O Fabuloso! The Return of a King

As everone with any football knowledge knows, Luis Fabiano is one of the top strikers in Europe and the runner up for last year’s Pichichi award which Dani Güiza eventually won. So far this year however, Fabiano has not showed any of last year’s brilliance and has overall been mediocre with his only good performance being against Atlético when he scored from a freekick in our 1-0 win in Madrid. I guess we can excuse him for his less than convincing performances thus far considering he was injured for quite a few weeks and when he was at full health his partner in crime Kanouté was injured so the deadly duo have barely played together. Going into last night’s Copa del Rey match against SD Ponferradina Fabiano and Kanouté were paired up for the first time in months and whilst the small opponents from León held the lead in a somewhat flattering 1-0 aggregate, they had obviously not faced the real Sevilla squad.

Jiménez‘ lineup for the night was a bit different than usual and unlike most of the other major teams in La Liga he wasn’t resting any key players. Although we saw what happened to Villareal and Real when they thought the Segunda B teams are easy and decided to rest their main men. The lineup saw Fabiano and Kanouté re-unite at the top with Navas and Adriano running the wings, Romaric playing an attacking midfield role and Fazio playing more of a defensive one. The backline was comprised of Mosquera on the right, Squillaci and David Prieto in the middle, and Navarro on the left. We came flying out of the gates, as soon as the game started we dominated posession from end to end and pounded the Ponferradina goalkeeper with several shots, until finally on the 29th minute the first goal arrived, but it wasn’t from a shot. Romaric dribbled up and from what looked like a harmless run, put in a perfect lob onto the head of Fabiano who rose perfectly to head it into the top corner. The pressure continued for the rest of the half but with nothing else to show for it. Right after the second half started in the 49th minute the ball was pretty much stuck in the midfield with a lot of scrappy play until Kanouté headed the ball out to Navas whom which headed it up in front of Fabiano who ran on to it, and chipped the keeper… GOLAZZO. However, on the 64th minute Ponferradina hit the bar which dipped and actually hit the ground past the goal line but since the linesman was near the half he couldn’t see this and therefore did not call it a goal. Lucky us. This was Fabiano’s night and in the 66th minute he received a beautiful ball to his feet from Renato, flicked it up in the air, jumped, did a 180, and hit it with his left foot into the bottom corner way out of the keepers reach, GOLAZZO. Just when everything seemed over and done with and we were advancing to the next round of the Copa with a 3-1 victory on aggregate, of course our leader and assistant captain Enzo Maresca added another when Navarro played in Navas down the left wing whom which crossed into the box, Kanouté missed but the defeder only headed it as far as Maresca who hit it on the volley perfectly in the bottom right corner.

Once again last night my boy Tom de Mul came on and got some action, its clear that he’s going to be a very good player because he’s quick and seems to always cause havoc amongst the opposing defense whenever he dribbles down that right wing. I’d love to see him in a couple years, with him and Navas on the right and Adriano and Capel on the left we’re definitely not short on wing options. It’s actually unbelievable how different the team is when Kanouté and Fabiano play together as opposed to only one of them playing at the top or paired with Renato or any other player on the team, the chemistry is unbelievable and they work together so well. If they can both stay healthy and fit throughout the whole year Champions League qualification shouldn’t be a problem at all.

Lineups:
Sevilla FC : Javi Varas; Mosquera, Squilacci, David Prieto, Fernando Navarro; Jesús Navas, Fazio, Romaric (Renato, min.61), Adriano (De Mul, min.70); Kanouté y Luis Fabiano (Maresca, min.73)

SD Ponferradina : Alejandro; Aitor, Bornes, Alcaide (Fuentes, min.40), Povedano; David de Paula, Dani Borreguero (Portilla, Jonathan, Ernesto; Rubén Vega e Irurzun (Oscar de Paula, min.68)

We now look ahead to Jornada 11 against Getafe in Madrid where we need to win because after this in the next month we play Valencia and Barcelona at home, then go away to Madrid in which we play Real, then finish up the “Jornada’s of death” at home to Villareal.

Category: Team News

Tags: Team News

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