Opps I forgot to post the match stats. MATCH STATISTICS Deportivo: Molina - Manuel Pablo, Andrade, Naybet, Romero - Sergio, Duscher; Víctor (Scaloni; m.81), Valerón (Pandiani; m.65), Luque (Fran; m.57) - Tristán. Mónaco: Roma - Givet, Squillaci, Rodríguez, Evra - Bernardi, Edouard Cissé - Plasil (Prso; m.87), Rothen - Giuly and Morientes (Adebayor; m.78). Goal: 1-0; m.83, Tristán. Referee: Frank De Bleeckere, from Belgium, he showed yellow card to Bernardi (m.23) and Givet (m.60), from AS Mónaco. Attendence: 25.000 (Riazor). from International Depor Website.
Its the least I can do. Telemadrid is putting on a great pregame show. They just ran a Freddy vs Jason montage of Depor and Valencia clips. I would feel optimistic about this match if it wasn't for how tired we looked against Monaco. Hopefully the circumstances will provide some adrenalen.
Valencia came out and as expected packed it in and looked to be content with long balls and counter attacks. The problem was that even with 8 defenders packed into the last 40 meters of the pitch, Fran, Valeron, and Victor were able to occasionally get through and create opportunities, usually with a cross from the right. A charge down the right by Victor causing the corner that led to the goal. In was an entertaining half despite the fact that neither team has been on top of their game. Valencia has played a lot of high risks balls and Depor’s touch has failed them miserablely at times. The refereeing has been strange, as Valencia was allowed two extremely late tackles from behind without cards in the first 20 minutes. From then on out the ref seemed to get very tight with the calls. Valencia seems to be especially whiny with the ref tonight with little cause. Depor could have three as both Fran and Pandiani have had chances from inside of 6 meters, Fran’s being the easier of the two. About 10 minutes after the Depor goal Valencia opened up and bit and the rest of the half was fairly even with Valencia getting their first dangerous chance at the 40 minute mark. So far so good, but the fact that Depor has missed out on taking a 2-0 lead worries me. So often, that can lead to letting the other team back in. A hard played entertaining half.
After Depor got conservative and the ref got crazy, Valencia fought back to even it. Fortunately justice was served as one of what seemed like 30 second half fouls by Valencia produced a goal off a well taken free kick by Tristan just after entering. A massive win in which we rose to the challenge. Half way through this killer stretch we look as good as ever.
Thanks for the report. The match tracker I was reading made it sound like Valencia was getting away with murder, but it was a biased Depor website, so I wasn't sure how accurate it was. We're on top of the tables now. Match Stats later.
That is not too far from the truth. I think at the half Valencia decided if they couldn't contain our midfield they would just get physical and disrupt any flow. Anything in the air came with an elbow in the face and anytime we passed them in transition they commited a professional foul. Frankly the ref needed to step up and take control. None of the cards he gave out were warranted on either side in my opinion. But there were three fouls from Valencia that meritted them, one of which wasn't even called a foul. It was one of those matches where the ref knows he is losing control so he starts flashing cards even when they aren't warranted. Frankly between the whining and the fouls Valencia weren't the most honorable side I have ever seen. Aimar was screaming at the ref after the game.
MATCH STATISTICS Deportivo: Molina - Manuel Pablo, Andrade, César, Romero - Sergio, Duscher (Tristán; m.79); Víctor (Scaloni; m.69), Valerón, Fran (Luque; m.75) - Pandiani. Valencia: Cañizares - Curro Torres (David Navarro; m.62), Ayala, Marchena, Carboni - Albelda, Baraja - Rufete (Xisco; m.66), Aimar, Vicente - Mista (Oliveira; m.78). Goal: 1-0; m.15, Valerón. 1-1; m.73, Mista. 2-1; m.80, Tristán Referee: Undiano Mallenco; He showed yellow cards to Ayala (m.15), Baraja (m.45), Albelda (m.49) and David Navarro(m.79) for Valencia players; Duscher (m.47), Víctor (m.60) and Scaloni (m.84) for Deportivo players. Attendence: 28.000 (Riazor). from International Depor Website.
We try and stay on top of the table with a mid-week home fixture against Mallorca, who has had success against us recently. I still think it's too early to talk about winning la liga, but we are right where we want to be.
After selling Makaay, I tip my hats to the management of SuperDepor... with that kind of sound decision making up top, many a club could do better with what they have...
DEPOR BEATING VALENCIA TO GO TOP interesting articles on Depor by both Sid Lowe (guardian.co.uk/football) and Phil Ball today (soccernet.com)
Re: DEPOR BEATING VALENCIA TO GO TOP Thanks JuanRojo. Here are the links if your too lazy to look for them yourself. Phil Ball's article Sid Lowe's article
Opps, I guess the links in the above post were posted in another thread That's what I get for not checking.
And, yep, English mates do call me that. Piss takers. It's Garcia Rojo, but hey, every Spaniard is called Garcia, so you gotta go for the Rojo alone. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the links ...
I really don't understand Depor . A 0-2 loss to Mallorca on Wednesday. There's just something about those guys, first they knock us out of the Copa del Rey (last year) which adds to the fact we haven't beatten them in at least 5 fixtures. At least Valencia and Madrid tied. STATISTICS: Deportivo: Molina - Manuel Pablo, Naybet, Jorge Andrade, Romero - Sergio, Duscher (78 Lionel Scaloni), Víctor Sánchez, Valerón (61 Fran), Luque – Tristán (63 Pandiani) Mallorca: Leo Franco - Cortés, Nadal, Fernando Niño, Olaizola - Campano (73 Marcos), Colsa, Nagore, Stankovic (71 González) - Correa (83 Bruggink), Eto'o Goals: 75’ Eto’o (pen) 0-1 88 Bruggink 0-2 Referee: Téllez Sánchez. Showed yellow cards to Duscher, Fran, Naybet, Luque and Irureta (Deportivo) and to Stankovic, Correa, Nagore and Marcos (Mallorca) Attendance: 20,000 (Riazor) from International Depor Website
The game was a disaster from beginning to end. Tristan should be taken out back and put out of his misery. Depor came out looking very good for the first 30 but Tristan played like he had money on the other side. Failing to finish easy attempts and looking painfully slow. He killed several great attacks by ruining the flow of passing. Then after about 30 minutes of great football we seemed to get frustrated and the next 60 minutes was a combination of poor play, tired legs, poor coaching (the subbing decisions were awful) and horrendous referreeing. It was miserable to watch. Luckily thet didn't lose much ground given the other results. If I see Tristan on the field before Xmas it will be too soon.
Thanks for the report as gloomy as it was. Hopefully we can rebound in time for this weekends match, and for the mid-week clash agasint AS Monaco. I don't understand why we can't try Luque up top, and move Fran into his spot if Tristán continues to struggle. Where has Pandiani gone? Our next Copa del Rey match has been drawn. We get Gimnástica de Torrelavega, who play in the Segunda División B and are in 19th place at the time. This should be a good matchup even though it is an away fixture. The match is on the 17 of December. There's a nice story on Romero at www.deportivo-la-coruna.com on how he never gets any respect.
Pandiani came off the bench but by the time he got out there Valeron had already been pulled (no idea why), and he never really got any opportunites. Tristan appeared hung over. Terrible touches and guy next door speed. I like the idea of bumping up Luque and bringing in Fran in the rare times that we go 2 up top.
lol maybe he enjoys the night life too much? Absolutely hideous 0-0 draw. I didn't even feel like reading the match report, anything interesting Simmer Down? Not the form we wanted going into a critical matchup with Monaco this week.