Valencia Mestalla Champions

Well the main team lost to Real Madrid pretty badly, but there is at least some comfort to be found in the fact that the youth team Mestalla have become champions in their group in the trecera division in Spain. Its not a huge achievement, but its a step forward from the past years where the youth team was talk of laughter and despair.

Mestalla are champions and with style after beating La Nucie who were second at the time. Right now Mestalla are first place with 79 points, 13 points more than second placed Olimpic.

VCF Mestalla are going to be competing with 16 other teams for access to Spain 2nd B division and are going to basically have 2 chances to get in. Its going to be hard, but I think they have the quality with the likes of Isco, Paco, Gil, Montoro.

Right now Paco is second on the scoreboard with 19 goals, Isco is second with 14 goals. So the chances to qualify for 2nd division are pretty high and hopefully Valencia youth team will be playing 2nd division B next year.

Valencia CF 3-6 Real Madrid - Match Report

Well its official, Valencia CF defense sucks and it couldn't be more obvious than today. The cover tactics were also poor, as there was only 3 players covering 3 countering players from Real Madrid and today the Real Madrid players proved more successful.

Basically all the goals Real Madrid scored were from counter attacks, but otherwise they played rather poor and sat back in their own half and defended. This was basically a very defensive approach by Jose Mourinho, something of the sort what Inter played Barcelona in the last year in the Champions League, not that defensive, but definitely may be called anti-football by some if people go into an argument.

Most of all though it was individual mistakes that made the big score differential, with Guaita, Mathieu, Stankevicious and Ricardo all doing defensive mistakes. The whole back line in a word sucked and this may as well be possibly one of the worst defensive showings in the last 3-4 years.

I won't go into detail or play by play, because its pointless, but I'll say that this is historically Valencia's biggest loss from Real Madrid and its pretty embracing actually.

Well at least this shows the disparity between the two top clubs in Spain versus the rest of the teams and maybe some huge and powerful guy reads this blog and makes something about it, or we are going to be seeing real-barca borefest for the next 10 years as things are going.


Player Ratings:
Guaita 2 - At fault for the first and third goal, should have done much better overall.
Miguel 4 - Lost Kaka for the 5th or maybe it was the 6th goal, who can remember there were so many, but yeah not a good performance overall, though he was probably the least at fault.
Stankevicious 1 - Made look like a newbie, lost position for one of the goals, got dribbled past for the 5th and bad performance overall, the scoreboard shows all.
R. Costa 1 - Same as Stankevicous, too relaxed and could have stopped at least one goal has he committed, but lost the challenges too easily.
Mathieu 1 - Very poor performance from the Frencheman, he went forward a lot, but completelly forgot about his defensive duties and 4 out of the 6 goals came directly from his side.
Topal 5 - Not his best night, covered pretty decent at the back and made a nuisance of himself, but in a 3 on 3 situation he looses position as he is not a core defender.
Maduro 3 - Not really effective at anything, was not doing much at defense, was not doing anything at attacks, he was basically just standing there and just returning every passed ball to him immediately.
Banega 5 - Same as Topal, more effective going forward, but is not too good defensively.
Pablo 4 - Had some good moments, but as much as they were good, they were bad at the same time as he missed 2 good chances for goal and didn't make the final pass on two other occasions.
Mata 6.5 - Very active in attack, very creative and run all over the pitch, one assist, but the match was over by then.
Soldado 4 - Little service tonight, had one run towards goal, but otherwise completely covered by the Madrid defense.
Subs:
Joaquin 5 - Same as Jonas, was not more successful than Pablo, maybe a bit more direct running, but could not change the game.
Jonas 5.5 - The match was pretty much over when he came in, not the game changer by any means, although he did score a goal.
Alba 5 - Scored a late goal.

Valencia CF vs Real Madrid - Match Preview

First of all sorry for the inactivity this past week, but what can I do, it just happens sometimes.

Anyways its this time again, Valencia CF faces the big guns Real Madrid in a basically season defining match. If Valencia CF win this match its done, they are going to finish 3rd place, it would be impossible for Villarreal in any way to finish above Valencia. Real Madrid on the other hand would most certainly finish in 2nd place, but after their recent success against Barcelona in the Copa Del rey, winning 1-0 over their fierce rivals, Real Madrid would be looking towards the champions league as that is more important to them now, winning 2 titles over Barcelona 1 Spanish title would be success for Real Madrid.

Valencia CF are actually coming to this match as favorites, I know how this sounds, but its true. Real Madrid just won over Barcelona 3 days ago in extra time no less and Jose Mourinho is going to rest most of his important players, such as Xavi Alonso, Ronaldo, Di Maria... So they should come out weakened in this match and Valencia CF should take advantage.

Valencia CF on the other hand have had a full week to recover and prepare for this match and should be in better form to take this match. The only player that is unavailable right now is Tino Costa, but otherwise all of the players are available and this should be an exciting match.

Emery has been practicing with the formation played against Villarreal again and the plan is to keep the ball as much as possible and also when the ball is lost to quickly pressure Real so they loose the ball too.

Its very likely Roberto Soldado will be the sole attacker once again, with Mata and Pablo on the wings, supported by Ever Banega and most likely Topal, although who knows as Emery has been playing Topal as defender in couple of matches.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: César, Guaita.
Defense: Miguel, Dealbert, Ricardo Costa, Stankevicius, Mathieu, Jordi Alba.
Midfield: Albelda, Maduro, Topal, Éver, Joaquín, Pablo, Mata.
Attack: Jonas, Aduriz, Soldado.

Real Madrid are coming from a huge 1-0 win over their fierce rivals Barcelona. After suffering for 3 years domestically and even more years internationally, since the last galacticos era, Real Madrid have been under performing, each year they throw money at the problems, 40,50,80 millions of euros and still unable to win anything.

This season they have been rebuild and under the tutorship of Jose Mourinsho, arguably the best coach in the world Real have been able to break their "curse" in the champions league, beating Lyon, then totally trashing Tottenham and in the next round they face their biggest rivals Barcelona. Real Madrid hold the advantage as they lost one game, drew one, but won their last game in the copa del rey final against Barca and they have 2 more matches in the champions league, but they are going to go into them as favorites.

Since Real Madrid are 8 points behind Barcelona and even though there are 6 more matches to be played the battle is pretty much over so they should rest their best players against Valencia CF and this could give Valencia a chance to win and ultimately confirm that 3rd place finish.

Real Madrid squad:
Goalkeepers: Casillas, Adan, Dudek
Defense: Albiol, Garay, Pepe, Carvalho, Marcelo, Nacho Fernandez
Midfield: Lass, Ozil, Xabi Alonso, Kaka, Pedro Leon, Canales, Granero, Juanfran
Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema, Higuain

Technical details:
Formation: 4-1-4-1
Line-up: Guaita; Miguel, Stankevicious, R.Costa, Mathieu; Topal; Pablo, Banega, Maduro, Mata; Soldado
Tactical: low defensive line, mid field opposing team pressure, wing and central attacking play, mostly short passing with decent amount of crosses from the wings.

Results prediction:
Valencia CF 1-0 Real Madrid
This is defenatelly a very interesting match and you shouldn't miss it for anything. Valencia CF are the favorties coming into this match jsut because Real Madrid should rest its best players and Valencia CF is in good form right now, the players are performing so I think we should be able to win 1-0.

Valencia CF 5-0 Villarreal CF - Match Report

Valencia CF absolutely dominated over Villarreal and beat them 5-0. In fact Villarreal defense most of the time looked like little kids to the powerful Valencia CF attack, which furiously bulldozed through their defense and absolutely dominated all match long. Not that Villarreal didn't have chances to score a goal themselves, they did in fact come close to scoring 3 times, but were luckally denied by some good defending, especially from Stankevicious who made few crucial interceptions.

From the start Valencia CF started with full control over the game and went on the attack. Miguel Brito after a lenghty pause with suspension from the club was playing admiarablly and a lot of the chances were coming from him on the right side. There was a good cross first with Topal header going just wide off goal and then came a great through pass from Miguel to Soldado, with this one not missing the opportunity and scoring a goal. It was 1-0 for Valencia CF.

Valencia CF continued dominating and had several more chances to increase the score, Miguel yet again found Soldado with a through pass, but the attacker failed to score.

Just few minutes later a good through pass from Tino put Soldado on chance again, but once again Soldado failed to score.

With Tino Costa getting injured and getting taken off for Dealbert, Valencia CF lost a little bit control and Villarreal made few chances and tries towards Valencia CF goal, but Ceraz and Stankevicious saved the day and the result ended 1-0 for Valencia CF at half time.

The second half started with Villarreal with more control and better play in the first 5-6 minutes, but then Valencia CF took over again and never looked back.

In the 55th minute Valencia CF would score again with Mata starting the attack, running forward and then doing a fast one-two with Banega and Mata was through on goal with just the keeper to beat, he scores and Valencia is up 2-0.

In the 62nd minute Valencia CF will score again, Pablo recieved the ball quite deep into Villarreal's teritory, run past one defender and passed the ball to the oncoming Ever Banega who easily slotted the goal in the net. Valencia CF 3-0 over Villarreal CF and the match was begging to feel like over, at least for Villarreal, though Valencia will go on to score two more times.

The fourth goal came from a good build-up by Soldado, who made a through pass to Pablo, this one with an assist towards Mata, who didn't have problems scoring to an empty goal. Valencia CF were basically playing very good, attacking very well with good build-up play and good individual movement.

With Villarreal's defense in shatters and completely disorganized it was pretty much right for them to receive one more goal, someone gave the ball away right to Topal who had easy time passing the ball to Soldado who sort of chipped the ball and lobbed the goalkeeper to make it 5-0, the final result.

Fantastic match with absolutelly positive score and result. Valencia CF are now still third in the table, but with 6 points ahead on Villarreal and the better side in the head to head matches with a draw away to Villarreal and tonight's 5-0 win at home at the Mestalla.

Technical details:
Valencia (5): César, Miguel, Stankevicius, Topal, Ricardo Costa, Mathieu, Pablo, Banega (Albelda, m.77), Tino Costa (Dealbert, m.30), Mata y Soldado (Aduriz, m.78).

Villarreal (0): Diego López, Mario, Mussachio, Kiko, Capdevila (Ruben, 57), Marchena, Bruno Soriano (Joan Oriol, m.65), Borja Valero, Cazorla, Nilmar y Rossi (Wakaso, m.70).

Goals: 1-0, m.14: Soldado. 2-0, m.55: Mata. 3-0, m.63: Banega. 4-0, m.72: Mata. 5-0, m.75: Soldado.

Player Ratings:
Cezar 6 - Made one good save, had a little mishandling, but largely untroubled, he had a confident performance.
Miguel 7 - Brilliant first half, best player in the first half, provided the assist to Soldado's first goal and almost had a 2nd assist to Soldado again.
Stankevicious 7 - Brilliant performance where everything he did was great. Had few crucial interceptions to keep Valencia CF from conceding a goal.
R. Costa 6.5 - Good performance from Costa as well, a little bit less effective than Stankevicious though.
Mathieu 7 - Good performance from Mathieu, went forward often enough, had a good assist to Pablo that could have put VCF even more forward, had also one shot that was a bit inaccurate.
Topal 7 - Slotted in a somewhat strange position between DM and CD, changed positions with Stankevicious, generally useful, covered in attack well and also provided good depth going forward with 1 assist and few good forward runs.
Tino Costa 6 -  Good until injured, had one great through pass and generally active and useful.
Banega 7.5 - Had some questionable passes and somewhat insecure after Tino left injured, but came back and provided a good performance with good ball control, passing and scored a goal himself.
Pablo 7 - Somewhat average first half from Pablo, but opened up in the second and became more active and really helped the team win with some good moves, passes and assist.
Mata 8.5 - Now this is the Mata I'd like to see, two games in a row with super performance, man of the match performance no doubt. Scored two goals and I believe he had an assist also.
Soldado 7.5 - Great once again. Full of running, always in dangerous positions and really useful to the team. Scored two goals, the second one especially good, could have scored at least 2 more times, but this is a good performance nevertheless.
Subs:
Dealbert 6.5 - Came in for Tino Costa, but ended in the back, had one bad situation as usual, but other than that had a very good match alongside R. Costa.
Albelda 6 - Not too much time for him to do anything, but provided some more defensive cover to close out the match.
Aduriz N/A - Not enough time.

Valencia CF vs Villarreal (villareal) - Match Preview

Sunday 21 hours the match between Valencia CF and Villarreal will start, two direct rivals and competitors for the 3rd spot in Spain will clash in what may very well be the deciding match this season. Both Valencia CF and Villarreal are very keep to finish 3rd as it automatically places the team in the group stage without having to play an additional fixture.

Valencia CF broke its spell of scoreless performances and the curse of strikers who have not scored since February and Soldado was the main man, netting 4 goals against his former club Getafe. Previosly Valencia CF had lost 3 matches in a row and less than convincing when performing.

But all that is forgoten now and the team will go into this match with renewed vigor and strength, ready to bring the fight to Villarreal, as Valencia is also playing at the Mestalla and with a home advantage it should make things a little bit easier.

Valencia is currently sitting at 3rd position, 3 points more than Villarreal, so this will be a crucial match and winning tomorrow and getting 6 points ahead of Villarreal will practically guarantee a 3rd place finish.

VCF coach Unai Emery has been experimenting with a 4-1-4-1 formation, fielding Maduro, Tino Costa and Ever Banega in the middle and another option has been the standard 4-4-2 formation. In the 4-4-2 formation Emery played with Jonas and Soldado again in attack, which means if he chooses this formation the same strikers are going to play. Which one Emery chooses is up for debate and anything is possible, but knowing Emery I think he is going to go with the 4-1-4-1 formation.

Anyways good news is that Albelda is back and is training with the rest of the team just fine, Guaita is also back and training good after his tragic events, Chori Dominguez was seen training, though may be a doubt or left for technical reasons anyways. Maduro has been training as well and basically everyone is pretty much fit and available for selection.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: César Sanchez, Vicente Guaita.
Defense: Bruno Saltor, Miguel Brito, Ricardo Costa, Angel Dealbert, Marius Stankevicius, Jeremy Mathieu, Jordi Alba.
Midfield: Mehmet Topal, Hedwiges Maduro, Éver Banega, Ricardo "Tino" Costa, Pablo Hernandez, Joaquín Sanchez, Juan Mata.
Attakc: Jonas Gonclaves, Aritz Aduriz, Roberto Soldado.

Villareal CF is currently sitting in 4th position, 3 points behind Valencia CF. They are coming off from a big win in the Europa League where they trashed Dutch team FC Twente 5-1. 

Villarreal coach, Juan Carlos Garrido said at the end of the morning practice today held behind closed doors at the Sports City of Villarreal for the League match against Valencia tomorrow (21.00 hours Mestalla) will be different for several reasons. "It's a special game for many reasons. We're playing for position and that also goes into the goal average. Clearly we want to be in the Champions League and we know that is a decider. Let's play outside and that is an important factor. No favorites in a great match between two great teams that have a positive sporting rivalry. We want to win this match and the only way is playing good football."

Villarreal CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Diego López y Juan Carlos.
Defense: Mario, Musacchio, Catalá, Capdevila, Marchena, Cicinho, Kiko y Joan Oriol.
Midfield: Borja Valero, Bruno, Santi Cazorla, Matilla y Wakaso.
Attack: Rossi, Nilmar y Marco Ruben.

Technical details:
Formation: 4-1-4-1
Line-up: Guaita; Bruno, Stankevicious, R.Costa, Mathieu; Topal; Joaquin, Banega, Tino, Mata; Soldado
Tactical: low defensive line, mid field opposing team pressure, wing and central attacking play, mostly short passing with decent amount of crosses from the wings.

Results prediction:
Valencia CF 2-1 Villarreal
If Valencia CF have a good day at the back and don't mess things up really bad, we should take this game. I think our defense is bad enough that it must concede a goal, but I'm sure VCF is going to score two goals.

Valencia CF is a top team

Well after today results in the Champions League there can not be any doubt in anyone's mind that Valencia CF is a top team and not only in Spain, but in Europe.

We see Real Madrid trashed Tottenham 4-0 today with ease, although they were helped a bit by Peter Crouch red card though, but non the less Real were levels above Tottenham.

To remind you Valencia CF lost to Real Madrid at the Bernabeu by 2-0, but it was a closer fight and right now Valencia CF has improved as opposed to the start.

Another fact to support this is the demolishing of Inter Milan by Schalke 04, who beat Inter at home with the result of 2-5.

Valencia CF only lost to Schalke 04 in Germany and only due to our bad defensive players making individual mistakes. Valencia CF pretty much controlled the match otherwise and created a ton of chances that somehow Aduriz missed all.

Finishing 3rd this season in Spain would be a huge success and as Manuel llorente has said it we should work towards getting more competitive with Real Madrid and Barcelona in the next 2 years, but we can't expect miracles.

With Ever Banega, Chori Dominguez, Vicente Rodriguez, Cezar Sanchez and Miguel Brito potentially leaving in the summer Valencia CF needs to do good business in the transfer market and get some very talented players that can help Valencia CF become more competitive with Barca and R. Madrid.

But the core team is here with the likes of Guaita, Tino Costa, Pablo, Mata, Soldado, etc...

Mata to be sold this summer?

Like it or hate it, Mata is a key player for Valencia CF and even though he has his frequent ups and downs he is so far the most important player for Valencia CF with 13 assists in all competitions and 6 goals. He is also a versatile player capable of playing as left winger, attacking midfielder, center forward and striker.

Apparently there are several clubs keeping close tabs on Mata and are interested in purchasing him.
First up is Manchester City, which tried to bring Mata last summer along with Silva, but Valencia management did not sell Mata and instead sold Silva. They are reportedly willing to pay up to 22 million euros to get him.

Next up are two more English teams in Manchester United and Chelsea. Manchester United squad is aging and they are reportedly looking for someone to strengthen the midfield and Mata is the perfect option.

Chelsea are reportedly also on the lookout and Mata fits their bills as he could play just behind the striker, Torress in this case and also on the left in a 3 man attack.

There are reports from Italy as well, suggesting that Inter Milan and Juventus are interested in signing Mata as well.
Juventus have been following Mata for 3 seasons now, before that they followed Silva, though they have not made an official offer as far as I know for Mata.
Apparently Inter is also looking so strengthen their left side with young and talented players and Mata is first on their list of reinforcements this summer.

The Italian clubs are said to be willing to dish out 25 million euros and even more to get the services of Mata.