Villarreal come away with a point in an ugly game at Getafe

     Judging from the comments on the buildup to this game, many of you weren't going to be able to see it, and to be honest you didn't miss much.  The final score of 0-0 was a pretty fair reflection of the play.  Still, at least the Submarine did come out of this ground with a point, unlike last year, so that's something.

     After all the events of the past couple of weeks it was interesting to see Garrido start Senna and Bruno as holding midfielders, with Cani, deGuzman and Borja Valero joining him and Rossi as a lone striker.  Catalá, Gonzalo, Marchena and Zapata were the back four in front of Diego Lopéz.

     Things started brightly.  The game was wide open: in the first 15 minutes Dani Guiza had three chances to put Getafe ahead but fluffed them all, Marcos Senna had a shot palmed away from 35 yards and another free kick on target, and Rossi fluffed a great chance to open the scoring from a Zapata cross.  

    But then things started to tighten up.  After a horrible start (and an especially klutzy Gonzalo tackle that only earned him a yellow card, fortunately) the Villarreal defense began to look better, and our midfield took more control of the game.  However,with the Burger Boys content to sit back and let us pass the ball around outside the box, and without a Nilmar or Ruben to help Rossi create something, it was no surprise the half ended scoreless.

 HT Getafe 0-0 Villarreal

   Marcos Senna, who had looked good in the first half, was replaced by Wakaso.  This might have had to do with Sarabia's tackle on him toward the end of the half.  Regardless, the Ghanaian was probably delighted to find the pitch again!  I'd like to say this half was better than the first, but it wasn't.  It was what my college lacrosse coach used to call "chippy", with the referee calling fouls and handing out yellow cards at an alarming rate, and Rossi being called for offside probably 4 or 5 times just to change things up a bit.

    The best chance of the game, really, fell to Rossi in the 56th minute.  DeGuz, I believe it was, put him through with an excellent through ball but he shot wide of the post with only the keeper to beat.  And in the 71st minute his free kick from just outside the box flew narrowly over the bar.  it was that sort of day.  I still haven't figured out why he got a yellow card before the free kick was taken.

    Many of you will remember last year Villarreal went down to a late goal in this fixture.  We nearly did so again when a poor pass in the attacking zone was intercepted and Miku galloped past Gonzalo, but Bruno and Zapata were able to catch up and snuff out the threat.  And that, my friends, was that.

FT Getafe 0-0 Villarreal

  It was awfully dire entertainment, and one of those games where one could say Villarreal were the better side, but not a goal better.  We outshot Getafe 14 to 8 (7 to 1 in the second half) but needed a bit of luck or cutting edge to get the ball in the net, and it never happened.

   There were some good things--one of those was Joselu getting on the pitch in the last couple of minutes, along with Hernán Pérez.  Also great support from the Villarreal travelling faithful down in one corner, who never stopped cheering the team's efforts.  Beyond that, I thought DeGuzman had his best game in yellow.  He was probably my pick of the midfielders today, though none had a great game.  (I thought the fouling really put Borja off in the second half).  he tracked back well and made some incisive passes, though he's still learning to move the ball around quickly as our system requires.

   Catalá and Zapata both gave a lot more support than we've seen in recent matches from the fullbacks, and that was great to see.  Both had some good passes that on another day could have become assists, and I really only remember one long ball over the top early on that caught them out.

  The bad things--well, Rossi would I'm sure be the first to say his shooting touch was off today.  He had at least two chances that he could have, and should have, buried, and he also got called for offside several times when he really could have avoided it.  But, he still was his hard-working self out there.

   And the referee had a bad second half.  Some of his yellow cards made no sense, especially one on Marchena that got Raul Garrido sent from the coach's bench for dissent.  It wasn't even a foul.  I thought he sort of lost control of things from about the 50th minute on, and that, plus all the substitutions, deprived the game of any flow it once had.

  But, a point is a point, and hopefully Ruben will soon be available to help Rossi out up front.  I found it interesting that Camuñas didn't see any action today, Perez getting the call off the bench instead.  An omen for the future? 

  We have an easy match coming up next, don't we.  It's only the leaders of the English Premier League, at their home field.  Oh yeah. Tuesday afternoon.  See you then, and ENDAVANT VILLARREAL!!!