Valencia players international performances

Ever Banega started the match for Argentina in what was a pretty dull match against Brazil that ended in 1-0 victory for Argentina after a solo Messi run and goal in stoppage time.
Ever Banega played the full match and he had a good performance alongside Mascherano as they seem to form a good defensive line for Argentina, that is really tough to brake. He could have done better in attack, but considering he wasn't getting too much playing time in Valencia he seemed a bit rusty in that regard.

Hedwiges Maduro started the match for Holland in a defensive midfield position and played for about 85 minutes, before being substituted. He played a good match and actually provided the assistance to Huntelar for Hollands only and winning goal. He was a bit unsure in the closing periods when Turkey started attacking and needs to gain some confidence, but considering he is coming from a injury just 10 days ago it was a great performance for Maduro.

Manuel Fernandes came on for Portugal in the 60th minute in what was a really exciting match in which Portugal just trashed Spain like they were playing against school yard kids and not the world champions. Portugal won 4-0 over Spain, as Spain hit a new kind of low. Manuel Fernandes played okay in the time he had, he wasn't very influential and lost few balls in bad situations, but corrected his mistakes and made a few decent runs and passes.

Those were the only called up Valencia players for international duty and Vicente Del Bosque may be kicking himself in the head right now why he didn't call Aduriz and Pablo, especially since Navas is injured and Mata was also injured, so there were at least 2 free spaces in the team.
Admitedly Pablo hasn't been in form for Valencia, but he has been performing good for Spain every time he plays.

Valencia players called on international duty

Valencia has few players that have been called on International duty with their countries.
First one is Manuel Fernandes who has got a recall for Portugal squad after being left out of the squad for their last match. Miguel Brito has previously announced his resignation from the Portugal national team and decided to focus on club level fully.
Hedwiges Maduro has also been called up for Holland and it seems he has become a regular in the squad. He has so far to my knowledge played one full match for Holland as a defensive midfielder.
Getting his call up is also Ever Banega for the Argentine national team who will be facing off against Brazil in what will certainly be the most interesting match tomorrow. Ever comes to the Argentina squad after having missed one friendly match against Japan, in which Argentina lost.
Mata was called to the Spanish national squad, but due to his injury he is not available now and his place could be taken by either Pablo or Aduriz from Valencia.

I'd really like to see Ever Banega play for Argentina, as their match against Brazil is going to be a real challenge and test. Hopefully he gets to start and play a superb.

Valencia CF 2-0 Getafe CF - Match Report

Valencia CF have finally achieved a victory in the Spanish league, after a series of poor results, especially at home. Tonight Valencia CF won against Getafe CF by two goals to zero and has climbed to 4th position on the table with 20 points, 3 points behind Villareal and with goal advantage over Sevilla.

The match started great for Valencia, as we had more possession and were immediately from the start pressing on Getafe. The first goal came very early after a great combination between Mata and Tino Costa, Mata returning the ball towards Tino, who took the ball with his chest and fired immediately when he had the opportunity and scored a goal. This play was probably play of the week in La Liga.

After that Valencia continued to dominate until Navarro made a huge mistake and allowed an opposing player to steal the ball from him and managed to create a chance, which thankfully Getafe somehow screwed it up.
From that moment on Valencia seemed to be scared and played more defensively.
There were few chances on both sides, but the first half ended 1-0 for Valencia, but the negative thing was that Mathieu got injured and was substituted.

The second half Getafe started as the attacker and Valencia were on the defense, with rare counter attacks to threaten Getafe's goal. In a rare attack Valencia got a free kick, Tino made the cross and Navarro found himself unmarked and headed the ball towards the goal, but got denied by Getafe's goalkeeper, only for the rebound to fall back short to Navarro and this time his shot went into the net.
Few minuted after that Mata got injured as well and was replaced by Vicente.
In the 72th minute Isco came in for Aduriz and seems like he brings a spark in the Valencia players, as all started playing all of a sudden and we had couple of chances to score more goals. First Isco had a great chance, but he hesitated to shoot at first and ultimately shot at the wall of Getafe defenders, than Soldado had a chance, where he back-passed the ball to move towards goal and than Joaquin had a chance that hit the post.
Ultimately the match ended 2-0 for Valencia.

Technical details:
Valencia CF (2): Moyà; Miguel, Navarro, R. Costa, Mathieu (Jordi Alba, 41); T.Costa, Albelda, Mata (Vicente, min. 66), Joaquín; Soldado y Aduriz (Isco, min. 72).

Getafe CF (0): Codina; Pintos, Cata, Rafa, Mané; Borja; Ríos (A. Sardinero, min. 55), Casquero (Albín, min. 66), Parejo, Manu del Moral; Colunga (Miku, min. 66).

Goals: 1-0 Tino Costa (min. 8), 2-0 David Navarro (min. 63)

Player ratings:
Moya 7 - Made some good saves to deny Getafe scoring a goal.
Miguel 6.5 - Great in defense, though rarely did he go forward.
Navarro 6 - Redeemed himself for a stupid mistake that could have cost us a goal, by scoring a goal just when it was needed.
R. Costa 6.5 - Good in defense and did not allow any danger on his side.
Mathieu 6.5 - Good until substituted, defended well and went forward to good extend.
Joaquin 6 - Had little support from Miguel so that affected him and lost way too many dribbles, though had two or three good runs and a great shot late in the match.
Albelda 7 - Very effective in his tackles and in his cover of the midfield. Stopped numerous Getafe attacks.
Tino 7.5 - Scored a beautiful goal after a great one-two with Mata and was generally useful in attack and defense.
Mata - 6.5 - Made the assist to Tino with a beautiful one-two play and seemed the liveliest member of the attack in the first half.
Soldado 6 - Played against his former team and did not allow that to affect him, was full of determination and had a few chances in the second half.
Aduriz 5.5 - Quite a bad match as he failed to do much of anything and didn't seem too involved with what was going around him.
Subs:
Jordi Alba 7 - Seems better and better every time he plays and this match was no exception. Added a great attacking threat on the left wing and performed his defensive duties admirably.
Vicente 7 - Presented a lot more direct threat than Mata and the Getafe defense had to put a lot of effort in stopping him, which opened up space for the other players.
Isco 7 - Came in and created a chance immediately, moments later he found himself in a scoring position and added great depth to our attack as everyone all of a sudden started playing better. He has a great future in front of him if he keeps up his performance.

Valencia CF vs Getafe CF - Match preview

Sunday, November 11th at 21:00pm Valencia CF is going to welcome Getafe CF at the Mestalla in what is going to be a thrilling match for the Valencia fans.
Valencia is going to trash Getafe so hard, that Gerafe players would not know where their heads are. Valencia have lost 11 points from 12 in the last 4 matches, always performing substandard and apart from the Copa Del Ray win are not on best of levels, but all that is going to change tonight. Enough is enough and there is just no room for failure anymore and I can't see any Valencia player not working 110% for this match in order to win it. There are no more excuses and everyone needs to perform.

I'm absolutely certain that we would see Valencia wipe the grass with Getafe and trash them with 4 or 5 in what would be a thrilling and exciting match for all Valencia fans..


Official Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Moya and Guaita
Defense: Maduro, R. Costa, Navarro, Miguel, Mathieu and J. Alba
Midfield: Albelda, Ever, T. Costa, Joaquin, Pablo, Mata and Vicente
Attack: Aduriz, Soldado and Isco

Official Getafe CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Oscar Ustari and Jordi Codina
Defense: Cata Díaz, Mané, İbrahim Kaş, Rafael López, Pablo Pintos and Iván Marcano
Midfield: Borja, Dani Parejo, Pedro Ríos, Pedro Mosquera, Javier Casquero, Juan Albín and Adrián Sardinero
Attack: Adrián Colunga, Miku and Manu del Moral

Valencia CF Technical:
Formation: 4-4-2
Line up: Moya; Miguel, Navarro, R. Costa, Mathieu; Joaquin, Albelda, Banega, Mata; Soldado, Aduriz.
Tactics: High frequency crosses from the wings, positional changes from the 3 attacking midfielders, very high defensive line, high opposing field pressure, deep zone defensive midfielder, strikers going wide.
Lets be real, its going to be mostly crosses for out attack with the occasional center passes. Emery experimented against Logrones with short direct passes and center filed play and it worked out great, but it was against a third divisions team and he won't change the tactics so suddenly, but he is going to instruct the forwards to come wide and try to force the Getafe defense to collapse and thus creating gaps for someone to exploit. Its going to be an full out attack all night long, as anything but huge victory won't be enough.

Result prediction:
Valencia CF 5-1 Getafe CF
The time for results has come, after several bad results and poor matches there is no way down, only up. Emery has building pressure to get the results and the players would be also hard press to perform great. Emery is a serious coach and he will be really pushing the players to perform. I expect everyone to get to their senses and show their best form and play to crush Getafe. I would be really surprised and gutted if Valencia didn't win 5,6 goals to zero or one.

Valencia CF 4-1 UD Logrones - Match report

Valencia's second match against UD Logrones was pretty much decided from the previous game, as Valencia held a high 3-0 advantage.
Valencia coach Unai Emery decided to take small portion of the players and also included several youth players in the squad. Those young players were Isco, Paco, Ivan Rubio and of course Feghuoli and Guaita who are already in the first team.
The line-up for Valencia was this:
Guaita; Bruno, Stankevicious, Dealbert, Alba; Pablo, Maduro, Tino Costa, Vicente; Isco, Paco.

The match started in a surprising fashion, as Logrones managed a quick counter attack and scored a very early goal in the 2nd minute of the match.
After that it was all Valencia as there were creating chance after chance, shot after shot, until the 23rd minute when Isco scored a great goal, by pushing a Logrones defender, turning 180 degrees and firing past the goalkeeper.

Vicente scored a goal in the 33rd minute of the match, as the Logrones goalkeeper and defender miscommunication resulted in no one clearing the ball, allowing Vicente to just easily push the ball into the net.

Towards the end of the first half after a Valencia attack and large chaos in front of Logrones penalty box, the ball luckily came to Isco who dribbled past 4 defenders and managed to score his second goal. It was a Maradona style goal or Messi style goal with crazy dribbling going on and just great performance from Isco.

After half time Valencia continued to dominate the game, Emery made his substitutions, by bringing on Feghuoli for Pablo and later on Ivan Rubio for Isco.

The match was over, but Valencia were still attacking and Feghuoli got the ball in a counter attack, run from the center of the field to Logrones penalty box and fired a powerful, but precise shot and the ball went in, it was 4-1 for Valencia.

Technical details:
Goals:
2' 0-1 Osado
23' 1-1 Isco
33' 2-1 Vicente
42' 3-1 Isco
85' 4-1 Feghouli

Substitutions:
59' Feghouli for Pablo
72' Reinares for Pepe
77' Zabala for Óscar Arpón
80' Iván Rubio for Isco
82' Nacho Elias for Adama Guira

Player Ratings:
Guaita 5 - Did not have a great game, could not do much for the first goal, but had several shaky moments and bad reactions. Needs more experience and more confidence.
Bruno 6 - Defended what little Logrones managed, but failed to really help out in attack, although was always available for pass.
Stankevisious 5 - At fault for the first goal, lost his marking and with no communication between him and Dealbert they allowed a goal.
Dealbert 6 - Better than Stankevicious, made few tackles and positioned himself good, but not the best of nights for him.
Alba 6.5 - Constant menace from the left wing and combined well with Vicente.
Pablo 6 - Did not have the most productive of nights, accurate passing and full of running, but lacks vision.
Maduro 6 - Good night, although against Logrones he was attacking more than defending, since there was little attacking from Logrones.
Tino Costa 6.5 - Good passing, positioned himself in threatening attacking spots and combined well with the rest of the team.
Vicente 7.5 - Second best player of the night, had several shots on target denied, combined well with Alba, Isco and Tino and just overall great game from Vicente.
Paco 6 - One of the more invisible player on the field, he run well, had one shot on goal and generally passed well, but didn't have much influence on the game.
Isco 8.5 - Man of the match performance. He was dribbling, passing, shooting, combining with everyone and scored 2 goals, the second of which was amazing. Could have booked some more appearances in the first team.
Subs:
Feghuoli 7 - After a shaky few minutes after coming on, he found his feet and really showed his ability. Had few amazing passes to open him teammates, had great runs on the right and left wing and scored a beautiful goal.
Ivan Rubio N/A - Not enough time.

Valencia CF vs UD Logrones - Match Preview

After a disapointing, but not necesarilly deserved loss to Sevilla on Monday, Valencia will look to demolish Logrones in this match and serve as a preparation for more difficult matches in the Spanish league and in Europe.

Valencia holds a 3-0 lead over Logrones, from the first matchday and will look for a similar result tonight also. With such an advantage Unai Emery is going to field a weaker side for the match and hopefully give some youth players a chance. The one youth player to get a chance will be Isco Alarcon, possibly followed by Paco Alcacer.
Isco actually trained with the first team in wednesday and will be in the team to face Logrones, though Paco is probably not going to be called up in the team. The official squad is not yet known, but its a safe bet who Emery is going to take and start.

Valencia are favorites to advance through this leg of the competition and in the process win this match decisively also, even with weakened team.

Unai Emery actually had a meeting with Valencia president Llorente and technical secretary Braulio. When asked what they talked about, Emery said they talked about the current situation, loosing 12 points in 4 matches and how to overcome it.
This just shows how active Valencia president is and how important it is to him for Valencia to succeed, so hopefully the talks were constructive.

Valencia CF official squad:
Goalkeepers: Vicente Guaita, Miguel Ángel Moyà
Defense: Bruno Saltor, Ángel Dealbert, Hedwiges Maduro, Marius Stankevičius, Jordi Alba
Midfield: Iván Rubio, David Albelda, Tino Costa, Pablo Hernández, Sofiane Feghouli, Vicente Rodríguez, Isco Alarcón
Strikers: Paco Alcácer, Roberto Soldado

UD logrones will probably use this match to test their strength and see if they can fight for top spot in their division. I'm sure they have no illusions of going through, though they are likely to fight and try to play a closer match with Valencia and not get demolished.
They also have a new coach former Valencia player Sergio Pellicer. Pellicer replaces the recently sacked Josip Višnjić.

UD Logrones official squad:

Goalkeepers: Manuel Rubio Velasco and Pablo Vicente

Defense: David Garrido, Miguel Ángel Molina, Raúl Torres, José Infantes , Ignacio Fernández, Alejandro, Pérez, Rafael de las Heras and José Izquierdo

Midfield: Adama Guira, Ramón Borriel, Óscar Arpón, Gregory Lionel, Cervero, Aitor Monroy, Mario Gibanel, Iñaki Sáenz and José Manuel López Gaspar

Forward: Adolfo Moyano, Álvaro del Moral and José Antonio García Osado

Valencia CF Technical:
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line up: Guaita; Bruno, Maduro, Dealbert, Alba; Pablo, Albelda, Tino, Vicente; Isco, Soldado.
Tactics: Low frequency crosses from the wings, positional changes from the 3 attacking midfielders, very high defensive line, low opposing field pressure, high zone defensive midfielder.

With Isco in the line-up Emery will chance his tactics considerably, this match gives him the perfect opportunity for that. We are going to see more direct play with short passing, low number of crosses and center penetration. The defensive midfielder will be positioned much higher, as well as the defensive wall in order to dominate the midfield.

Result prediction:

Valencia CF 4-1 UD Logrones

Valencia will absolutely trash Logroens, they are going to lead with 4 goals to null, will get relaxed too much and concede one goal from the opposition.

Valencia CF third best team in the last decade

Valencia is officially the third best team in the last decade in the Spanish League, as announced by the Spanish research center for analysis and statistics (CIHEFE). The analysis were made by comparing all points in the last ten years, won European competitions, amount of played European competitions and all the trophies won.

In this list of best Spanish teams, the two teams ahead are obviously Barcelona, who came in as first and Real Madrid who came in as second, while behind Valencia are teams such as Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, Villareal and so on...
Fifa also released its results for the best football clubs in this decade and Valencia was titled the best team in the season 2003/04 when Valencia won the La Liga title, Uefa cup title and Europe supercup.

Hopefully we can achieve additional success in this and the seasons coming and be considered a great club in all of Europe as well.

Lets start by winning against UD Logrones tonight in an easy fashion and continue the winning into the Spanish league.