Alves and Barcelona. We simple couldn’t resist the 22 million Euro transfer fee that Barca offered. Same deal with Poulsen and Juventus and the 15 million Euros they gave us.

Sure, these two transfers plus the Keita one have made us an extremely rich club over the past year, and allowed us to start a development project on our stadium upgrading the capacity and making it one of the best stadiums in all of Europe but still it doesn’t take away from the fact that we developed these players into the superstars they are but the temptation of money makes it hard for us to do anything. The prestige of playing for a “big club” outweighs playing for the club that made you who you are. It’s ridiculous.

The transfer window may have just opened but already Man Shitty have splashed their cash (12 million pounds) to be exact, on Wayne Bridge, a left back who has always played second fiddle to Ashley Cole. There have been rumours of both Chelsea and Inter Milan being interested in Luis Fabiano, and Kanoute. We now know that Scolari will not be given any funds at Chelsea to buy during this window but we all know that if they really wanted something, they could get it, no problem. Same goes for Inter, probably the best team in Italy right now, they have the money and prestige of a “big club” so when they come calling, it’s hard to say no.

What’s the point of Monchi and our board finding these stars if they’re just going to get bought a couple years later when they’re in their prime? It really defeats the purpose of the transfer window and for the smaller to mid sized teams to progress is made more difficult.

Think about it. We’re a team that is not big by any means, we’ve been successful over the past 5 years or so and we are constantly fighting for the Champions League spots in the league but by no means rich. How can we expect to develop and keep challenging for these places if all our stars are being lured by the more prestigious clubs? How can we even buy other stars if they are being pursued by other top clubs? Who would a player rather choose, Sevilla or AC Milan? I hate this and its slightly degrading to my own team but this is what football has come to, it’s sad.

I often think to myself just how long it will be before Navas and Capel are tapped up by some other European powerhouse… Just look what happened to Sergio Ramos, Julio Baptista, and Jose Antonio Reyes, all moved on to Real, with only one of them eventually succeeding. I’m sure if Puerta was still alive, he’d be one of the most sought after left backs in Europe, the boy was pure class. Our youth system has produced all these great players and only Navas is still with the club. David Prieto is a promising centre back, what if he becomes a world beater? Guess he’s not staying at Sevilla either.

The transfer window was introduced in attempts for clubs to strengthen their squad before the second half of the season, but it has now turned out that it is more of the same. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. How many times have we seen this throughout history? Now it’s happening in football.

A game where you totally outplay a much weaker opponent but have nothing to show for is an extremely frustrating day indeed. We found this out first hand today when we took on Osasuna at home, completely dominated, pulled ahead by a goal, only to concede last minute and have nothing to show for it.

Luis Fabiano was included in the squad but was a substitute due to the flu and its times like these that I miss him most…

The game got off to a somewhat slow start with a lot of scrappy play and neither team really enjoyed good possession. We didn’t go without some amazing chances though as Navas tested the Osasuna defense with one of his ever-teasing crosses which found the head of Kanoute, who headed it just wide. Totally unlike him really, I’ve never seem him miss from that close, pretty ridiculous considering it would have given us the initiative to grab the game by the scruff of its neck and possibly go on and put in a couple more before the half. Shortly after, Romaric hit a left footed missile towards goal which just flashed wide, it could have possibly beaten the keeper, but either way, it was good to keep the pressure on. A few minutes after that Kanoute was brought down in the box in what appeared to be an obvious foul but nothing doing said the ref as play was waved on. If you look at the replay closely it does appear as it was an obvious foul seeing as the Osasuna player went right through him and tripped him before he could receive the foul. I know La Liga reffing is garbage and that is why I’m never shocked with these kind of calls anymore.

We went into half time with the momentum in our favour when we got out back on the pitch it showed. We started to play like Sevilla again. The style of football that we were known for, moving the ball up the wings and crossing it into Kanoute or Renato, totally catching the Osasuna defense off guard every time. Finally a breakthrough. A cross came in from the left wing, Renato being too short missed the header, but it was perfect as Navas darted in, controlled, and bang, golazzo. A perfect low shot in the bottom left corner out of the reach of Roberto. Navas was playing well all game and it was good to see him get the breakthrough goal; thoroughly deserved. A few minutes later Navas had another attempt but it was no where near as good or accurate as the first one, way over the net it flew.

A bit of controversy after this as Adriano was subbed out and obviously pissed off about it. As he headed for the sidelines where Capel was ready to enter, Romaric tried to console him and shake his hand but was just brushed off, the same when he got to the bench, the Sevilla staff tried but were brushed off. In my opinion it’s a fair reaction, getting subbed out in the 63rd minute after being one of the biggest threats on the pitch is aggravating and unjust. I really hope this won’t affect his position in the starting lineup or anything like that because he’s been probably our most consistent performer all season.

After the introduction of Capel, things started to slow down. We were taking our time on the ball, and despite passing it around with the utmost confidence, we were also allowing the pressure to mount on ourselves. Fazio was later introduced for Duscher who had a solid game in the defensive midfield slot and Crespo for Drago allowing Navarro to go back to his favoured left back position. With all these unnecessary substitutes we turned into a more defensive side and the pressure was mounting more and more as the last 15 minutes or so ticked on.

Osasuna almost scored through a play where our defense seemed to be half asleep. Navas seized control of the game though and immediately on the counter attack almost scored only to be a bit off balance and hit it straight at Roberto.

From heroes to zeroes it was as Osasuna snatched a goal in the 91st minute. A ball that seemed to be harmless flew in, the original shot was shanked well wide, but Pandiani was sitting sweetly behind our once again, fast asleep defense for the perfect deflection.

Some last minute drama though as we won a corner at the other end. Navas put in another perfect cross, Squillaci flicked it on nicely with a back heel, Kanoute came in, toe punted it, the keeper got the slightest of touches and it just about hit the inside of the crossbar to stay out. Extremely unlucky, yes I know.

My verdict on this match is simple. We suck. 2 points from 2 matches against the 2 bottom teams. Those right there are not statistics good enough for a team that wants to not only qualify for the Champions League, but do well in it too. These are supposed to be the matches where we try to make up ground on Barca, not lose any more. We only have ourselves to blame, we didn’t take the opportunities in the match when they arrived and because of it we get screwed with a last minute goal and we’re sitting in fourth place.

From here we play Depor at home on Thursday in the Copa del Rey in another must win match. I can’t emphasize the importance on this match to get us back to our winning ways. Depor is going to be one hell of a tricky match though as they’ve been on amazing form of late. Like Fabiano said earlier this week “Sevilla need to be Sevilla in order to win”, if we can play like I know we can, no doubt, we’ll win.

I wish these fixtures were as easy as they seem but unfortunately they aren’t. Osasuna won their game against Getafe last week in an emphatic 5-2 display. Our peformance however, not so emphatic, a 0-0 draw with struggling Mallorca is definitely something we might look back on and regret. We’re way better than that, taking nothing away from Mallorca or anything but we deserved better. We can’t afford to drop points against any of the “lower” teams if we want to keep pace with this year’s phenomenal Barcelona side.

Fabiano said it best when interviewed about tomorrow’s game. “We have an important game coming up which we should win. With respect to Osasuna, Sevilla has to be Sevilla.” I couldn’t agree more, and this is why we have lost stupidly this year and its becoming a huge concern. We have to play the style that we’re good at and comfortable with. So many times this season we’ve tried to go up the middle or put in a bunch of long high balls. That isn’t us, we play our best football down the wings utilizing Navas, Capel or Adriano and then putting in the crosses for Kanoute and Fabiano to poach upon. It’s been clear a few times this year that our strikers, especially Kanoute, have become very frustrated with their lack of opportunities, but in all honesty it’s not their fault, our midfield has been really hit or miss this season so far. We need to play simple football, the same style that won us 5 trophies in 15 months and impressed Europe and the world. Simplicity is beautiful, let’s keep it that way.

Let’s be honest here, I hate to be cocky or arrogant but we are a much better side than Osasuna is. It’s actually quite funny because it seems like just yesterday that I was watching a Sevilla v Osasuna semi-finals in the UEFA Cup semi-finals to see who would progress to the finals. I remember it being a hard match, and although we won it was no walk in the park. We have developed quite the rivalry ever since. They had a really strong team that year and since I don’t follow them I don’t understand how they have become so bad. Have they lost a bunch of key players I don’t know about? I know they did have Carlos Vela at one time, but he’s really young so surely he couldn’t have made that much of a difference. Anyhow, it doesn’t really matter, anything less than a win tomorrow isn’t acceptable, we need to take advantage of these struggling teams.

This match became more important today when Valencia handed Atletico a 3-1 defeat. This puts Valencia in second with 33 points but us in third with 31 points and hopefully with a victory tomorrow we’ll be back in second where we belong.

Some bad news however as Luis Fabiano is a doubt to play tomorrow as he has a cold which seems to be quite contagious around the football world recently. He is included in the squad but will not start. Also, Mosquera is out as well with an ankle injury that he picked up against Espanyol several weeks back. The pain has re-occurred and he will sit out one more week to hopefully be ready for the next match.

The players called up for tomorrow’s match by Jimenez are; Palop, Javi Varas, Crespo, Escudé, Squillaci, Fernando Navarro, David Prieto, Dragutinovic, Duscher, Romaric, Maresca, Renato, Jesus Navas, Capel, Fazio, Adriano, De Mul, Luis Fabiano and Kanoute.

If you’re watching the game tomorrow look out for the sea of red and white flags in the crowd as President José María del Nido requested we bring in the new year with the ever-strong support we’re known for.

A match report will follow tomorrow’s game. Hopefully it’ll be all good news for us Sevillistas.

Luckily Villareal and Atlético drew as well as Valencia and Recreativo which helped keep the top of the table close and leave us only 3 points behind Valencia for that coveted first place in La Liga. Of course it is still early and there is a lot of time for us to win the league but I believe we must stay focused and not lose to these “smaller” teams anymore if we want to think of achieving such things. Sure it’s fútbol and these things happen, but now we must get back to the hard work we have been doing in the past few weeks and focus on not only the league but also the UEFA Cup and Copa del Rey competitions.

No point on reminiscing about lost opportunities but rather to look forward to our first round Copa del Rey encounter against SD Ponferradina on Wednesday and even though it is away I really don’t see them causing us any trouble or problems. Also some other good news as both Diego Capel and Ivica Dragutinović have now returned to full training and should be fit by next weekend or so.

Anyway, to the match, Kanouté (who had a stand out performance) scored twice, on the 37th and 67th minute to put the game way out of reach, and easily push us into the next round. Some other notable standout performers were Adriano who controlled the left wing for the absent Diego Capel, and Duscher who was a rock in the midfield.

So we’ll end it like this… Attention everyone, Attention! The Kings of Europe are back, please feel free to try and stop them… if you can that is…

By the 20 minute mark Mate Bilic had scored 2 goals to put Sporting up 2-0, at this point i really did feel like it was over, especially considering how easily Bilic and Castro were walking through our defence. But 2 minutes later Chevanton (yes Cheva!!) put his head on a Navas cross and pulled us back into the game. In the 36th minute, the Sporting defence gave up a throw, only to be caught lazily half way up field, leaving Maresca flying down the wing to catch up to Capel’s through and easily put it across goal for Kanoute to tap in. As if this wasn’t enough excitement, right after the kick off Kanoute became proviver as he stole the ball from Sporting, passed it off to Maresca, and BOOM, left foot, bottom right corner out of the keepers reach. Just as we thought the momentum was flowing our way, Squillaci fouled Mate Bilic in the box to give up a penalty (yes, 2 penalties in as many games…). Bilic converted a beautiful shot and they went into the half tied at 3.

At the half Fabiano came on for Chevanton, and Romaric for the shaky David Prieto, and pushing Fazio back to centre-back. Fabiano had an instant impact as in the 60th minute, he gave Romaric a neat little back-heel, and Romaric hit a bullet only for the keeper to fumble, and who else but Kanoute to be there to tap the ball into the net and put us up once again, 4-3.

This time however, unlike the last time we were up, would stay this way, and the game did end as a 4-3 victory for Sevilla.

We now sit fourth in the table, behind Espanyol, the only team with 6 points, and Valencia, as well as Almeria, who both have 4 points.

Sevilla will now face RB Salzburg in our first UEFA Cup match on Thursday, and then El Derbi against Betis takes place on Sunday.

Don’t forget to check my Youtube Page for the latest Sevilla season highlights.

VAMOS CAMPEÓN!!!

Sevilla had a strange starting 11, with Tom De Mul getting the start on the right side in favor of Poulson, who ended up being subbed into the game in the second half. Adriano also started at Left Back, with Julien Escudé injured.

An old friend stepped up in this must win for the Sevillistas. The Brazilian Luis Fabiano stepped up and netted both goals in the first 15 minutes of the match. The first was on a quick turn about 10 yards out that megged the defender and rolled into the side netting. Storari was a bit out of position on the goal, but it was still a good build-up from Sevilla and Luis Fabiano finished. Interestingly enough Luis Fabiano has only played in two games in La Liga this season, but in 12 other games in the various competitions. He still thinks he is not at the top of his game but says that he is trying hard to get to the Luis Fabiano that played in Brazil.

The second goal was a converted penalty thanks to a Levante handball in the box. Luis Fabiano stepped up and slotted it calmly into the left side of the net, while Storari dove to the right.

The rest of the encounter saw Sevilla taking it to Levante. Koné missed a golden opportunity in the second half and was denied by Storari. A few more chances for Sevilla saw the ball sail high out of play.

I have no explination for why Capel didn’t play and why Tom De Mul got the start. As I type this, I found a quick bit on Tom De Mul in Marca saying that the transition for him to Spain is what’s keeping him out of the line-up. He title says ‘I can give it my all’ Also, he’s got a bit of a language barrier, which can’t help much. From all accounts, he played well. I haven’t seen him yet so my mind is not made up until I see him myself.

The home fans were less than pleased with Levante’s play and with the current troubles at the club, the cries of ‘Fuera! Fuera!’ went up through the crowd as the game ended. Levante have some serious work to do. You cannot only score 3 goals in the entire season and expect to win. Especially now when the season is in it’s 9th week. That is simply insane.

Next up is Steaua Bucarest on Tuesday in the Champions League. More on that to come tonight.