Diego Alves Profile

Name: Diego Alves
Playing position: Goalkeeper
Previous club: Almeria CF
Number: 1
Birthday: 24 June, 1984 (Age 28)
Nationality: Brazilian
Height: 1.88m
Weight: 83kg
Contract ends: 30 June, 2015
Player Rating:



Market Value:

Previous clubs:
Atletico Minero, Brazil 2004-2007
Almeria CF, Spain 2007-2011

2011/12 STATISTICS
TEAM	Competition	GS	SB	SV	W	D	L	FC	FS	YC	RC
Brazil	Int	2	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
Valencia	UCL	6	0	26	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Valencia	La Liga	12	0	45	0	0	0	0	5	3	0
Valencia	Europa	6	0	39	4	1	3	0	1	2	0
Valencia	Esp Cup	6	0	0	3	2	2	0	0	2	0
Season Totals		32	0	110	9	3	5	0	7	7	0

2010/11 STATISTICS
TEAM	Competition	GS	SB	SV	W	D	L	FC	FS	YC	RC
Almeria	Esp Cup	0	0	0	2	0	2	0	0	0	0
Almeria	La Liga	33	0	158	0	0	0	2	5	5	0
Season Totals		33	0	158	2	0	2	2	5	5	0

2009/10 STATISTICS
TEAM	Competition	GS	SB	SV	W	D	L	FC	FS	YC	RC
Almeria	La Liga	37	0	168	0	0	0	4	1	3	1
Season Totals		37	0	168	0	0	0	4	1	3	1

2008/09 STATISTICS
TEAM	Competition	GS	SB	SV	W	D	L	FC	FS	YC	RC
Almeria	Esp Cup	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Almeria	La Liga	31	0	108	0	0	0	2	6	3	0
Season Totals		31	0	108	0	1	0	2	6	3	0

2007/08 STATISTICS
TEAM	Competition	GS	SB	SV	W	D	L	FC	FS	YC	RC
Almeria	La Liga	21	1	70	1	1	0	1	2	3	0

GLOSSARY

GS: Games Started, SB: Used as Substitute, G: Goals, A: Assists, SH: Shots, SG: Shots on goal, YC: Yellow Cards, RC: Red Cards, FC: Fouls Committed, FS: Fouls Suffered, SV: Saves, OF: Offsides, W: Wins, D: Draws,L: Losses

La Liga start likely to be postponed

Don't hold your breathe for the start of La Liga because as it seems now its as far from starting as possible. The players are now moving an inch in their requests and on the other hands the Liga and clubs management aren't ready to accommodate the players wishes.

Today's meeting went without any sort of closing in on the positions and even though there is going to be another meeting in Friday, its very unlikely La Liga is going to start this week.

If the official matches don't start then Valencia CF will play a friendly match again an opponent yet to be determined.

Official: MSC Cruceros new Valencia CF sponsor

The cruise company, Cruise becomes the official team logo and appears on the left sleeve of the kit for next season.

Valencia CF and MSC Cruises, one of the cruise industry's leading companies in the world, have signed a sponsorship agreement, which the cruise line Cruise becomes the official team logo and appears on the left sleeve the kit for next season.

MSC Cruceros operates in the Mediterranean, South Africa, Brazil, the Caribbean, South America, the Indian Ocean, as well as South and West Africa.

The official presentation will take place on Monday the 29th of August, on board the MSC Sinfonia.

Juan Bernat sign professional contract to 2015 with Valencia CF

Preseason discovery player Juan Bernat has signed a professional contract with Valencia CF that will keep him at the club until 2015.

Technical secretary Braulio Vázquez said of the player, "It's very important to have quality players, which Bernat is, and he also has great commitment to Valencia. Bernat is a boy with great qualities, he's fast, technical, can score goals, and has personality. But I like is humility and willingness to work."

The player himself said that he is humbled to be given a professional contract and said that he will work hard to be useful to the team.

UD Almeria vs Valencia CF - Match Preview

First let me give support for Paco for the loss of his father Paco senior, RIP.

Now today at 19.00PM GMT+1 time Valencia CF will have the last match of the preseason and with that being the final match before La Liga kicks off hopefully on 21st of August and the strike nonsense is being worked out.

Valencia CF won the last match against Roma on home soil and had the nice presentation of the players. According to reports Guaita, Mata and Albelda got the biggest cheers from the crowd.




Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Diego Alves and Vicente Guaita
Defense: Bruno Saltor, Miguel Brito, Ricardo Costa, Angel Dealbert, Adil Rami, Jeremy Mathieu, Jordi Alba.
Midfield: Mehmet Topal, David Albelda, Ever Banega, Hedwiges Maduro, Alberto Tino Costa, Pablo Hernandez, Sofiane Feghouli, Juan Bernat, Pablo Piatti, Juan Mata, Daniel Parejo.
Attack: Aritz Aduriz, Jonas Goncalves and Roberto Soldado.

Valencia CF 3-0 AS Roma - Match Report

This was the presentation match played in Valencia in the Mestalla in front of the home crowd and basically a must win match for Valencia CF. The team did not disapoint and disposed AS Roma by 3 goals to zero.

The first ten minutes of the match both sides were fighting for possession with Roma having more of the possession, but Valencia being more dangerous from the flanks. Pablo especially was cousing the Romans some trouble down the right flank.

On the other side though Alba would send a cross that barely missed Piatti on the far post in the 14th minute of the match and Bernat and Alba would link up well, but fail to create a scoring opportunity. Soldado would take things into his own legs and steal a ball from the Roma defender and then passed it to Pablo Hernandez, who then passed the ball towards the incoming Piatti, but it would be Roma's defender Federico Viviani that would score an own goal after a confusion between Piatti, Viviani and Roma goalkeeper.

From there on Valencia would threaten quite a lot and there were several half chances on both flanks. Pablo would once again be in the midst of the proceedings in the 29th minute as he surged down the right flank and passed the ball to the lone Piatti, but Piatti shot at the goalkeeper.

Then after a Roma attack failed, Dealbert would pass the ball to Piatti and this one sprinted forward, came in a clearing and passed the ball towards Soldado and he would make it 2-0 for Valencia CF.

From there on the chances for Valencia would keep coming, with Soldado stealing the ball from a Roma defender once more, but ultimately the first half would finish 2-0.

Second half started with Roma putting more pressure the first ten minutes and seemed as they would make a comeback which culminated in Bojan hitting the bar in the 54th minute, but Piatti, Bernat and Pablo would make a stop to that with their constant runs from the flanks and put Roma on the defensive.

Valencia then had the following 12 minutes of play with dangerous plays from Piatti, Pablo, Soldado and Bernat when the substitutions started happening in the 63rd minute and the tempo of the game changed.

The substitutions would do good with Banega, Mathieu and Mata combining well on the left wing and creating an opportunity, then Mata would have a free run, but only to lob the ball over Roma defense, but also over Jonas.

The Paco Alcacer would come on for Soldado and almost immediately score a goal after Jonas played a good through ball to Mathieu and this one provided the cross to Paco.

Ultimatelly it was a great match from Valencia CF in which we really saw the attacking powers of our team, even though the defense is still probably our weakest link.

Technical details:
Valencia CF (3): Alves, Bruno, Rami, Dealbert, Alba; Albelda, Tino Costa, Pablo, Bernat, Piatti y Soldado. También jugaron Banega, Parejo, Topal, Jonas, Mata, Mathieu, Miguel, Maduro, Ricardo Costa, Alcácer.
AS Roma (0): Lobont, Rossi, Burdisso, Heinze, Jose Ángel; Viviani, Pizarro, Perrotta; Borriello, Bojan y Totti. También jugaron Verre, De Cesare, Cassetti, Stekelenburg, Taddei, Antei, Caprari, Okaka, Simplicio.

Goals: 1-0, m.20: Viviani (o.g); 2-0, m.36 Soldado; 3-0, m.83 Alcácer.


Player Ratings:
Diego 6 - Good performance by Diego, wasn't tested too much, but dealt with what came towards him well.
Bruno 5.5 - Wasn't too much troubled at the back and went forward quite enough to support Pablo.
Rami 6 - Destroys the opposition play before they begin an action and dealt well with who he marked.
Dealbert 6 - Had a bit of a mistake early on and then gave away a ball needlessly, but also marshaled the penalty area with conviction.
Alba 6 - Involved in a lot of the actions forward and did well defensively as well.
Albelda 5.5 - Covered well for the defense, but other than that was pretty much inactive.
Tino Costa 6 - Wasn't very influential at all, had a few good runs and passes, but didn't contribute much in attack, but did well defensively.
Pablo 7.5 - Great game from Pablo with an early shot, some great passes and crosses and was dangerous throughout the match.
Piatti 8.5 - Man of the match performance from Piatti. Run tirelesly all night, provided numerous passes and crosses in the penalty area, found himself in dangerous positions all the time, provided an assist and forced an own goal from a Roma defender.
Bernat 7 - Each week he gets better and better and with his pace and agility caused problems for Roma all match long. Linked up well with Piatti and Alba.
Soldado 7.5 - Great performance, stole two balls from the defenders, one lead to the first goal, the second one not so much, but was very involved and active in the game, some great movement and link up play with Piatti and Pablo.
Subs:
Parejo 5.5 - Had an amazing pass towards Bernat I think and with what time he got was pretty good overall.
Topal 5.5 - Made few clean tackles and won the ball back, did well in what time he got.
Banega 5.5 Wasn't as impressive as the last match, had 2 or 3 silly passes, but also did well on the left when he provided cover for Mathieu and Mata.
Mathieu 6.5 - Great match by Mathieu, provided an assist and defended great on his side.
Miguel 5 - Had little time to do anything right or wrong.
Jonas 5.5 - Provided a great pass to Mathieu that lead to the 3rd goal. Otherwise decent in the time he had.
Mata 5.5 - Decent performance by VCF most valued player, had few passes and crosses, but did not have enough time to do much.
Maduro 5 - Not enough time
Costa 5 - Not enough time
Paco 6 - Came in and scored a goal within few minutes. Great start for Paco.

Valencia CF vs AS Roma - Match Preview

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls this is it. Valencia CF is going to play the final preparation match tomorrow against Roma in the Mestalla for the trophy Naranja. This is the first match the home fans are going to watch the team and is going to be a representation of sort for the new players, as well as the official numbers and captains.

Now when I say final match, its not actually the last match, since Valencia CF is going to play against Almeria just 2 days later as has been agreed in the purchase of Pablo Piatti. Even though Valencia CF is going to play just 2 days later this is going to be the important match as Unai Emery is likely to field the strongest eleven on the pitch, play great and win in order to attract more fans for the upcoming season.

AS Roma has gone through a lot of restructuring recently with the change of ownership this year and the end of the Sensi family presidential reign which has spawned since 1993. The new owner is Thomas Richard DiBenedetto along with Unicredit who now own 67% of the shares of Roma in a 60-40% deal between the parties.

AS Roma have brought in Luis Enrique former Barcelona player and previous Barcelona B side coach as a new coach and new signings Erik Lamela and Bojan Krkic.

Roma's preseason has been a mixed bag and although they've won 4 out of their 5 matches, all but the one they've lost have been against a lot weaker sides. The one decent competition in PSG and they lost 3-0, so this match against Valencia is going to probably be their sternest test so far.


Roma results:
Vasas 0-1 Roma
Roma 1-0 Wacker
Roma 0-3 PSG
Roma 3-0 Sud Tirol
Roma 10-0 Brunico

Valencia CF has been a little bit more convincing, but stupid individual mistakes have cost the team so much, just as we saw in the last match against Liverpool where they won 2-0 because of individual mistakes by David Albelda and Angel Dealbert. So some matches have been great, while other very poor, so I'm keen to see how we play tomorrow against Roma and whether Valencia CF is competitive enough to challenge for at least Copa Del Ray honors.

The training has been going well with a lot of different practices and routines. From defensive training to technique, offensive moves, tactics and just physical strength it has it all, but will it all come together for some great team performance? I sure hope so and winning against Roma is going to be a good place to show it all.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Diego Alves and Guaita.
Defense: Miguel, Bruno, Dealbert, R.Costa, Jordi Alba, Mathieu.
Midfield: Maduro, Tino Costa, Banega, Albelda, Topal, Feghouli, Juan Bernat, Pablo, Piatti and Parejo.
Attack: Paco, Jonas and Soldado.

Technical Details:
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Diego; Miguel, Rami, Costa, Mathieu; Feghuoli, Topal, Tino, Piatti, Parejo; Soldado.
Tactics: mixed passing, high opposing field pressure, 3-way attack and positional changes from the wings, interchanging with the CM and AM

Which center back should VCF buy? - Douglas Franco

Now that Valencia CF has failed to sign any of the central defenders it has followed and were top priority the club finds itself with no good options for the center back option and Llorente has said to Emery and Braulio that they must be convinced by a CB in order to sign and that he would not waste money on potential flops.

I've done a research in potential center backs that:

1. Are of great quality
2. Will come cheap
3. Are young and long term solutions

While I must say that there were too few candidates at this particular moment that fill all of Valencia CF benchmarks I've kept coming across Twente central defender Douglas Franco.

He is a defender of great quality and a lot of strong sides have tried to buy him over the last 3 years, including top Dutch club Ajax. He will also come cheap as his contract with Twente ends in 2012. So with only a year left on his contract Twente would be willing to sell if Valencia CF can manage to convince the player to come. He has certainly talked about the possibility of leaving if a big club from abroad comes and Valencia CF is a big club.

And thirdly he is young, only 23 years old and has enough quality and potential to be a long term solution to our defensive problems. He has certainly been rock solid in defense for Twente and I don't see any reason why that won't be the case at Valencia CF.

Born in Florianópolis, Douglas began his career with Joinville at the age of 16. He joined Dutch team FC Twente on trial prior to the 2007/2008 season, playing his first match in a friendly against Borussia Monchengladbach on 7 September 2007. Douglas made his competitive Twente debut on 22 December 2007, coming on as a 90th minute substitute in an Eredivisie match against SC Heerenveen. His first start came on 23 February 2008 against AZ Alkmaar, in a 0-0 draw.

Douglas Franco is currently valued at 8 million euros by transfermarkt.co.uk but remember he only has one year left on his contract and if Valencia CF was willing to give 5 million for Mangala who although quite talented was playing in quite a weak league and he probably would have had troubles in Spain with the technical play the attackers exhibit.

Douglas on the other hand plays in the Dutch league, one of the most technical leagues in the world, second only to La Liga. Ajax as you all should know has been playing the "Barca" type possession football for over 20 years. So he will feel right at home in the Spanish league and wouldn't have any troubles adapting.

Again I don't write these things lightly and as seen already all the players I've suggested in my "who should Valencia cf buy" editorials all of the players prices have jumped over a period of only few months.
For example Ireneusz Jeleń from my winter transfer article price has increased from 4 million euros to 5.5 million euros and Leighton Baines has gone from 7 million euros to 17 million euros in value.

I suspect the same will be with my summer transfer recommendations and in a way it has already happened with Benedikt and Maximiliano Pereira who had a fantastic Copa America run with Uruguay and became champions.

So there you have it Braulio Vasquez your new transfer target and now you need to go watch some of his matches , make the assessment and get down to business and sign this player.

Liverpool FC 2-0 Valencia CF - Match Report

Valencia CF lost for the second time in preseason and it was a ugly loss, since Liverpool were not showing any positive results before this match and Valencia CF were in great shape. What this match shows is that the players need to gel and its now time for Unai Emery to stop changing the whole team in 45 minutes and choose the best: Guaita; Miguel, Rami, ?, Alba; Maduro, Banega; Feghuoli, Parejo, Piatti; Aduriz and field them for 70 minutes the next 2 matches. I know Aduriz and Guaita are injured, but from what we've seen so far and from what we know from last season they are the best options now in their respective positions.

What we saw today from Ever Banega was amazing and if he can stay in shape, have his mind in the right place and work hard he can be our best player and really help Valencia CF finish high, high, high.

Pablo is also lacking in the preseason and Feghuoli has been at least 2x better than Pablo so far. Surely Emery must start Feghuoli before Pablo after being better in all matches. Its also obvious that Juan Mata is really out of form and that Piatti plays best at left or right and not as an attacking midfield. I'd reserve the AM position for Parejo and Canales.

This match showed that VCF really has a lot more work to do and with still almost 1 month left before the start of the competition we need to improve and the team needs to gel more, especially the new signings although each match is better and better.

As far as the play by play of the match goes Carroll scored an absolute crap goal with Albelda gifting him the ball and Carroll actually managed to hit the woodwork the first try and only managed to score in the second try, talk about someone sucking with his feet.

The second goal for Liverpool came from Dirk Kuyt after maybe they were played onside by ?Dealbert? maybe. I need to watch a replay to see it again, to me it seemed like a total mess in the penalty area and someone should have headed the ball out of the area  even before someone from Liverpool has a chance to shoot. Diego Alves should also have done a better job, the ball was moving with 1kph towards the net, anyone could have catch up to it and save it.


Technical Details:
Liverpool FC (2): Reina, Johnson, Carragher, Agger, Fabio Aurelio, Adam, Spearing, Henderson, Aquillani, Downing y Carroll. También jugaron Kelly, Robinson, Leiva, Kuyt, Cole, Maxi, Ngog, Flanagham y Kyrgiakos.
Valencia CF (0): Alves, Bruno, Rami, Topal, Jordi Alba, Pablo, Albelda, Parejo, Mata, Piatti y Jonas. También jugaron Miguel, Maduro, Mathieu, Tino Costa, Soldado, Bernat, Ever, Dealbert y Ricardo Costa.
Goals: 6min 1-0 Carroll; 89min 2-0 Kuyt.

Diego 5 - Poor performance, even though he did nice against Caroll first try he should have reacted faster in the rebound. Basically assisted Liverpool on 3 occasions with his bad passing or shooting.
Bruno 5 - Beaten twice by Downing early on, failed to offer much support in attack and was quite reserved with defending.
Rami 6 - Good and assured performance by Rami, managed to stop several Liverpool attacks before they progressed.
Topal 6 - Had two good interventions and surprisingly good in defense.
Alba 6 - Did well in defense, certainly not beaten by anyone, had 3 good runs forward and provided few crosses.
Pablo 5 - Apart from two decent runs, was largely ineffective and failed to provide any crosses, any passes or anything positive in any way.
Albelda 1 - Absolutely terrible performance from the captain. Passed the ball to Carroll for the first goal, made several similar mistakes, a stupid foul for a yellow card. Right now Maduro is certainly ahead.
Parejo 5 - Not the best performance from Parejo, had a lot of missed passes, although he had absolutely no help in midfield. Will want to improve upon this performance.
Mata 4.5 - Absolutely invisible and when he got the ball he usually stalled the attacks or lost the ball. Right now 35 million euros seem way too good to pass out if some1 is willing to pay.
Piatti 5.5 - The most consistent player in preseason failed to lift up Valencia this time, and as the rest he failed to provide much attacking threat. Was a little bit better than Pablo though with his direct running.
Jonas 5 - Few runs here and there, but failed to get in good positions or create some attack going.
Subs:
Mathieu 6 - This is the Mathieu we want to see. Great in defense, making timely sliding tackles and winning the ball or at least postponing an attack and making forward runs and really troubling Liverpool.
Miguel 6 - Great improvement over Bruno and his attack mindedness really helps Valencia in attack, as long as there is someone to cover for his absence.
Maduro 5.5 - Guaranteed his spot before Albelda tonight. Really good passing, made himself available to receive passes and helped out in defense when needed.
Tino Costa 5.5 - Works really hard and runs constantly, but unfortunately can not control the midfield. Does good though when more forward.
Feghuoli 6 - Makes Pablo look like a school boy or something. Absolutely deserves to start over Pablo. Had great link-up with Miguel and Banega, got into dangerous positions, all he was missing today was lethality to finish off the actions.
Soldado 5 - Pretty much the same as Jonas. Had one good chance, but failed to score. Needs to improve!
Bernat 5.5 - Small improvement over Mata, was more involved and had two good runs on the left, went missing a bit towards the late game.
Banega 6 - Amazing performance from Banega. When he is in shape and his head in the right place he is an amazing player. Single-handedly overcome Liverpool midfield and created few scoring chances with his direct passing.
Costa 5 - Calm and collected, did not have much to do in 15 minutes.
Dealbert 5 3 - He had a good block as soon as he came in, some good passing range shown, may have been at fault for putting onside Liverpool attack for the second goal. I need to watch a HQ replay to judge properly though. May rewrite this rating after seeing a replay. EDIT: Well I just watches a good quality replay and yes Dealbert did play the whole Liverpool attack onside. Costa isn't too innocent as well, they both moved and that was even before the cross flew, Costa stopped though and Dealbert kept running. Still its 100% Dealbert fault, he should have known better.

Liverpool FC VS Valencia CF - Match Preview

Valencia CF is going to play the 6th preseason match tomorrow against English side Liverpool FC. From the looks of it Liverpool is not going to present much challenge to Valencia CF as Liverpool have been doing really poorly in their preseason matches so far and with their season to start earlier than Valencia it doesn't look good for the boys in red.

Valencia CF results so far:
PSV 0-2 Valencia CF
Leicester City 0-1 Valencia CF
Rapid Wien 4-1 Valencia CF
Sporting Lisbon 0-3 Valencia CF
Hamburg SC 1-2 Valencia CF

Liverpool FC results so far:
Malaysia XI 3-6 Liverpool FC
Hull City 3-0 Liverpool FC
Galatasaray 3-0 Liverpool FC
Valerenga 3-3 Liverpool FC

Liverpool FC ended last season on a very positive note with new manager Kenny Dalglish leading the team to a 6th place finish beating out Everton and acquiring the second most points of the second half of the season under Kenny.

Liverpool FC fans had every reason to be excited for the new season with new owner, new manager and some great signings in the winter transfer market last season, the likes of Suarez and of course the infamous and way overpriced Andy Carroll. He became one of the most talked about players and basically the laughing stock at English football and the overpriced English market.

Liverpool FC would do really nice in the summer transfer market as they brought in Steward Downing from Aston Villa, Charlie Adam from  Blackpool, the surprise player last season with his great performances. Apart from those purchases Liverpool FC were interested in Valencia's own Juan Mata and there was a lot of speculation that Mata could join Liverpool, but ultimately they decided to bring in Downing as he was a cheaper option, albeit a lot weaker option.

With Valencia CF being their last preseason match before the premier league kick-off Liverpool will be hoping to show their A game and be competitive against their toughest opponent yet Valencia CF.

Valencia CF on the other hand are coming to this match quite comfortable and confident in their ability after a great showing in Germany against Hamburger SV. With Liverpool FC performing poorly in preseason our team will feel really confident, though hopefully not overconfident and Emery should talk to the players and put things in perspective. We can't start to relax now and we need to push even harder, beat Liverpool 3 or 4 goals to zero and go really prepared against Roma for the first match in the Mestalla.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Diego Alves and Adrián.
Defense: Miguel, Bruno, Dealbert, R.Costa, Jordi Alba, Mathieu.
Midfield: Maduro, Tino Costa, Banega, Albelda, Topal, Feghouli, Juan Bernat, Pablo, Piatti, Mata and Parejo.
Attack: Paco, Jonas and Soldado.

Technical Details:
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Diego; Miguel, Costa, Dealbert, Alba; Feghuoli, Maduro, Tino, Mata, Parejo; Soldado
Tactics: mixed passing, high opposing field pressure, 3-way attack and positional changes from the wings, interchanging with the CM and AM.

Official: Sergio Canales joins Valencia CF

Its official. Sergio Canales is a Valencia CF player. Just as I've reported a week ago the deal is 2 years loan deal with a double purchase option, for 12 million for Valencia CF and 18 million for Real Madrid.

Valencia CF will destroy FC Barcelona

I don't want to come to conclusions early and hasty and I like to spend a lot of time analyzing these kind of things, but after yesterday trashing of Barcelona by Chivas with 4 goals to 1 I'm convinced that Barcelona's reign at the top of the game is officially over and Valencia CF will absolutely destroy Barcelona.

Yes the second half was filled with youngsters and that is going to be the excuse by Barcelona fans, but how do you attribute the loss to Manchester United previously and the draw with Hajduk? The game against Manchester United everyone except Xavi and Puyol played from their first team. Then there was the draw with Internacional and even though Barca won against Bayern in the Audi cup they weren't very convincing.

Barcelona is just past their prime and that is the truth about it. They've had 4-5 great seasons in which they've dominated football and made history by winning 6 titles in a row. But all those years of high intensity playing bring in casualties and Xavi has suffered last season, Puyol has suffered and has been out for half a season and David Villa seems to be past his prime as well.

Barcelona still have Messi, Alves and Iniesta, but you can't expect each season Messi to bail you out in all these games and certainly Dani's tireless forward arrays are going to start becoming tiring as we've already seen with Brazil where he was absolutely dreadful. Iniesta may still be young and probably has good 3 years left in him, but he is injury prone and he only works in tandem with Xavi as we've seen him struggling so many times when Xavi isn't there to keep possession.

Xavi is 31 years of age, riddled with injuries and won't be at the same standard he was even just few months ago.
Puyol is 33 years old and has been injured for most of last season and he is still injured now and even if he comes back soon at 33 years old and after such long injuries don't expect him to be good.
David Villa is 29 years old and he as well is not getting any younger, as seen even last season he is past his prime and while he is still able to score 10-15 goals in all competitions, he is not the 20+ scorer he was when he was in Valencia CF. Also the Barcelona possession football is not the most suited for Villa no matter what anyone tell you, because Villa requires space to be able to score and when the opposing team has 10 players in front of goal its hard for Villa to do much.
Dani Alves is likely to struggle this season as well as we've already witnessed with his play in Brazil at the Copa America. He has also been very lucky with not getting injured for so long and I feel like we may see him with a more serious injury this season and the fact that Barcelona don't have any cover for him will really expose them.
As for the rest of them Erik Abidal is 32 years old and as a left back at 32 years old you loose speed and agility and even though he has been good in preseason expect the amount of matches to catch up to him. Pedro has also been really poor in all the preseason matches and I really think he will be a fluke just like Bojan Krkic.

That leaves Barcelona with just few great performing members who are not past their prime and who can carry the team, especially Messi and Iniesta, but as we've seen from Messi in all his performances with Argentina he needs that support from Barca players for him to show his best and if Xavi, Villa and Pedro around him are not able to step up to the challenge Messi looses much of his strength.

The positive thing about Barcelona is the arrival of Sanchez, but he is very young, inexperienced against strong opposition and is not accustomed to Barcelona's play style, so he is going to have a slow adaptation rate. With Affelay already been ruled out for 2 months its looking mighty fine for Valencia CF, but also Real Madrid.

Last season was the last season of domination for Barcelona and this year they will struggle for even second place as Valencia CF destroy Barcelona in each of the matches the clubs meet. Real Madrid on the other hand have looked super strong and are the favorites for the title, although I expect Valencia CF to really challenge for the title this season.

Expect this season the title fight to be between Real Madrid and Valencia CF and maybe, just maybe we can hopefully win the fight.

Sergio Canales instrumental in Spain U-20 victory

Spain U-20 side just won against Ecuador U-20 at the World Cup for U-20 which takes place in Columbia. New Valencia CF signing Sergio Canales was instrumental in Spain U-20 win against Ecuador U-20 by scoring a goal just 10 minutes after coming on and then providing the assist for the second goal 5 minutes from full time.

Sergio Canales is yet to be officially announced or presented as Valencia CF players and rumors are the only wait is on Racing Santander who need to sign all the papers.

Write for this blog

Hi there ladies and gentleman. I'm looking for a person who wants to write for this blog. I write a lot and all, but I feel having a back-up would be nice and would enable us to cover more news and stuff.

This is a voluntary position and you will not be getting paid for.
Job requirements:
Fluent in English
Expert knowledge about Valencia CF
Follows Spanish football
You are a big Valencia CF fan
16 years of age or older

What you can write:
Any kind of news. Transfer news, financial news, player news, etc...
Features, editorials and analysis
Youth players reports (other than Valencia's)- required once a month

What you can't write:
Match Previews
Match Reports
News about other clubs or other topics other than Valencia CF.

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Hamburg SV 1-2 Valencia CF - Match Report

Valencia CF just won its 4th match of the preseason in what was the best play I've seen from Valencia CF so far this preseason. This was by far the most complete and assured performance and its obvious the players and the coach have been working very hard to improve.

As soon as the match started Valencia CF gained control and used it to good effect with an early goal by Juan Mata by an assist by Feghuoli. It was a rather lucky goal as basically the ball hit Mata's leg and ended up in the goal.

Valencia would have several more chances as Soldado, Jonas and even Miguel would have a try at a goal. Hamburg had few chances of themselves with the biggest one coming after a cross when Costa slipped on the grass and allowed the Hamburg striker to head the ball towards goal, but Diego Alves was alert and caught the ball. Miguel would also have an early slip-up which would cause a counter attack by Hamburg, but once again the defense and goalkeeper stood strong.

Parejo and Maduro surprisingly had great understanding and did quite good together, with Maduro helping out in defense numerous times and having very accurate passes, while Parejo was really good as a playmaker and managed to carry the ball forward with ease.

Juan Mata would have a good chance later on, but he failed to pass the ball accurately and destroyed the chance, Feghuoli was playing on Jonas and a lot of the players, but ultimately the first half ended with 1-0 for Valencia.

In the second half Emery made one change as he brought Piatti for Soldado and Jonas and Piatti were changing positions. The second goal would come early after a counter attack from Valencia lead by Piatti who's pass accurately found Bernat who scored a goal from a difficult position.

Minutes later Alba would steal the ball from a defender in Hamburgs last 3rd and pass it onto Piatti, but this one only managed to shoot above the goal. Soon after Emery made a ton of changes and the dynamic of the play slowed a bit and Hamburg had some good opportunities to score, but mostly Topal and Albelda were able to handle it.

Hamburg would score a goal from a corner kick when Pardo was out jumped, but Valencia would manage to close out the match.

Technical Details:
Hamburgo SV (1): Brobny, Aogo, Westermann, Mancienne, Diekmeier, Kacar, Tesche, Ben Hatira, Elia, Petric y Son.
Valencia CF (2): Alves, Miguel, De albert, R.Costa, Maduro, Mathieu, Feghouli, Parejo, Jonas, Mata y Soldado. También jugaron Piatti, Topal, Bruno, TIno Costa, Albelda, Jordi Alba, Pablo Hernández, Bernat y Portu.
Goals: 0-1 Min. 4 Mata; 0-2 Min. 70 Bernat; 1-2, Min. 87 Behrens.

Player Ratings:
Diego 7 - Made some great saves, really confident for the first time and was really good today.
Miguel 7 - Apart from an early mistake when he lost the ball, improved drastically and was a rock in defense and a great asset in offense.
Costa 4.5 - Made two blunders by sliding on the grass twice. Could have cost us the game, but luckily Hamburg failed to convert those chances.
Dealbert 7 - Great performance by Dealbert, had a small mistake early on, but absolute dominant performance afterwards and had some great passes to play on the midfield and spur on possession and play.
Mathieu 5.5 - Did well enough in defense and had a few forays forward, but needs to improve.
Feghuoli 7.5 - Astounding performance by Feghuoli who's passing was spot on, provided the assist for the first goal, did well to help out Miguel in defense and was always a threat to Hamburg.
Maduro 6 - Really assured performance from the Dutch with great defensive coverage and about 90+% accurate passing.
Parejo 6.5 - Did really good as a playmaker, always available for a pass and managed to spread the ball well to the rest of the players. Great game by Parejo.
Mata 5.5 - He is not in full fitness or form and today he made it very obvious. Was presented with some good chances, but he managed to ruin them.
Jonas 6.5 - Very intelligent play by Jonas, made himself available and did really well to create chance and come into scoring positions.
Soldado 5.5 - Likely to be repeat of last season when he was really bad for half a season and then just exploded. He need to improve and improve really fast and really much.
Subs:
Piatti 6.5 - Is becoming a very consistent player, assisted a goal and is currently the leading goalscorer in preseason along with Bernat. Had two more chances, but failed to convert them to goals.
Alba 6 - Did good defensively and showed his attacking threat by stealing a ball from Hamburg defense and passing it to Piatti who unluckily shot above the goal.
Topal 6 - Had an instant reaction after coming in and saved the goal. Had several good tackles through the 45 minutes.
Bruno 5.5 - Did decently well in defense, lost a few balls needlesly and wasn't as impressive as in previous matches.
Pablo 5.5 - Had few good runs, with one specifically dangerous but the offside was called. Needs to work much harder and really improve or he is going to be benched by Feghuoli if he isn't already.
Tino Costa 5 - Had a few touches with the ball, made few passes, lost the ball carelessly two times, its obvious he is coming from injury and needs more work.
Albelda 5.5 - Did well to help out defensively and was pretty good with the passing, but nothing noteworthy.
Bernat 6 - Scored a goal from a pretty tough position and was very active through. He needs to improve his passing and learn to link-up better with other players.
Portu N/A - Not enough time
Pardo 2 - Had enough time to screw up and allow Valencia to concede a goal. Was way out jumped by Behrens for the goal. Isn't ready for the first league and tough matches that is clear now, if it wasn't already. We need to get a central defender and get a good one.

Hamburg SV vs Valencia CF - Match Preview

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Now to the match preview. Valencia CF won the last preseason match against Sporting Lisbon 3-0 and while it wasn't the best play it was at least a high enough victory for us to forget the previous disappointment at the feet of Rapid Wien.


The coach has worked quite a bit on the technical side of things with close ball control, possession, passing and some attacking moves. The players were put in two groups with the ones that played more training on possession and the second group on the more tactical side of things. The match against Hamburg will be a good measurement how we stack up now after defeating Sporting 3-0 and if we can achieve a positive result here.


Hamburg SV is a German club based in the same name town Hamburg and in case you were wondering yes the hamburger name originates from Hamburg. The theory is that stuffing meat in between two bread pieces was a specialty in Hamburg and when many fled to the USA the name catched on to describe the meal. 
Hamburg SV is a well known name in German football and is the only team to never been relegated from top flight league. 


HSV reached the second round of the 2011/12 DFB Cup on Saturday afternoon, by way of a narrow 2-1 win over fifth division side VfB Oldenburg. This means that HSV might not be as well prepared and is a chance for Valencia CF to take.

Valencia CF on the other hand has won 3 of its 4 preseason friendlies with 3 of them finishing with clean sheets, with the one sticking out with 4 goals conceded being the Rapid match.
Valencia CF has had really bad news with injuries and its pretty much the same thing once again with Guaita, Aduriz and now Adil Rami being injured.

Good news is that Tino Costa has returned and hopefully he will get some playing time. Ever Banega is going to miss the match though as he has some more fitness to do before being able to play.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Diego Alves and Adrián.
Defense: Miguel, Bruno, Dealbert, R.Costa, Pardo, Jordi Alba, Mathieu and Salva Ruiz.
Midfield: Maduro, Tino Costa, Albelda, Topal, Feghouli, Juan Bernat, Pablo, Portu, Piatti, Mata and Parejo.
Attack: Jonas and Soldado.

Technical Details:
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Diego; Miguel, Costa, Dealbert, Alba; Pablo, Topal, Tino, Mata, Parejo; Soldado
Tactics: mixed passing, high opposing field pressure, 3-way attack and positional changes from the wings, interchanging with the CM and AM.

Juan Mata to Arsenal, Spurs or Liverpool?

There has been a ton of speculation about the potential of Juan Mata leaving, with some English tabloids writing that the deal is done and we are just waiting for the official presentation. These reports have claimed that Mata will be sold for 20-24 million euros, with the latest report being a little bit more realistic and saying Valencia CF will sell Mata for 27 million euros.

So is there anything true in all these reports that continue to persist even right now? There is some truth to this and that is that Liverpool were interested in signing Mata, but since they they have signed 2 midfielders and few other players they are done with the transfers, Tottenham is interested in signing Juan Mata, but they are unlikely to be able to offer anywhere near what Valencia CF would consider to selling Mata and Arsenal wants Mata, but only if Nasri or Fabregas leave.

Valencia president Manuel Llorente said numerous times that Mata is not for sale, but always kept the door slightly open and that is for a huge offer. Valencia CF is only going to consider selling Mata if a bid of 30 million euros comes along, anything less will instantly be rejected. The player himself wants to stay at Valencia.

Sporting Lisbon 0-3 Valencia CF - Match Report

Valencia CF won its forth match of the preseason against Sporting Lisbon, after being trashed last week by Rapid Wien 4-1, so this was an unexpectedly high victory. I've watched Sporting's last match against Juventus and they absolutely destroyed Juventus in all parts of the field, so either Juventus suck or Valencia are very good.

Personally I don't think we played that well, I mean yes we scored 3 goals, but they were all kind of lucky goals which we wouldn't be able to score against a world class defense. Sporting's defense made many mistakes in this match and should be happy they didn't concede more goals.

But anyways just 2 minutes after the match started Pablo had the first chance of the match when he shot and hit the woodwork. Then just few minutes later Bruno was carrying out the throw-in the Sporting defense all missed the ball, their goalkeeper was late off his line as well and Bernat was speedy and agile enough to go to the ball first and head the ball in the net.

Later on Sporting and Valencia CF will have one shot on goal saved by both goalkeepers. Second goal would come from Soldado after being played on by David Albelda who played Soldado deep with a cross and Soldado managed to get rid of his marker and score.

The third goal came in the 41st minute, 10 minutes after the first goal, this time from the left side. Alba got the ball from an out got lost of his marker and passed the ball to Piatti who made it 3-0.

The second half would be a lot more boring and Sporting would have its own chances to score, but our defense will hold. Emery then changed most of the team until the 75th minute and Valencia CF managed to close out the match 3-0.

Technical Details:
Sporting Lisbon (0): Patricio, Carriço, Onyewu, Evaldo, Schaars, Izmailov, Yannick, Fito Rinaudo, H. Postiga, Diego Rubio and Joao Pereira. Subs: Aguiar, Martins, Marcelo, Diego Capel and Carrillo.

Valencia CF (3): Alves, Bruno, Rami, Topal, Albelda, Soldado, Piatti, J. Alba, Pablo H., R. Costa and Bernat. Subs: Dealbert, Mathieu, Feghouli, Mata, Jonas, Miguel, Maduro, Parejo, Portu and Pardo.

Goals: 4min, 0-1 Bernat, 31min, 0-2 Soldado, 43min, 0-3 Piatti.

Player Ratings:
Diego 5 - Had some good saves and that saves his score, but he was directly involved in endangering the goal twice with his bad passing and shooting.
Bruno 6 - Wasn't beaten once and kept his side safe from danger. Didn't venture forward too much though.
Rami 6 - Finally an overall good performance by Rami. Wasn't at fault for any goalscoring chances and really destroyed any potential chances by timed tackles and fouls. I would actually play him as a DM and see how he does, I feel he could be really good at that position.
Costa 6 - Great performance by Costa, got rid of any threats to the goal and didn't allow any shenanigans in front of goal. Had a good header in Sporting's penalty area.
Alba 6.5 - Good defensively and even better offensively, provided the assist to Piatti for the 3rd goal.
Pablo 5.5 - Had a shot very early in the game that ended up hitting the woodwork, but disappeared after that. He popped here and there, but failed to create any chances.
Topal 4.5 - Lost the ball too many times with needless dribbles and complications. Did great defensivelly, but had too many errors overall.
Albelda 6 - Helped out in defense constantly and was quite active in the passing as well, making a long deep cross that found Soldado for the second goal.
Bernat 6 - Scored the first goal after somehow coming to the ball first and heading it in the goal. Was somewhat dangerous on the left side afterwards as he made few runs.
Piatti 6 - Scored a goal and was very active in the middle and on the left, but his passing was quite bad today and wasn't linking up with the other 3 attacking players.
Soldado 6 - Was a constant menace, provided few great passes that lead to shots and scored a goal himself.
Subs:
Dealbert 6 - Did well tonight, not the most assured performance, but made several good tackles.
Mathieu 5.5 - Was decent in defense and offense. Is slowly but surely falling behind Alba, he needs to really up his performance.
Miguel 5.5 - Not as great defensively as Bruno and wasn't too active in attack also.
Feghuoli 5 - Few touches and passes, lost the ball quite a few times, so not a good performance.
Maduro 5.5 - Improvement over Topal as he was quite solid on the pass and made simple and accurate passes.
Parejo 5 - Lost the ball few too many times and failed to organize play.
Mata 4.5 - Had one shot at goal that went wide and above, but other than that invisible.
Jonas 5 - Exchanged few passes at the front, but was mostly all alone at front with no balls coming his way.
Pardo 5 - Decent in defense, a lot better than last match that is for sure.
Portu 5 - Slotted well in the midfield and provided more depth than Parejo, but largely ineffective as well.

Sergio Canales joins Valencia CF

Sergio Canales has reached an agreement with the club about his pay check and will join Valencia CF on a two year loan deal worth 2 millions euros or 1 million euros per season with an double purchase option. After the two years of loan Valencia CF can choose to purchase the player for 12 million euros and Real Madrid can then purchase the player themselves for a fee of 18 million euros.

The deal says that Sergio Canales can't play against Real Madrid and reportedly this is why Villarreal broke the negotiations for Canales.

Sergio Canales came last season to Real Madrid from Racing Santander for 6 million euros, but has failed to play much at all in Real Madrid under Mourinho and the coach and player have looked to part ways, with Valencia doing a smart move and lending him.

This makes our attacking midfield even more potent and dangerous and increases the competition so much more. Valencia CF is still in the transfer for a central defender and there are few players we have talks at this moment with Mangala transfer coming do a sudden stop.

Sporting Lisbon vs Valencia CF - Match Preview

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, Valencia fans, this is going to be the telling match if Valencia CF is good enough to actually fight with Real Madrid and Barcelona or not. I know its still early in the season, but this is the time when Valencia CF must start showing character, determination and good play. I've watched Real Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga and Villarreal and I must say that all except Villarreal look really solid.

Real Madrid have started strong and continued strong through all their matches, Barcelona started slow, but have been improving tremendously through every match and Malaga started kinda slow, but have been in great form ever since. The only team I've watched and performing bad is Villarreal, but I won't count them out yet.

So this is the match where we can see if Valencia CF has made progress or regress in the last few days. I've seen the training session and they seems quite good overall and the players seem happy and confident, so I would expect a great showing tomorrow against Sporting Lisbon.

Sporting Lisbon is a Portuguese club based in the city of Lisbon, the club was founded in 1906 on the 1st of July and has been one of the top 3 clubs in Portugal ever since. Sporting Lisbon rivals are well known and they are Porto and Benfica who might be known a little bit more with their recent success. Whatever the case Sporting has won many national and international titles, including the Uefa Cup in 63/64 and more recently finishing runners up in 2004/05.

I've watched Sporting Lisbon play against Juventus just a few days ago and they absolutely destroyed Juventus. They won 2-1, but the score doesn't relay the great football they played and the struggles Juventus had, it was only Del Piero's magical shot in the last few minutes that gave Juventus a consolidation goal. Sporting don't play defensive football and we can expect them to go out and attack Valencia right from the start and really compete with us.

Sporting Lisbon is certainly going to be the toughest opponent we've had in preseason yet and apart from Roma the toughest overall, so I expect a great match first and foremost and a real overview of where Valencia CF stands.

Valencia CF on the other hand has had quite a bit of news come out with the transfer of Sergio Canales to Valencia CF on a loan deal from Real Madrid with the option to purchase the player, the news about Standard Liege central defender Mangala which is still up in the air with the blockade being the player himself asking for bigger salary and we have the reserve option of signing Pareja if the signing of Mangala fails.

What is more important though is that Tino Costa has been training normally with the rest of the squad, Ever Banega has also joined the squad and is training with the squad with the only worry right now being Bruno who has an injury.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Guaita, Diego Alves and Adrián.
Defense: Miguel, Bruno, Dealbert, R.Costa, Rami, Pardo, Jordi Alba, Mathieu and Salva Ruiz.
Midfield: Maduro, Tino Costa, Albelda, Topal, Banega, Feghouli, Juan Bernat, Pablo, Portu, Piatti, Mata and Parejo.
Attack: Jonas, Aduriz and Soldado.

Technical Details:
Formation: Most likely 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Guaita; Miguel, Rami, Costa, Alba; Pablo, Topal, Tino, Mata, Parejo; Aduriz
Tactics: mixed passing, high opposing field pressure, 3-way attack and positional changes from the wings.

Sergio Canales to Valencia CF?

Spanish papers are reporting that Valencia CF is on the verge of signing Spanish U-19 and now U-20 player Sergio Canales or at least have him on loan for two years.

Reports have it that Manuel Llorente has been negotiating the trasfer for quite a while now and reports have it that a 2 year loan deal with an option to buy the player is most likely to happen. I've heard reports of fully signing the player, but we'll just have to wait and see is any of this is true.

Real Madrid may choose to sell the player to Villarreal though as they are interested in the player after selling Cazorla and they have the money to make this transfer happen.


Bogus or not?
- Not bogus. Valencia CF president Manuel Llorente and Braulio Vasquez said to expect 1 or 2 players and this is the result. They've been obviously negotiating in secret for the purchase or loan deal of Canales, but having media find out about this may jeopardize the deal and make way for Villarreal to hijack the negotiations and purchase the player themselves. I'm rooting for Valencia CF to sign or loan the player, but we'll have to wait and see if its going to materialize.

Jonas Goncalves profile

Name: Jonas Gonçalves Oliveira
Playing position: Forward, attacking midfield
Previous club: Gremio
Number: 7
Birthday: April 1, 1984 (age 27)
Nationality: Brazilian
Height: 1.83m
Weight: 73kg
Contract ends: 30.06.2015
Player Rating:



Market Value:

Previous clubs:
Guarani, Brazil 2005-2006
Santos, Brazil 2006-2007
Germio Brazil 2007-2011
>Portuguessa, Brazil 2008-2009 loan

2010/11 Statistics
TEAM	Competition	GS	SB	G	A	SH	SG	FC	FS	YC	RC
Valencia	La Liga	8	5	3	3	26	13	15	13	2	0
Valencia	UCL	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0

Glossary

GS: Games Started, SB: Used as Substitute, G: Goals, A: Assists, SH: Shots, SG: Shots on goal, YC: Yellow Cards, RC: Red Cards, FC: Fouls Committed, FS: Fouls Suffered, SV: Saves, OF: Offsides, W: Wins, D: Draws, L: Losses

Eliaquim Mangala set to join Valencia CF

Valencia CF is set to sign Standard Liege central defender Eliaquim Mangala and the deal should be done within 2 days. His price is set to be between 3-4 million euros, but his salary would be very low bellow 1 million.

Eliaquim Mangala (born 13 February 1991) is a French professional football player of Congolese descent who currently plays for Belgian club Standard Liège in the Jupiler Pro League. Mangala is a France youth international and is currently playing with the under-21 team having made his debut on 13 November 2009 against Tunisia.

SK Rapid Wien 4-1 Valencia CF - Match Report

Well the third match didn't turn out as we'd all hoped and expected as Valencia CF was pretty much embarrassed by Rapid Wien and while they are already in their season and I've written that they will be in full form and fitness and for us to expect a tough game, I didn't expect Valencia CF loosing 4-1.


First goal Wien scored was mainly because of a Rami mistake, he marked the same player Costa marked and then Portu failed to mark the player Rami was supposed to cover in the first place. So this was a double fail, although I'm not blaming Portu so much as he isn't a right back in the first place.

Second goal for Wien was a weird one as one of their player tried to cross and ended up being a shot, fooling Diego Alves and ending up in our goal.

In the second half in was a completely different starting 10 with only Diego left on the pitch, but the result did not become any better.
Wien would go on to score 2 goals, before Pablo Hernandez scores a consolidation goal for Valencia CF.

Wien's third goal would come after a counter attack from the right wing and even though the goalscorer was clearly offside the goal would stand.

Forth goal came from a counter attack as well, so this means that someone was loosing the ball too much in the middle of the pitch and there wasn't enough cover for the defense. I'm looking particularity at Maduro and Topal here, but would need to review the match to see exactly who committed the mistakes. Anyways Dealbert set up a nice offside trap only for Pardo to come rushing back and playing the striker onside.

Technical Details:
SK Rapid Viena (4): Novota, Patocka, Schrammel, Sonnleitner, Kulovits, Salihi, Hofmann, Katzer, Prokopic, Trimmel y Alar. También jugaron Gartler, Nuhiu,

Valencia CF (1): Alves, Rami, Albelda, Feghouli, Mata, Aduriz, Piatti, Alba, Parejo, Ricardo Costa y Portu. También jugaron Miguel, Pardo, Dealbert, Mathieu, Pablo, Topal, Maduro, Bernat, Jonas, Soldado.

Goals: 1-0 Min. 23 Alar; 2-0 Min. 41 Schrammel; 3-0 Min. 74 Gartler; 4-0 Min. 83 Gartler; 4-1 Min. 89 Pablo

Player Ratings:
Diego 4 - Received a weird goal in the first half from a cross, in the second half he looked shaken, but made few saves to redeem himself although it was not a performance to remember anyways.
Portu 3 - We can clearly see today that he isn't a right back. Lost the ball way too often when pushing forward, missed the marking for the first goal, although he wasn't particularly the main falter.
Rami 3.5 - Had a great game before and after the goal, but really screwed up for the 1st goal marking the same man that Costa was marking.
Costa 5 - Had a good showing, didn't make any mistakes which is most important.
Alba 5.5 - Good defensively, not so effective going forward as in the previous friendlies though.
Feghuoli 5 - Had an average game, few too many times afraid to push forward though.
Albelda 5 - Decent game from the veteran, showed good composure and provided good defensive cover.
Parejo 5 - Has great technique and good vision, but was not very influential in the position he was in.
Piatti 5.5 - Had blistering pace as he showed again, less effective since the left wing was crowded too much by Mata and Alba.
Mata 5.5 - Good first match from Mata, showed a bit of leadership and had a constructive game with good movement and passing.
Aduriz 4.5 - Deprived of any balls he was left alone in the penalty area.
Subs:
Miguel 4 - Not particularly good in defense or in attack. Lost several challenges and left frustrated going forward.
Pardo 3 - Helped Wien attackers get onside at least once, I'm 99.9% sure the 3rd goal was offside, but he certainly played onside the Wien attacker for the 4th goal.
Dealbert 4 - Had a debatable action for the 3rd Wien goal, but that should have been an offside, set up a good offside trap for the 4th goal which unfortunately Pardo played onside. Not very convincing either way.
Mathieu 5 - Good defensive showing and was more offensive today, but he needs more consistency.
Pablo 6 - Saved himself until the end to score a wonderful goal after passing 4 players. Didn't do much otherwise.
Topal 5.5 - Did well to pass the ball around and good in his defensive duties.
Maduro 5 - Didn't do much of anything, several touches and passes but seems like he doesn't know what his role should be.
Bernat 4 - Few touches with the ball and that was it, invisible for the large majority of the match.
Jonas 4 - Missed passes, failed to catch passes and his movement was very limited.
Soldado 3 - Came in frustrated and even if the referee didn't show him red card for that challenge I feel like he would have done anything and everything to get dismissed. Way too frustrated.

SK Rapid Wien vs Valencia CF - Match Preview

Two matches, two wins, Valencia CF preseason so far so good. The training has been going on great, the players are working hard and the morale is pretty high. Tomorrow though is another challenge for Valencia CF and we all expect improved play from the previous two matches as Valencia CF has had more training and preparation.

SK Rapid Wien is an Austrian club located in the capital Vienna which is a beautiful city, kind of old looking but grandiose and anyone who can should visit. But more importantly its the club Wien that we are interested in right now since tomorrow its going to take on Valencia CF.

Rapid Wien is the most successful club in Austria and has lifted the national trophy 32 times. Some of the more notable names through their ranks have been Dejan Savicevic, Zlatko Krajncar and Mario Tokic.

SK Rapid Wien season has actually started and they have already played 2 matches and won both matches. They are currently holding first place in their league with 6 points, 4 goals scored and none received.

Valencia CF on the other hand is coming to this match as the big club, the big favorite and is going to serve as an sort of promotional match for Rapid Wien in order to lure as much fans as possible after having quite low attendance no attendance because of a penalty since fans stormed the pitch in their last match of last season and Wien was penalized(thanks to randomrapidfan for pointing that out). For Valencia CF this will be the biggest challenge so far as Rapid Wien have finished their preseason a lot earlier and are towards their 3rd game in the season so they are going to be in in full form and fitness and ready to play 100%.

The weather hasn't been too good the last two day, but the squad has continued training in bad weather conditions even though some more technical training wasn't possible.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Guaita, Diego Alves and Adrián.
Defense: Miguel, Bruno, Dealbert, R.Costa, Rami, Pardo, Jordi Alba, Mathieu and Salva Ruiz.
Midfield: Maduro, Tino Costa, Albelda, Topal, Feghouli, Juan Bernat, Pablo, Portu, Piatti, Mata and Parejo.
Attack: Jonas, Aduriz and Soldado.

Technical Details:
Formation: Most likely 4-2-3-1 in the first half and then change it to 4-4-2 once few players are substituted.
Line-up: Guaita; Bruno, Rami, Costa, Alba; Feghuoli, Topal, Tino, Piatti, Jonas; Aduriz
Tactics: short passing, high opposing field pressure...

Unai Emery: Victory is important

Unai Emery continued his good preseason matches with Valencia CF with a 1-0 win against Leicester City FC and previously a 2-0 win against PSV Eindhoven.

Coach Unai Emery had this to say after the match: "This victory is important, but we can improve a lot more. You've seen during the match in some moments we played really good and in others quite bad."

On the two half's he said: "The first half we were better, in some moments when we were attacking we played 4-4-2 formation which I really liked. We must continue working on it, because we are likely to use of of the two formations against Osasuna."

Emery analyzed the performance on individual players and said: "Jonas and Aduriz played great, this was the first time they played together and up till now they only worked on two trainings together. Today they have shown their knowledge and professionalism.
I also have to praise Pablo Piatti who works very hard, in him we got a great reinforcement. Then there is Daniel Parejo who immediately showed us that he is a big reinforcement for the club."

About the next match against SK Rapid Wien Unai Emery said: "The idea is for the first eleven to play a little bit more minutes and after that to have substitutions. Its very likely that Juan Mata will get his first preseason minutes playing time in the match against SK Rapid Wien."