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."

Leicester City FC 0-1 Valencia CF Match Report

Valencia CF just won its second preseason match 1-0 over Leicester City FC. Valencia CF also won the trophy as this was a sort of mini tournament with 4 teams in it I believe with Bursaspor and PSV.

The match started slowly with both teams trying to control the midfield, but after 5-6 minutes Valencia CF became more comfortable and took the possession and initiative of the match. Maduro was quite good the first 30 minutes of the half time, really controlling the possession and spreading the ball well.
After a lot of pressing Valencia CF scored a goal with Aduriz on the left fooling a Leicester defensive player and crossing the ball to Jonas who hit a perfect volley and scored a goal.

From then on Feghuoli in particular would have more shots on goal, but unfortunately won't manage to score a goal. Schmeichel was actually beaten, but a defensive players managed to save their goal basically from the goal line and keep the score only 1-0 for Valencia.

The second half Unai Emery changed the whole squad again and having his debut this time was Daniel Parejo.

Second half was actually more interesting, but if you are a Leicester City FC fan as they had quite a bit of chances to equalize. While the second half our left side was way better with Alba and Piatti and even Pablo coming left, the defensive midfield and the center defense was worse as Topal and Portu failed to control the play and the Rami had at least 2 blunders and forced Diego Alves to come off his post twice to try and save the day. Dealbert was a bit better, but not very convincing either.

Pablo was really poor on the right and Soldado was once again too slow and rusty to do anything and he even had two good chances to score. Daniel Parejo was a welcome sight and had a very positive debut in which he carried the whole Valencia CF play at times.

Overall it was a good preseason match and this will show Unai Emery where and how to improve and lets not forget that our more creative and influential players like Tino Costa, Juan Mata and Ever Banega are yet to play.

Right now I'm personally really impressed with Miguel, Burno, Pardo, Alba, Feghuoli and Aduriz. This match I was also impressed with Parejo, but we'll see how he performs in the next match.

I'm really disappointed with Rami, Mathieu, Topal, Pablo and Soldado. Its still early though and I think the next match is really going to show the real quality and performance of the players and hopefully we'll also have Tino Costa and Mata ready to play.

Technical Details:
Leicester City FC (0):City: Schmeichel; Peltier (Oakley 46), Bamba (St. Ledger 61), Mills, Konchesky (46 Ball); Abe, Wellens (c), King (79 Moussa); Gallagher (61 Waghorn), Vassell (78 Howard), Schlupp (60 Dyer).
Valencia CF (1): Guaita(45 Diego), Bruno(45 Miguel), Costa(45 Rami), Pardo(45 Dealbert), Mathieu(45 Alba), Feghuoli(45 Pablo), Maduro(45 Topal), Albelda(45 Portu), Bernat(45 Piatti), Jonas(45 Parejo), Aduriz(45 Soldado)
Goals: 27min, 1-0 Jonas.

Player Ratings:
Guaita 5.5 - Had few decent mini-saves
Bruno 6 - Great in defense, won all his tackles and very good in attack as well.
Costa 5  - Pretty good, had some good challenges
Pardo 5 - Quite good at the beginning, very comfortable with the ball at his feet and feeds the midfield nice.
Mathieu 5 - Decent defending, few runs forward, but nothing standing out.
Feghuoli 6 - Very active around the pitch, had 3 shots towards Leicester goal and good showing overall.
Maduro 5.5 - Great for around 25 minutes with good passing and keeping possession and then went missing.
Albelda 4.5 - Helped out in defense, had a few forward passes but that's about it.
Bernat 4 - Invisible for the whole match.
Jonas 6 - Decent performance, scored a goal, but failed to link up play in the final 3rd.
Aduriz 6.5 - Great performance from Aduriz impressing once again with an assist to Jonas. Also had a shot on goal and won few crucial headers.
Subs:
Diego 5.5 - Got off the line to clear a ball with a header, then had to do it again but the second time missed the ball with his foot and Leicester almost scored.
Miguel 5.5 - Very good in defense,  was not troubled at all, but did not go forward too much.
Rami 4 - Poor performance by Rami, lost his man on two occasions on the first occasion he was just outrun and on the second he missed the ball and failed to clear it, forcing the goalkeeper to come off his line twice.
Dealbert 5 - Managed to cover for one Rami mistake early on, but as Rami didn't look too comfortable.
Alba 6.5 - Just fantastic, good in defense and great in attack. His forward moves were always threatening and linked up quite well with everyone ahead of him.
Pablo 5 -Had one or two good moves, run a lot, but he is not creating any chances or making dangerous through passes.
Topal 5 - Great helping hand in defense, but fails to move the ball forward.
Portu 5.5 - More active than Topal and pushed forward more, but he as Topal fail to keep possession, spread the ball around or move the ball forward.
Piatti 5.5 - Had a few good runs on the left side, linked up few times with Alba, but falls to the ground too easily.
Parejo 6 - Really impressive debut from Parejo, great ball control, went down deep to move the ball forward, always open to receive a pass and along with Alba they share man of the match performance.
Soldado 5 - Very rusty, had two good chances, but in one he missed the ball and the other chance he shot straight in the goalkeeper.

Leicester City vs Valencia CF Match Preview

Just few days ago Valencia CF played its first match of the preseason against PSV Eindhoven in which Valencia CF won 2-0 with goals from Piatti and Aduriz. Tomorrow is the next challenge in Austria and this time Valencia CF meets Leicester City FC.

Leicester City FC is an English club based in obviously the same named city Leicester and playing in "the Championship" league. The championship league was formerly known as second division, but the FA thought that better names would give it more importance and exposure.

The most known name in the club is Sven-Goran Ericsson, some know him because he has the name of the mobile phone company Ericsson and now as Sony-Ericsson which is almost an exact match, but some will also know him as the English national team manager.
He is considered by the FA as the second best English national team manager in the history of England.

Leicseter City FC has already had a great preseason and went on an unbeaten tour in Sweden. They also played 0-0 with Bursaspor(the club that VCF destroyed in the champions league) on July 20th and tomorrow they will face Valencia CF.  They will also face Real Madrid on 30th this month and is going to be a nice measurement of sort to see how Valencia CF stacks up to Real Madrid, even though Real is with an advantage with playing more games so far and will be with an even better advantage until they get to play Leicester City FC.

The coaches of both clubs have gotten to know each other and already seem like best buddies having so much fun playing table mini football or whatever is called in English.

Leicester City squad:
TBA

Valencia CF as you already know started the preseason very well, you can read my previous match preview to check how the training sessions went and my match report on how the match against PSV went. Suffice to say the preseason has been going well and with the added bonus of Juan Mata coming to Austria and joining the squad.

The training sessions the last 3 days have been very positive with a mix of stamina and physical workout and tactical training. The team I believe practiced few tactical movements in attack.

Emery played with a 4-2-3-1 formation last match, we'll see how he sets it up tomorrow, maybe he'll experiment and maybe not, we'll just have to wait and see.

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, Nacho González, Topal, Feghouli, Juan Bernat, Pablo, Portu, Piatti, Mata and Parejo.
Attack: Jonas, Aduriz and Soldado.

Technical details:
Formation: Most likely 4-2-3-1 once again, but everything is possible at this point.
Line-up:  Guaita; Miguel, Rami, R.Costa, Alba; Topal, Albelda, Pablo, Piatti; Jonas, Parejo, Aduriz Soldado.
Tactics: Have no idea.

Juan Mata stay to depend on economic situation

This is breaking news ladies and gentlemen. Juan Mata stay with Valencia CF will depend purely on economic results. Things are looking really bad and right now chances are that Juan Mata will be sold if an good offer comes along.

With less than 30.000 season tickets sold so far and only 2 days left and with no shirt sponsor and low chances of finding a good one, its very likely that Juan Mata will be sold in order to balance the sheets.

Even though Valencia CF has reduced the expenditures by more than 15 million just by cutting and/or reducing salaries its balance sheet depends mostly on season tickets sold. While the club can go even several months without a shirt sponsor, season tickets have been the major income for Valencia CF for so many years.

I really hope there will be at least 35.000 season tickets sold, but its really hard to tell right now. Reports have it that there were about 1000 people purchasing tickets today, but even that isn't much.

If Valencia CF doesn't have stability through season tickets and shirt sponsor expect Juan Mata to be sold if an offer of around 30 million euros comes along.

PSV Eindhoven 0-2 Valencia CF Match Report

Great game to watch, not the most entertaining, but considering it was the first match after last season it was pretty good. Valencia CF also won the match 2-0 and considering that PSV has started their preseason sooner and has already played few matches its looking good.

First half was decent we didn't have some beautiful play and the chances were rare, but the defense seems very good with all of the players performing admirably, even though it wasn't like they were tested too much or too hard. I like Bruno and Alba defending, I think Rami was a bit nervous and Pardo did actually very well.

Topal did well especially defensivelly, but Maduro was nowhere to be seen and he was the worst player on the field today.

Anyways the first half ended 0-0 with similar possession and chances for both teams.

The second half was a whole new starting eleven with new player Piatti starting for the first time. The second half was much more dynamic and interesting with good chances on both sides. Piatti was causing all sorts of troubles on the left for the PSV defense and he was really standing out. The first goal also came from Piatti after an Aduriz assist.

Feghuoli was playing quite poorly for much of the match, but then in the 78th minute he made a great move to get away from a defender and cross the ball to Aduriz who headed the ball into the net. It was 2-0 for Valencia CF.

Overall it was an encouraging first preseason match which we won 2-0 against a difficult opponent. Pablo Piatti really impressed me, Jordi Alba and Miguel Brito also impressed me, as did Pardo who looked really assured in defense. The players that really disappointed me were Pablo Hernandez and Hedwiges Maduro.

Technical Details:
PSV (0): Isaksson, Manolev, Marcelo, Strootman, Toivonen, Engelaar, Wijnaldum, Lens, Mertens, Tamata, Labyad.

Valencia CF (2): Diego(45min Guaita), Bruno(45min Burno), Rami(45min Costa), Pardo(45min Dealbert), Alba(45min Mathieu); Topal(45min Albelda), Maduro(45min Pardo); Pablo(45min Feghuoli), Jonas(45min Nacho), Bernat(45min Piatti); Soldado(45min Aduriz).

Goals: 68th min. 1-0, Pablo Piatti; 78th min. 2-0, Aritz Aduriz.

Player Ratings:
Diego 5 - Had absolutelly nothing to do.
Bruno 5.5 - Made few decent runs forward and solid defensivelly.
Rami 5 - Was a bit reserved, but its his first match so no big deal.
Pardo 5.5 - Did a good job defensively, very active.
Alba 5.5 - Had a very good save in the middle of the first half, not much going forward though.
Topal 5 - Not very influential in the middle, provided good cover back though.
Maduro 4 - Apart from 3-4 touches with the ball nowhere to be seen.
Pablo 5 - Few runs on the right and the left, had a shot on goal but way off target, didn't acomplish much.
Jonas 5 - Made a wonderful assist to Soldado, made himself available, but could not dictate the game.
Bernat 5 - Had a few runs on the left, but nothing really worthy. 
Soldado 5 - Had one shot at goal from a Jonas assist, but failed to covert in into goal. Had one or two more runs, but was not threatening.
Subs:
Guaita 5.5 - Made a few minor saves, very focused.
Miguel 6 - Great game by Miguel, amazing attacking play and defended very well.
Costa 5 - Wasn't challenged much, kept things simple.
Dealbert 5.5 - Quite confident in his passing and made a few good tackles.
Mathieu 5 - Decent performance.
Albelda 5 - Wasn't very influential, mostly defended.
Portu 5 - Better than Maduro, but often times keeps the ball too long and looses it.
Feghuoli 6 - Player poorly until that amazing cross to Aduriz for the second goal. Had one more decent pass after that.
Nacho 5.5 - Quite active in the beginning and had a shot just wide off goal, went missing in the later stages.
Piatti 6.5 - Very good first match for Piatti, lightning fast on the left, caused much trouble to the PSV defenders and scored a goal.
Aduriz 7 - Had an assist for the first goal, although it was more of a lucky rebound actually, but then scored a goal from a Feghuoli cross.

PSV Eindhoven vs Valencia CF match preview

Valencia CF first preseason match starts tomorrow - 19.July.2011 at 18:30pm in Austria and will be against Dutch 3rd place finisher from last season PSV Eindhoven.
Both clubs have started the training sessions at similar times, although PSV started their preseason matches earlier and have already played some matches and are likely more sharp.

PSV Eindhoven is a club with rich history and while its usually overshadowed by the likes of Ajax its one of the best teams in the Dutch league and has produced a lot of great footballing names like Jaap Stam, Phillip Cocu, Ruud Van Nistelroy, Mark Van Bommel, Ajren Robben and so on... The team has got a very long and rich history, it was founded in 31 August 1913.

Last season PSV finished 3rd behind the likes of FC Twente and AFC Ajax, but this allows them to be in the Europa League play-offs. More recently PSV played a friendly against Turkish team Bursaspor (the team that Valencia CF destroyed last season in the champions league) and managed a 1-1 draw with them. Before that PSV had a narrow 2-1 win over FC Eindhoven.

PSV Eindhoven squad:
Isaksson, Cássio Ramos, Sinouh, Manolev, Bouma, Marcelo, Pieters, Strootman, Toivonen, Engelaar, Wijnaldum, Lens, Mertens, Ibrahim, Tamata, Zeefuik, Labyad, Ojo, Bakkal, Ritzmaier, Mokhtar, Najah and Addo. Bourdouxhe is doubtful for the trip to Austria.

Valencia CF is a club with rich history as well, but I'm not going to talk about that here. Valencia CF has started the preseason very well. The first training session consisted of very light workouts and mini medical exam, it was basically a nice way to warm up for the real deal. After few training sessions twice in a day the squad was fully medically tested from cardiovascular testing to physical testing, it was all there.

Since then the team has had more double training sessions a day in order for the players to recover their fitness and form quickly. There has also been some fun training sessions like going out to the beach and kayaking.

The last few days the team has also been working real hard on the defense. Valencia CF coach Unai Emery has been implementing new defending techniques and tactics in the hopes that this season the defense will be drastically improved.

This is going to be Valencia's first match in the preseason and the first chance for all the fans to see the new and old players in action. In case you miss the match or can't watch it, don't worry as I'll be writing reviews of all the preseason matches.

The only absences from the team right now are Juan Mata and Ever Banega as Juan Mata has an extended vacation due to being with the Spain U-21 squad, while Banega is still in Argentina, although they didn't go through to the semi-final, he is going to still have an extended vacation because he participated in the Copa America. Juan Mata is going to join the team on the 22nd this month though.

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, Nacho González, Topal, Feghouli, Juan Bernat, Pablo, Portu, Piatti and Parejo.
Attack: Jonas, Aduriz and Soldado.

Technical Details:
Formation: Have no idea, this is the first match and we'll see how Emery goes with this, if I had to make an educated guess I think he is going to start with a 4-3-3 formation and see how it goes from there.
Line-up: Diego; Bruno, Rami, Dealbert, Alba; Topal. Tino, Feghuoli, Piatti, Jonas; Aduriz.
Tactics: We'll see how the new defensive tactics Emery has been teaching work out.

Valencia CF in financial trouble

Ladies and gentlemen Valencia CF is in a world of hurt with only 24.000 season tickets sold in 6 weeks and with only 6 days remaining till the season ticket sales close its looking very grim for Valencia CF.

Last year Valencia CF sold 42.500 season tickets and the plan for Llorente was to sell just as much this season, but that number is now like a dream.

This is a terrible fact considering that Valencia CF reduced the season tickets prices for this season and spend a lot of money on advertising campaigns to get people to buy the tickets. So far it seems nothing has worked and its looking very unlikely that Valencia CF will reach 40.000 season tickets.

For those unfamiliar with the situation, basically Spain is bankrupt and in big financial troubles, with protests and strikes every day. Years of government corruption and stealing in Spain has lead slowly but surely to the financial collapse of the country. Hopefully the people will get their country back, prosecute the criminals and fix their financial troubles.