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.

Luis Fabiano Blows Up, Calms Down

The new talk on the block is about the whole Luis Fabiano blowup on Sunday. For those of you who didn’t hear, Luis Fabiano was none to happy about being subbed off at halftime in the win against Mallorca. Fabiano said after the match that he would rather sit on the bench then be subbed off during the game.

Well, needless to say that didn’t sit well with most of the sevillistas, especially Kanouté who came out against Fabiano saying he would need to get used to it if this happened.

Today, on El DesMarque, Renato spoke for the entire team, saying ‘Luis talked with us and to the coach and everything is fixed.’

In AS today, in a article entitled ‘Jimenez and Luis Fabiano, obligated to make up’ LuFa was quoted as saying ‘Everything is fixed. There’s nothing more to talk about.’

This isn’t the first time LuFa has spoken out against Sevilla ‘misters’. He gave Juande Ramos some stick when he sat the bench a few games during his reign in Sevilla. But, it always ended with a sit down, and an a-ok.

I for one am glad this didn’t escalate AND that it’s apparently all water under the bridge.

Argentinian Sevillistas Arrive in Sevilla

In case you didn’t know (and I’m sure most don’t) Sevilla have a school in Argentina, called ‘la Escuela de Fútbol Tucumán Ramón Rodríguez Monchi’ (named after my FAVORITE Sevillista, Monchi).

3 months ago, 2 players from Tucuman were chosen to come to Sevilla and have their chance with the club, see the city, meet the players, and take it all in (even La Feria).

(Here’s a picture of the che’s upon their arrival in Sevilla.

Injury Updates

Renato will make his return to the squad this weekend against Almeria after being out with a strained calf muscle.

Escude will still be out against Almeria with a variety of injuries

Dragois out as well with still problems with his right leg (at least from what I can remember)

Kanouté is banged up after last weekend’s game, but will be back.

Chevantón is still out after having surgery on his left knee over a month ago.

That’s all for now Sevillistas, I’ll see you on Thursday with some new information.

PS Diego Capel is NOT going to Real Madrid, in case you all were wondering! =)

Convocatoria

Palop, De Sanctis, Boulahrouz, Daniel, Drago, Lolo, Mosquera, Hinkel, Martí, Renato, Poulsen, Keita, De Mul, Diego Capel, Jesús Navas, Adriano, Luis Fabiano, Kanouté y Koné.

Again Manuel Jiménez brings up another player from Sevilla Atlético, this time Lolo, a 20 year old defender who is the captain of the Segunda B team.

Injury Ward

Javi Navarro, Escudé, Maresca, Duda, Crespo, Fazio, Maresca and Boulahrouz.

Boulahrouz was left off the team today as Sevilla departed for Romania due to a injury to his abductor muscle. Crespo will be out a month thanks to Diarra’s shot that fractured his Right cheekbone. Fazio will only be out for a short while as there was no tear in his abductor muscle.

Sevilla have been playing well as of late after what some people thought would be a lull with the departure of Juande. I for one did not want to see Juande go, but now that there is no sense of the unknown at the club at the hands of Manuel Jiménez, Sevilla are playing with renewed vigor and charisma. That Real Madrid game was the best game they have played all season and I look for them to carry that on through Romania and into the next round of La Liga play.

Also, Drago resigned with the club until 2011 on Monday. His quote to Sevilla Radio said

“si me hubiera ido al Newcastle hubiera ganado muchísimo más dinero que aquí. No firmo por Newcastle porque es difícil ganar algo, sé que no voy a jugar ni la Champions ni voy a levantar un título. En el Sevilla siempre hay ambición, siempre hay ganas de ganar, por eso me quedo aquí, con mi familia, con la mejor afición del mundo, con mis compañeros y con este club ambicioso”.

Basically he said he could have made a lot more money going to Newcastle, but he stayed in Sevilla because there are always trying to win, amongst the fact that they have the best fan base in the world. Of course we do, we are Sevilla.

Two more things to add into the post one is this great picture I made for the Sevilla group (Sorry Corey)

And in case anyone was wondering, Buffalo is getting it’s first lake effect storm of the season.

Here’s to more days like this.