How can you not be excited when your club signs one of the most sought after players in the market? Well needless to say then that I’m absolutely enthused with Monchi’s latest steal of Negredo from the big spending mierda.

The fee was undisclosed by the club meaning it couldn’t have been a hell of a lot otherwise it would have had to be disclosed and placed on the stock market. The estimated fee is believed to be about €12 million or so and rising to €15 million depending on performances and all that junk. Of course the mierda like they always do have added a buy back clause in the deal and it really wouldn’t surprise me if they take him back next season when Van Nistelrooy’s contract expires.

This is all a bit of a shock to me as I really never imagined we had the funds to prize Negredo to Andalucía but when Fred committed himself to Fluminense earlier this week, Monchi put his money where Del Nido’s mouth is and signed probably the best available striker on the market in Negredo.

Alvaro Negredo is a proven La Liga goal scorer netting 19 goals last campaign for our fellow Andalucíans, Almería and 13 the previous campaign; he was the second highest goal scoring Spaniard last year after David Villa.

The addition of Negredo now means we have 5 strikers either signaling the departure of one or very limited playing time at best. Kanouté and Luis Fabiano are the obvious starting pair with Negredo obviously having one foot in the door to break the partnership but we can’t forget about both Koné and Chevantón who have played well (as usual) in the pre-season thus far.

In my opinion we don’t need to get rid of any strikers. Sure Chevantón will probably get the shit end of the stick and get the limited playing time but remember that both Kanouté and Koné will be gone for possibly a few weeks due to the African Cup of Nations and Chevantón and Fabiano both have a history of injuries. Last season we clearly saw that at one point, all four of our strikers were injured causing Renato and Acosta to start up front for a game of two which wasn’t effective to say the least.

With a massive signing like this one, Del Nido, Monchi and Jiménez are signaling our intent for the upcoming season where we prepare for our return to the Champions League and for a La Liga campaign which will be one to remember. We’re no where near the level of Real Madrid and definitely not even close to Barcelona who are far superior to the mierda but we’re close behind. We’re definitely the team this season not to be taken lightly.

The squad now has a total of 25 players which is way too many so there will be no more signings, thats for sure. Monchi has completed another very successful transfer window by signing Didier Zokora to strengthen our midfield which was much needed, Sergio Sánchez to solidify the right back position which we lacked since Alves’ departure and now Negredo to give us the extra fire power up front.

The squad is looking good, very good indeed.

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Today Enzo sat down in a press conference held in Sevilla where he said his final goodbye’s to the fans, the club, and the city. Of course he came in dressed stylishly like a typical Italian and explained that he renewed his contract at the beginning of the year because the way things were going he planned to retire in Sevilla. Of course we know that since his public critique of Manolo Jiménez things have been a bit more difficult for Maresca and he has struggled to see much playing time.

Personally I wish Enzo Maresca all the best in Greece and will never forget the numerous times he has captained this beloved club as well as the unforgettable 2 goals he scored against Middlesboro in the UEFA Cup final way back in 2006 where we cruised to a 4-0 victory. I will also never forget the penalty he smashed in to top off our 3-0 thumping of Barcelona in Monaco to win the UEFA European Supercopa (I’m sure all Barça fans remember this quite well too!).

¡Nos Vemos Maresca!

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I never watch Spanish news, they’re as pro-Barça and pro-Real as American news is with the Yankees or Red Sox. It’s the same thing over and over so why bother right? Barça did this and Real did that, blah, blah, blah.

Earlier today I headed down to my grandmother’s apartment located a quiet neighborhood in downtown Toronto. When I was there she gave me food (typical Spanish!) and we sat down and just talked about how she’s been and her upcoming trip to Spain. As she left the living room to go get some more wine I turned on her TV and since she has Spanish satellite I was browsing through some of the channels that we don’t usually get here on regular cable. I saw the football news on Antena 3 and decided to just watch the highlights from this past weekend’s La Liga round-up.

Now as I stated before, the Spanish media is probably one of the most biased in the world of sports, especially when it comes to Real Madrid and Barcelona, the two jewels in the crown that is La Liga.

After all the highlights I was listening to them analyze the Jornada (round) and the whole title race in general. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Spanish television, Antena 3 is based out of Madrid, and I’m sure you know where I’m going with this…

The two men who were doing the news basically stated that 6 points is a very small margin and Real has a good a chance as any to catch Barça who has hit a few bumps in the past month or so. This is a very true statement and a couple slip ups could see Real take the title for a record 32nd time but this isn’t the statement I had a problem with. They said it was a “2 horse race” and that us (Sevilla), Villarreal, Atlético, Málaga, Valencia and Deportivo are all in the race for “the final two Champions League spots”.

This is where I’m confused. Apparently we have no chance to win the title because we’re 9 points behind Real which is a significant enough margin to be considered as “not in the race” but then Villarreal is 9 points behind us so surely what these two clowns on Antena 3 should be saying is this:

While Barcelona is leading the league, Real Madrid has a good a chance as any to catch them and win the title. Sevilla is cemented in the third Champions League spot and Villarreal will be looking to hold off competition from Atlético, Málaga, Valencia and Deportivo la Coruña to hold down the final spot.

I mean technically if 9 points is too wide a gap for us to be considered in the title race (which I do agree with, I understand that point) then surely it’s also too much for any other team to overtake us in third. If not well then okay look at it this way. We’re still in the title race bitches. Nine points is nothing? Okay, we close the nine point margin on Real and we’re tied for second spot now. Now since we’re tied for that second spot that automatically means we’re in the title race too does it not?

Am I really blowing this way out of proportion? Probably. Even though I’m more than used to this ridiculous bias, it’s still highly entertaining to see how these idiots think.

I love you Sevilla, I love you.

Last time we played Recreativo we were in a bit of a slump but fortunately for us we came away with an unconvincing 1-0 victory. The scorer was none other than Kanouté himself, the man who is going to be in Nervión for the next 3 years and look to take us beyond expectations as well as establish ourselves as one of Europe’s elite teams.

This weekend traveling to Huelva won’t be easy seeing as both teams have something to prove and of course it is an Andalucían derby. Recre sits in 17th place, just one spot out of the dreaded drop zone and we sit in 3rd on 54 points, 6 ahead of 4th place Villarreal and 11 ahead of 5th place Atlético.

Things have been good in the Andalucían capital of late as we’re sitting in 3rd place pretty comfortably with no other competitions to bother us and therefore meaning we can solely focus on La Liga. The only thing bothering me personally is Jiménez’ name flying around in the papers like he is some kind of criminal who needs to be removed from Nervión. The man started the season solid, hit a huge bump but has put us back on track and if anything exceeded expectation in the league. Sure it probably doesn’t excuse him from our disastrous exits from both the Copa del Rey and the UEFA Cup but we can’t go around like the Mierda and sacking our managers left, right and centre. Just this past week Marseille coach Eric Gerets has been linked to us and also the recently successful Turkish national team manager Fatih Terim also rumoured to be interested in the Sevilla job.

Jiménez may have had his troubles this year but he has done more than steady the ship, he has made us a La Liga wrecking crew and it looks clear that if hadn’t had so many injuries this season we would have found some consistency.

Kanouté and Luis Fabiano have been in stunning form of late but the Brasilian International was injured while on duty and will be out pending assessment of his minor knock he picked up. Sevilla Atlético star José Carlos has been called up to the squad in place of O Fabuloso but it is the Ivorian International Koné who looks like he will be given the start alongside big Fredi. This is good for Arouna as he could get the chance to show Manolo he still has what it takes to play for the rojiblanco after coming back from that horrible injury.

I don’t see Recreativo as much of a threat to be honest and regardless of Fabiano being out for this tomorrow’s clash I still think we’ll walk out of Huelva with an easy three points. We will also have a chance to gain ground on that coveted second spot as Real play Málaga which is never an easy match.

The Mali international’s contract was due to expire at the end of next year and rumours were flying around the press over the past few weeks linking him to AC Milan or a move back to the Premier League. These rumours have now been put to rest with the big man committing his future to us in Sevilla.

Kanouté has been on stunning form over the past month and is our leading scorer this year with 15 goals in all competitions. The partnership he’s formed with Luis Fabiano over the past few years is mouth-watering and if LuFa wasn’t injured for most of this season both men probably would have had way more goals to their tally.

This is amazing news for all Sevillistas and shows the true passion and heart of a player to turn his back on the big money and fame to stay at a humble club which is slowly progressing towards becoming a European giant and where succeeding for him is an understatement.

Fredi follows in the footsteps of David Villa who signed a contract earlier this year with hugely disappointing Valencia. This man is truly a legend and we need more people like this in the game. This is what he had to say about his new deal.

“I have reached the peak of my career in Sevilla.”

“I am delighted to have signed a new contract with the club that has offered me so much.”

“Here I am loved by the fans and the people in the club, they show tremendous appreciation.”

“And now, I hope that I can continue to provide positive performances at the club and achieve goals.”

The deal will keep Kanouté in the Andalucían capital until he is 34 years young and if he can keep up his form of recent I have no doubts that he will succeed every minute while in Sevilla.

Luis Fabiano and Fredi Kanoute were paired back together yesterday and played the whole game for the first time over a month.

It seems like they showed the same form yesterday that they showed last year. We went down by two goals in the first half but our two star strikers levelled the score in the second half. From what I read it seems like we dominated the match and it would have been a deserved victory but considering Malaga’s recent form I’ll take the draw. Surely this come from behind victory will be a huge boost for the boys and despite not winning the match, we should definitely keep our heads held high when returning back to Sevilla.

With Villarreal’s loss to Atletico we now sit firmly in third place and in a good position to qualify for next year’s Champions League. We also now maintain our strong league form and have some very winnable games coming up in the following weeks which doesn’t mean anything considering how erratic we’ve been all year but it looks like the team is finally coming together nicely. I can definitely see us closing in on second place and with a bit of luck and determination I think we can definitely be there.

I’ll be in the Dominican until early Saturday so if I have time to do a preview for next week I definitely will but if not I apologize. I will though of course have a review of next week’s match as I’ll be home to see it.

The controversy worked in our favour and considering the number of times we’ve got screwed over this year it’s about time too.

Two controversial goals from Kanouté and Renato were enough to seal the deal in this smaller Andalucían derby and keep our recent league reformation up and running in full force.

The match started fast paced and it looked as if we had shaken off our embarrassing Copa exit because we were knocking the ball around as good as ever. It wasn’t long before we were rewarded as on the 5th minute, Romaric put in a perfectly weighted cross to our big man Kanouté who, like he always does, controlled with the greatest of ease and placed it with his left boot past a out of position Diego Alves.

This goal didn’t go without controversy though as after looking at the replay there was a question of handball used to control the cross, luckily enough for us it wasn’t called.

After taking the lead we did slow down on the offensive but still Almería failed to produce anything due to the fact that they could barely get out of their own half.

Suddenly something seemed to click though as on the 20th minute Jesús Navas lead a break in which he ended up receiving the final pass only to pre-maturely drive a low shot into the sprawling arms of Alves. Seconds later Konko pushed up from right-back and received a perfect through ball from Romaric but was incorrectly judged offside as he smashed his shot over the goal.

Before the half we almost doubled our lead as youngster Diego Perotti who was a constant threat all match put in a cross on which Navas got his head to but Alves just about saved, the ball was put back into the box by Jesús but despite Renato being piledriven to the ground no penalty was given, only a corner once the ball was put out.

The half ended with us dominating and the score line not correctly showing just how much. After the break we didn’t stop either as Argentine sensation Perotti smashed a shot at Alves which the Brazilian had to quickly deal with and did so by pushing wide. A minute later the kid also put in a perfect cross but no one was there to be on the receiving end so the score line stayed at 1-0.

Almería did finally get a chance though as Konko got caught out by a quick, little Crusat who crossed to find the head of Negredo but the Spanish youth international headed embarrassingly across the goal.

This night was only about Sevilla though and Navas lead another break in which he crossed another perfect ball only for Alves to punch out and Renato who was on the receiving end missed probably the easiest chance of his life when he hit the ensuing shot over the bar.

Jesús Navas by his standards did not have a very productive night and was substituted by Jiménez for Diego Capel. The Almería born winger made an instant impact as he lead a break in which he passed off to Kanouté who appeared to be in an offside position but his touch off to Renato was received rather awkwardly by the Brazilian who appeared to fall on top of the ball but at the same time he looped it over Alves. Not the prettiest of goals but I’ll take it.

Not all was good for us though as only a few minutes after scoring, Renato decides to go to ground but he wasn’t diving, or at least not for a foul, he decided to sweep away the legs of Almería striker Pablo Piatti inside our 18 which gave our fellow Andalucíans a penalty. On the ensuing kick Negredo made no mistake as he coolly placed it in the top left corner of Palop’s goal.

Brazilian duo Luis Fabiano and Adriano had a million and one chances within the last ten minutes to put this game totally out of reach but failed with shots either right at Alves or over the goal.

Luckily enough for us Almería failed to create any other chances and the score line stood at 2-1 when the final whistle blew.

Top/Flop of the Night
There were many tops and flops on the night but we’ll narrow it down to a man under each category.

The top player of the night was easily Diego Perotti who was a constant threat all game, the kid impressed the hell out of me and I knew he was good but damn, he’s got some serious talent. I can’t wait to see more of this kid in the future and it’s going to be interesting to see what role he plays in our talented squad.

Despite his goal, Renato was easily the biggest flop of the night for me as the Brazilian’s setpieces were poor, he missed chance after chance, and is just a huge weak link in the team. I would like to see Romaric and Duscher in the middle with Acosta and Kanouté up top until Fabiano is back at full fitness. He also gave away a needless penalty which ruined what looked to be a clean sheet.

This victory was our fourth consecutive in league play and it now further cements us in that third Champions League spot and with Real Madrid’s draw with Atléti we now are only 7 points behind the defending Liga champions and 5 points ahead of fourth place Villarreal.

Other News
Apparently according to Spanish “newspaper” Marca and Portuguese media source “A BOLA” we’re interested in Sporting Lisbon’s Liedson. The Brazilian striker was actually close to joining us in Andalucía in the summer but he had a knee problem and we didn’t want him to be joining half our team on the treatment table. He’s made a strong comeback though and hasn’t had any injuries since, also scoring a total of 9 goals in the Liga Portuguesa which ranks him second from the top amongst all goal scorers. Not an impressive tally by any means but we could definitely use some new flare up front seeing as Chevantón was pronounced out for 5 months earlier this week. Not sure how I feel about this one, I don’t think I want him really, I’d rather see Pukki break through and Acosta flourish rather than buy. We have such talented youth, just look at Perotti. Not to mention the Brazilian is 31 years of age and realistically probably doesn’t have a lot of time left in his career.

Staying in Portugal, former Valencia coach and now Benfica manager, Quique Sanchez Flores has come out openly and said he is sick of all the rumours linking him here to Nervión. He said those negotiations are a thing of the past and all he wants to do now is concentrate on things with Benfica where he is perfectly happy. I know we have been linked to him before but if it is true that Jiménez does go come summer I’d much rather see us nick Michael Laudrup from Spartak Moscow who is an extremely offensive minded coach and as a result his teams play some beautiful football.

I’ve learned to look on the upside of things and from now on I think I’m only going to write solely optimistic posts. I realized that whenever in depression just think “hey, at least we’re not Valencia“.

Our exit from the Copa del Rey obviously brought Manolo Jiménez’ critics back out and most reports signal that he will be headed for the exit door come summer. This game is one for Manolo to show he still has what it takes to lead us to the places we need to be and moreover show that he still has much to contribute to the club.

El Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán hasn’t been a kind place to us this season and although we proudly call it home, we’ve done better elsewhere. Tomorrow though regardless of what the statistics say we’re playing at home to a decent Almería side.

While we are trying to keep our eight point lead in the Champions League qualification places Almería have European aspirations of their own, sitting eight points behind a Europa League qualification spot. That being said places all the more emphasis on the importance of this match for both sides.

In the reverse fixture earlier this year we travelled to our fellow Andalucíans and left with the maximum points as Adriano grabbed the winning goal.

Today’s match like as most of this season, we will see many players out of the squad due to injuries. Our squad has been injury plagued all year and tomorrow, Fazio, David Prieto, Koné and Crespo are the ones who have fallen. Colombian International Aquivaldo Mosquera is suspended for the match which thins out our back line even more.

Some good news though as French Capped Julian Escudé is back from his back injury and Drago along with Maresca return to the squad. Luis Fabiano is included in the squad after playing comfortably for most of Wednesday’s Copa matchup and young Argentine Diego Perotti stays with the squad for the 7th game running.

Our Goal
Coming into this season, myself like many others didn’t really know what to expect of this Sevilla side. Being a force in pre-season and repeating that form in the league are two different stories so I tried not to get my hopes up. After two months of going undefeated in the league though I couldn’t help but feel the utmost optimism. It honestly looked as if we were never going to be defeated but then of course that dreadful night against Málaga changed everything.

Here we sit though on March 8th, 2009 having been knocked out of the UEFA Cup during the group stages ending our hopes of a third trophy in four years and then of course the Copa del Rey heartbreak suffered a mere few days ago at the hands of Athletic Bilbao causing us to be solely in the running for the league. Barça has been near unstoppable this season so winning the league is basically impossible.

It’s hard to find optimism out of all these things but “El Presidente” José Maria del Nido and Brazilian International sensation Luis Fabiano have set the record straight regarding our objectives for the rest of this year.

The President said this season is far from a failure and that our main objective at the beginning of the season was to qualify for the Champions League next year, something we are currently in a good position to do.

Luis on the other hand said that if Sevilla do not finish in third place the season will be an absolute “disaster”. He did then go on to say that he doesn’t see why we can’t because the quality is obviously there and that injuries have plagued our season so badly which resulted in a few bad games.

With Real’s draw against Atléti today and Villarreal’s win over Espanyol we now sit 10 points out of second and 2 points ahead of the Yellow Submarine in third place.

Tomorrow could very well signal where we’re headed for the rest of the season.

Vamos Campeón!!

Joaquín Caparros rested some of his key men with Fernando Llorente among others starting on the bench and Jiménez followed suit keeping Navas, Adriano and co. on the sidelines. The two managers both defended their decisions in regards to these players claiming that the Wednesday match when we face off again in the Copa del Rey is just as important as the league and actually holds more importance because it’s a great opportunity to win a piece of silverware this season. As a result of these changes young Sevilla Atlético star Diego Perotti started on the right flank, in for Jesús Navas and Fernando Navarro returned to the squad slotting in at his natural left back position. Also a change in the lineup as David Prieto was rested meaning Drago started alongside Squillaci at centre back.

There was so much emphasis on this match because not only had we won our two previous league matches and wanted to keep up the momentum in regards to our league play but also wanted to set the pace for the upcoming Copa match midweek, also being played in Sam Mamés.

That being said, we came out at the start of the match flying, saying we were absolutely dominant was an understatement. We won just about every 50/50 ball and were playing our hearts out for the first 20 minutes. On the 10 minute mark Perotti had an amazing chance when Romaric put in a perfectly weighted cross but the young Argentine headed wide. A few minutes later it was Perotti again who was a part of the action, putting a decent cross in the box from the right flank only or Capel to show us what we already knew – he can’t head a ball to save his life. We didn’t let this discourage us though as shortly after this, Capel was fouled on one of his ever-famous runs and Romaric curled his freekick just missing the top corner of the Athletic goal by mere millimeters.

This however is when we were absolutely shocked. The posession at this point was 70%-30% in our favour and the Basque side hadn’t even had a shot on target. However we got caught out by Athletic on the counter and ended up conceding a corner kick. Off the ensuing kick which looked pretty harmless, it was Mosquera who cleared the ball miserably and only found Igor Gabilondo who hit his shot right under a sprawling Palop to put the home side up 1-0. I for one never saw this coming by any stretch of the imagination and it just came down to pure luck off a stupid mistake.

But we’re Sevilla, we don’t let stupidity like that get us down, right after the goal we started where we left off before the mistake, once again absolutely dominating possession, goal opportunities, and just the play in general. It wasn’t long before the Colombian International made up for his horrible miscue at the back when he actually capitalized off an Athletic mis-pass and put in a Alves-esque cross and found the one and only Fredi Kanouté who of course controlled with the greatest of ease and emphatically smashed it into the Bilbao goal, leveling the score at one goal a piece.

That was the end of the half and I couldn’t help but think to myself that we were definitely going to somehow snatch a goal in the second.

As the second half started I was filled with even more hope as Aldo Duscher went on a strange run up by his standards and put in a nice through-ball to Fredi only for the Malian Capped striker to smash it just wide of the goal.

The whole Fazio/Duscher defensive midfield combination wasn’t working out as it was a very negative way in going about the match, we just lacked that final killer pass. Seeing this Jiménez subbed out Fazio and in came Renato in hopes that he provide that service to big Fredi.

A few minutes later he smashed a volley on target but Athletic keeper Armando just parried it wide, keeping the scores level. Our big man knew that this night was only about one man – himself, and demonstrated exactly why when Romaric put in a little flick for him which he controlled on a dime, left two defenders dazed and confused before smashing his shot into the bottom left corner past Armando; an authentic golazzo.

Knowing that we’ll definitely need our top striker midweek against the boys from Bilbao in the Copa, Jiménez decided to substitute him for Lautaro Acosta. The substitute was a smart move by the man in charge but being so alone up top and being composed in the small stature that he is, Acosta really failed in trying to create any threatening chances or get anything going in general. Another substitution was warranted when Jiménez also realized it would probably be a smart idea to rest Capel for the midweek clash and as a result he put in Abdoulay Konko who made his first appearance since that annoying foot injury he picked up a couple months ago. It was strange to see a natural defensive type player playing down the flank but what can I say, he did what he had to do and got the job done.

With all these substitutions we kind of lost our fighting edge in the match and as a result for the remainder it was a pretty even game with nothing in it. Athletic did have a chance near the end on a breakaway but of course our trustworthy keeper Andrés Palop denied the Bilbao front man keeping us ahead and eventually the ref blew his whistle signaling for the end of the match.

With this important league victory we further establish ourselves in the top three with 47 points, 9 behind Real Madrid and 13 behind league leaders Barça who lost today in Madrid to a revamped Atlético side. Surely 9 and 13 points aren’t too much to overcome and with a bit of consistency that we seem to have found I have no doubts that we could definitely cause a few upsets in La Liga and possibly find ourselves further up the table.

Top Players
One word – Frédéric Kanouté. Okay, that’s two but none the less the man was a pure all round class act on Saturday night. From his shear dominance on the ball when he scored his more than deserved two goals to his intelligent movement off the ball he was easily the man of the match by miles. A good way to rebound and come out of the mini-slump he was currently incurring over the past couple weeks.

Diego Perotti – The young Argentine and Sevilla Atlético star played the full 90 minutes in an impressive stand-in performance on the right flank for Jesús Navas. He didn’t disappoint by any means and in fact exceeded my personal expectations, making quick movements on and off the ball, putting in dangerous crosses and overall just giving our team that extra little spark when needed.

Romaric – The Côte d’Ivoire strongman finally showed why exactly we signed him. He was an absolute rock in the midfield but also pushed up and created numerous opportunities. I don’t know if it was the knock to his head last week but for some reason he has woke up and played absolutely amazing – the best in the rojiblanco for sure.

Flop Players
Diego Capel – Despite creating a few dangerous darting runs like he always does, overall he was a huge disappointment. He looked like he was playing a more free-roaming role, as he was all over the park. He was selfish more times than not and in being so, he lost the ball stupidly over and over again. He repeatedly does the same things over and over again, he’s become so predictable and it really showed yesterday.

Duscher – Didn’t play the nitty gritty role that we know him to do ever so well but rather sat back and watched the game sort itself out. He made a few good tackles here and there but overall we need much more of him especially against a stronger offensive opponent.

Fazio – Rightfully substituted as he contributed absolutely nothing to the game at all. He was basically invisible and looked lost as a result of not playing the defensive midfield position alone. A really horrible performance considering we saw some of the best out of him last weekend against Atléti.

—————————————
We sit in third and in a vital Champions League spot ahead of Villarreal, Valencia, Málaga, Atlético Madrid and Deportivo la Coruña who are all on our tails but still quite a significant amount back. If we can keep this form up we should have no problems further distancing ourselves from them.

We now take those three points back to Nervión and have two training sessions before heading back to Bilbao to take on Athletic in the second leg of the Copa del Rey semifinals in which we lead 2-1. There is some big news surrounding the match so be sure to stay tuned to find out what it is. I’ll have the announcement up tomorrow.

Manolo Jiménez was confident going into this match saying that we would use our momentum from the Espanyol victory last week to smash our newly-bitter rivals Atléti in Nervión.

We went into the match knowing that it was basically a must-win game because we had to 1) keep up with Real, considering their recent run of impressive results, and 2) widen the gap between us and fellow strugglers Valencia.

True enough, Valencia left 2 important points in A Coruña today and that combined with our victory over Atléti keeps us in the top three with 44 points, 3 ahead of Villarreal and now but 5 ahead of Valencia.

So basically this is how the game went down.

Sevilla Atlético star Diego Perotti was given the start as Chevantón was ruled out for the season with a cyst in his knee which requires an operation. The Argentine born youngster was only one of our two Sevilla Atlético players in the squad with José Carlos being the other.

The first half started with a bang (literally) as our very own Romaric and Atléti player Luís Parea bumped heads when they both went up for a header which resulted in both players having to be substituted as the Ivorian International went off with a massive gash on his forehead and the latter on a stretcher as he was temporarily knocked out and unconscious. This saw us introduce Diego Capel who slotted in on the left side ahead of Adriano at left back and also saw Perotti move to the centre.

It went from bang to boring as neither team really found their groove in this match and as a result struggled to materialize anything dangerous.

Finally though on about the 25th minute the Uruguayan Capped striker Diego Forlán had an absolute sitter when Simão beat both David Prieto and Adriano down the left side of defense and put in a perfect low cross which was begging to be tapped in. Unfortunately for Atléti, Diego went for the smash and did exactly that, just off the crossbar. He was so confident that he started celebrating before he even hit the ball only to be thoroughly disappointed and holding his head in disgust afterwards.

We created an amazing chance of our own as MOTM Jesús Navas who just switched sides with Capel cut in from the left beating the Atléti defender but smashed his shot just wide of the goal.

The first half was one huge stalemate that ended with no score to show for it.

Youngster Diego Perotti was substituted by Manolo Jiménez who thought (along with myself) that he had a fantastic debut as a starter and was thoroughly impressed with his skill in the midfield and running on and off the ball. I can’t wait to see more of this kid in the future and he put more effort in than half the team which is always good to see. Acosta was brought on as it was a straight Argentine for Argentine youth swap and he slotted in up top alongside Kanouté pushing Renato back to a more central midfield position.

Renato who had been taking all the set-pieces all game (which were piss poor) finally realized he couldn’t cross a ball to save his life and tested Leo Franco with a shot off a free kick from distance which the Atléti keeper pushed wide. Minutes later Diego Capel broke down the left flank when we countered and when 2 defenders were drawn to him he sent in a little flick ahead of Acosta but it was a bit too far ahead as the Argentine U-20 star couldn’t catch up to it and missed the clearest chance to put us ahead 1-0.

Looking like all was over, Jiménez decided to take off Capel and give other Sevilla Atlético star José Carlos a run out. This “run out” turned out to be way more than just that as the kid made an instant impact. He cutely played with the ball in the Atléti end, touched it off to Fazio in the centre who then did put in a Xavi-like through-ball which I think was intended for Kanouté who realized he was offside so it was then left for a cutting in Navas who perfectly latched onto the end of it and flicked it over Leo Franco to put us up 1-0 in the 87th minute and ultimately sealing the game. No one deserved it more then Jesús as he worked his socks off all game and was rewarded with the ultimate reward, a goal against the same team who stole our final Champions League spot last year. El Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán erupted like crazy for the first time in a long time as our hometown hero didn’t only get us a well-deserved victory, but also past a team who we love to hate.

Even with the introduction of “El Kun” Agüero there was no time left to do anything else and the game ended 1-0 in our favour.

Top Player(s)
Needless to say Jesús Navas was our man of the match not only because he got the goal that won us the match but also because he never stopped running and anything we materialized was basically because of him. I love this kid, teams would love to have him but I thank God he suffers from serious homesickness.

I guess we could give Fazio an honourable mention as he was the one that gave Navas the perfect little through-ball that set up his picture perfect finish. He was also solid in the middle throughout the match and contained Atlético’s midfield perfectly.

Last but not least – Adriano Correia who was our stand in left back for the match and despite his early blunder which allowed Simão to dish off to Forlán for a missed tap-in he was solid and considering he was playing slightly out of position he didn’t disappoint.

Flop Player(s)
Renato once again tops this list as he was poor all night and invisible at more times than not. His set-pieces (bar the decent shot) were awful and in general he just failed to make an impact on the game.

I’m not sure what it was but I have a feeling it was the lack of proper service that made Kanouté look invisible at times as he failed to create anything dangerous and threaten the Atléti goal.

Next Saturday we travel to the Basque Country to take on Athletic Bilbao in their fortress of San Mamés. This will mark the first time within the span of less than a week that we play them. Saturday in the Liga and the following Wednesday in the second leg of the Copa del Rey semifinals. Not going to be an easy two matches by any means but if we can carry this sudden boost of momentum that we have then I can see us getting the job done when it comes down to crunch time.

¡¡Vamos mi Sevilla
Vamos Campeón!!