Forget skill, we have Luck

By: Anthony | December 21st, 2008

This picture basically sums up today’s performance. Frustrating.

We traveled to Mallorca knowing that a win would put us into second place (that’s with hoping Villarreal would lose to Barca in the following match).

The game started extremely slow and boring with a lot of scrappy play at both ends, and both teams failed to find the rhythm in which would let the game flow. On one of the rare first half attacks, Jesus Navas broke down the right flank brushing aside the Mallorca left-back and putting in a cross only for Capel to get in the way of a charging Luis Fabiano who smashed his header off the crossbar which German Lux, the Mallorca keeper punched out for a corner. Let’s just say that Luis didn’t hesitate in letting Diego know what he felt about him being in the way after the play. Shortly after, it was Luis Fabiano involved again when he gave Romaric a neat little flick through the defense but Romaric who controlled badly, then decided to dive resulting in personal frustration but obviously no call for a penalty, and rightfully so. Moments after this things got really heated when Capel was fouled by Josemi, and although it was a hard foul, Capel (like he does best) exaggerated it and played dead on the ground. Both Manolo Jimenez and Gregorio Manzano (Mallorca coach/manager) ran out of their technical areas screaming for the opposite reasons and were both grabbed by the Ref and Fourth Official and eventually did return again. Mallorca did have their chances too as they were awarded a free kick just outside of the 18 yard box for a clumsy tackle by Escude. On the ensuing kick, Arango hit the wall but the rebound was struck by Varela on target only for Palop to get fingertips to it and push it over, the referee did not see this and rewarded a goal kick, much to the displeasure of the Mallorca players.

The second half started off just like the first – scrappy and boring. Eventually seeing that Capel was extremely ineffective today, Jimenez pulled him and put on Kanoute who was returning from a minor groin injury. It’s needless to say that Diego wasn’t exactly a happy camper. Right after this though, Navas made one of his ever-dangerous darting runs up the right wing only to be pushed aside by the Mallorca left-back, took a dive which Jimenez thought was malicious and as a result of being previously warned about voicing his displeasure with the refereeing, Jimenez was ejected from the technical area. This was not to discourage Navas though as he once again lead the break up the right wing and put in a perfect ball which went through all the Mallorca defenders, fell to Romaric who hit a bullet at German Lux but it was parried up and over the goal, dismissing by far the best chance of the match for either side. Accuracy over power kids, accuracy over power. Now Palop rarely if ever makes mistakes but the one time he did it almost cost us. A ball was send in from about the half which was misjudged by Andres and Arango was sitting there ready to pounce in which he did but luckily he was running in and that slight off balance was enough for him to head the ball wide.

That’s basically the game in a nutshell, and it’s important to mention that it was played at a very slow pace and was at times very boring. Once again we have failed to create significant chances and this lack of goals is seriously starting to scare me.

Despite this apathetic performance from the boys and thanks to both a Real Madrid win over Valencia, and a Barca win over Villrreal we now sit second in the table with 31 points, still a huge 10 behind Barca for first and only one ahead of both Atletico Madrid and Valencia who are 3rd and 4th respectively with 30 points each. On any other given weekend we could have seen ourselves drop to fourth or even fifth but sometimes luck takes you further in life than anything else and certainly in football it never hurts to have some.

Latest News in Nervión
Over the past week many reports out of England and the U.K. have been linking our top striker Luis Fabiano with Chelsea saying the Stamford Bridge club will bid 20 million Euros for the Brasilian striker. Personally I’m laughing at this rumour. As it is we’re struggling to find goals, by selling one of our only two strikers is going to help this right? Whatever, it’s just a rumour but it scares me when the big rich clubs come in for our players, hopefully this financial crisis will make Mr. Abramovic think twice about spending big money this January. Then again, probably not.

This week Monchi (our sporting director) has also come out and said that Jimenez is safe and that the board are perfectly satisfied with his services. This comes just days after we went crashing out of the UEFA Cup and the media and fans were calling for his head. I think Jimenez has done a good job so far but its hard to cope with all the on-goings since he’s taken over because he hasn’t brought in the silverware as quickly or frequently as Juande did.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone
We now go into the Christmas and New Years break and normal league action will resume on the weekend of Saturday January 4th when we take on the struggling, last place, Osasuna. Hopefully January will give us a chance to take advantage of the transfer market, let Monchi do what he does best in finding amazing deals and strengthen the squad where it needs to be. I think we definitely need to find another proven striker as having both Koné and Chevantón injured and also as Fabiano and Kanouté this season seem unable to click as well as they did last causing in a serious goal shortage.

I hope everyone has an amazing Christmas and New Year. For the next two weeks while there are no games i’ll be merely posting about transfer rumours and other events going on in the camp. Until then, let’s just enjoy second place.

¡¡Vamos mi Sevilla
Vamos Campeón!!