Athletic Bilbao UEFA Cup 2004-5 [R]

[Quango]

Tomorrow, Sept. 30th, 2004.
UEFA Cup
Athletic Bilbao vs. Trabzonspor [Turkey]
(First leg 2-3)

Preview via soccernet:
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/preview?id=164542&cc=5901

Looks like a tough tie for Athletic but hopefully being at home will help them through. At least they have two away goals.

Quango

[Quango]

Bilbao has evened the aggregate with fifth minute goal from Ezquerro.
Agg. 3-3, Bilbao leads on away goals

[Quango]

Yeste with a 61' strike gives Bilbao a 2-0 lead, and a 4-3 aggregate lead.

[Quango]

Athletic Bilbao 2-0 Trabzonspor
5' Ezquerro
61' Yeste

Bilbao move on to the UEFA Cup group stages, winning the aggregate 4-3. Athletic joins other La Liga sides Zaragosa, Villareal, and Sevilla in the 40 team group stage, which will pit 8 groups of 5 teams in 2 home and 2 away matches. The top 3 teams in each group move on to the next knockout stage.

Match stats here:
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/match?id=164542&cc=5901

Quango

[SoccerFan8270]

Well played by Athletic. By the way, I was just curious...is there a certain reason why Athletic and some other Spanish clubs do not have sponser ads on their uniform?

[Quango]

In the cases of Athletic and Barcelona, I don't think it's from lack of suitors. My guess is that, since both of these teams represent something much larger than a soccer team to their supporters, they wear clean shirts as a show of respect to their communities.

I just read in Phil Ball's "Morbo" that Barcelona's supporters groups hold a lot of sway and keeping a "gaudy logo" off the shirt is "evidence of their determination to keep the club's image independent." (pg. 111, paperback revised edition).

My guess is Athletic does so for similar reasons.

Quango

[illuminatus]

Well done to Athletic Bilbao! I would love to see highlights of the 2 goals... i hear they were very good individual efforts. Does anyone have them?

[Bilbao2Brooklyn]

It is a point of pride that hey do not have sponsors, but I fear those days are probably eding soon.

[Quango]

Athletic's UEFA Cup group. Top three clubs go on to the next round.

Group Two
Team P W D L F A Pts
Parma 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Besiktas 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Athletic Bilbao 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Steaua Bucuresti 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Standard Liege 0 0 0 0 0 0 0


Thursday, October 21
Athletic Bilbao v Parma
Steaua Bucharest v Standard Liege
Thursday, November 4
Parma v Steaua Bucharest
Besiktas v Athletic Bilbao
Thursday, November 25
Standard Liege v Parma
Steaua Bucharest v Besiktas
Wednesday, December 1
Besiktas v Standard Liege
Athletic Bilbao v Steaua Bucharest
Thursday, December 16
Standard Liege v Athletic Bilbao
Parma v Besiktas

[Quango]

Athletic takes on Parma (the A seed) today in Bilbao. Villareal takes on Lazio in Italy (Rome?). Hopefully the Liga sides will fare better than their brethren did yesterday against Serie A.

The Athletic game is at 3pm EST.
The preview is here:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/preview?id=166812&cc=5901

Good luck to all the Liga sides today!

Quango

[Quango]

1st Half
Athletic 1-0 Parma

Athletic takes the lead on Gurpegi's 5' goal!

[Quango]

2nd Half
Athletic 2-0 Parma

Del Horno adds a second in the 48'.

[Quango]

Final
Athletic 2-0 Parma

Athletic knocks off the top seed and moves to the top of the table with Bucharest who beat Standard Liege 2-0 as well.

Group Two
Team -----------P W D L F A Pts
Athletic Bilbao 1 1 0 0 2 0 3
Steaua Bucuresti 1 1 0 0 2 0 3
Besiktas ---------0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Parma -----------1 0 0 1 0 2 0
Standard Liege ---1 0 0 1 0 2 0

[Bilbao2Brooklyn]

NOV 4TH vs. Beskitas



Never easy winning in Turkey a draw will be ok and a win, well thats obvious.

[SoccerFan8270]

It should be a good game against Besiktas tomorrow...

[SoccerFan8270]

FINAL:
Besiktas: 3
Athletic: 1

Ali Gunes 26', Carew 63', Ibrahim Akin 89', Ezquerro 49'

A great performance by Besiktas. Besiktas is now 1st in the group. It is still a very close group...

GROUP B:
Team Played Points
Besiktas 1 3
Steaua 2 3
Athletic 2 3
Parma 2 3
Standard 1 0

[jonam]

I just read in German media that Bilbao will for the first time in their 106-year history have a jersey sponsor. Athletic will have Euscadi on their shirt for the next 2 UEFA-Cup matches (group stage) and get 350.000 from the Basque federal government. If the club promotes to the next stage the contract will be extended automatically.

Said to see a tradition like this fade away. :-(

I have somehow sympathies with Athletic and Barca because both clubs withstand the easy money of jersey sponsors and instead held on to their traditions. I know that especially Barcelona is regarded a the national team of Catalunya and therefor had a blank jersey. Is it the same with Athletic and the Basque region?

[njonkers]

Athletic ,FC Barcelona carry with them a pride in their homelands ie Euskadi and Catalonia.
It will be a shame if Athletic carry a sponsor on their shirts.

I wonder what the people at the PNV think about that?

[Bilbao2Brooklyn]

this is unfournate.

To me it is a pride thing. I was proud not to have advertisements on out shirts. At Athletic, we hold ourselves as more than a club about money, we represent the people.

But more and more I realize that is not a reality, and it is something, sadly, I guess I have to get used too.

This is the first step to Athletic signing non-locals to play. I just hope that if they do sign non-locals they do not become hypocritical as to only sign non-spainiards. If you want to be local club for locals, wonderful, but dont be like Erreala used to be.

[Quango]

GROUP B:
Team Played Points
Steaua--3--6pts
Besiktas--2--3pts
Athletic--2--3pts
Parma--3--3pts
Standard--2--3pts

Athletic didn't play on Thursday, but the rest of their group did. Only Steaua Bucuresti has pulled ahead. Bilbao take on Steaua, Dec. 1st at the San Mames.