Sevilla 2-1 Almería; “Controversy surrounds Kanouté”

By: Anthony | March 9th, 2009

I don’t care what anyone says or what the scoreline reads. I was more comfortable watching the boys do their job yesterday than I probably have been all season, we just totally dominated.

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“.