19th Time's the Charm: Villarreal Visits Racing Santander
by siempre_riquelme on Dec 2, 2011 11:03 PM CET
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Maybe that's not quite the saying. But Villarreal needs some sort of luck to finally win an away game.
After twelve league matches without a victory away from El Madrigal, plus six straight road losses in European competition, it's past time to bust the streak. And we've only scored eight goals in those eighteen matches. Will a visit to colista Racing Santander do the trick?
Racing has the worst home form in La Liga, having picked up just five points this season at El Sardinero. And the storm clouds surrounding the club after the rise and fall of Indian (I am sorry to say) owner Ahsan Ali Syed are bursting. With Racing in administration, and its manager having resigned to effectively save money, Saturday's match is not the top priority of everyone at the club.
Spare a thought for the cantabros, located in the birthplace of the largest bank in the Eurozone. And they make great wine in that part of Spain. Speaking of which, Villarreal now has an official wine. Cheers!
El Villarreal presenta su vino oficial (via LIGABBVA)
Racing first played in La Liga in 1929 and finished as runners-up two seasons later. Too bad they can now only afford a €100,000 striker in the winter transfer window. Times aren't so bad in Vila-real, eh?
Manager Juan Carlos Garrido's 18-man squad:
Keepers: D. López, César.
Defenders: Mario, Gonzalo, Lejeune, Musacchio, Oriol, J. Costa, Ángel.
Midfielders: Bruno, Senna, Borja, de Guzmán, Cani, Moisés, H. Pérez.
Strikers: Ruben, Nilmar.
Allen, Sid and Ravi breakdown this game and give their predictions - 8 min
Remember Rubén Cani, Nilmar, and Marcos Senna? They're back. And so are Florian Lejeune and Moisés Gómez; left back Jaume Costa debuts(!) with the 'A' team.
Villarreal drew 2-2 last season at El Sardinero, but Racing no longer has Giovani dos Santos. And the Yellow Submarine cannot fall back on a big points cushion. So we need three points tomorrow.
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if we loose this one...
Will we boot Garrido ?
by Jens Kristian Nielsen on Dec 2, 2011 11:33 PM CET reply actions
Garrido is probably here to stay
Judging by the lack of a sense of crisis at the club (so far as i can tell through the media) it seems like everybody is resigned to having a poor season, so no need to fire the coach anyway. I mean, Villarreal are in the bottom half of the table and out of Europe, and they send out black hipster Marcos Senna to launch the club:s official wine? Shouldn’t they send out Marchena to make the ‘hay que trabajar y luchar’ speech to rally the troops?
you do (sad to say) make a valid point
which is that firing Garrido isn’t going to solve a lot at this juncture. The schedule is better for us in the second half inasmuch as we have played most of the better teams on the road in this half (all except Sevilla, who we played at home, and Valencia, whom we haven’t played at all yet). And we will have played 6 games at home and 8 on the road after today as well.
But even allowing for improved form over the last couple of matches, it’s hard to see how we will get into the European places unless we go on a hot streak and win a lot on the road as well as at home. I know many of us don’t see that happening under Garrido, of course.
Come on, Senna looked cool at the wine launch. The way things have gone for us this season, I’m just glad no one spille the wine on themselves or injured themselves opening a bottle!
Endavant Villarreal!!
What does Senna's race
Have to do with anything? Pretty unnecessary comment, Jiwonsi.
We don’t stand for that on this site.
Endavant, a triomfar, a guanyar Villarreal!
by siempre_riquelme on Dec 3, 2011 6:53 PM CET up reply actions
yeah, I missed that reference when I read the post and agree it was unnecessary.
Cool hipster would have been enough (and made your point)
Endavant Villarreal!!
let's not even go there. Let's talk the wine instead
And there is an interesting story here. The investors in Añada Real, the winery that produces this wine, includes former Villarreal player José Mari, former sporting director of the Spanish Football Federation Fernando Hierro, and amazing Basque accordion player Kepa Junkera. Oh, and Raúl González, too. That Raul.
As for the wine, I expect it’s pretty good, though I can’t find any reviews of it on line. Someone will have to visit the restaurant at El Madrigal and try it!!
….but why wasn’t Borja Valero at the presentation? he seems to be the ‘foodie’ among the first team players….
Endavant Villarreal!!
one other wine comment, plus Ali Syed update
Sid, your comment "they make great wine in that part of Spain’—in the area generally, yes (Galicia and Basque Country for sure, excellent white wines to go with seafood), in Cantabria itself, no. I have never seen or heard of a wine from there, and don’t think the province has any denominated wine grape-growing regions.
As for “Mr. Ali”, the private jet he owned to fly into Santander has been repossessed, Western Gulf Advisory has been declared bankrupt by a court in the Netherlands, court judgments were handed down in Australia against Mr. Ali and his companies, and Interpol is investigating Mr. Ali as well.
One other football-related casualty: the New Zealand property developer who owned the Wellington Phoenix team, and who was supposedly going to be getting a loan from Western Gulf Advisory, (which never happened, to no one’s surprise) was declared bankrupt and the team taken away from him by the league there.
Endavant Villarreal!!
You are quite correct
there are no classified wines from Cantabria, only some locally made wines, mostly domestic.
You guys are too much.
I was generally referring to the region and La Rioja. I am not as wisened on the wine front, sorry.
Endavant, a triomfar, a guanyar Villarreal!
by siempre_riquelme on Dec 3, 2011 6:54 PM CET up reply actions
Most fouls received
so who do you think tops the list? Messi, Ronaldo or Cazorla. No it’s Borja Valero 42 fouls received, almost 50% more than Messi or Ronaldo.
Borja Valero (Villarreal), 43
Muniain (Athletic Club), 38.
Busquets (Barcelona)
Barrada (Getafe),31
Messi (Barcelona),30
Ronaldo (R. Madrid),30
Trejo (Sporting), 28
Cazorla (Málaga), 27
Joaquín (Málaga), 27
Susaeta (Athletic), 26
no surprise to me
we were saying on a podcast earlier this year that one effect of Santi’s departure is now Borja is getting fouled more.
Endavant Villarreal!!
Nicki Nielsen
had done virtually nothing until our B team traveled to Elche, when he scored 2 goals against us. Then he added one against Hercules last week and has two more against Barcelona B today. Now up to 5 on the season, equal to his total for Villarreal B all last year.
Endavant Villarreal!!
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