Nilmar returns; crisis in Castellón; happy birthday Vila-real!
by Allen Dodson on Feb 13, 2012 12:28 PM CET
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Here's Nilmar, interviewed after the game yesterday. He gave us a decent 60 minutes, had the ball in the net once but was offside and forced the keeper into a fine stop (just couldn't get up in time to slot away the rebound). He seemed fine afterward in spite of being hacked down a couple of times. Doesn't say much of interest, but at least it's nice to see him looking more committed and happy to be wearing yellow.
Obviously everyone is happy to have gotten by without Gonzalo, Musacchio and Bruno yesterday; they all return now.
Abrahán Guirao did a nice writeup of the game and press conferences afterward, and it is here:
http://www.elperiodic.com/vila-real/noticias/158396
I would agree with most of this, I would also say good teams find a way to win even when they're not playing their best, so well done! Two games in a row now where we've given up a tying goal and instead of losing confidence and dropping our heads we've taken the game to the opposition and gotten the winning goal.
Granada were so poor up front, though; I really wonder what we saw in Uche, if he can't get a look-in with that group!
Our next opponents, Mallorca, went down to Malaga yesterday and goalkeeping errors played a part; here is Caparros talking about the result:
Real Mallorca : Caparrós: ‘We cannot concede goals like this’
CD Castellón has been in trouble off the pitch for awhile now; the former owners (a group called Castellnou 2000 or somethng like that) were turfed out this summer but the new owner, Mirallés, has failed to come through with needed funds to meet payroll. The players have threatened to strike in two weeks (they haven't been paid in over three months) but have continued to do well on the pitch. Yesterday the owner didn't attend the game, but one of his associates did and got in a shouting match and fight with some fans in the 'palco' (the presidential box).
There's a youtube video of it, sort of. For me it was more interesting to see the Castellon stadium. Remember that before Sr. Roig took over Villarreal, CD Castellon was the bigger club in the area. In fact, they played in a Copa del Rey Final in the 1972-73 season, something we've never come close to doing! (Trivia: Vicente del Bosque was in that team, on loan from Real Madrid).
Castellon was relegated to the Tercera this season for financial reasons (they were 10th in their Segunda B group, but didn't pay their players by the required deadline). There must be very real concern that the club will be pitched out of the Tercera or even wound up. Yes, they have fans who hate us for being Johnny-come-latelies, but I can't wish that sort of sad end on any football club. Shows you the sort of problems the lower division clubs are having, though; they are far from alone.
Finally, Vila-real (the town) celebrates its 738th birthday this week. We've been going through a spate of 300th and 350th anniversaries of towns here in western Massachusetts, so 738--wow. Happy Birthday!!
Vila-real celebra els 738 anys de la fundació de la ciutat - Ajuntament de Vila-real
Enjoy the vibes from another nice win and let's look forward to next weekend. B team hosts Alcorcon on Saturday--a toughie, especially since they haven't lost in the league in two months; Villarreal C plays at Alicante (I assume on Saturday), Villarreal A plays at Mallorca on Sunday. Endavant, everyone!!
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Two consecutive victories in La Liga
for the first time since 30th January 2011 when Villarreal won 1-0 at Espanyol following a 2-1 home win the week before over Real Sociedad.
that 1-0 win
was perhaps our last truly positive moment before the recent run of form. After Rossi’s goal in that match, it was more just hanging on to stay in the CL spots, relief that we did, and then absolute misery this fall. It’s been a rough year!
Endavant Villarreal!
that's right, that was Rossi's "don't know much about geometry" goal, wasn't it.
After that as you say we hung on to 4th and had no ambition for anything else.
There are 16 matches left, 48 points up for grabs. It took 44 to avoid relegation last year, remember. Last year was somewhat similar to this in that the top two ran away with it, Valencia were well ahead of 4th, 4 points separated 9th and 18th.
As far as what it will take to get into Europe, who knows, but it took 58 each of the last two years, so that’s as good a guide as any. I am not going to think about that possibility until we get to 44 points. One game at a time is the key!!
Endavant Villarreal!!
It will be a relegation battle this year and the next
The squad is still short and no Champion’s League money for building the squad next season. Survival in La Liga looks doubtful if Rossi and/or Borja leave, but it is hard to see how Villarreal can keep them if all they can look forward to is another relegation dogfight.
I don't agree with that.
Our team is out of the bottom 3, so no reason to look backwards… let’s move forward. We draw with barca, and won the last 2. So why the negative attitude?
Molina trust the team, and that pays of with the confidence the boys are showing.
by Jens Kristian Nielsen on Feb 13, 2012 10:16 PM CET up reply actions
I was being critical, not negative
Villarreal is suffering the kind of slump that small clubs go through after qualifying for the Champion’s League. Real Betis, Celta Vigo and Real Sociedad all wound up at or near the bottom of the table during their seasons in the Champion’s League, and also in the season after. Villarreal can avoid the slum next season, but needs to get rid of the dead wood, and sign new players.
we have squad depth for at least 2 cups at all
remember that we also have some young assets like Hernan, DeGuz, Wakaso, Castellani, Mario and JeffMontero (We have a buy back clause over him), but so far what they lack is the quality to compete at a higher level.
at least it’s not impossible for us to fight the next year’s European entry even we are still struggling at the bottom half (In fact it’s possible for every team in 4-18th if just talk about points), but it seems we can hardly perform well in European matches.
OK, you have to be realistic now
Castellani, Hernan, Mario, Catala and Musacchio are decent footballers, but they are not up to the level of the players Villarreal had during Pellegrini’s time. Villarreal need quality signings for the defense and attack to do decently in La Liga; the alternative to this would be to switch to a collective defensive mindset like that of Levante or last season’s Deportivo La Coruna.
i'd blame mostly garrido and injuries for our bad first half of the season
but yes, our “quality” signings of the summer haven’t been as good as expected. zapata and de guzman cost a lot of money. one would think that players with 8m price tag should do better.
i thought both of them could be regular starters. now zapata is maybe a 3rd choice for a cb and it seems like de guzman is the last choice for an attacking midfielder. of course borja is first, then cani second, then camunas, castellani and h.perez in some order, then jdeguz.
by Bill Lumbergh on Feb 16, 2012 7:53 AM CET up reply actions
when looking at the squad lists i don't see that much difference
with atletico, malaga, villarreal, sevilla and athletic bilbao. valencia may have a better defence and a deeper squad than the rest. you are clearly 1st in the la liga justa.
rest of the teams you would expect do better have 5 points between them.
valencia has nicely even squad. no stars like rossi or borja, but you have atleast 2 good players for every spot.
by Bill Lumbergh on Feb 16, 2012 8:28 AM CET up reply actions
Guirao is kind of biased
He’s obviously a supporter of Villlarreal rather than a journalist, since he keeps saying “we” and referring to “ours”. Interestingly though he says that Villarreal won through luck and taking the chances, and despite having a lackluster midfield and a generally low level of play.
it wasn't pretty but i'm sure we had more scoring chances than granada did
also ball possession was slightly in our favor
I simply refer back to
Bill Lumbergh’s proffered table over the last 6 matches since Molina took over. D-L-W-D-W-W, if I am not mistaken. Missing some of our best players due to injury or otherwise, Villarreal has turned the sub around. Are we a CL team? No way. Are we relegation fodder? That’s equally ridiculous.
Endavant Villarreal!
Is everyone looking forward to Stoke-Valencia on Thursday?
They only have to get through three rounds to match our result last year.
Endavant, a triomfar, a guanyar Villarreal!
by siempre_riquelme on Feb 13, 2012 11:39 PM CET reply actions
Real Sociedad 2 Sevilla 0
note that Villarreal also owns the tiebreaker over Sevilla if we finish even on points by virtue of our away win
Endavant Villarreal!!
Ahh, the Britannia Stadium
one of the coldest football stadiums I’ve been to, should good on a freezing Thursday night in February.
Osasuna are probably tougher than Stoke
Nekounam in midfield and Kike Sola upfront give them a bit more technical ability where it counts. By the way, Valencia nearly won it at Osasuna, except they equalized from a free quick at the very last minute, thanks to poor goalkeeping.
agree; I really like Nekounam
we outplayed them there for most of the game and then fell apart thanks to Garrido’s tinkering.
And technical ability is not a word that is used to apply to Stoke players very often. This is actually a good time to play them as they’ve lost four in a row in the EPL.
Hopefully the referee will not let them get away with as much over-the-top physicality as they do in the EPL all the time. And I’m sure Emery has looked at film of Rory Delap’s howitzer throw-ins, but they can be very difficult to defend. It’s actually almost better to concede a corner against Stoke than it is a throw-in deep in your half, if Delap is in the game. And they have a tall dorky dude to get on the end of set pieces, just like Osasuna. (Crouch, Lekic).
If Valencia can come out of there with a draw, hopefully 1-1 or even 0-0, that should be enough to get to the next round. Stoke don’t travel particularly well and in the Mestalla they should fold I think. But the back four is going to have to be prepared for some head tennis tomorrow.
Endavant Villarreal!!
by Allen Dodson on Feb 15, 2012 2:04 PM CET up reply actions
I've only watched the Liverpool-Stoke game, so not familiar with them
Stoke were content to sit deep and let the other team have possession, which will suit Emery to a tee (he likes for Valencia to control the game). Stoke’s backline was compact and deep, which gave Liverpool’s leftback Jose Enrique plenty of space and allowed Downing to cut in between the lines; these suit Valencia’s style of play too. As for the players, Stoke’s midfielders are not sharp on the break and do lack the technique to execute counter-attacks well. Finally, I would not worry too much about a side that has Jonathan woodgate, who is possibly the worst defender ever to play for Real Madrid.
I can't wait to see Unai Emery wrapped up in about 20 layers of clothes!
it ought to be fun to watch. Bayer Leverkusen-Barcelona today could be interesting too, especially since we beat Bayer twice last year so have some knowledge of their team.
Endavant Villarreal!!
Fuster scores
the only goal of the game to give Valverde’s Olympiakos a win over Rubin Kazan in Moscow
http://www.as.com/futbol/articulo/olympiacos-gana-rubin-frio-doce/20120214dasdasftb_27/Tes
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