10/4 Review and What the Hell Is Wrong With Villareal???
Sunday started with the big game from England, Chelsea-Liverpool, a game which should have lasting implications on the title race, even at this early stage. Unfortunately the game didn’t
live up to the hype, never really getting all that exciting, outside of a sublime cross from Didier Drogba to set up Chelsea’s firs goal. But the best was yet to come…
Sevilla 2-1 Real Madrid-This was an oustanding match played at a high level of intensity and was gripping throughout. Sevilla showed that they are legitimate title contenders, playing
scintillating futbol that had Madrid on their heels from the start. Though Madrid was without Cristiano Ronaldo it wouldn’t have made a difference, Sevilla was THAT good. Ilker
Casillas was unbelieveable in net for Madrid in a legendary performance. This was for a team that had walked through their previous games this season and looking sharp while doing
it. The Spanish title this season is going to come down to who loses points they shouldn’t between Barcelona, Real Madrid and Sevilla. It will be games against the Almerias’ of the
world that will determine who wins the title. You heard it hear first in the first week of October.
The difference between these two big matchups serves as a good yardstick for the English and Spanish leagues. The Chelsea-Liverpool game featured numerous hopeful 40 yard balls into the
box to covered defenders, the Sevilla-Real match displayed smooth, attractive build ups and purposeful ball movement. The Spanish league is just so much better to watch. Due to
the massive TV money flowing around England there are better players there which leads to spectacular plays but the style of play is lower.
What the hell is wrong with Villareal? And Atletico Madrid for that matter? Both are deep with quality players, top level internationals, there is no reason they should be where
they are in the table. For Villareal, the loss of Manuel Pellegrini is apparently hitting them hard, during his time there his teams were consistently strong, as they continued to add
better and better players the teams continued to get stronger. Though he has departed, the core of the teams remains, one has to wonder how much time Ernesto Valverde has left before the
season is a wash.
The story for Atletico is more difficult as they have not had any significant changes from last season. I felt that they underachieved last year, hurt by a bad run of form under the
Mexican Javier Aguirre before he rightly got the can. They are deep with talent and have quite possibly the best front line in the world of soccer in Aguero and Forlan, there is no way
that their form should be so poor. I viewed their most recent Champions League outting at Porto, a tight match until the 70th minute when they completely fell apart defensively. Up
until that point they easily could have been up 2-0. How much more leash Abel Resino has is anyone’s guess, but it is not a stretch to say that there is something deeply amiss with both
Villareal and Atletico Madrid. With how tight the top of the table will be in Spain this season every point is going to count.