THE LOSERS OF THE WEEK (article in English and Español)

After the analysis of the winners during this week, it's time to focus on the teams or players who were not very lucky during the last matches of the Champions League and the UEFA Cup and besides I will speak about the important Turkish game played this Saturday between Fenerbahçe and Sivasspor.
Possibly the most unfortunate team were all the Spanish teams, because all the teams from these league could not win any international game during this week. First, we lived on Tuesday the "exhibitions" of FC Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, whose actions can be described as “gray” if we are good.
On one side, FC Barcelona was dominated by a good Olympique Lyonnais, specially during the first half of the game, where we watched the powerful play of Toulalan and Makoun and the constant danger caused by Kader Keita, Ederson, Benzema and Juninho, who scored the Lyon´s goal thanks to another Víctor Valdés´s mistake-it is clear that FC Barcelona has a problem with the goalkeeper, since Victor Valdes has never been very reliable and if he has not received many goals is because the good play of the team does not let the opponents to have clear shots on target(if VV is not reliable, what can we say about the other goalkeepers of the team, Jorquera and Pinto ... so, it is clear that this team needs a total renovation in this position) -. However we believe that FC Barcelona will win the 2 leg of this round and it will play the next round of the Champions League, which it will be very complicated for Atletico de Madrid, because it has a big problem with its defensive line, which is showing a deplorable level. We already said in the article THE FIRST KNOCKOUT ROUND OF THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE(I) (article in English and Español) that the Perea´s injury could be decisive for the draw, because the substitute would be Pablo Ibáñez-the player who arrived an agreement with a Real Madrid president´s candidate to play in Real Madrid some years ago-, whose play is always synonym of insecurity and obviously we watched a Pablo´s big mistake during the first FC Porto´s goal scored by the determinant Lisandro López, who had many facilities during the game and in fact if he and the other strikers of the team-Hulk- could not score more goal was because the Atlético´s goalkeeper, Leo Franco, played very well and he counteracted the bad level showed by the defensive, midfielder and offensive line-especially when the coach, Abel Resino, took a bad decision, the substitution of Kun Agüero ... -. It is clear that Atletico must improve in many aspects if it wants to have any option to beat FC Porto at Dragão, because if it expects to qualify through other Helton´s mistake, I think that it will be very difficult.
But if on Tuesday the Spanish teams played bad, what can we say about the Wednesday´s game at the Bernabeu (I can not criticize Villarreal, because although it drew the game played against Panathinaikos, it played well and it could win the game if it were luckier with the shots on target, but this is football and besides it received a Karagounis´s great goal…). Although somebody may not believe me, Real Madrid played a game last Wednesday, at least the players were on the field, since I think that they did not play football. I suppose that Juande Ramos will have his fans, but it is quite clear that although he win the Spanish Liga or the Champions League, his style is not for Real Madrid, whose fans are accustomed to seeing a good play, with creative players, with quality. So, the opposite to Juande´s team, whose team had last Wednesday 7 defensive players(Sergio Ramos, Pepe, Cannavaro, Heinze, Gago, Lass, Marcelo) plus Iker Casillas in the starting lineup, so it is normal that the team had many offensive problem during the game, because Raul, Robben and Higuaín were very alone to play against the hard Liverpool´s defensive line. Please Juande, more imagination and quality on the field, ¿is it very difficult to see for example in the starting lineup a player like Rafael Van der Vaart, who is a player who can have a defensive role-for example he was fantastic during the last Euro when he stopped the Andrea Pirlo´s play- and besides he has quality with ball to be the playmaker of the team and besides he has a great shot?. But we know the conservative and many time absurd Juande´s idea and decisions-it was a mistake his decision about dispense with Klass-Jan Huntelaar to play in the Champions League, because the Lass work can be done perfectly by Javi Garcia and without Huntelaar, as Real Madrid demonstrated last Wednesday, the team play without an attack´s reference and the team has many problems to score, since Raul can not run, defend and score the goals ... - (by the way, I can not conclude the Real Madrid´s situation without a mention about the Faubert´s situation, since he continues at Real Madrid, I say this because the only news about Faubert is that Juande described as "gray" his play against Racing Santander and that according Juande, Faubert is injured although the French player does not know it, which is difficult to understand, but this is the current Real Madrid, a team that for example tonight it shoot only 2 shots on target against RCD Espanyol(19 in the Spanish Liga´s standing)…ok, it won 0-2(good Guti´s free kick and of course the goal from the determinant Raul) but it is very poor to shot only 2 shots in 90 minutes.
We must refer to the other dismal games played by Deportivo La Coruña and Valencia CF (it was very difficult to see one of these 2 team, wining the Uefa Cup this year, so it seems these defeat were the best for this team in order to focus on the respective objectives in the Spanish league).
We must also remark the bad week for the Italian team, because if we except that Udinese Calcio could qualify for the next round, the rest of the transalpine teams could not win their matches, and for example Inter drew its game-we can say that it was lucky because Manchester United played better and specially during the first half of the game-and the other lost the games or said goodbye to the competition: Juventus played well but it lost the game played against Chelsea FC; AS Roma suffered again the Mexes´s mistake, since he caused an unnecessary penalty; Sampdoria could not beat the fashionable Metalist; Fiorentina forgot that the games have 90 minutes!; and AC Milan returned to commit the mistake to play in the starting lineup with “grandfathers”-it is difficult to understand why did Milan play with players like Dida (35 year´s old), Pepe Favalli (37 year´s old), Paolo Maldini (40 year´s old) and Andriy Shevchenko (he is in a deplorable level), ¿When we will see new defenders at Milanello?-
Finally, I want to finish the article speaking about the game played this Saturday between Fenerbahçe and Sivasspor, where we watched a team, Sivasspor, which will have many problems to be the Turkish Süper Lig´s Champion, because although it is the leader of the Lig, it showed a very poor image at Istanbul and although it could score 2 goals-it is not very difficult if you are playing against this current Fenerbahçe-, it had not any chances to win the game, since it played like a “small” team with a defensive mentality and waiting that Mehmet Yildiz or Yannick Kamanan could score any goal in individual plays, which is possible one or two times in 90 minutes but more times it is difficult, although your rivals are players like Deniz Baris-he committed many mistakes all the game-or the unlucky Deivid. Anyway, it was important Fenerbahçe´s victory, because it continues with chances to win this Lig, where anything is possible and I will do not any more prediction about the possible champion, although if Alex de Souza, Ugur Boral, Gökhan Gönül or Semih Sentürk continue playing well, Fenerbahçe will be until the last game with chances to be the Champions (this Saturday it won 4-2 the scorers were Ugur Boral-2-Sentürk and Lugano for Fenerbahçe, Mehmet Yildiz and Murat Sözgelmez for Sivasspor.
Cheers,
J&F