Sevilla v Recreativo Sunday 11:00am Sunday–Plus Much Much More!

By: Ryan | February 2nd, 2008

Hola Sevillistas! Que marcha me llevaís?

Much has happened in the past week and I plan on bringing that to you right now, so don’t fret.

First off, Recreativo v Sevilla is Sunday at 11:00am EST (17:00 in Spain). Everyone wants to ‘erase’ what happened last week and start anew, and as luck has it, we will be with the services of Keita who will be in Huelva for the game after returning from the African Cup of Nations, injured. Ugh.

There will only be 16 of the first team-ers on the bench for Sevilla today in Huelva.

Palop, De Sanctis, Daniel Alves, Mosquera, Boulahrouz, Escudé, Fazio, Drago, Poulsen, Renato, Maresca, Duda, Tom De Mul, Kerzhakov, Alfaro, Luis Fabiano, Diego Capel y Casado.

Finally, our keeper has returned after several weeks out with an injury. De Sanctis played well in his absence, but he lacks that spark that Palop can give the team.

-The same can’t be said for Freddy Kanouté. The newly announced African Player of 2007 came back to Nervión with a slight injury that will keep him out for a week or so. ‘The FIFA Virus’ strikes again, but this time with some strained abs which is nothing to write home about.

–A bit more on the African Player of the Year front, Kanouté was the first recipient of the award that wasn’t born in Africa (Kanouté is French by nationality). He beat out Didier Drogba and Michael Essien, who were second and third respectively. It’s an honor for the Sevilla forward who was undoubtedly in great form in 2007.

–Surprisingly, the January transfer window is closed, and no new faces to see in the rojiblanco. It’s the first time that Monchi hasn’t made a move for Sevilla since his arrival in 2000. Three moves were made for Sevilla, but they involved players exiting Nervión. Martí was ceded to Real Sociadad, Hinkle was sent to Celtic, and Makukula (who apparently played for this team???) was sent to Benfica.

Luis Fabiano corrected the previous statement made my Jose Maria del Nido in which the Sevilla President laid out a 60 million Euro price tag for the Brazilian international. LuisFa assured that his price is 11 Million and that if it was 60 ‘They would have had to redo my contract’. He admits an offer from Manchester City was for 12 million, but he ‘didn’t like the contract.’

No pillaging by Juande Ramos of Kanouté, Palop. No swooping in by Erickson to get Poulsen, nothing. I was wrong, completely wrong, but I’m glad I was.

Did we really need another player in the Sanchez Pizjuan? Sevilla already have a great team, but maybe one more piece of the puzzle could have been placed in the January Transfer window. During the entire month there weren’t even ripples of a rumor bringing anyone to Andalucia.

–HastaLaMuerte put out a set of statistics from the first half of the season. No surprise that LuisFa and Kanouté account for 58% of the goals for Sevilla. The craziest statistic for me is that Diego Capel provokes a yellow card every 69 minutes he plays. He has 22 yellow cards against him this season, more than one a match, attesting to the skill of the young Sevillista.

–Javi Navarro, where are you? I have no news on the Sevilla captain nor his status. I’ve been looking for the past few days, so if anyone has any news about him, please pass it on.

That’s it Sevilla fans, I’ll see you all on Sunday after the game.