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How will Jozy do with Villarreal in La Liga this year?
For anyone who has already perused the morning soccer news, perhaps you’ve already come across this little item. If not, take a look at this ESPN Soccernet recap of the Spanish Super Cup in Madrid on Sunday.
This might be one of the funniest collapses ever. First, Valencia had a 3-2 lead from the first leg. Then, they got the first goal in Madrid. Then, van der Vaart was sent off before halftime. For those of you who are counting, that’s a 4-2 aggregate lead and up a man with a half to play. Even after giving up a penalty to Van Nistelrooy just after half, they’re still up 4-3 and the Dutchman gets sent off himself in the 73rd.
4-3 aggregate, two men up, and they give up three goals in the last 13 minutes. My little brother’s team could have put up some more competent defense, and surely the co-rec team I played with a few weeks ago would have only given up two.
That's...really embarrassing. The last time I saw a team play with nine men, it was U.S./Italy in the ’06 World Cup. Italy had 10 and the U.S. had nine, and it was still shooting practice for the Italians during the final 40 minutes of the game. How exactly did Valencia only manage to get one meaningless injury-time goal against a nine-man side? Just wow.
The article is also worth glancing at because it says Robinho was whistled at and sat on the bench throughout. Here’s another Soccernet article on some comments on the situation from Real president Ramon Calderon. Let’s start taking bets on the actual day it happens.
A couple other things…
1) There are rumors going around about who will coach the England side in the 2012 soccer tournament in the London Olympics. So far I’ve seen Sir Alex and Harry Redknapp mentioned as possibilities. With its youthful format, Olympic soccer is kind of a different animal. Who would be the best man for that job?
2) Like all sane people, I’ll be throwing my day into complete chaos by making time for the Portsmouth/Man United game in a few hours. There will be some postgame thoughts following the match when I can get around to them.
3) Finally, the poll question today will deal with La Liga. I don’t know exactly what the regional interests are of those who read Soccer Examiner, but I’ll try to throw questions from different areas, not just the EPL. So combining American and Spanish football, young U.S. star striker Jozy Altidore will be joining Villarreal this season after the club finished in second last season, eight points behind Madrid.
Altidore has been very successful in the MLS and with the various levels of the national team, and at only 18 years old, he’s one of the brightest stars to come out of the States in a while. A strong physical player with a nose for the goal, he’ll be entering a whole new world this season.
So have at the question, and see you later on today.
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