Villarreal 0-2 Sevilla, Fabiano is Back; and my Thoughts on El Clásico

By: Anthony | May 3rd, 2009

There have been many “must win” matches this season but really, this was an absolute MUST win. We traveled to El Madrigal needing all three points against a recently resurgent Villarreal side who was also looking to jump into a Champions League qualification spot.

Jiménez employed an extremely strange lineup as Jesús Navas was left on the bench and Konko started on the right flank in his place. Kanouté started up top alongside Luis Fabiano, Diego Perotti was on the left side with Duscher and Renato in the middle and the backline consisted of Fernando Navarro, Julien Escudé, Squillaci and Adriano.

The match was extremely boring at first, so much so that I actually was changing back and forth between it and the Toronto FC match (yes, the MLS, that basically says it all). The only lively looking player was Diego Perotti (as usual) but his crosses weren’t being met by either Kanouté or Fabiano who struggled to sync early on in the match. On the 13th minute though both teams woke up when Nihat his a freekick from an awkward angle but it found the top of the crossbar which gave Palop and our defense quite the scare.

On the 40th minute Kanouté headed in an Adriano cross but he was rightfully flagged for offside and the goal was called back as a result. Right after this, Eguren had a chance at our end but headed his attempt embarrassingly wide.

We went into the half with nothing to show for and also knowing something needed to change if we were to have any chance at taking all three points back to Nervión.

You would have thought that both sides who had so much to gain from this match would come out after half with all guns blazing but no, we both started the same way we finished the first half. It wasn’t until just before the hour mark that Kanouté fought so hard (like he always does) to win the ball off a miscue by the Villarreal defender, before dishing it off to Luis Fabiano who smashed it through the legs of Diego Lopez and put us up 1-0.

All was not good for us though as about 10 minutes later Konko was given his second yellow card of the match for apparently tripping Pires and thus, was sent off and we were reduced to 10 men. Because we were now down a man, Jiménez took off our goal scorer, Fabiano and changed him for Maresca to vill the void in midfield left by Konko.

Despite being a man down we sealed the deal when Renato chipped the ball over to big Fredi Kanouté who controlled with the greatest of ease like he always does and smashed a low left footed half volley which hit the inside of the Diego Lopez’ post and found the back of the net. An absolutely brilliant goal for an absolutely brilliant player.

Those three points were ever so vital to us because it not only ended our 4 game losing streak but also with the help today of Espanyol who toppled Valencia 3-0 and Numancia who brushed Málaga aside 2-0, we’re sitting pretty in third place and a fairly easy few games left in the season. Valencia and Villarreal still have to play each other while we finish off our season at home to Mallorca, away at Osasuna, back home to face Deportivo la Coruña and then play our final match away at Numancia. All four are clearly winnable matches and with this victory yesterday we should have the confidence to push on and do just that.

The bad news is that next week both Konko and Fernando Navarro will be out through suspension with the latter accumulating numerous yellow’s. It could be a blessing in disguise though as I don’t rate Konko at all and Navarro has been pretty shaky lately and a more solid Dragutinovic will most likely start in his place when we take on Mallorca.

My thoughts on El Clásico
Well thank God for that. Not only was it good to see my second most hated team in Spain lose in emphatic fashion to an indestructible Barcelona side.

Watching Barcelona play is a footballing orgasm. They’re just absolutely amazing and play the most beautiful football in the world, in my opinion anyway.

I also can’t hide my secret man crush for Lionel Messi, not because he’s easily the best footballer in the world, but simply because there’s something about him you can’t hate. Regardless of if you’re a mierda fan, or whoever you are, if you love football, you love Lionel.

Yesterday he displayed a strong message on his shirt which in Catalan read “Síndrome X Fràgil” which translates to Fragile X Syndrome which is genetic problem that leads to emotional, mental, and sometimes physical problems, basically similar to autism. Last month Lionel Messi spent a day with children who suffer from this horrible syndrome and due to suffering from his own problems as a child, he wanted to reach out in the local Barcelona community as well as Spain as a whole to help these children.

A great heart, a great player and a massive part of the best team in the world. It’s good to see justice prevail for once and it’s even sweeter when the mierda are on the receiving end of 6 goals.