Changes!

As of next week, I WILL do a match report for every game I watch. I miss blogging and I've been so lazy with it lately, it's unreal.

For now, just to tide you over, have some pic!
Cute! The height difference! *giggles*

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Midweek round up

Liverpool. Oh Liverpool. Why do you insist on doing this to me? Do you hate me so much, that you make me suffer despite the fact that I have NEVER given up on you? I mean, fucking Wigan. Come on boys. Sort it out, this just ain't good enough. Without a win in 2009, that is beyond pathetic. And as for Rafa and his bizzare decisions of late. Ugh. Rafa, I believe in you. I know you can perform miracles. Just please don't let it get to the stage where you NEED to be performing them. Not every fan is as patient and understanding as the Kickette girls, and quite frankl;y, they want to see results. Subbing your best players in a game we should have won comfortably but were never really close to is not the way to go about it. Especially when there was no apparent reason for you to do so. I mean, I get that there's the Chelsea game at the weekend, but what's the point in having all your players fit at the end if they have nothing left to fight for. Liverpool have lost far too many points this season from drawing against teams they really should have beaten. The inconsistency of this team kills me sometimes. I know they can do it, so why don't they? They went ahead through a brilliant goal by Yossi Benayoun from a virtually impossible angle. It was all going swimmingly until Lucas felt the need to give away a penalty. I don't understand why, with people like Xabi Alonso on the bench, Lucas was even on the pitch to begin with. That moment of stupidity he had could potentially cost his team the title shot this year, and I hope he realises that. I hope Rafa realises it too because I am at my wits end when it comes to Liverpool. They need to pull their fingers out and realise they're not just playing for themselves, they're playing for the millions of fans that believe in them too and what they're showing right now just is not good enough.

Valencia took a 3-2 advantage into this Copa tie. The winner would get a spot in the semi final against Athletic Bilbao. However, they had to get there without there top scorer this season, Dahveed was ruled out with the muscle problem that saw him limp out of the reverse fixture last week and miss the weekend fixture against Mallorca.

They started ok, and found themselves a goal up within 7 minutes, Joaquin's corner being met by Marchena. That put them with one foot firmly in the semi finals. Cesar had a relatively good first half, and having an experienced goalkeeper behind them seemed to calm the back 4 (though still not to the extent that Marchena could avoid a booking. He was lucky not to get sent off after handling in the penalty area shortly before half time. Note to him - scoring a goal does not mean I will overlook your stupidity). Still, Sevilla levelled things up on 35 minutes. They started the game without Diego Capel, but similarly to last week, the manager felt he was needed and called him on. Sevilla look a totally different side with him on the wing.

They suffered the cruelest of fates though. Just minutes before the final whistle, the conceded a second goal. The goal that knocked the holders out of the cup and meant Sevilla progress to the semi finals. I would wish them luck, but right now, the only words going round in my head are 'fuck you'.

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Midweek round up

Ok, this is a day late again. Sorry :S

Anyway, my thoughts on the game last night. Erm...Valencia played well. They scored a very early goal thanks to a defensive error from Sevilla. Sadly, the goalscorer hobbled off just 10 minutes later. I'm kind of pissed off about it really. He knew his hamstring wasn't quite right because he felt it in the last game and asked to be subbed off, but still felt he was fit for the Copa game, and well...look how that turned out. Then again, I can understand it in a way. Every footballer wants to play every minute of every game, it's built into them. *sigh* Somebody please ban hamstrings?

Anyway, that seemed to make Valencia lose momentum. Yes, Joaquin andVicente were owning the wings, but not much was happening in terms of goals scored. Big thumbs up to Guaita, who was in for Renan and doing rather well for himself. He made some good saves, and he was pretty much solid at the back, which was a big relief. I don't remember the last time I was this worried over a goalkeeper missing from a team, and Renan is a pretty big part of the reason Valencia are currently top 4 in La Liga. Naturally, I was nervous about how the defence were going to cope with a relatively young and inexperienced goalkeeper behind them, but for the first 45 mintues, he was flawless.

The second half started well for Sevilla, Diego Capel came on for them and seemed to turn it around a little. Within 5 minutes of the restart, Sevilla were level, much to their delight and my disgust. Speaking of disgust...that referee! AARGH! He had me wanting to rip my hair out for the most part, he was just appalling. The number of bad decisions that have gone against Valencia in recent times makes me start to question whether the referees actually all have something against the team or whether they're actually just that incompetant. Or maybe they have it in their heads that I must die of cardiac arrest from screaming abuse for five minutes straight without stopping to breathe. At any rate, the second Sevilla goal had to be the worst piece of officiating I have EVER seen, and believe me, I have seen some bad referees in my time. The goalscorer was clearly about 350 miles offside when he got the ball, yet somehow the goal stood. Still, lets not dwell on that, eh?

Valencia are not a team to admit defeat, and they equalised after 83 minutes played. As much as I love Vicente, I have to admit that he was a little quiet in the second half, nowhere near as influential as he was in the last leg against Racing. Mata replaced him and created the second, then scored the third. Turnaround complete, they will take a 3-2 lead into the second leg in Sevilla next Wednesday.

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Midweek round up

This game was just as eventful as the first leg tie between the two teams. It's going to be a short match report cos I kinda forgot to do it while watching, so now I can't remember much of what happened. Valencia scored first, some brilliant play from Vicente on the left wing leading to a penalty, which he cooly slotted away. Their lead lasted only about 2 minutes though, the next attack Racing had, they drew level. Vicente was once again the best player out there. Like that's a surprise, he has a lot to redeem and he certainly went about getting back into my good books the right way. The referee (aside from giving the PK for Valencia) was a pile of wank. Not much change there then...must be a referee thing. They clearly aren't capable of making the right decisions.

Villa came on after 60 minutes, then Fernandes and Joaquin came on after 67 minutes, but still Valencia could not find a way through. Their 'defence' was truly awful, but somehow, they were holding on and not letting any more goals in. By some miracle, they survived a few scares. Basically, the final score after 90 minutes of play was 1-1, which meant that there would be extra time in an attempt to decide the tie. If this wasn't successful, penalties beckoned. It's my least favourite part of football. Penalties have nothing to do with talent and everything to do with luck, it's a harsh and unfair way to decide a game.

Vicente played the entire 90 mins and the whole of the extra time period, which is probably the longest he's played in a while. He gave EVERYTHING and more for the team, getting himself beaten black and blue every time Valencia attacked. He got the second goal for Valencia (and took his shirt off. The ref booked him. I say it was because he had base layers on underneath. We want skin Vic!) and then Joaquin got the 3rd. It finished 3-1 to Valencia and they will meet Sevilla in the next round. Vicente can consider himself well and truly redeemed. He was my choice for man of the match, and any sane person who watched the game would say the same. ♥

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Oh Valencia...

I'm not even in the mood to blog on the game. The whole lot was a pile of wank, and that's me being polite about it. Vicente was probably one of the best players on the pitch until he got hit by the stupid stick and got himself sent off. And no, I am not going to go easy on him just because he's one of my favourite players. What he did was downright idiotic, and I'm not happy about him being sent off, but I can't say he didn't deserve it. You kick someone in the face, whether it's accidental or not, then you deserve to go. It just makes me sad because after everything he's been through injury wise and whatnot, you'd think he'd do his best to just play the game and keep fit.

And then, less than 5 minutes later, Miguel got hit by the crazy stick. His reaction to getting a second yellow was so extreme, the manager had to go onto the pitch and haul him off before he got himself into even more trouble. I don't know exactly what went down in this game and what kind of history there is between them, but this was an ugly game, and it was an ugly Valencia performance. What they showed out there was not the Valencia I know and love and it just annoys me that they don't put everything into these games. Playing a weakened side is no excuse, they still had more than enough big name players in there to win. As it is, they were lucky not to lose and ended up basically acting like a bunch of thugs. Please sort it out for the next La Liga game boys, I can't bear watching you play like that when I know you're so much better.

Now, because I'm too annoyed to actually blog properly on this, I'm just going to leave you some pics. Stupid he may have been, but my god, the man is hot.

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Midweek round up

As per usual, I had to try and somehow keep up with two games while paying enough attention to both to write match reports. It sort of worked out ok for me, thankfully Liverpool were on the telly so I didn't have to worry about streams dying on me or any of that crap. Now, Spurs were the first team to beat Liverpool in the Prem this season (and so far the only team) so the boys in red had revenge on their minds. Gerrard and Keane were given a rest, while Torres played from the start in a bid to regain match fitness following his injury. Other than that, it was mostly the reserves playing for Liverpool, as their priorities for the season lie with the Premier League title and the Champions League. Tottenham made no such changes to the team, the majority of the starters tonight are first team regulars.

The game started brightly, with both teams attacking but there were no clear opportunities on goal to speak of. Agger made a brilliant block to deny Spurs a shooting chance. Things weren't going to stay that way for long though. Pavluchenko scored the first, Campbell getting the next 2 to put Spurs 3-0 up at half time. They were fighting to make every ball theirs, Liverpool looked a shadow of the team that had gone so many games unbeaten at the start of the season. Torres was unusually quiet. It was a trainwreck in the worst sense. And to really rub salt into the wound, the referee was Mike fricking Riley, Man U fan extroadinaire.

After half time, Liverpool got a goal back and for a few minutes, it looked like they might possibly live up to their reputation as the comeback kings. Sadly, Spurs restored their 3 goal lead not long after, and it looked like it was going to be one of those nights for Liverpool. This was a game of goals, and just past the hour mark, Sami Hyypia got a goal to reduce the defecit to 2 goals again. Gomes was stretchered off after what looked like a nasty kick to the head but the good news was that he was ok, and did not require a hospital visit. Unfortunately, Liverpool could not capitalise on this to score any more goals, the final score 4-2. At least they can now focus on the more important competitions.

The Valencia game was also a chance for the reserves to play and try to prove to Unai Emery that they deserve a place in the regular team. They did a much better job than Liverpool, and went in at half time a goal up thanks to an Angulo goal. I didn't get to watch the game because there were no good live stream, so I'm relying on my limited Spanish knowledge to get info from the Valencia site.

The second half was basically wrapping up the game completely. They'd been expected to win comfortably even without their stars and that's exactly that they did. Michel got the second goal, Pablo the third and Vicente also missed several good opportunities to score. Valencia were doing themselves proud with this performance and they certainly gave Emery something to think about for the coming games. The game finished 3-0 so I suppose I can be proud of the fact that at least one of my teams won tonight.

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The Thigh is back :D

He played, he scored, he looked pretty. That's enough to keep me happy. Emery, please play him more often in La Liga, I miss him.

I love how miserable/disgusted he looks after scoring. Poor love, it can't have been that bad. I'm honestly not THAT mad about you wearing base layers. Honest. As long as I can see thigh, it's all good.

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Midweek round up

There were two games to watch on my schedule for the evening. Sadly, neither one was on the telly, and I couldn't find a stream that didn't let me down, so this report is going to be kinda shitty today. I did however manage to catch the first half hour of the Valencia game, during which Mori and Vicente scored a goal each. Sadly, Vicente was wearing those evil long sleeved polo neck type undershirts, so he'd better hope that it was really cold out there, cos he never wears base layers! But my god, did he look good. The first half finished 2-0 to Valencia, which was nothing less than I expected really, they were playing a team so many divisions below them, it's not even funny.

They didn't get the memo though, and just a minute after coming out for the second half, Portugalete had pulled one back. Only minutes later, Mori restored Valencia's two goal cushion. The final score was a respectable 4-1 to Valencia, Zigic scoring the final goal for the current holders of the cup.

And because I didn't watch any of the Liverpool game, I'm relying on other reports to tell me how they did. Apparently, Portsmouth were the more attacking of the two teams, particularly during the first half. Having beaten Chelsea at the weekend, this game should have been easy enough for Liverpool, but they seemed to struggle. It wasn't until the 75th minute, when a Diop handball gave Liverpool a penalty kick that the break through was made. Steven Gerrard scoring the spot kick to giveh is team the lead against a very strong Portsmouth side who until this moment had held their own in defence and were difficult to break down. And that was how the game ended. Nothing breath taking, but a win, 3 points and top of the table a little while longer.

Sorry for the rubbishness of the reports this week, but online streams phail and I couldn't actually watch either game. I'm just going on live score updates and whatnot.

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