We get to welcome the Basques back into La Liga in the first match of the new season. Heading into San Sebastian is not easy, but it isn’t quite as bad as heading to San Mames in Bilbao, so hopefully we can come out with three points to start off the season properly. If you remember, Villarreal waited until their eighth match of the season last year to record three points, and by that point, had effectively missed out on qualifying for European competition based on points.
This will be the first match in a stretch of winnable, must-win matches. The first ten matches of the season are more than manageable, and even just a decent run of form should put the club around 22 or 24 points. All of the first ten are winnable. The problem is that the harder matches all come bundled in the last eight matches of each of the season’s two halves. We can’t bundle our way through any of the first few matches and expect to make up points on the back end, because it simply won’t happen.
Real Sociedad is making its return after a heartbreaking relegation following the 2006-2007 year. Real Sociedad is one of those teams that needs to be in the top flight, and it is good that they are back. They could be dangerous up front, having picked up our own Joseba Llorente, along with long-time Parakeet Raul Tamudo. They also have Chile’s reliable Claudio Bravo in at keeper (reliable, that is, if you ignore their match against Spain at the World Cup when you could find him at the touchline teeing the ball up for David Villa…).
For the match, Garrido has called up the following:
Keepers: Diego López and Juan Carlos.
Defenders: Capdevila, Gonzalo, Musacchio, Marchena, Mario and Ángel.
Midfielders: Cani, Santi Cazorla, Borja Valero, Matilla, Bruno and Marcos Senna.
Forwards: Rossi, Nilmar, Jefferson Montero and Marco Ruben.
Predicted Lineup:
Diego Lopez
Angel – Musacchio – Marchena – Capdevila
Senna – Bruno
Cazorla – Valero – Cani
Rossi
Prediction: This is the perfect opportunity to make a statement away from home. Rossi and Nilmar have both been playing well in the preseason, and I expect both of them to get off the mark tomorrow. A 0-2 win should be a great way to start the season.
Sorry to keep this short, but it is late, and I have to be up early tomorrow. ENDAVANT VILLARREAL!
For a great comeback, maybe you have to defend poorly first. Cazorla took over the match after the opening half-hour (hope Vicente del Bosque was watching), while Godin was the most culpable for the deficit. And what a pass by Ibagaza on the first goal! Villarreal goal of the year, in my book.
As Garrido said, the match was a microcosm of the season. If Sevilla do us a favor on Wednesday, I will be content with the year.
News and notes:
As noted, a Sevilla win in Wednesday’s Copa del Rey final gets us into Europe.
The players’ final day of training is Thursday, but our 9 internationals are gone.
And the B team pulled another point out of the fire, drawing 2-2 in Murcia. A Marco Ruben PK and late Joan Tomas header earned them a share of the points.
Now all that’s left is to watch the battle for relegation and the La Liga title. Can Xerez somehow beat the drop? I say yes.
The last jornada of the La Liga season. What a roller-coaster ride. Great to see races for the title (Barca and Real), Champions League (Sevilla and Mallorca), Europa League (Getafe and Villarreal), and survival (Valladolid, Racing, Malaga, Tenerife, and Xerez).
GKs: Diego López and Oliva. Ds: Javi Venta, Ángel, Gonzalo, Godin, Capdevila, Marcano, and Musacchio. MFs: Cani, Pires, Cazorla, Bruno, Senna, Ibagaza, Escudero, and Fuster. Fs: Rossi and Nilmar.
Llorente is suspended due to his red card against Valencia, but Capdevila won his appeal and Godin has shaken off a knock. And Marcano and Musacchio return from injury and suspension, respectively. Looks like a 4-4-2 with Diego Lopez in goal, meaning that Xavi Oliva will not play in La Liga this season. But at least he’s not going down to Segunda B.
In other news, Cani returns to his former ground and is likely to return next season, along with Ibagaza. Good news for two of our better performers this season.
Two scenarios to make Europe:
Beat Getafe’s result (away to Atletico) tomorrow afternoon. Unlikely considering that Atletico will play a B team.
Hope Sevilla beats Atletico in the Copa del Rey final on Wednesday (here’s why). Decent chance, but Atleti knows how to win big matches (except against Real).
How much is the Europa League worth? Making the knockout rounds was worth around 2.5 million Euros this season (h/t Kenez), and every penny will matter next year. So let’s win one for Roig, Garrido, and the soon-to-be-former players. The match starts at 2 pm Eastern Time, the same time as Atletico-Getafe (on GolTV). Endavant Villarreal!
Nice win, but it may ring hollow at season’s end. Of note: Ibagaza should stick around next season, and Cani may be the most improved player in the Garrido era.
The B team lost 2-5 to Las Palmas after Juan Carlos was sent off in 9′. Only their second home loss all season. Game recaps from the club website and Marca.
Scenarios to make Europe:
Beat Getafe’s result (away to Atletico) next weekend. In this case, we would finish in 6th place. This is the simplest and most likely scenario (even if rather unlikely).
To qualify as the 7th-place finisher, Sevilla would have to finish 5th in La Liga, win the Copa del Rey, and Fulham would have to win the Europa League. Sounds rather arcane, but essentially Atletico needs to finish outside of Europe and Mallorca must qualify for the Champions League. This scenario may be moot by midweek.
It will be a long summer if Villarreal fails to qualify for Europe. Player sales and budget cuts are coming, so it would be nice to end the season on a positive note. At a minimum, we need to do our part next weekend in Zaragoza (without Llorente and Capdevila).
Enjoy it while you can. Although this match is most important for purposes of qualifying for Europe, it is also the last home match for many of Villarreal’s long-time stars. Villarreal will definitely be missing Javi Venta and Robert Pires the next time they line up at El Madrigal. Add to that the likely loss of Rossi, Nilmar, Diego Lopez, and Diego Godin, as well as possible other defections, and the face of Villarreal will look very different next year. So what do you say, guys? A sending away party with a huge victory over Valencia?
After two successive defeats while giving up four goals in each match, Villarreal will be desperate to shore up the back line against Valencia. Capdevila will be back after his suspension for yellow-card accumulation, and Gonzalo has recovered from a mid-week bout of tonsillitis. The back line will be without Musacchio, who is suspended following his red card on Tuesday.
The match means everything for Villarreal, as they are even on points, but behind on goal differential to Getafe, who currently reside in sixth place. Villarreal sits one point ahead of Athletic Bilbao. Needless to say, the table is tight heading into the final two matches of the season. Getafe arguably has the easiest remaining schedule, home to Malaga, then away to Atletico Madrid. Villarreal’s is slightly tougher, with tomorrow’s match followed by a trip to Zaragoza. Athletic Bilbao easily have the toughest road, with an away trip to Madrid, followed by a visit by Deportivo. Villarreal simply must take all six points, and hope that Getafe stumbles in one of their two matches. Who knows, perhaps the leadership of Robert Pires could make the difference?
Valencia really have nothing to play for tomorrow except for derby pride. They sit on 68 points, eight ahead of fourth-placed Sevilla. In effect, their season is over except for the celebrating.
The squad for the match:
Keepers: Diego López and Oliva.
Defenders: Javi Venta, Ángel, Capdevila, Godin, Gonzalo and Kiko.
Midfielders: Senna, Bruno, Cani, Cazorla, Ibagaza, Pires and Escudero.
Forwards: Nilmar, Rossi and Llorente.
We have to win this match. No other options. Do it for Europe. Do it for the club (and its bank account!). Do it for the fans. Do it for Bobby and Javi. ENDAVANT!
Missed the match, but it’s a disappointing result. I did warn you it was a tough place to play, recalling last year when Senna and Cazorla were injured between Champions League quarterfinal matches against Arsenal. Two bad breaks for Musacchio: an awful deflection off Javi Venta on the 1:0 and no choice but to take down Piatti and earn a straight red shortly thereafter. A little gamesmanship on both red cards, however. Nice to see Marcano (after two months in the doghouse) and Ibagaza on the scoresheet, but it was too little, too late. We need more from our strikers against Valencia.
Barcelona’s Sergi Busquets admits he is a horrible person. Not quite, but he is.
The history of Villarreal-Valencia bodes well: 6-2-2 in 10 matches at El Madrigal.
And Bruno thinks it’s a good time to play Valencia. They don’t have anything to play for, right? Except for the chance to ruin our season, which they would relish.
The B team will have Joan Oriol against Las Palmas. Streams of the islanders often are available, so you might get a Villarreal doubleheader on Saturday afternoon.
Another midweek game to get the La Liga campaign done in time for the World Cup. Good to get the Barcelona match out of our system quickly and press on. It’s been a good run since Garrido took the reins, and a Europa League spot still is in our control.
4th-place Mallorca is now 7 points clear, so the Champions League is a bridge too far this year. But remember that we were rock bottom after 7 rounds (what a trayectoria).
The remaining schedules for the 3 teams fighting for one European spot:
Getafe took 4 points from Athletic, so they would win that tiebreaker. Villarreal split the season series with both teams, so goal difference would factor in: Villarreal currently is +1, Getafe +6, and Athletic -1.
Looking at the schedules, we must take at least 6 points. In that case, Getafe with 7+ or Athletic with 9 would beat us out. The Malaga matches will be tricky, as the Andalusians are tied with Tenerife for the final relegation spot and will be desperate. And if the title race still is on, Athletic at the Bernabeu should spell defeat. Will our old friends Atletico come through on the final matchday in the other Madrid derby? We shall see.
The squad for today’s match (at 2 pm Eastern Time):
GKs: Diego López and Xavi Oliva. Ds: Ángel, Godin, Mateo Musacchio, Kiko, Marcano and Javi Venta. MFs: Marcos Senna, Bruno, Cani, Santi Cazorla, Ibagaza, Pires and David Fuster. Fs: Nilmar, Llorente and Rossi.
As Kenez noted, Marcano and Kiko come in for Capdevila (suspended) and Gonzalo (flu). This will be the first match Capdevila has missed all season; Marcano is set to start.
This is the toughest of our 3 remaining matches, as we do not play well at the Juegos Mediterraneos. So I would be happy with a 1-1 result, but getting all 3 points would be a huge boost. Endavant Villarreal!
1-4 is a bit misleading: Nilmar squandered two golden opportunities before Messi opened the scoring, and these highlights did not show another Valdes error that we failed to convert on. Bad luck on Barca’s first goal, as Godin made a great block but the ball ricocheted past Diego Lopez. Some questions about Diego Lopez’s positioning on Xavi’s free kick, though, along with horrific defending by Gonzalo on Bojan’s tally.
Wonder if Llorente had a knock, as Garrido spoke of playing the same formation in both halves (before Joseba entered as a substitute). But no harm done in the standings: Getafe drew and Athletic lost. So we remain in 6th place with 3 rounds to go.
Wonderful win for the B team against a promotion candidate. Elche fought back after going two goals and a man down, but Jefferson Montero immediately scored his brace to seal the result. For that, he got a slap in the face from an Elche player. Stay classy.
Some news and notes:
Llorente predicted Athletic would beat Mallorca. Good thing he was wrong.
And now we find out that Llorente, not Busquets, received a yellow card late in Saturday’s match. Initially it seemed that Busquets received a second yellow and then was substituted off. Maletines, anyone? But we would have lost anyhow.
Capdevila will miss Tuesday’s game in Almeria due to his 5th yellow card of the season. 6 other players (Cani, Gonzalo, Ibagaza, Javi Venta, Marcano, and Pires) are one yellow away from suspension.
From the club website: recaps of the Barcelona and Elche matches.
Another eventful week in Vila-real, as maddi has detailed. Juan Carlos Garrido will return next season, while Javi Venta will not. Only 4 matches left in the season, and our heroes are back in the top 6. And as they’re only 4 points behind 4th-place Mallorca, who play in Bilbao on Sunday, the Champions League still beckons. But there’s a lot of work to be done yet…
Meanwhile, in Barcelona, the home team now has lost 4 of its record-breaking 6 titles earned in 2009. Worst of all, they squandered a chance to win a trophy at the Bernabeu and stick another one to Real Madrid. But along came a man named Jose Mourinho…
So La Liga is all that is left for both clubs. Expect a great game of futbol tomorrow at El Madrigal. Barcelona may be a bit tired, but no one wants to rile up a wounded lion.
GKs: Diego López and Xavi Oliva. Ds: Ángel, Javi Venta, Gonzalo, Mateo Musacchio, Godin and Capdevila. MFs: Bruno, Marcos Senna, Ibagaza, Cani, Cazorla, Escudero and David Fuster. Fs: Nilmar, Rossi and Llorente.
Marcano and Pires miss out, while Musacchio remains an A team fixture. At this rate, he may never play in the Segunda again.
I’m not making a prediction on this match, but it’s time for Nilmar to strut his stuff. The match will be aired on GolTV in the US at 4 pm Eastern Time. And don’t forget about the B team’s game against Elche later today (Friday). Endavant Villarreal!
Great win for the A team. Cazorla made a huge impact– now that he seems to be fit. And Godin is scoring striker-quality goals consistently now: what has gotten into him? Good to see the depth of our squad: Cazorla, Escudero, and Fuster were the 3 substitutes.
Great win for the B team as well. Playing with a man less for 85 minutes, due to the very strange sending-off of Catala, they avenged the A team’s Copa del Rey exit with a double over the Galicians. Jefferson Montero was the difference, as always.
Welcome fellow fans of Villarreal CF, especially those in the United States! This is the website of VillarrealUSA, the official United States penya (supporters group) for Villarreal. The penya is primarily based in the US, but incorporates views, and welcomes members, from around the world.
You can contact the authors on this site by email: maddi - maddi [at] villarrealusa [dot] org, nick - noc [at] villarrealusa [dot] org, or sidarth - sidarth [at] villarrealusa [dot] org.
VillarrealUSA.org is proud to announce a new partnership with the NewsNow website.
Check out NewsNow for easy access to English-language news on Villarreal C.F.
Entries (RSS)