Valencia Mestalla promoted to segunda B

Today Valencia Mestalla won by two goals to zero against Alcobendas Sport and got promoted to segunda B division.

The victory was achieved before the president of Valencia Manuel Llorente, first team coach Unai Emery and technical secretary Braulio Vasquez.

This is a milestone for the Valencia youth team as it reversed the trends of recent years of going down and from this season started going up and hopefully the trend can continue.

Valencia Mestalla won on aggregate 3-0, the first match played at the mini Mestalla, VCF Mestalla won 1-0 and now they won 2-0.

VCF Mestalla scored the first goal in the 70th minute of the match through Minano and this basically guaranteed them a promotion, but Carles Salvador put the nail in the coffin in the 90th minute when he scored the second goal for Mestalla.

Technical Details:
Alcobendas (0): Oliver, Gustavo, Nacho González, Álex, Jorge, Municio, Carlos Bartolomé, Dani Martínez, Ismael, Prieto and Gonzalo Rico.

Valencia Mestalla (2): Saúl, Ximo Navarro, Pardo, Borja, Robert, Miñano, Portu, Montoro, Paco Alcácer, Isco and Cristian.

Valencia CF player ratings 2010/11 season

Here are the player ratings for the 2010/11 season. All the ratings are final. The points show the average player rating and accumulative points are the number of games played/rating per match.

note: Not all matches have been rated, so the results should not be taken as a 100% representation of how the players performed.

You can also download the ratings in Microsoft Excel HERE

Player	Points	Accumulative points
Cezar Sanchez	7	105
Sofiane Feghuoli	7	7
Isco Alocron	6.75	13.5
Pablo Hernandez	6.537	176.5
Vicente Rodriguez	6.4615	84
Vicente Guaita	6.2045	136.5
Miguel Angel Moya	6.125	24.5
Tino Costa	6.0833	146
Joaquin Sanchez	6.0769	158
David Albelda	6.0714	85
Ever Banega	6.0652	139.5
Jordi Alba	6.0556	109
Miguel Brito	6.0455	133
Paco Alcacer	6	6
Roberto Soldado	5.9286	207.5
Juan Mata	5.9091	195
Mehmet Topal	5.9	147.5
Bruno Saltor	5.6944	102.5
Chori Dominguez	5.6818	62.5
Jonas Gonclaves	5.625	67.5
Manuel Fernandes	5.5909	61.5
Jeremy Mathiey	5.5167	165.5
Angel Dealbert	5.5	82.5
Hedwiges Maduro	5.4688	87.5
Ricardo Costa	5.3571	150
David Navarro	5.325	106.5
Aritz Aduriz	5.2679	147.5
Marius Stankevicious	5.25	105

Soldado voted best player of the season

Roberto Soldado was voted this season's best player by you the fans. With 47 votes Soldado easily surpassed Mata who was following him for much of the time, but at the end Soldado votes spiked up and ended up getting 20 votes or 42%.

He beat competition from the likes of Juan Mata, Tino Costa, Joaquin Sanchez, Pablo, etc...

Roberto Soldado had a bad start to the season getting injured in the preseason and missing the first several matches. He slowly started coming to the first team, but at that time Aritz Aduriz was the first choice striker and was scoring goals and working very hard, earning him best player of the first half of the season awarded by me


Soldado exploded the last 3 months of the season and managed to score most of his goals, including a quadruple (4goals) against his former team Getafe and continued his goalscoring form until the last match.

Valencia CF interested in Yohan Cabaye

Valencia CF are reportedly interested in Lille's Yohan Cabaye. It seems that the Valencia technical secretariat along with the coach have decided that Ever Banega may leave and that they might want to sell him if a good offer comes along so they are lining up possible replacements for him and high on that list in French international Yohan Cabaye who plays for Lille. Lille just won its first French title in more than 4 decades and Yohan Cabaye has been one of the most standard players.

Valencia is hoping that the French connection and still current teammate Adil Rami is going to be enough to convince the player to switch to Valencia.

The biggest problem for Valencia though would be his price as he is currently valued at 10 million euros and since Lille just won the French title his price is unlikely to go down.

Unai Emery gives the marching orders to several Valencia players

Unai Emery has personally talked with several players who did not know their future and right now everything is clear.

Unai Emery gave the marching orders to goalkeeper Miguel Angel Moya, Miguel Brito, David Navarro, Marius Stankevicious, Nacho Gonzales and Chori Dominguez.

Unai Emery wants Cezar as 3rd choice goalkeepers and thus Moya doesn't fit in his plans, while the board and Braulio want a goalkeeper from the youth team as third choice in order to reduce the payroll for the goalkeepers.

Miguel Brito basically sealed his own future with a series of criminal behaviors and it was well known that he won't be getting a contract extension, now its just official.

Marius Stankevicious to my surprise is likely to leave,  I've already reported that I expect him to stay and not because I have him in such a high regard, but because he has been a starter most of the time and I thought Emery would want to keep him.

David Navarro was known to be leaving, he is not getting any younger, has only one more year on his contract, hasn't been performing well and had an argument with Emery about his choices.
The biggest winner coming from this is Angel Dealbert who very likely to stay with the club, althoug with Valencia searching for one more central defender he is going to be low in the pecking order for starters.

Chori Dominguez has failed to live up to the expectations ever since arriving in Valencia. The man who single-handedly beat Barcelona in the Champions League failed to mark his stay at Valencia and with often confrontations with the coach and late night shenanigans he was destined to leave.

Nacho Gonzales is also on the leave list, but he hasn't been playing for Valencia at all so it isn't surprising, Manuel Fernandes is on the sell list as well, and negotiations with Besiktas are still ongoing.

It seems that Isco could be the huge beneficiary from the departure of Chori and SuperDeporte reports that Emery is likely to call him in the Valencia squad for good, meaning he is going to be a senior Valencia CF player from next season. But still until its official I won't get my hopes high.

Valencia CF 2010/11 season review

Valencia won the last match of the season and now the 2010/11 season is officially over. The club has already celebrated for reaching the objectives of 3rd place and the end of the season. The players are going to be going on their summer vacations or in negotiations with different clubs.

Players like club legend Vicente Rodriguez, bad boy Chori Dominguez, criminal behavior Miguel Brito, and aristocrat Asier Del Horno are all on the leave list. David Navarro and Joaquin Sanchez are so-so, while David Albelda is likely to sing a one year contract, while Marius Stankevicious future depends of whether Navarro stays and possible defensive reinforcements.

The transfer list:
Players 100% staying:
Vicente Guaita, Angel Dealbert, Ricardo Costa, Jordi Alba, Mehmet Topal, Alberto Tino Costa, Hedwidges Maduro, Pablo Hernandez, Juan Mata, Jonas Gonclaves and Roberto Soldado.

Players likely to stay:
Bruno Saltor, Jeremy Mathieu, Marius Stankevicious, Ever Banega, Sofiane Feghuoli.

Players likely and/or certain to leave:
Cezar Sanchez, Miguel Angel Moya, Renan, Miguel Brito, David Navarro, Manuel Fernandes, Joaquin Sanchez, Vicente Rodriguez, Chori Dominguez and Aritz Aduriz.

The play:

The one thing Valencia CF leads all other teams in the Primera league is the amount of crosses. Valencia has the most amounts of crosses, 887 to be exact, which is about 100 more than the third placed team.  This is a telling statistic as it tells us that Valencia’s passing play is lacking. In fact most of the crosses have not found a Valencia player and that is all lost balls. 

Real Madrid and Barcelona have 719 and 663 crosses respectively and yet have scored so much more goals.

Valencia needs to improve the passing play, especially short passing play and must do it more often, of course crosses are important as well, but the players must work on their crossing accuracy as well. 

Depending too much on crosses has also been such a weakness at times for Valencia, because when they are out of ideas all the players do is cross and as already stated with such bad accuracy or tactic behind those crosses it’s just lost possession.

Valencia has scored most goals (15) between the 75^th-90^th minute, while is has conceded most goals (11) between the 30^th-45^th minute. Overall Valencia has scored 62 goals which put it in 3^rd place behind Barcelona and Real Madrid and has conceded 44 goals which put it in 4^th place, same level as Villarreal and behind to Barcelona, Real Madrid and Real Sporting.

Overall Valencia has scored 66 goals, conceded 44 goals and has a difference of 20 goals.

Team	GOALS	ASSISTS	SHOTS	SOG	CROSSES	CK
Valencia	64	51	469	204	887	241

Tactically speaking Valencia hasn’t been very consistent, with changing tactic and formations almost on a weekly basis. Valencia started with the 4-2-3-1 formation in the first few weeks, but after the first loss Emery started experimenting more and changing up the formation.

The players were already changing week in, week out so for a long time there wasn’t one set of staring eleven of basic formation.

Valencia coach Unai Emery has tried a lot of formations from the 4-2-3-1 to 4-4-2, 3-5-2, 5-4-1, 4-1-2-1-2 and variation of the mentioned. Whatever the case might have been Valencia has had good performances most of the time, at least in the Spanish league, while luck wasn’t on Valencia’s side when we faced Villarreal CF in the Copa Del Rey or when we faced Schalke 04 in the Uefa Champions League, even though Valencia were by far the better team against Schalke 04 and realistically deserved to go through..

It wasn’t until the last stretch of the season when Unai Emery became more consistent with the formations and starting line-up with very slight changes if any. This did not brink spectacular results, but Valencia did manage to beat Villarreal 5-0 with it, just so that it crumbled against Real Madrid.

Overall 2010/11 season has been positive with the objectives reached and a good enough run in the Champions League to put Valencia on the European map again and bring in some much needed cash to the treasury.

However the team is still not out of the woods and destined to be in the champions league by automation. The team needs to strengthen this summer, because its rivals will certainly will, as Atletico Madrid look to rebuild their squad, Sevilla look to find a great coach to help them build on the winter acquisitions they’ve made and Villarreal certainly will look to continue their good form this season.

This is why Valencia needs to strengthen the squad this summer and the players that are going to stay at Valencia to continue improving and giving 110% percent in training so that we can at least guarantee 3^rd place again next season and possibly come closer to the dynamic duo – Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Deportivo La Coruna 0-2 Valencia CF - Match Report

The 2010/11 season is officially over. Congratulations to the players, coaching team, medical staff, management staff, the fans and everyone else. Even though our place was secured before this match its good to finish the season on a high note, but it was also a bitter sweet victory since Deportivo La Coruna was relegated because of Valencia and Deportivo is a club with a pretty rich history in Spain. Once upon a time they actually were in the top 4 teams for a few seasons and fought for the title.

Lotina's face tells it all

The match started off with an early lead for Valencia CF after Joaquin Sanchez cross found Aritz Aduriz in the penalty area and this one managed to luckily place the ball in the net.

After that there were some early exchanges with mostly crosses and long passes that weren't really threatening from both sides and the teams were pretty equal in everything from possession to crosses and shots.

There were few exchanges until the whistle for half time blew.

In the second half Deportivo La Coruna went all out and started attacking more dangerosly, there were quite a lot of crosses from the wings and Deportivo players easily crossing past Alba and Bruno, luckily most of the time there wasn't any particualr danger towards Valencia goal, though Deportivo did come close to scoring few times.

Aritz Aduriz towards the end also had a good chance and the ball was going through Aranzubia legs, but the ball barely hit his leg and went outside.

Deportivo were getting desparate and they started threwing all men forward, in the end after a failed corner kick in a Valencia counter attack Joaquin found Soldado alone and this one easily scored a goal and increased his goal tally to 18.

Technical Details:
Deportivo de la Coruña (0): Aranzubía; M. Pablo, Lopo, Colotto, Laure; J. Rodríguez, Rubén, Guardado (Lassad, min. 81); Valerón; Riki (Xisco, min. 66) y Adrián.

Valencia CF (2): César, Bruno, David Navarro, Dealbert, Jordi Alba; Albelda, Topal; Joaquín, Éver (Tino Costa, min. 61), Mata (Jonas, min. 70); Aduriz (Soldado, min. 81).

Goals: 1-0 Aduriz (min. 4), 0-2 Soldado (min. 94).
Player Ratings:
Cezar 7 - Great performance from the veteran keeper, showed he still has fight left in him and made few important saves.
Bruno 5.5 - Not very active going forward, a bit poor on the marking side and allowed a few too many crosses.
Navarro 6 - Had a somewhat silly mistake in the first half when he threw himself on the ground to try and tackle a Deportivo player that way and was fortunate it wasn't a goal, otherwise did well.
Dealbert 6 - Had 2 or 3 shaky moments, especially when forming offside traps, but did well overall.
Alba 6 - A bit better than Bruno with the marking and going forward, but he as well allowed few too many crosses.
Joaquin 7.5 - Great performance from Joaquin, ended the season with a bang, just the way as he started it.
Albelda 6 - Very standard, very secure, good passing and good cover for the defense.
Topal 6 - Same as Albelda.
Ever 6 - A bit slow with his passing and a bit too stationary. Not the best performance from him and needs to work really hard and show a lot more.
Mata 6 - Decent performance, missed two good opportunities to score, lost a few balls a bit too easily, but overall a decent performance.
Aduriz 6 - Scored a goal, but was largely ineffective and his movement was very predictable. If VCF get Gameiro he is probably going to be sold.
Subs:
Tino Costa 6 - Continued similarly to Ever, not better, but not worse either.
Jonas 5.5 - Had one shot on goal, had a a bit limited time to make an impact though.
Soldado 6 - He is on fire, came in and in 10 minutes had 3 runs on goal, one of which ended in a goal. Even though Deportivo wasn't too focused on defense he still showed great positional sense and skill.

Deportivo La Coruna vs Valencia CF - Match Preview

The season is about to close, its been a roller-coaster of a ride with ups and downs, frustrations and happiness, but the objective in the end has been met. Valencia CF is in 3rd place with this last match against Deportivo not meaning anything.

Its been a long season, it the Spanish championship as well as in Europe. Valencia CF got knocked out of the Champions league in the R16 from Schalke 04. The domestic cup fight also ended prematurely with Valencia CF being knocked out from Villarreal.

Still I guess 3rd place is better than most of Valencia's direct opponents did, clubs like Villarreal, Atletico Madird, Sevilla and Atletico Bilbao.

Without straying too far off from this match, Valencia will play with 3rd place secured, but the players will try to win as Unai Emery has suggested and finish the season officially on a high.

Deportive La Coruna on the other hand need a win if they are to avoid relegation, but any other result other than that and they will depend on Real Zaragoza result.

I would have liked Emery to bring some of the youth players to this match and see how they perform and test out the squad for next season, but no he is sticking to his guns and will probably play the best squad.

Valencia CF transfer rumors

There are reports that Manuel Fernandes is close to signing to Besiktas. Supposedly the player has agreed personal terms with the club and wants to stay there. The two clubs are now in negotiations, but Valencia want money closer to 6 million euros because the buy-out clause is set at 8 million euros, but Besiktas thinks that is way too much and is willing to give between 2-4 million euros.

In other news there are reports that Malaga has agreed personal terms with Joaquin and its up to Valencia to negotiate the right price to let Joaquin go. Malaga has been interested in Joaquin for quite a while now and it seems reports have been true. Valencia are likely to sell Joaquin if they get an offer of 8 million euros, but Malaga is likely to bargain with the fact Joaquin has only 1 year left in his contract with Valencia.

He is one of the most expensive paid players lagging behind to only David Albelda and Del Horno and at 30 years old he is not getting any younger.

BTW here are the top 5 paid players in Valencia CF right now:
Del Horno - 4.200.000€
David Albelda - 3.200.000€
Joaquín Sánchez - 3.000.000€
Vicente Rodríguez - 2.600.000€
David Navarro - 2.100.000€

As you can see Del Horno who hasn't even played for Valencia in the past two season is the most paid player and older players such as Albelda, Joaquin, Vicente and Navarro who are past their prime are in the top 5.

The fact that Mata is paid less than these players just shows how big of an financial strain these players are on the club and no wonder the club wants to release or sell all of them but Albelda.

In fact Albelda is probably the only one that is going to stay, but at a much reduced salary.

Unai Emery likely to stay

At yestredays press conference Emery was asked whether he would stay or leave and he said that despite having offers from other clubs like Juventus he has identified with Valencia CF and said he will probably stay and try and reach an agreement.

He said there are ongoing negotiations but that his first choice is Valencia as he feels pretty much at home in Valencia. He said that its not the easiest thing to know the club is talking with other coaches, but acknowledged that its part of the job and nature of football.

There were several clubs lining up for the coach in particular Juventus and Sevilla. He is obviously thought of in high regards.

Unai Emery also stated that he wants to continue in Valencia because he thinks he and the club will improve and continue to grow and post better results. He wants to do better next season and is convinced he will do so.

Unai Emery's contract, new players, Manuel Llorente speaks

Valencia CF president Manuel Llorente confirmed that Valencia has offered Unai Emery a contract extension and the contract is very similar to the previous one, with 1 year validity. He said that the two sides are now in negotiations and if Emery accepts the contract he will be Valencia's coach for another season.

The president also for the first time publicly announced that goalkeeper Diego Alves from Almeria has been signed and he is basically a Valencia player now.

He also spoke about the reduction in ticket prices as he want to sell 45.000 season tickets in the next season up from the current 24.500 42.500.  Manuel Llorente said any income from the season tickets will go towards reducing the club's debt which according to him in 370 million euros.
The debt was 350 millions, but I guess it has increased once again due to interest.

He also announced that Joma will be the official shirt sponsor next year, something that was already known for a long time.

Llorente also spoke about French striker Kevin Gameiro and said they have a verbal contract and are working to sign the player.

Angel Dealbert worst Valencia CF player this season

Well judging by the poll in which visitors voted it seems you deem Angel Dealbert the worst player this season.
Now yesterday there were 89 votes, but since the poll works so weird and you can recover the vote, now there is only 49 votes, but whatever the case may be I've already seen the result and Dealbert lost by 1 point and even with 49 votes Dealbert and Chori both share worst player.

My ratings for Angel Dealbert is 5.46 and my rating for Chori is 5.68, so Chori is actually pretty average overall at least compared to the rest of the team with the majority of players having a low rating of 5 and very few having a rating of 6. Cezar Sanchez is the best player with a rating of 7.

This is all in preparation for my article on best and worst player for Valencia CF that I'm writing and will publish when the season ends.

Vicente Rodriguez says goodbye to Valencia CF

May 15, 2011, Sunday, Vicente Rodriguez played his last match for Valencia CF. Valencia made a special farewell event at half time, the crowd applauded very loudly showing their support and appreciation for the player and he received a Valencia token for his contribution given to him by the current Valencia president Llorente.

Vicente Rodriguez has played for 11 long years for Valencia and has been one of the absolute best when not injured. He basically had 5 superb years from 2000 to 2005, but then all the injuries started cropping up and his contribution was limited.

Vicente has played 242 games and scored 36 goals for Valencia in 11 years, he has also played for Spain senior squad 36 times scoring 3 times in the process.

Vicente Rodriguez had a good comeback when Unai Emery took charge, but by that time he had to fight for a spot with Juan Mata and we all know how good of a first season Mata had, instantly becoming one of the best players in Spain, if not Europe. Unfortunately for Vicente even more injuries would cripple him and essentially his career end with Valencia right now is because of injuries.

Statistics for official competitions:
Debut: July 20, 2000
League, 1st Division: 242
Copa del Rey: 25.
Spain Super Cup: 5.
Champions League: 38.
UEFA Cup: 20.
UEFA Champions League: 2.
UEFA Intertoto: 5.
European Super Cup: 1.
International Caps: 35.

Titles: 2 League, 1 Cup, 1 UEFA Cup, 1 European Super Cup, finalist in the UEFA Champions League, a member of the best team in the world in 2004.

RCD Espanyol 2-2 Valencia CF - Match Report

Espanyol and Valencia were both left somewhat frustrated following a 2-2 draw at Cornella.

Espanyol needed a win to boost their hopes of making next season's Europa League, but Valencia led until late in the game and will think they should have gone home with the win.

The visitors led twice thanks to goals from Roberto Soldado and Juan Mata, but Unai Emery's side were pegged back by strikes from Dani Osvaldo and Ernesto Galan.

Valencia took the lead thanks to a defensive lapse from Espanyol, when Raul Rodriguez failed to control a Javi Lopez pass and Soldado pounced to slot home a clinical finish and score his 10th goal in seven games.

Osvaldo then smashed a fierce shot past Cesar to make it 1-1 10 minutes later, but Valencia retook the lead following a quick counter-attack just over halfway through the first period.

Joaquin, Soldado and Bruno Saltor combined for Mata to score a simple second for the visitors.

Luis Garcia came close for the home side after the break, but Valencia looked likely to extend their lead as they threatened through Soldado and Joaquin.

However, the next goal fell to Espanyol after 76 minutes, when Galan poked home a loose ball after Cesar had failed to deal with Luis Garcia's shot.

Valencia remain third and are still five points clear of fourth-placed Villarreal, who could only draw 0-0 at Almeria.

Espanyol, in eighth, moved a point closer to sixth-placed Sevilla, who lost 3-2 at Osasuna.

source: ESPN

Technical Details:
RCD Espanyol (2): Kameni, Chica, Amat, Raúl Rodríguez, Galán, Callejón (Álvaro, min. 62), Luis García (Rui Fonte, min. 83), Verdú, Javi López, Osvaldo, Iván L. M. (Marquez, min. 52).

Valencia CF (2): César, Bruno (Miguel, min. 73), Navarro, Dealbert, Mathieu, Topal, Éver, Joaquín, Mata (Albelda, min. 85), Jonas (Jordi Alba, min. 68), Soldado.

Goals: 0-1 Min. 9 Soldado, 1-1 Min. 20 Osvaldo, 1-2 Min. 24 Mata, 2-2 Min. 76 Galán.

Player Ratings:
Cezar 6 - Decent performance, not really at fault for any of the goals.
Bruno 7 - Good performance in defense as always actually and did quite well going forward for a change, provided the assist for Mata's goal.
Navarro 4 - Had one big mistake, but then saved a certain goal, still left a lot to be desired and such mistakes are just not allowable for a team of Valencia's caliber, I think Navarro may have sealed his own faith with that.
Dealbert 6 - Managed to save two of the errors Navarro made. He seems a lot more comfortable with R. Costa or Stankevicious as his partner in defense.
Mathieu 4 - Bad performance defensively, he has been way too inconsistent and it showed in this game as well. At fault for the 2nd goal of Espanyol.
Joaquin 6.5 - Good performance from Joaquin, created all sorts of problems for Espanyol all game long, but as I've been saying for so long, he lacks the vision and final ball to be useful. His runs should be converted into goals or assists.
Topal 6 - Average performance, failed to provide much of anything really.
Banega 6 - Same as Topal, did have a shot on goal, but he needs to be more active and go forward, unless he is specifically ordered by Emery to stay back.
Mata 6.5 - Scored a goal, but not as influential as he has been the last several matches. Still a good performance overall.
Jonas 5 - Missed two chances and went invisible for long periods of the game. One of his weaker games.
Soldado 7 - Scored a goal and started the action that lead to the second goal for Valencia. He missed a stunner in the second half though that would have sealed the match. Still a fine display and he continues his goalscoring form.
Subs:
Alba 6 - Came in and provided some depth to the left wing, involved in the few rare Valencia attacks.
Miguel N/A - Continued in Bruno's footsteps, but overall he did not have much to do.
Albelda N/A - Cameo appearance to close out the match.

Valencia CF vs Levante UD - Match Preview

This is the defining match this season and the one that is probably going to decide the 3rd place in the league. Basically everything except a loss is going to mathematically confirm Valencia CF gets 3rd place and that means automatic champions league qualification. This is very important to Valencia as just being in the group stages you get money for it, otherwise you need to qualify to the group stages and there is always a chance to fail there.

Anyways Valencia is coming off from a 2-2 draw in mid week against Espanyol and is in good shape, good news is that Tino Costa has returned to the squad and is selected for this match.

This is actually is local derby so its supposed to be competitive, but judging from the previous match between these two, the chances for that are slim to none.

Emery has selected basically the same squad as a lot of the previous matches with the added inclusion of Vicente. He has not played much and with the fact that he is going to leave Valencia at the end of the season, this is going to be his goodbye match and hopefully he will get to play.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: César, Moyá
Defenders: Miguel, Bruno, Costa, Dealbert, Navarro, Stankevicius, Alba, Mathieu
Midfielders: Albelda, Topal, Éver, Joaquín, Tino, Mata, Vicente
Forwards: Jonas, Aduriz, Soldado

Technical details:
Formation: 4-4-2
Line-up: Cezar; Miguel, R. Costa, Dealbert, Alba; Joaquin; Banega, Topal, Mata; Jonas, Soldado.
Tactical: High defensive line, mid field opposing team pressure, wing and central attacking play, mostly short passing with high frequency crosses from the wings.

Result Prediction:
Valencia CF 3-1 Levante UD
I feel Valencia is going to win this comfortably. With Mata and Soldado on fire right now and everyone looking to close out the season this will be a win for Valencia CF.

RCD Espanyol vs Valencia CF - Match Preview

Another match, another final, another crucial game and all for that still elusive 3rd position. With Valencia CF failing to secure 3rd place earlier, we must now go to Barcelona to face Espanyol and win in order to theoretically secure 3rd place, even though mathematically we'll probably be fighting for until the last matchday.

RCD Espanyol is a team that has been on the decline for much of the second half of the season. Even though it entered the new year as a top four contender and competitor to Valencia CF as it all too often the case in Spain this team was over-performing and slowly but surely has been playing worse and worse.

Espanyol are currently sitting in 8th place with 48 points, just recently outpaced by Atletico Madrid and Sevilla and it looks like this is going to be their final position with Sporting Gijon down with 43 points and Atletico Madrid and Sevilla clearly the better team at least in the second half of the season.

Espanyol is one of those team that is great at nothing and bad at nothing, they play good football and are decent defensively and pretty good offensively, although great at nothing. The biggest threat is probably going to come from Pablo Daniel Osvaldo who is the top scorer with 11 goals.

Espanyol last seven matches have been terrible with only one win against Bilbao and their latest result is a loss to Barcelona which isn't that bad in itself, but combined with the fact that they only won once in the last 7 matches is a problem.

RCD Espanyol squad:
Goalkeepers: Kameni, Cristian Álvarez.
Defense: Amat, Canal, Galán, Chica, Raúl Rodríguez, Víctor Álvarez.
Midfield: Javi Máquez,Verdú, Javi López, Rui Fonte, Isaías.
Attack: Callejón, Luis García, Osvaldo, Álvaro, Iván Alonso, Thievy.

Valencia CF on the other hand are coming off from a convincing 3-0 win against Real Sociedad and is still in 3rd position, with now 5 points clear from Villarreal. So a win tomorrow against Espanyol is a must if Valencia CF is to secure automatic Champions League qualification. Everything else except a win would put our 3rd place in danger from Villarreal who actually have 2 easier fixtures before the end of the season.

Latest news in the Valencia camp is that Unai Emery stopped a potential fight between Cezar, Alba and Vicente after they had an argument in training, which I already write about. Other bad news is that Vicente Guaita has a flu and won't be available for selection, while Pablo Hernandez has complained to pains and it seems like he may have some sort of muscle rupture that will have him miss the rest of the season.

Isco has been included in the squad in the absence of Pablo and if the results goes Valencia's way he may get some minutes of playing time.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: César, Moyá.
Defence: Miguel, Bruno, Navarro, Stankevicius, Dealbert, Alba, Mathieu.
Midfield: Albelda, Topal, Éver, Joaquín, Isco, Mata.
Attack: Jonas, Aduriz, Soldado.

Technical details:
Formation: 4-4-2
Line-up: Cezar; Miguel, Stankevicious, Dealbert, Mathieu; Joaquin; Banega, Topal, Mata; Jonas, Soldado.
Tactical: medium defensive line, mid field opposing team pressure, wing and central attacking play, mostly short passing with high frequency crosses from the wings.

Result prediction:
RCD Espanyol 1-2 Valencia CF
Espanyol has had 6 bad matches in their last 7, but watching them against Barcelona last week they didn't play bad, they were pretty organized and played well. Also how much more can they really looose? Valencia should play good football as well and I think the players are fairly motivated to play for the win. I think Valencia will just barely edge out Espanyol.

Emery stops a fight between the Valencia players

Well you'd think that after so many suspensions and disciplinary actions these things won't happen, but they do.

The players returned to training today following the 3-0 victory over Real Sociedad and you'd think it'll be a relaxed or at least pretty happy session, but the reserves played with big intensity, trying to get in the first place by showing the coach what they know, but as the heat got up and the competitiveness went through the roof, an argument started between goalkeeper Cezar Sanchez and Jordi Alba.

Cezar was unhappy with Alba's performance and displayed his frustration with Alba's performance several times with the culmination happening when he approached Alba and told him that he is playing bad, well Alba replied in an inappropriate manner and all while Vicente was dissatisfied with how Cezar treated Alba and went on to confront the veteran goalkeeper, luckily Emery was in close proximity, ran at Vicente and stopped him, separating the players and certainly getting things under control and stopping a major fight or something that everyone is no doubt going to later regret.

These things are unacceptable in Valencia and players should be more flexible, especially after playing together for 2 or more years. I'd give everyone a monetary punishment and Alba a sporting one as well, since he is young and needs to learn that these things are inappropriate.

Valencia CF 3-0 Real Sociedad - Match Report

After two disappointing matches to say the least, Valencia CF has come back and won convincingly against Real Sociedad. But lets not get carried away as Real Sociedad's defending was terrible and two of the goals Valencia scored should have been stopped if the defense was a little bit better. Still a win is a win and Valencia is right now 6 points clear of Villarreal again, but they play tomorrow and a win for Villarreal will once again put them only 3 points behind Valencia.

Anyways the match against Real Sociedad started very good for Valencia, as there was a chance right from the first minute when Joaquin released a powerful shot after a combination with Jonas, but unfortunatelly the shot was not accurate and went above the goal.

Then in the fourth minute Valencia Cf had another chance, this time Dealbert had a decent header after a corner kick, but the ball went above the goal once again.
Just two minuted later though Soldado had a good chance to open the scoring for Valencia after a good pass by Joaquin, but again it wasn't to be.

After a complete domination by Valencia the goal would come in the 16th minute after a superb through ball by Albelda to Mata who assisted Soldado for the goal. It was a great combination between the players that resulted in a goal.

Sociedad tried to counter and two minutes later Xabi Prieto had a great cross than found Aranburu I think who's shot went straight into Guaita, but then from the rebound there was another shot, but someone from the players managed to block the shot and clear the danger.

Valencia pushed forward again and had few more chances, but nothing particularry serios until the 25th minute when after a poor defending from the Sociedad players the ball found its way to Miguel who's cross found Joans who in turn managed to head the ball past the goalkeeper and into the net. It was 2-0 for Valencia CF.

In the 31th minute after a free kick Arnaburu found himself alone in front of Valencia's goal and with just Guaita to beat, but somehow managed to shoot wide of goal. Minutes later Sociedad had another shot towards goal from a free kick, but this time Guaita saved. After that free kick for Sociedad, Mata had a chance to score, but was brought down in the penalty area, though there was little reason for the referee to blow for a penalty.

The third goal came in the 37th minute, Mathieu crossed from the left wing and Soldado managed to get past a Sociedad defender and then easily head the ball into the net.

With this lead Valencia slowed down the match a bit and carefully closed it out till the half time whistle.

The second half saw Valencia throttling down the gas and playing slowly and with less intensity. Basically the match was already won so the players were conserving energy for the newxt match, which will be played mid-week.

Anyways there were few chances on both sides, though nothing really serious and the vast majority of the play was happening in the middle of the field. Real Sociedad were slightly more dangerous, but their shooting was terrible and even what little half-chances they got, they just ruined them.

Long story short, Valencia really slowed down towards the end and the last 10-15 minutes were all about Sociedad who had few chances to score. First there was a threat on the left side by Prieto who was Sociedad's best player in this match, then there was a slip-up by Guaita who almost gave away a free goal, but managed to recover in the last second.

Ultimately the second half was very boring, with very few chances with no concrete chances for both sides and endless passes in the middle. In the end the 3-0 from the first half was enough for Valencia CF to win and get the much needed 3 points and get back to 6 points difference against Villarreal.

Technical Details:

Valencia CF (3): Guaita; Miguel, Dealbert, Ricardo Costa, Mathieu; Albelda (Topal, min. 80), Éver, Joaquín (Pablo Hernández, min. 63); Jonas, Mata y Soldado (Aduriz, min. 63).

Real Sociedad (0): Bravo; Martínez (De la Bella, min. 45), Demidov, Mikel, Estrada; Markel, Aranburu (Elustondo, min. 62), X. Prieto, Zurutuza, Griezmann; Tamudo (Ifrán, min. 68).

Goals: 16th min. 1-0, Soldado; 25th min. 2-0, Jonas; 37th min. 3-0, Soldado.

Player Ratings:
Guaita 6 - Not the most assured performance from him, had two or three questionable responces.
Miguel 6 - Not troubled much at the back went forward a bit and did reasonably well.
R. Costa 6 - Not much to do, generally took care of everything that came on his way.
Dealbert 6 - Same a R. Costa, pretty good performance.
Mathieu 6.5 - Had a little bit more difficult time against Prieto, but ultimatelly did a good job and provided an assist as well.
Albelda 7 - Superb performance from the veteran who provided great cover for the defense and really accurate passing, had a great through ball to Mata that lead to the first goal.
Banega 6 - Kept possession well as usual, was more reserved to defending this time around and rarely venture forward.
Joaquin 5.5 - Not the best display from him, had few runs and a shot on goal, but his contribution ended there. Really needs to work on his vision and final ball.
Mata 6.5 - All over the pitch, good combinations with every player and provided an assist, but needs to be a little bit more on his own position at left wing to help out Mathieu more.
Jonas 6 - Some nice combinations with Joaquin, Soldado and Mata, scored a goal, but his movement was rather poor at times and should have been in better positions at crucial moments.
Soldado 7 - Two goals, for the first one he found himself in the right place and the right time and for the second he past a defender and headed the ball into the net, good performance overall.
Subs:
Aduriz 5.5 - Came on for Soldado and failed to follow in his footsteps with a rather poor showing.
Pablo 5.5 - Came for Joaquin and he pretty much the same effect with few runs and a shot which he missed terribly.
Topal N/A - Not enough time.

Unai Emery 5 - Obviously directed the players better this time around and a good change in defense, but he was lucky that Topal got injured and wasn't fully fit so he started Banega and VCF won, otherwise it would have been a draw or loss for sure. So quite lucky that destiny/random chance/luck made the decision for him to start Banega instead of Topal.