UEFA CUP: FC BAYERN MÜNCHEN-GETAFE CF ( This article is available in English and Español)

FC Bayern München will play the next round of the UEFA Cup against a Spanish team, Getafe FC, and as, surprisingly, the president of the German team, Franz Beckenbauer, said that he does not know anything about Getafe FC, we think that it is a good decision to dedicate an article to this good Spanish team. Possibly the key man in this modest club is its president, Angel Torres, because this team with him has stopped to be a classical of the Spanish 2 division A and 2 division B to become an established team in the Spanish first division, playing European competition and arriving to the King´s Cup Final (last season it played the final against the powerful Fc Sevilla, and this season it will play the final against FC Barcelona or Valencia CF). Furthermore, the Angel Torres´s labour has more value, if we bear in mind that he must build a new team each season, since or the Getafe´s coaches change the team and they sing for an important team (Quique Sanchez Flores left the Getafe to sign for Valencia or Bernd Schuster signed for Real Madrid), or the best players of the team change to another team (Arizmendi arrived to Deportivo, Alexis and Raul Albiol to Valencia, Güiza to Mallorca, or Pernía to Atletico Madrid, etc.). This season the president had a lot of work this summer, cause he needed to sign a new coach and many players, and the fact is that he has happened on the different signature, because Michael Laudrup, the coach, after an irregular start of the season, has built a good team, formed by players who play with great hardness and by players with a lot of quality and experience, such as the goalkeepers, since Getafe has the privilege of having the goalkeeper of the the Argentinian National Team, “El Pato” Abbondanzieri and the promising Argentinian, Oscar Ustari, who usually plays in the UEFA Cup´competition and although he has a lot of prestige, we think that he must to learn many thing in order to be considered a good goalkeeper, since his actions both in Geatafe and in Independiente de Avellaneda has been very irregulars.

The goalkeepers are well protected by a hard defensive line with very experience players as the central defenders "El Cata" Diaz-former Boca Juniors´player and defender of the Argentinian National Team-or David Belenguer, who has played more than 10 seasons in the Spanish first division, and Mario, who is playing a good level after an unfortunate period with FC Barcelona; or the right backs Cosmin Contra-former Atletico Madrid and AC Milan´s player- and David Cortes-good right back- or the Argentinian left back Lucas Licht, who has a great experience in the Argentinian league after 5 seasons at Gimnasia y Esgrima de la Plata.

Moreover, the defensive line is helped by midfielders with a lot of experience and quality as the defensive midfielders Javier Casquero, who has played many season in the Spanish First division and has a powerful shot, or Fabio Celestini (34 games with the Swiss National Team)-a former player of the Olympique Marseille-, or Ruben de la Red (I do not understand why Real Madrid sold this player last summer because he is much better than Fernando Gago).These 3 players are complemented by clever players like the right midfielder Pablo Hernandez and the left midfielder Gavilán and the best player of the team, Esteban Granero, who is a brilliant offensive midfielder with a great of vision of the game and a lot of quality, excellent for the free-kicks, he is certainly the player that Bayern should pay more attention, because as he play alone and with time to think, he can decide the eliminatory, especially if his superb passes are used by the strikers of the team, which is possibly the less strong line of the team.

When we say the forward´s line is the less strong line, we mean that Getafe has not an excellent “9”- a striker, who score 20 goals per season-.But, although this is true, Bayern can not undervalue the players, because the Spanish team has a good combination of strikers: the quality and the mobility of the Uruguayan Albin or the Spanish Manu del Moral, or a “9” as Braulio ( what a wonderful goal against Tottenham this season!), or powerful Kepa Blanco or Ikechukwu Uche (although these two strikers are not in the expected level).

In short, Getafe is a good team and although the players of the squad do not have world-wide fame as the stars of Bayern (Ribery, Luca Toni, Klose, Podolski, Lucio, Lahm or Bastian Schweinsteiger), they have shown this season that they can win any game (Getafe has won this season FC Barcelona (2-0), Real Madrid (0-1), Seville (3-2), Tottenham (1-2) or Benfica). So, Mr Beckenbauer-I think it is lamentable that you do not know anything about this team-, I recommend that you must be careful with this team, because if you play as the game against FC Energie Cottbus, you will lose this eliminatory.

Cheers,

J&F