Getafe CF 2-4 Valencia CF - Match Report

Valencia CF fans had a big scare tonight after Valencia felt 1-0 down to Getafe, who realistically were a lot better than Valencia in the opening stages of the match and looked set to take on the full 3 points home.

Valencia had to work really hard to comeback and it was former Getafe player Soldado who was the hero for Valencia as he scored 4 goals against his former team to enable this win for Valencia and get the team back on track and in third place.

The match started with Getafe the more dangerous team, the Valencia players were slow and barely moving, allowing Getafe to quickly close down and steal the ball, then do an attack towards Valencia goal.

Just 12 minutes in the game and Getafe scored the first goal. It was Manu who scored the goal, after he easily dribbled past Bruno, avoided R. Costa and Dealbert block and shot past goalkeeper Cezar and into the net. It was 1-0 for Getafe and it looked like this was going to be another disappointing match for Valencia.

Valencia players woke up at about the 20th minute and Mata and Pablo started doing some runs and passes, though nothing really effective. Mata was probably the most creative and lively player on the pitch for Valencia in the first 45 minutes and he had few good passes, 1 decent shot that went past the bar and few decent runs.

Not much happened otherwise, VCF midfield was pretty inactive and the link-up with the attack non-existent and the first half finished 1-0

Second half started and Valencia immediately got back on track. Mata got the ball, ran a bit forward and made a through pass that reached Soldado, who slotted the ball in the net.

Valencia livened up a little bit and were now more dangerous going forward. Anyways in the 64th minute a similar situation as as with the previous goal arose, this time Jonas was in place of Mata, he also made a through ball that found Soldado and this one much like in his previous goal, scored again. It was 1-2 for Valencia CF.

Soldado would go on to score twice more, the third time, his hatrick was due to a silly mistake by the Getafe defense basically giving Soldado the ball and the forward did not disappoint, scoring a goal from a tough position on the wide right side.

Roberto Soldado's fourth goal would come again by an assist from Mata, who received the ball in the middle of the field, ran forward, got in a good crossing spot and found Soldado who headed the ball into the net.

Technical Details:
Getafe CF (2): Ustari, Cata Díaz, Mané, Borja (Sardinero, min. 73), Miku, Parejo, Manu, Arizmendi, Mosquera (Pedro Ríos, min. 66), Marcano y Torres.

Valencia CF (4): César, Bruno, Topal, Soldado, Mata, Dealbert, Jonas (Maduro, min. 79), Pablo, Ricardo Costa (Stankevicius, min. 57), Mathieu y Tino Costa.

Goals: 13min, Manu 1-0; 47min, Soldado 1-1; 63min, Soldado 1-2; 67min, Soldado 1-3; 78min, Soldado 1-4; 88min, Sardinero 2-4.

Player Ratings:
Cezar 5.5 - Was not tested much, had one decent shot calmly caught, made a good save minutes later, maybe could have done better for the first goal, but not really at fault for any of the goals.
Bruno 5 - Allowed Manu past him for the first goal and looked vulnerable all match long. Did not offer much going forward.
R. Costa 6 - Decent showing, could have done better to mark Manu for the first Getafe goal though.
Dealbert 5.5 - Got a fast yellow, seemed stressed when alone at the back and unsure when on the ball, otherwise he actually did decently good pure defensively.
Mathieu 6 - Good defensively and went more forward than his partner Bruno. Decent match overall.
Pablo 5 - Offered some depth in the middle third in attack as he played more as a attacking midfield than winger, but too often overlapped with Mata. Not very effective on the right wing and invisible for long periods of the match.
Topal 6 - Did well to break up Getafe attacks and cover ground, a bit too simple at times with his passing. Needs to improve his passing range if he is to become great from good.
Tino Costa 5.5 - Tino was playing 2x better at the first half of the season than he is now. I don't know what it is, but he hasn't seem himself in the past month and a half. Didn't really do much of anything.
Mata 7.5 - Thankfully a good match by Mata. He was really creative all match long, run a lot, covered a lot of ground, made 2 assists and this is the Mata I'd like to see every match.
Jonas 7 - Great work rate, nice movement and seems to be developing good understanding with Soldado. Provided the assist for the 2nd goal.
Soldado 10 - What can I say the goal tally says it all. He scored 4 goals, worked very hard and found himself in good goalscoring positions.
Subs:
Stankevicious 6 - Solid enough, did not have trouble at the back and his passing actually helped Valencia in the middle to bring the ball from the back.
Maduro 5 - Made few touches, few misplaced crosses, pretty rusty and lacks match practice. Not enough time to do much though.
Alba N/A - Not enough time.

Getafe CF vs Valencia CF - Match Preview

Valencia's finals start tomorrow, the first final is against a very tough and dangerous opponent, playing with the advantage of home soil, it is Getafe. Last year Getafe were really good and while this season they have been particularly weakened by the selling of some key players, including Roberto Soldado who is now at Valencia CF.

Getafe CF have been struggling this whole season, while they are certainly not a push over team and are in the middle of the table their results have been left wanting. They are currently seating in 13th place on the table with only 34 points, 20 less than Valencia.

Their last 3 matches have been bad, a loss to Sporting, then a draw with Athletico at home and a more expected loss to Barcelona, though they did play pretty good in that match and even threatened Barcelona with a comeback in the later stages on the match.

Getafe is one of those teams that has good goalscoring record, in fact they are actually one of the most prolific teams in the bottom half of the table. Their problem has mainly been their defense and if you think Valencia CF defense is weak, you need to see Getafe's defense.

Getafe right now has two former Valencia CF strikers in the form of Miku and Arizmendi and both have spoken out and said how amazing of a match this will be for both of them.

Getafe CF squad: to be announced...

Valencia CF on the other hand are in a good position on the table, sitting 4th place down to just goals difference to Villarreal. Nevertheless the objective this season is to finish 3rd place and a win tomorrow is a must. Valencia CF has lost its last 3 matches, 2 in La Liga and one in the Champions League and its about time they started winning again.

The international break must have been welcomed by the players to get some much needed rest from football every 3 days and to clear their heads and start a fresh in the last stretch of the season.

Not all is positive at Valencia though and as usual something has to be happening to keep it varied and interesting for us fans even though it is usually bad stuff. For example Vicente has been seen staying late at nigh, till the 5am in the morning and has been accused of beating up some college kids.

Albelda and Navarro suffered some setback with injures and are out of the squad, same as Guaita who suffered some injury on his hand, while Vicente, Chori, and Miguel are out due to the still ongoing punishment by Emery for their bad behaviors. Joaquin meanwhile will sit out the match due to a collection of 5 yellow cards.

Tomorrow match is also an opportunity for the strike force to start working and start scoring goals again, as none of the strikers can be happy about his goalscoring record and the last goal was scored by Jonas somewhere in February.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: César Sánchez, Miguel Ángel Moyà
Defense: Bruno Saltor, Ángel Dealbert, Marius Stankevičius, Ricardo Costa, Jérémy Mathieu, Jordi Alba
Midfield: Hedwiges Maduro, Mehmet Topal, Juan Mata, Pablo Hernández, Éver Banega, Tino Costa, Isco Alarcón
Attack: Roberto Soldado, Aritz Aduriz, Jonas Gonçalves

Valencia CF technical:
Formation: 4-4-2
Line-up: Cezar; Bruno, Stankevivious, R.Costa, Mathieu; Pablo, Topal, Tino, Mata; Aduriz, Soldado
Tactics: High zone defense, high opposing field pressure, high frequency of crosses, mostly wing attacks, positional change from Mata and Pablo.
- This is going to be a standard 4-4-2 play and nothing that we haven't seen so far, with mostly wing play and high frequency crosses, with rare forays through the middle.

Result prediction:
Getafe CF 0-2 Valencia CF
I expect nothing other than a convincing victory here for Valencia CF. They had the rest, the practice and the support and now they must win tomorrow if they are to be able to finish in third position at the end of the season. A loss or a draw tomorrow is going to set us back too much and with having to face Villarreal next its not going to be a good thing fighting from behind.

Aritz Aduriz will be sold this summer

Valencia CF president Manuel Llorente confirmed that Aduriz will be sold this summer, he is going to be sold to Atletic Bilbao who are said to sell their star player Llorente to Real Madrid and are looking for a replacement.

Aduriz is a similar style player with great headers and big presence in the area, so he is the perfect choice for them.

Valencia CF is not really impressed with his goalscoring tally and is looking to make as much money from him and then go for Gameiro.
The president said that Valencia CF are going to try really hard to sign Kevin Gameiro and are even likely to offer 12 million euros for the forward.

EDIT: Happy Aprils fools day. Yes people this was a Aprils fools day joke. Its not real.

Valencia CF president Manuel Llorente taking things into his own hands

Probably one the best presidents in the past 20 years for Valencia, Manuel Llorente is taking things into his own hands to get the job done and that is Valencia CF finishing 3rd place.

Third place means so much to the club sportingly and financially that president Llorente doesn't want to leave no stone untouched. In fact there was similar meeting very recently on 17th of March where the objectives were laid out and where Llorente asked of the players and technical staff to give it their all and reach the objectives.

This new meeting will be pretty much the same, with the only difference being that Manuel Llorente is going to ask full professionalism and commitment from the players in the recent wake of the controversy with Vicente.

The meeting will take place Thursday when all the players have returned from their international games and as I've said the focus will be to get the team together and fully committed to reach the final objectives of finishing 3rd place in the league.

Players on international duty - report

Marius Stankevicious played in Lithuania's both matches, 2-0 friendly win over Poland and a 3-1 loss to Spain for Euro 2012 qualification. Stankevicious was also the scorer of the one goal against Spain. As usual he had few glaring mistakes, especially for Mata's assist as he was nowhere to be found and was suspect in positioning a few times as well.
Still in the previous match against Poland he was one of Lithuania's best players on the field.

Adil Rami played in France both matches, 2-0 win over Luxemburg for Euro 2012 qualification and a 0-0 frindly against Croatia.
Adil Rami was solid in both matches, though overall France looked more dangerous against Luxemburg, but against Croatia they were quite easily contained. In fact Adil Rami had the best chances to score for France through headers.

Hedwiges Maduro didn't play for Holland because he is injured, although he was still called to the squad and traveled with them.

Jordi Alba played in Spain U-21 squad one match when he came in as a substitute in the 1-1 draw against Belarus U-21 squad. He was selected to play as a left back in the short time he did get. While this isn't something special for Alba at least he is getting some confidence playing for Spain U-21 squad.

Ever Banega played in Argentina's both matches, the first match against USA he played the full 90 minutes and was quite good, keeping high possession for Argentina and having good passing. The match ended in a 1-1 draw, even though Argentina dominated is every aspect.
In the second match against Costa Rica he played 45 minuted and in that time he was also pretty good, unfortunately Argentina couldn't win in both of their matches so that may weigh heavily for the current starting eleven, as its wins that count.

Mehmet Topal returned to the Turkey squad after a long absence and did play in both of Turkey's matches, a 1-0 loss to Finland and in the 2-0 win over Austria for the Euro 2012 qualification. He played just few minutes in the second match, but this is positive since he is finally back to the national team.

Juan Mata played in the second match against Lithuania for the Euro 2012 qualification, he came on as a substitute and single-handedly won the match for Spain. Spain were level at 1-1 with Lithuania when Mata came in, but he provided the assist for Spain's second goal and then scored the third goal himself, after a beautiful pass from former Valencia CF player Silva.

Jonas Gonclaves came in as a substitute in the 78th minute in Brazil 2-0 win over Scotland. Jonas almost scored two goals for Brazil in his short time on the pitch, though he was a bit unlucky. This is Jonas first Brazil call-up and first match to actually play for Brazil national team.

Valencia CF transfer rummors and speculation

In the last few weeks, especially the last two weeks there has been a ton of transfer speculation who Valencia will bring in the summer. The most talked position to get strengthen is the right back position with Miguel facing possible jail time and his off field antics worrying and Bruno getting old and rarely ineffective in helping out the attack its fairly logical there to be ton of rumors.

Andreas Beck and João Pereira were one of the first speculations these past two weeks, from then on it seems the rumor mill blew wide open and can't stop. Beck plays for Hoffenheim and is considered by many as Philip Lahm replacement in the German squad. His contract ends in June 2012 and by that account only it may have a little merit for Valencia to really be following him.

Joao plays for Portugal's Sporting club and has also been called to the national squad, he has started his career with Benfica through their youth system and has always been considered a very talented player.

Next up is Kiko Femenía, young Hércules fullback who is reportedly followed by Valencia after some impressive performances for Hercules. He has played 25 games for Hercules, scoring 1 goal in the process, but his release clause is set very high at 10 million euros.

Next up is the young right back Martin Montoya from Barcelona B team. He has been impressive this season and has caught the eye of several club from Spain, reportedly including Valencia. His contract is also set to expire at the end of the season and there is a potential in that sense to get the player.

One of the first rumors was the possible signing of Celta Vigo right back Hugo Mallo.He is reportedly eager to switch teams and go into a bigger club and Valencia is interested in him as he has big potential. Hugo has also been called 3 times to Spain U-19 team.

Coke Andújar is a player for Rayo Vallecano, he is 23 years old, soon to be 24 and has been playing some good football, enough to catch the eyes of Valencia staff. He is also one of the cheapest players and is reportedly going to cost Valencia only 1 million euros.

Bogus or not? Well its certanly not bogus that Valencia technical staff is following a lot of player and not only for the right back position.

In fact Valencia technical staff are following players for the left back position, center defense position, left wing position and central midfield position as well.

Whether all the players above are followed is uncertain, but what is certain is that Valencia are going to try to bring a new right back for the lowest amount of money, who is also the best option for the money.

Personally I'd go for Andreas Beck from all the above, though there are some better players out there that I'll write about once the season is closer to finish.

Ever Banega to leave Valencia CF?

In a bit of surprising news coming from Spanish media it seems that Ever Banega could be on his way out of Valencia CF this summer.

Reports suggest that Valencia CF has received several offers for Banega and that the player himself has told his agent that he want to leave Valencia and go to another club.
How much if any of this is true is unclear at this time, but such a possibility is not totally remote.

Ever Banega has been very important to Valencia CF this season and even though he is not in the form he was last season, he has shown that he has skill. He has also started most of the matches, though Unai Emery has been changing him with Tino Costa.

The club management probably wants Banega to stay as he is an important player and one of great quality, but should a big enough offer come along they might consider letting him go.