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