Athletic 1-2 Sevilla; “The Fredi Kanouté Show”

By: Anthony | March 1st, 2009

It was all about big Fredi Kanouté as his double put us past Athletic Bilbao in San Mamés to give us our third straight league victory and help us close in on that second spot.

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.

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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.