Stuttgart 1-3 Sevilla; Properly Representing.

By: Anthony | October 22nd, 2009

Sevilla3-1Stuttgart Properly Representing? What does that mean Sir Anthony, you may ask. Well let me tell you what it means my fellow Sevillista’s and La Liga junkies.

It means when we wear the Spanish flag on our Champions League jersey, we wear it to show why La Liga is the best league in the world. Unlike Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlético displaying the negatives of Spanish football, we choose to go abroad and show what La Liga is really all about – beautiful football.

We headed to Germany coming off a defeat this past weekend to the hands of Deportivo la Coruña. Before Depor sent us back to reality however, we had won 7 straight matches in all competitions and were in absolute top form. It scared me a bit that we seemed to become content with that and not get the three points in La Coruña which still displays the difference between us and a top European side. Having said that though, we bounced back against Stuttgart perfectly to show that maybe we do have just what it takes to play with the big boys of Europe.

Stuttgart has been in pretty abysmal form of late considering they haven’t won at home since the start of the Bundesliga season. We knew that counted for nothing going into the match though as any team can get a boost of confidence by playing on Europe’s biggest stage, better known as the Champions League.

A Squillaci double and goal by our prodigal son Navas gave us the victory in Germany to see us have a total of 9 point from three group stage matches thus far. A flawless record is definitely something to boast about considering only three other teams in the competition can relate.

ChampionsLeagueGroupTable Needless to say that the victory sees us put one foot in the door of the next round as the rest of our group would probably have too much catching up to do.

I’m not going to come out here and lie – Stuttgart were probably the better team over the course of 90 minutes and had it not have been for Squillaci’s first goal to break their momentum, the table may look a bit different than it currently does.

What hurt the Germans was their failure to convert their early chances because after Sébastien’s goal, we may not have dominated that match, but we took control of it. You might be wondering how that makes any sense and luckily enough, I’m here to break it down for you.

Us scoring forced Stuttgart to push up more and gave us the space we love to play in, especially along the flanks. Stuttgart did create many chances by pushing up but we hit them on the counter and made use of our set pieces when given the chance.

On a bit of a side note here – I’m really satisfied with how much progress we’ve made in regards to set pieces over the past few years. When Manolo first took over we were pathetic and it never seemed to amaze me how many goals we could have had if we scored from 1 out of every 3 set pieces like good teams usually do. With quick players like Navas, Perotti, and Capel we have no problem drawing the fouls, we just can’t capitalize off of them.

I almost feel bad for Stuttgart because just as they continued to re-gain control of the match and look as the likelier team to score, Lehmann (who I hate, fyi) failed to control Perotti’s cross giving my personal favourite (as everyone probably has noticed in my obvious favouritism by now) Jesús Navas probably one of the easiest goals he’s ever scored. It was a huge sucker punch to them but I guess that’s how football goes and we’ve been on the receiving end of it good enough so yeah, I was pretty ecstatic when I saw us up at 2-0.

From there on in we were in cruise control and never looked like losing the match. The final nail was added in the coffin when on 72 minutes we capitalized off another set piece and Sébastien Squillaci who was hands down the man of the match, added a third for the team and a second for himself on the night.

Stuttgart did score off a set piece themselves as substitute Élson scored a smashing freekick from 25 metres out which Javi Varas had no chance of saving. It was a bit disappointing not to hold onto the clean sheet but that’s football and it was probably deserved considering the amount of chances they had to score throughout the match.

Just wanted to touch on some positives besides us obviously now having maximum points from three group stage matches and identifying ourselves to Europe as a force to be reckoned with.

Javi Varas
He started in goal against Depor on the weekend where we came out 1-0 losers but Javi himself, had a solid match. Had it not been for him we could have easily been down one or two more and the goal Depor scored was definitely way beyond his reach therefore no one in their right minds can attach any blame to him at all for the goal. It’s extremely encouraging knowing that we have just a strong backup keeper as our first choice one. Even against Stuttgart he came up with some crucial saves otherwise we could have very easily been down several goals and in turn I wouldn’t be here writing about our flawless record in Europe. The goal he conceded was more than out of his control and I really don’t think any keeper in their right mind could have stopped that bullet of a freekick scored by Élson.

Sébastien Squillaci
Two goals by a defender in a match? That’s extremely rare, if not unheard of. Two goals considering we were being outplayed for Sébastien can surely only shoot his confidence through the roof. It’s good to see we have a solid defender who is going to be a threat to opposing defenses off of set pieces. We’ve seriously lacked someone like that for a couple years now and it look as if Squillaci has finally integrated himself nicely with the squad and it’s paid off as you can clearly see with his confidence off the set pieces.

Jesús Navas
Once again he’s stepped up to the plate and delivered. He may have had a bit of a quiet evening against Depor but seriously, who didn’t? He got the goal which basically put Stuttgart to the sword to to speak and broke their momentum for the second time in the match, leaving them no way back into it. All around he caused havoc and once again was uncontainable by the opposing defense.

Confidence
I’ve been one of Jiménez’ biggest critics over the past few seasons hands down but lately I just stand there in awe as to how much respect he receives from the team. I can’t help but question his every decision like for instance when he took off Fabiano for Duscher. No doubt Fabiano was a bit invisible but why not replace him for Koné who has something to prove and might have performed well? Regardless of what he did or didn’t do, his decision paid off and although I hate negative defensive tactics, they were far from anything of the sort. Duscher helped stabalize the midfield which Stuttgart up until that point were dominating considering neither Renato nor Lolo are very defensive minded. I think that more faith in Jiménez on my part is definitely in order seeing as he’s bringing in the results and I have no reason to argue otherwise.

Obviously I can’t sit here and say everything about the match were positives so let me now explain what are never good signs and those are the negatives.

Invisibility
Did anyone even notice that Fabiano and Kanouté started the match? I may have been watching the match off a shitty online stream but I didn’t see either impact the game what so ever. They are supposed to be the dynamic duo we all love and I’m not sure if its because they haven’t played together much this season or whatever else but they can’t be having many of those days if we want to keep up the contention for all the competitions we’re involved in. Out of three goals, none of them were by our strikers. Fabiano so invisible he was even pulled at half to make way for a defensive midfielder. It may have just been an off day, one of which everyone is entitled to so I’m not going to make a big deal out of it but it was very obvious.

All in all, a fantastic result and surely things can only go up from here!

Remember to:
Facebook me;
Follow me on Twitter;
Subscribe to my YouTube Videos;
and check out my other love,
Spain World Cup Blog