Yay, we're third!!!

This post is totally late. I apologise. I'm just kind of lazy when it comes to writing these on the day because I'm too busy concentrating, and then I don't rewatch again for a day or two because it's too stressful.

Anyway, Valencia played away at San Mames this weekend. That is a notoriously difficult place to travel to. Athletic Bilbao are very strong at home and the supporters are very vocal. This was clear in the La Liga fixture between the two teams, which Valencia managed to just about edge out. The first half was tense affair, the away side proving the more attacking of the two but without a goal to show for it. Fernando Llorente limped off midway through the half, dealing a devastating blow to the home side's attack.

Just after the restart, Bilbao suffered another blow when they were forced into their second substitution of the evening, Susaeta being replaced by Muniain. Despite the poorer start, it was Bilbao who took the lead in the 57th minute, Cesar making a very good save but unfortunately for him, only managing to push the ball into the path of the oncoming Muniain (who if I am not mistaken is 16 years old!!!) The lead didn't last too long though, and David Villa (who else...) scored the equaliser just minutes later, after having missed a one on one and chipping the ball over the goalkeeper but wide of the goal.

The home side were dealt a further blow to their chances when Koikili was sent off just after the 70th minute for a second yellow, leaving them a defender down against a pressing Valencia side. The winning goal for Valencia came from an unlikely source, Jeremy Mathieu scoring his first for the club following his summer transfer. It wasn't quite game over yet though, and despite the one man advantage, Valencia came a post's width away from throwing away another 2 points in the dying minutes, following a somewhat dubiously given penalty kick against Navarro. Still, despite the numerous heart attacks, they held on for the win, allowing them to leapfrog Sevilla into third and leaving them three points behind Real Madrid ahead of their meeting next weekend.

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Valencia - Barca

So, I am finally getting off my ass to do one of these match report-y things, seeing as it was such an amazing game and I need to talk about it like whoa. This weekend just gone, Valencia hosted Barcelona at the Mestalla. And oh my good god, what a game. It may have ended in a goalless draw, but that doesn't mean it wasn't exciting.

Of course, prior to this game, there was much talk of the leagues two top strikers being pitted against each other and it was expected to be a high scoring event. Injury ruled out Dahveed Veeyah for the home side, and also prevented Zlatan Ibrahimovic from being used. Even so, there were plenty of other talking points.

Valencia FLEW out of the starting blocks, Valdes being forced into a save from Pablo roughly a minute and a half after kick off. That pretty much highlighted how the game was going to be. Even with Perez Burrull as a referee (for those of you who don't know my issues with this man, see here) they fought and fought for the point.

The first half was almost entirely dominated by Valencia. Around the 30th minute, statistics showed that Barca had yet to force Cesar into action, which meant one of two things. Either the defence was doing it's job or the ball just wasn't getting to Barcelona's attack. For the most part, it was the latter. Mata and Pablo were the most influential in terms of goalscoring opportunities, the two of them running the Barca defence ragged. Pablo in particular had a really strong game, his runs were the focal point of most of Valencia's attack. Mata was doing rather well in taking on the role of chief offsider, even though as usual with Valencia, approximately 29384 of the 29385 offsides given against him actually wasn't one.

The central midfield of Albelda and Ever did a great job keeping Xavi and Iniesta quiet, and Messi was almost anonymous throughout the first half. And even though we all know how quick Burrull is with the card, surprisingly, he didn't book Albelda until late on in the game. Considering that Vampy's first foul was is like...the 5th minute, that's some serious holding back from my favourite La Liga ref.

The second half gave Barca a little more of a route into the game, with their usual attacking football trying to shine through but being somewhat stifled. Valencia continued pressing, with Pablo spotting Valdes off his line and trying to chip the ball over the Barcelona keeper from the halfway line. Some speedy backtracking saw the ball safely over the crossbar.

Dani Alves was doing fuck all to get himself off my 'I hate you so much, I wish you would just disappear from this planet' list, attempting to score and when that didn't work, throwing himself to the ground in a very amateur dramatics style to try and get Ever (who was on a booking already at this point) sent off. Replays showed there was contact, but it was so minimal, it wasn't even worth bothering with. Had he been able to con Burrull into sending Banega off, I would have thrown the bitch fit to end all bitch fits.

As I expected, it wasn't until the 80th minute Burrull even realised there was another team other than Valencia on the pitch that he could go card happy with. Valencia ended with 5 yellow cards to Barca's two, and I wouldn't say the home team committed that many more fouls. He was just a lot more lenient to Barca's because, well...they're Barca.

After the game, it was the same old bullshit being spouted. Barca were having an off game. Valencia should have walked away with all three points, but they're too incompetant to do so. Blah. Blah. Fucking. Blah. Whatever all those people say, Valencia did something no other team has managed to do this season. They took points off Barca. And if you would care to look here you would see they did it with half their regular starters in the stands injured. Yeah. Next time you want to bitch out on my team, come and say it to my face. I don't mind if people badmouth them with good reason, but to say they only got a point because Barca were shit and not because Valencia were good - out of line.

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*sighs happily*

Ignoring the fact that practically the ENTIRE first team is sat in the stands observing against Barca due to various injuries, I'd like to direct your attention to Dahveed. If you don't recognise him instantly (and shame on you if this is the case, do I not obsess enough over him on this blog?!) he's the one in orange.

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This is why I have no time...

So I was talking to some friends the other day, and I realised why I never have free time and why my life revolves around football. I have way too many teams that I follow. The list in full is pretty startling, and there's reasons behind almost every one that is vaguely related to one of the two teams I DO support.

So, here's the list of teams I watch/follow/take an interest in:
1. Liverpool - goes without saying. I support them, so obviously, I watch them. Or at least, I watch them when I'm home from work. Which basically means midweek games.
2. Valencia - They're my La Liga team. And I am mostly able to catch their games because they play in the evenings.
3. Sevilla - Palop plays there. Palop used to be a Valencia goalie. It's that simple.
4. Real Zaragoza - Ayala's there. And he is one of the defenders that was at Valencia during their most successful period.
5. Sporting Gijon - Well, aside from the fact it's Dahveed's first team, and Mel supports them, they're pretty gutsy. I like gutsy teams.
6. Barca - This is solely on the basis of their football. They are out of this world amazing.
7. Real Madrid - Albi is there. I miss him like crazy. It hurts watching him in that kit, but I have to do it.
8. Athletic Bilbao - The fact they only bought and played local boys until recently was massively inspiring. And you know, they're kinda good...
9. Racing Santander - Sort of because Ziggy played there for a while and he's our gentle giant. And now, I guess because of Luis Garcia.
10. Villareal - Santi. That is literally the only reason.
11. Xerez - They're new boys and I know fuck all about them, but Renan plays there now, so I guess I have to take an interest.
12. Malaga - No particular reason. I just like them.
13. Getafe - Gavilan plays there. It's Albi's old team. Yeah, we're back to the Valencia related interest.
14. Atletico Madrid - It used to be because of Luis Garcia and because it's Nando's old team. Now I just watch to see them fail because they screwed Valencia out of a CL place.
15. Arsenal - I'm sure that if I wasn't a Liverpool fan, I'd be an Arsenal fan. They're the only other team in the Prem I enjoy watching.
16. Marseille - Mori went there, and I love Mori. And while I might not watch their games, I at least like to know if they did well or not.
17. Bordeaux - That is literally just fangirlishness. Lashes plays there, why WOULDN'T I take an interest?
18. Benfica - Aimar. That is all. I miss that guy and he's so freaking good, he's just a joy to watch.
19. Roma - I'll admit I'm fairly new to Serie A. I didn't really follow it all that much until about 2 seasons ago. But Roma drew me in. Must be the fact they kind of remind me of Liverpool and Valencia...
20. AC Milan - I can't have watched them play 2 CL finals against Liverpool and not like this team.
21. Genoa - Moretti is there. I don't even watch their games. I just look up the scores. Plus, their goalie is my FFT goalie again.

Of course, that's just club teams. There's also the national teams. There's technically three of those that I support, but a fair few others I follow. And of course, we can't forget the Spain bbs...

I'm sure there's plenty more, but I think I should stop there before I go completely crazy and realise just how much I am lacking a life.

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Valencia WON!

And that's not all. They kept a clean sheet! THis is the first time in weeks they've managed to keep a clean sheet, so I am of course, really proud. Mostly with myself for predicting that this clean sheet business wasn't going to happen until Cesar's back in goal.

Anyway, I totally realise that I haven't done one of these match reports in aaaaages, and I am going to try and get back into it. I usually watch most games live anyway, and failing that, I download them and watch them back later. I don't really have an excuse for not getting down to reporting on games. If I'm entirely honest, this isn't going to be a proper match report either. I just wanted an excuse to say that Cesar wins at life and Unai really needs to play him more so Valencia win more. Or at least don't let in approximately 45 goals per game...

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True supporters

I read this article on goal.com this morning which pretty much made me want to hit the nearest thing to me. For several reasons. The main one being that THIS is exactly the type of football fan I hate. I don't even see how they have the nerve to call themselves fans. We're all disappointed with the way things have gone this season, but lashing out at the manager is NOT the way to make things better.

"next year you will be in the UEFA Cup, you will play in the UEFA Cup. That is what you have to do, play in the UEFA Cup, you are a UEFA Cup team"
UEFA Cup or Champions League, they are still making some sort of European cup competition. Which, for a team that has had the troubles Valencia have had, is a pretty big achievement. Obviously, I would rather they made the CL. They are a team that deserves to play CL football, and it's not that long ago they were last IN the competition. But still, I'm not likely to complain about the UEFA Cup. It's better than nothing.

I appreciate that fans are growing frustrated with the way the season has turned out, and I'll be the first to admit that when Valencia were top of the table for six of the first eight weeks of La Liga this year, I did not think that come the end of the season, they'd be fighting to hold onto fourth spot. It's not like I thought that they were going to win La Liga either, but things were definitely looking a lot brighter when the season started. Then a rough patch, players not being paid and 2 months of pretty bad results pushed them as low as 8th in the table, but they fought back and they made that fourth spot theirs. For it to be ripped away by a fucking DIVE is not cool. Yes, they didn't play as well as they should have against Atletico. In fact, they played a little bit shit. It was probably the right result and I'm not going to complain about that. But NOBODY can sit there and tell me that the way that result happened was right or fair, because I just won't listen. And I like Atletico, but if they make the CL at the expense of Valencia, on the basis on THAT result, then no, I will not be happy for them, and yes I will be a bitter bitch about it and I have every right to do that, because it's one thing earning your place in the competition. It's totally different when you have it handed to you on a silver platter.

Fans who don't bother supporting the team through thick and thin don't deserve their name as fans. I know that people are frustrated because Valencia deserve better than what they're getting and when it really matters, they're not fighting, but I can't justify the way these fans acted. I don't even want to justify it, it's plain wrong. It's not like them saying all of this is going to change the result. And shouting things like 'you're just a UEFA Cup team' is hardly going to boost the players' confidence at the stage of the season they need it the most. I bet these are the fans that stopped going to games when the team was doing badly. It's the times that the team needs fans' full support that you really get an idea of who is there for the glory and who is there from the heart. I don't claim to be the best fan in the world, but one thing I would never do is turn my back on my team when they need me to support them and show them that people still believe in them when they need it the most.

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Bitter bitch alert...

I promised myself I wasn't going to blog on any more games if I had nothing nice to say, but quite frankly, this is annoying me way too much to keep it inside. Last night was the Atletico Madrid-Valencia game, which many would argue was a make or break game and a CL decider. I had high hopes for it. After all, Valencia did rather well against the other Madrid team.

Anyway, the game started off badly for Valencia. They had no Silva, no Vicente and no Marchena available to them through a combination of injuries and suspensions. You know it's a tough life when you rely on players like Edu, who has barely played all season, to fill the gap. I'm pretty much going to ignore the majority of the game because...well, it was all Atleti. Aside from the goal Mata scored that was wrongfully disallowed for offside. If the ball comes off the opposition defence, it's not offside. Honestly, am I the ONLY person that knows the rules?Idiot referees.

And the goal Atleti scored that took them above Valencia and into the CL spots, and got them an advantage - yeah, total dive. I mean, fair enough, there was contact. But it's the kind of PK I hate seeing given. Kun saw the goalie coming. He left his leg in for Cesar to make contact with. He was going down before the tackle even came. Yet the PK was given, and Forlan stepped up to score from the spot. Other than that one blunder - which was actually a total refereeing fail - Cesar was IMMENSE. He made so many saves to keep the score at 1-0. It's thanks to him that Valencia still hold a slight advantage should the teams finish level on points at the end of the season. But I'm not making excuses for Valencia. Yes, the match officials screwed them over, but that's a regular occurrence for them. They have the class in the team to be able to overcome that, yet they didn't. Atleti proved they wanted it, and after such a brilliant week last week, Valencia just failed to turn up this week. It's the story of their season. I've never known a more bi-polar team. They're up one week and then the next, they're just total fail. I say that with love. All Valencia fans can do now is pray that Atleti slip up in one of the remaining two La Liga games. But for that to make a difference, Valencia simply must win both of theirs. CL football next season is a necessity, not a choice.

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Shut the fuck up goal.com

I read a lot of bullshit articles about a lot of stuff. Nothing gets me quite as pissed off as a person who blatantly doesn't know their penalty box from their center circle commenting on things that quite frankly, have got nothing to do with anything. See here for the evidence. The sentences that particularly stood out to me however were the following:

"Which is precisely why Madrid are still, yes still, in with a chance of winning the Spanish first division title for the third successive season. Which is why even after going 12 points behind at one stage and becoming a joke of a football club (and even a funnier joke than Valencia CF) they can still redeem themselves."

I like Real Madrid. I'm not a fan of them, but I like them. To call them a joke is beyond all explanation, because it wasn't that any of the La Liga teams were playing badly at the time. It's just, Barcelona really were THAT good. But the next part - that made me want to lash out and punch a hole through the nearest wall. Where the fuck do these people get off calling Valencia a joke of a football club?! They may not have the glamourous history the likes of Real Madrid and Barca do, and they may not be the most consistent of teams, but they try the best they can with the resources they have. Which resources, for the record, you goal.com assholes, have been pretty much nothing for the past god knows how long.

I personally don't appreciate the team I support being referred to as a joke. Of any kind. And to be quite frank, I don't find their situation in the slightest bit amusing. But of course, assholes like that guy wouldn't know that because they're not in it for the game, but rather for the money and the glamour the game brings with it. And you know, I'd like to point out that for a 'joke' of a team, Valencia did a pretty good job of showing Barca how football is SUPPOSED to be played when the two sides met on Saturday night. Only a fucking idiot referee stood between them and victory. Well, the referee and a certain blond defender who goes by the name of Alexis...

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Story of the game last night...

Well, this pretty much sums up the game last night in tweets:

I'm late on this cos I was doing other stuffs, but FUCK YOU ROYALLY BARCA!!

FUCKING REFEREE FAIL! HOW was neither of those things a PK? You hijo de puta!

I AM HAVING A MENTAL BREAKDOWN!! WTF happened to HOME advantage. The Mestalla is IN VALENCIA, I'm sure of it. I just went there a week ago.

OMG, Alexis in defence is killing me today. He's just...FAIL.

Are you shitting me? Messi against 4 defenders and he pwned them ALL and ran half the length of the pitch?

YES YES YES! Stick THAT in your pipe and smoke it!!!

PABLO!!! OMG YOU ARE GETTING SOME TONIGHT!!! ILY! 2-1 BALENTHIA!!!

Heeey, way to go Ruano, you got your defending skillz back a little.

How is it when Valencia players are diving they need to be booked, but it's fucking FINE when Messi does it?

OH FFS REF! Fouls go both ways yes? You give some to Barca and more to Valencia, it's at THE MESTALLA!!!!

(And then this is the point at which I lost my sanity a little)
Uuunnnfffffff Vicente. ILY bb.

FUCK YOU SO MUCH BARCA! I curse you all to die of a horrible flesh eating virus tha will slowly eat away your soul. Just. fuck you.

FAIL! I hate life. Barca, you're so fucking SELFISH. You don't even NEED those points, my boys do dammit!!

I am going to sit down and rewatch the game later today, or possibly tomorrow, and then I'm going to do a proper match report on it, because I have the feeling that if I do one now, I'll miss about half of the stuff that actually happened because I was too busy being a batshit crazy gibbering idiot the first time around.

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Weekend round up - sort of.

Valencia won! I mean, my FFT suffered like hell as a result, because Palop conceded three goals, but still, they won! And they are back up into the CL slots again, so I am happy, they deserve to be there. They went a goal down (and thankfully, I mssed this because of work) but then Adriano was sent off in like the 40th minute or thereabouts for a foul on Dahveed. If I'm honest, it wasn't a straight red. A yellow defo, but that would have been his second and he'd have been off anyway, so you know. Tough luck. Then just minutes later, Mata was felled in the penalty box and Valencia had a chance to go level. Dahveed stepped up and of course, he scored. Was there ever any doubt? Though again, if I'm totally honest, I'm not sure how much of a penalty it was. I've seen them not given. Still, half time, 1-1. It's totally because I was at the Mestalla last week. *nods* I am their good luck charm you see.

Anyway, the second half, and it was rather entertaining to see practically half the Valencia squad sat in the stands. I mean, not so much, because they're all injured, but there was seriously loads of them. I'd like to point out that I was sat right in those effing seats like 5 days ago. For real. I think I was sat where Carleto was sitting during the game yesterday. The referee was another one of them card happy bastards, I think the final total was something stupid like 15 yellows and a red. Yes, Marchena did get his obligatory yellow. They missed several great chances to go a goal up, shooting over and/or hitting the post. Valencia didn't get their first corner until like the...I don't even know what minute, by which point Sevilla already had 9.

Chente came on after about 75 minutes, and I squeed like a typical fangirl. I actually did lose my train of thought. He played amazing as usual, but then I almost always say that. After a long tense wait, another PK given to Valencia, this time for handball. Which in all fairness, I'm not sure it was. I mean, Navarro swung an arm in the air, but I don't think he actually made contact with the ball. Still, if you're going to give a PK for that, then it needs to be a booking. And seeing as the guy had a yellow already...pft, whatever. This time Dahveed wasn't on the pitch to take it, so Mata stepped up and scored. 2-1, advantage Valencia. Pablo rounded off a perfect evening by scoring to make it 3-1. Towards the end, Palop (who was already on a yellow and probably should have got another judging by the referee's general card happy attitude) shoved Mori to the ground and how did Mr Card Happy react? He booked Mori. Yeah, fail. Not that I in any way cared by this point. They had all three points and a CL spot again. Yay!

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Weekend round up

I have been made of total fail where match reports have been concerned lately. Sorry about that. I have several pretty good reasons though. Firstly, I have been crazy busy with work and uni and I've just not had time to sit down and write a match report. Secondly, I miss almost every single Liverpool game played, and I refuse to write a report on something I haven't seen. And thirdly - Valencia hadn't been winning at all until the past two weeks, and quite frankly, I don't want a permanent reminder of that on the blog. It's sucky and I hate it. Anyway, they are back, and back with a vengeance this week, so I'll do a report. There's plenty to talk about!

I did miss the first half due to work, so again, I cannot comment on exactly what happened until I get a stream. I have however seen the first goal - great pass from Silva, great goal from Mata. That's really all I need to say. The second was a penalty just minutes later, which was promptly put away by Dahveed. Yes he's back, and yes he is still scoring. Words cannot express the level of love I have for that man right now. I don't think it's any coincidence that he comes back from a combination of suspension and injury and suddenly the team scores the same number of goals in one game that they'd managed in 4 games before that. Anyway, the first penalty was apparently debatable and I'll have to find a way of watching that before I comment, but it has to be said, players go down a lot easier in La Liga than they do in the Prem, and referees are a lot quicker to give fouls. This is the only thing I do not like about La Liga.

Anyway, I came back in time for the second half, ready to watch Valencia seal a 2-0 win. Sadly, the prat of a referee had other ideas and gave a PK to Getafe withing 5 minutes of the restart. This confused me more than anything, because there was no foul at all. If anything, it was a foul by the Getafe player on Albelda, but no, the referee had pointed to the spot and that was that. 2-1. It didn't take long for Valencia to get their 2 goal lead back though, Raul Albiol making a rare run forward and cooly slotting the ball into the back of the net. The captain CAN score in the right goal. Do it more please.

And then just two minutes later, Dahveed was in with a great chance to make it 4-1, but he was felled by the Getafe goalie. The referee gave the third PK of the night and sent the goalkeeper off. Things were looking up for Valencia, and with a cool head, Dahveed slotted home his second penalty of the night. Vicente came on for Silva with a little more than 10 minutes left to play, and then my telly proceeded to almost kill me by showing a close up slo-mo of his thighs while I was having dinner. I visibly drooled. A little warning would be nice next time people.

Liverpool won 1-0 after a very tense game, the winner being scored by Yossi Benayoun in the 93rd minute. This was enough to put them clear at the top for at least a day, albeit with two games more than Man U. The post was once again not their friend, and watching the highlights of the game, I think I lost count of how many times they hit the post in the first half alone. Anyway, Yossi came to the rescue, and even if it wasn't one of their best performances as a whole, they still got all 3 points, and at this stage of the season, that's the most important thing.

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Are you kidding me Unai?!

So I read this today, and I have to say, I do not understand. Silva's out of the game most likely. He is a left winger. As far as I know, Michel is not. You have Vicente available to you. He's fit, he wants to play and now he has the perfect opportunity to play, and you're telling me they're going to start Michel? Unai, if this is true, you just got bumped so far up my 'do not like at this point in time' list, it's just not even funny. Seriously, what the hell does Vicente have to do to get a game?! Take out the rest of the midfield so he's your only option maybe? Oh no, wait, then you'd just play Marchena...I give up.

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Weekend = fail

I don't even want to go into what the fuck happened in the football this weekend. Liverpool were fail. Valencia were fail. The whole bloody weekend was fail. Except Barca losing, that was not quite so fail...

But anyway, I don't want to write a match report quite frankly. I'm getting sick of writing the same stuff over and over when it comes to Valencia. Vicente's not starting. When he comes on, the team plays about 359482 times better. The next game, he's on the bench again. Seriously, what does he need to do to get a starting spot??

Because I don't want to write anything and pics tend to make me feel better, have some:

Oh Albiol :(

The guy is having such a bad run of late, I don't even know what to say. I thought Marchena was supposed to be the one that couldn't defend...

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No shit sherlock

So, this is what Unai had to say about the game. Erm...really? You think so? I really wasn't going to blog about this because I didn't want to basically fill this blog up with curses, but right now, pretty much every curse in the world is coming to mind. Because seriously Emery, way to state the obvious. The stats speak for themselves. 8 yellows and a red. It is no wonder this referee was punished a few weeks ago for the farce that was the Real Madrid-Osasuna game. I am however completely clueless as to why he was even allowed back. He is clearly incapable of being any good. That's not just the bitter Valencia fan in me speaking. Although that part of me has a pretty big say in this entire post. Let's start with a card by card analysis, shall we?

Alexis got booked on 18 minutes. Honestly, I would have to be deluded to say he didn't deserve that yellow, because hello, ninja kicks and using other players as a climbing frame, while funny, is not cool. And really Lexie, you've just come back from injury. Was it necessary to try and put yourself back on the treatment table? That good are they? He lost the headband in that tackle though. And sadly for Valencia, got his 5th booking of the season, meaning that he gets the privelege of sitting the next game out through suspension. Oh joy!

Joaquin then got booked on 37 minutes. I don't even know what for. Maybe pointing out to the motherfucking idiot of a referee that actually, Dahveed was hurt and the ball should have been put out of play. Ok, so it wasn't a head injury, but he hurt his neck. Poor baby had whiplash and the idiot did nothing. So apparently, now it's perfectly ok to have players going around hitting other players, because everyone except Depor and the ref seemed to think Dahveed deserved a free kick for the foul on him that meant he had to leave the pitch. Obviously, the Valencia players are going to complain when you seemingly have a personal vendetta against them FFS. Knob. Depor were playing dirty the whole game, diving around and trying to get people in trouble. Correct me if I'm wrong, but diving in an attempt to con the referee is a bookable offence, right?

As if Joaquin's yellow wasn't confusing enough, Dahveed then got booked for coming back onto the pitch without the referee's permission. I mean WTF??? He was walking up the touchline waiting for the ref to let him back on, then some motherfucker from the Deportivo bench shoves him back onto the pitch. Of course, the referee didn't see that, he just saw Dahveed on the pitch and booked him. Which begs the question - is that not what the 4th official is there for? To tell the ref what goes down if he can't see it. But it did bring a hot moment. Hot meaning Dahveed said 'puta' and we all know how I feel about that word...
My commentators were talking about how short tempered he is. Hehe, so am I. See, more MFEO material :P

Yellow card #4 was shown to Silva on 41 minutes. 3 cards in as many minutes tells you all you need to know about the referee's ability to control a game properly. Now, my dad was convinced this was worthy of a yellow, and because I didn't see it, I assumed he was right. Then I saw the 'foul' in question and it was the most pathetic thing I have ever seen in my life. Two players jumping for the ball, Silva accidentally brushed the other guys back, he goes down like a sack of potatoes clutching his face. Yes, con artistry like this DOES exist and apparently, it works! Unless you play for Valencia. In which case, you actually DO get fouled and the ref gives nothing.

69 minutes in and yellow card #5 went to Baraja. I can't really complain too much about this, Baraja didn't get the ball but he got the man. Just barely, but it was enough to be a foul. Still, the fact that the guy that got fouled stumbled on about another 5 steps before proceeding to fall flat on his face didn't do him any good in my books. I mean, if you can stay on your feet for 5 steps, you can stay on your feet full stop.

Then, on 76 minutes came Dahveed's red. This just pushed me over the edge completely. I mean come on referee. He tried to pull out of the challenge. His leg was outstretched going in for the tackle, and the second he realised he wasn't going to win the ball, he pulled his leg back. He had every right to go for the ball. His bitchface was epic. He was all 'Seriously? You're gonna send me off for THAT?' And I agree comepletely. He was sprinting and lets face it, he's no slouch. It's not like he's going to put the brakes on and stop dead straight away. The Depor players acted disgustingly, all of them immediately crowded the referee to remind him Dahveed was on a yellow already. And as for the goalie. Grow a pair for fuck's sake. Rolling around like a sissy when there was barely any contact is not cool.

Cesar got booked next, for god knows what kind of fucked up reason. He didn't foul anyone. The referee just decided to hand out yellow cards for the hell of it apparently. What an idiot. The funniest thing in all this though...so far, 6 yellows and a red, and not a single one of these cards was shown to Marchena!

Not wanting to disappoint though, he got his obligatory yellow just a minute after Cesar got booked. Probably for protesting too much. Which again, leads me to the point that the referee needs to read up on the rules of football. As captain, he is ALLOWED to point out when the referee is being a knob and getting decisions badly wrong. Which he was for 99% of the game last night.

And then finally, we come to Michel's yellow card. This one was also deserved, because the tackle was late. So I make that 3 deserved cards out of...erm, I lost count. But it was a lot. And despite all the diving and general twatishness, Depor only had one player booked. I can think of at least 4 instances where they SHOULD have got yellows, and if you judged both teams equally, i.e. penalised Depor for the things Valencia were being called out on, the game would probably have been called off because there wouldn't have been enough players on the pitch.

Basically, the only thing that idiot referee got right in the entire game was ignoring his assistant flagging for offside for Dahveed's goal. Because really, the ball came from an opposition player. There's no such thing as offside when the opposition pass you the ball. Read up on it referees, it's useful stuff to know. At any rate, he just leapfrogged the entire list of people on my 'must hurt badly' list and took top spot. Unless somebody fucks up quite this royally in the next game I watch, I have the feeling he will be staying there for a veeeery long time.

I just have to give a special bit of attention to Depor's equalising goal because seriously, that was the most motherfucking pathetic goal I have ever seen in my life. The defending was awful. That is all.

Sorry about this whole ranting post, I just felt the need to get all of this off my chest, because they say that keeping things inside doesn't help you. I thought I'd feel better after it, but I really don't. Fact of the matter is, this was a game Valencia NEEDED to win, but their defensive frailties showed through again, and they were pretty lucky to escape with a draw after the sending off. Cesar was totally my man of the match. Without him, that would totally have been a loss.

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Weekend round up

So, this weekend was a pretty collective fail. Liverpool drew 1-1. Valencia drew 1-1. I was sad. I know I promised a proper match report today, but I really don't want to relive that. Instead, you can go here to read a fan's views on the Valencia game, and here to read the official Liverpool view on that game.

If I did do a proper report, it would consist of 'WTF?!' and 'You motherfucker' and probably even 'WHHHHYYYYYY????' so I'll spare you the whining.

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So, THAT'S how you get them to defend...

When all else fails, kick collective backside. Cesar's got this goalkeeping/motivation malarkey down to a fine art. Don't believe me? Look at the evidence:

Maybe I should try this too. Form an orderly queue boys.

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Weekend round up

Sorry this is late again. I only just got to watch the Liverpool game and I didn't want to write one of these without being fully informed. Before that, I'd only seen the goals. Liverpool were rather baffling to start with, it was mostly the babies starting. Ok, so not mostly the babies, there was actually a lot of first teamers. But there were 6 defenders to start with. SIX of them!! I don't think Pompey's strikers are that good, and if they are...why the heck did we sell Crouch to begin with?


Anyway, the first half was sort of boring. The six defenders were doing a good job of keeping Portsmouth from scoring, but the lack of firepower was painfully obvious as they went in at half time 0-0. There had been several missed chances already, but it was good to see Agger and Skrtel playing together. That's a partnership for the future. Babel missed an absolute sitter with 58 minutes gone, completely missing the ball. The redeeming factor for him was that he was deemed to be offside, so the goal wouldn't have counted anyway had the ball gone in. Just minutes later, Liverpool went behind, David Nugent scoring after 62 minutes and taunting the Liverpool fans by holding up fingers to indicate the scoreline in the defeat to Everton. Smug bastard was laughing on the other side of his face later.

Pompey's lead didn't last too long, a back pass from Crouch which James handled leading to an indirect free kick, which Aurelio calmly slotted in. 1-1 with 22 minutes of play remaining. Dirk Kuyt scored a goal that should have put Liverpool a goal up, but it was wrongly disallowed for offside. The golden boy of the moment came on with 15 minutes left and those 15 minutes were Liverpool's strongest. Despite the fact they went 2-1 down just minutes after his introduction, a Hreidarsson header restoring their one goal advantage. With 12 minutes left on the clock, Liverpool were facing only their second defeat of the season. However, this team does not know when to give up. Kuyt scored from an impossible angle on 84 minutes after some great work from Torres. The momentum was on Liverpool's side, and nobody was really too surprised when Torres scored the winning goal in the 92nd minute, a wonderful header creeping past David James' outstretched hand and into the back of the net. 3-2, all three points to Liverpool and top of the table for at least a day.

As for Valencia...bullshit. That's all I can say about that. 1-0 to Osasuna. Unai continues to baffle me by leaving Vicente on the bench despite the fact that when he came on in the final 20 minutes, they were Valencia's strongest minutes. The defence was fab for 89 minutes. The one minute they lost concentration, they got punished. Just pull it out of the bag next week boys. It's Valentines day. You owe me some romance after all the shit I put up with from you.

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Weekend round up

FUCK YEAH! This weekend was totally epic in so many ways. I mean, first off, Rafa won the tennis. This made me pretty darn happy. It was down to the football to carry that good mood on. While the rest of the world may have laughed, I was adamant both my teams could win their games.

Liverpool were at home to Chelsea. Winning would take them back up to second, and two points behind Man U, albeit with a game more. The game was a typical Liverpool-Chelsea encounter for the first 60 mins or so. Liverpool had the better chances, Cech was the busier keeper, but the score remained 0-0. Then a tackle from Lampard on Alonso earned him a red card and left Chelsea down to 10 men. Many may say that it was not a challenge worthy of a red because he clearly got the ball, but quite frankly, I don't give a shit how much of the ball he got. The fact of the matter is his foot was way too high off the ground for it to be deemed safe play and had Alonso's foot been planted on the ground, that was a sure leg breaking tackle. Correct me if I'm wrong, but breaking someone's leg, whether accidentally or not, is serious foul play and that is a red card offence. Still, I won't get into that, because Gerrard should arguably have gotten the same punishment later in the game for a similarly ugly tackle.

Anyway, after all that time of just no goals, there was only ever going to be one man to change the score. Back from injury and hungry for goals, Fernando Torres did not disappoint the adoring Kop, scoring the first goal of the game in the 89th minute. Just a few minutes later, he was scoring the second, sealing the result and keeping the Kop singing. Aside from the controversy surrounding the red card, there was nothing Chelsea fans could say about the game, it was one which was dominated by Liverpool from start to finish and the red team deservedly walked away with all three points in the bag.

Also, before I move on, can I just say how utterly VILE Bosingwa is? What he did was just inexcusable, I don't give a flying crap if Yossi was stalling by the corner flag, lifting your foot onto his back and kicking him to the ground is just NOT ON. I want to know what the fuck the assistant referee was thinking when he chose to ignore that really rather red cardable offence.

Valencia climbed closer to third place with a hard fought win over Almeria. Joaquin opened the scoring on 6 minutes, but it was a tense game. Almeria equalised on 22 minutes through Negredo. Their joy wasn't to last long though, a foul on Mata in the penalty box giving Dahveed Veeyah the chance to put Valencia 2-1 up, and he did exactly that. The first half finished 2-1 to the home team.

The second half was just as tense and closely fought, and Valencia extended their lead on 62 minutes, again, Veeyah with the goal. Their 2 goal cushion was short lived though, Almeria reducing the defecit just 3 minutes later with Negredo also getting his second.

The Valencia defence could still do with a lot of work, and they sorely miss the presence of Alexis and Albiol. Marchena is far too temperamental and it was his error that lead to Almeria's second. However, Cesar was looking quite impressive for a goalkeeper who has not played too many games in recent times. That's not to say Valencia don't miss Renan, because they do, but Cesar should give the faltering back four a bit more confidence. Dahveed missed a chance to get his hat trick goal, but Valencia got the 3-2 win.

And basically, the weekend was great. Both my football teams won for the first time in ages, Rafa won the tennis and I am happy.

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Weekend round up

Ok, I realise this is a bit late. It very nearly didn't even get typed up, that is how shitty the footballing weekend was. Not ONE result went the way I wanted it to go. This isn't even going to be a proper match report, because I don't want to go into what happened in the games.

The Valencia game...yeah, total disaster. They lost (in the DYING MINUTES!!!) because Fernandes felt the need to give a penalty away and get himself sent off. Ugh. Like Valencia didn't have enough players missing. The horror started way before that though. Renan hurt himself taking a goal kick and had to be subbed off in the 40th minute. Now there's reports that he's going to be out for 4-6 weeks. Excuse me while I go cliff myself. Not that I don't have faith in Guaita. It's just...baby keeper with THAT defence? Yeah, doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. Then Dahveed asked to be subbed off in the second half because he felt a little off. He's said he'll be ok for the Copa game tomorrow though. Thank God. The one thing that baffled me more than anything though - Vicente played an absolute BLINDER against Racing. He was all over the pitch. He scored twice (the second of which effectively put Valencia through to the next round) and yet Emery left him on the bench. As if that wasn't confusing enough...he then didn't play him until the 80th minute or something equally ridiculous. I mean come on, he's one of the best left wingers in the business, you're really going to leave him on the bench when you need goals? I'm going to leave the ranting about the defence for another day. It'll probably be a long post.

And then. Then, there was Liverpool. A win would have taken them to the top of the table. They nearly got it. Yossi gave away an absolutely stupid corner in the 85th minute or thereabouts. Tim Cahill scored the equaliser from said corner. The Liverpool defence - they did a Valencia and just went missing. Well, not missing. They were there, but not one of them was marking Cahill. I mean, of all the players to leave unmarked in the box, you pick Cahill. The most dangerous player in the Everton team when it comes to set pieces, and you just leave him to score the goal that would guarantee Man U remained top. I despair sometimes, I really do. Stevie's goal was great, and was probably one of the only highlights of the game. Nando missed an absolute sitter in the first half. Robbie Keane - the less said about him, the better. You know things are bad when you see your team pay £20mil for a striker and then don't even realise he was playing until he was subbed off. Just please, sort it out boys. You're too close now to throw it all away.

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Weekend round up

This is becoming a bit of a habit now, but if Liverpool insist on playing at a time I can't motherfucking watch them, then I'll just have to keep linking you up to the official match report. Sometimes, I wish I could just not bother with work, I miss my weekends.

Still, my Spanish boys are rather a lot nicer, and they play in the evenings, so I can usually catch the games. Valencia started the weekend in second and a win would see them finish there, regardless of other results. The started very brightly indeed, scoring in the first minute. In fact, I'd barely had time to change out of my work clothes and into my Valencia shirt. They were back to their counter attacking best, and the chaos of the midweek Copa del Rey game seemed to be totally forgotten. Dahveed then scored to make it 2-0, though his goal celebration had me a bit confused. Could there be another Veeyah baby on the way? The less said about that, the better I think. Mata had a goal disallowed for offside (how many times have I written THIS since the start of the season??) and Silva had several missed chances, but overall, they were the better team. Renan had a great first half, I'm choosing to ignore the few WTF moments he had. And then, just before half time...Villareal scored. 2-1 at half time.

The second half...well, Mata was fouled but no penalty was given. Ok, in all fairness, it would have been a slightly harsh PK, he did get the ball before the man. But still, bb Mata is not a climbing frame for your enjoyment, thank you. In terms of fouls and bad blood, this wasn't much like a proper derby. Sure, there were fouls, like in any regular football game, but nothing too extreme. Then Del Horno came on for Moretti just past the hour mark. Dahveed missed another good chance to score, but the lengthy close up I got of him when he got up made it all worth it. Albiol got subbed off on 72 minutes (and I really hope it's not a serious injury, he got ice on it straight away, whatever it was) which was kinda depressing, because Valencia cannot afford to lose any more defenders right now. And then, not too long after that, Silva put in a fab cross, only for Dahveed to put the ball over from about 3 yards out. Don't ask me how he managed that, it seemed a lot harder to put the ball out than to score. The nightmare happened on 76 minutes. Villareal equalised. It wasn't a nightmare for long though, Villareal had only been level for about 2 minutes when Edu scored to make it 3-2 to the home team.

Vicente and Alexis were in the crowd watching. I am still rather mad at Vic for being an idiot and getting sent off against Racing, Valencia really could have done with him out there today. But he looked hot, so I won't complain. A goalmouth scramble in 89 should have lead to a Valencia goal, but somehow, the ball stayed out. It was a very interesting game though, one of the reasons I love La Liga is that the dramz carry on right up to the final whistle. It finished 3-3 and that leaves Valencia third following Sevilla's win earlier. I just hope the teams below them lose/draw so they stay there.

And just because I feel this was a big moment for him (and we all know how I feel about that armband...) Santi was captain :D

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