donkostaეჰ.....
რაფა რაფა
* * *
ესეც ვალენსიის რუმინელი ჟურნალისტის სეზონის შეფასება:
How Was It For Stefan? A Review Of Valencia’s Season
5/26/2005 8:41:00 AM
I suppose I wasn’t a Valencia fan before this season and, chances are, I’ll never truly become one. However, there are just these small things that keep you close to a team, whether it’s the fans, the football the given team plays or simply a bizarre passion. So yes, I admit, this is the first year I’ve ever followed Valencia’s seasonal harvests. I didn’t miss out on the fact they were so unlucky as to lose two CL finals in consecutive years and I was aware they were Spanish champions. But, oh, what a disillusion Valencia turned out to be!
I’ll be frank and state from the beginning why I suddenly started to watch Valencia’s games. It wasn’t for the football they presumably played and it wasn’t out of a rash decision to make a change. It was for one sole player who – rather unfortunately, I consider now – wandered to a club which was in terrible dissaray this season. This player was none other than the plain, counter-attack forward Marco Di Vaio, who generally has proven to be a bit inconsistent in years past at Juve (Parma and Salernitana are too far away and of little interest in order to be mentioned). So all I knew about Valencia was that they were fighting for the Liga, they supposedly had quite some debts, ex-Chelsea coach Ranieri had popped up there again and they had players such as Aimar, Vicente, Ayala and Canizares. Recently bought Corradi, Fiore and Moretti I had been aware of – more or less – without knowing whether they were capable of anything special. I suppose I disliked Corradi from the beginning, even before seeing him play at Valencia, while Fiore seemed to have at least a bit of potential. Moretti was young and so I just hoped I’d see him play a bit or more.
At the beginning, it was fairly good. Valencia won one Supercup against Porto, but lost another against Zaragoza. Fair enough, I was simply glad Di Vaio had scored his one hundreth goal against Porto. Then, the season began and the “goodness” prospered. The team played well and kept the pace with a furious Barcelona, which swept away any team that came in its path. Moreover, Marco scored five goals in the first five matches of the season and, fact is, the future seemed peachy!
The moment when things started to go terribly wrong, was after Vicente’s injury in the match against Real Sociedad (despite of which he still managed to cross a ball for Di Vaio to score with a header). Actually, the good results continued for another four matches, up to the home loss against Sevilla. From then one, that is matchday 7, no only Valencia’s style of play became more and more predictable, but the results were as rotten as hell. Not being aware of the magnitude each time had in the Liga, I remained optimistic despite seeing Valencia lose against Getafe. A series of unfrotunate events dazzled and worried me beyond words.
In the Champions League, the situation wasn’t looking very bright either, especially after Inter humiliated Valencia on home soil. It all went down terribly bad after another home loss in the decisive match against Werder Bremen. Not even the Uefa Cup was a consolation as Steaua Bucharest –a team which my relegation battling, favorite team Poli Timisoara managed to reap a point off – beat Valencia on penalties after an aggregate of 2-2 (not to mention Di Vaio missed the decisive one…the shame! The shame!) Funny enough, the guy who struck twice against Valencia from Steaua hasn’t scored since in the league. Just another aspect which proves how bad things were at the reigning champions.
Then, Ranieri left and Lopez came. I knew this couldn’t be to good for Di Vaio, as Lopez seemed to have worked with Benitez, so I had to endure terrible performances by strikers such as Angulo and Mista for many, many minutes. The problem is, Di Vaio wasn’t at the top of his game either, but I suppose it’s terribly depressing to play only 45 to 60 minutes a match, no matter how well you play. Consequently, the “scandal” followed after Di Vaio’s outburst – justified, what else could I say? – but things soon settled down. All in all, the team seemed to get some better results with the new coach, although the lot of draws wasn’t of great benefit and so Valencia seems to have lost any chance of grabing a CL place, maybe even an Uefa Cup ticket!
The problem with Valencia is that the players aren’t being used to their full potential. I mean, that’s the only way I can explain the fact that Aimar was such a hailed player last season, who hasn’t played up to squat this year around – or maybe just a little. Vicente being injured was a terrible blow for the team, even if Fabio Aurelio seemed to be a pretty good performer. Canizares in goal was terrible, Palop generally the same. Where did the once great Canizares get lost, the one I knew? Ayala missed out an important part of the season and when he came back, he fit in perfectly into the teams lame style of play with mediocre perfomances. I don’t know, Ayala just didn’t seem the great defender I had heard he was. Marchena and David Navarro delivered such terrible on pitch performances that I won’t even begin to criticize them. Baraja was terribly bland – something absolutely unacceptable for a creative midfielder – Albelda the perfect John Doe, anonymous in all regards, while Rufete seemed inconsistent. Fiore didn’t prove to be a good back up, maybe because he didn’t get the necessary support, or maybe because he simply isn’t good enough. Mista and Angulo, I despise such oportunists who do so little on the pitch and show very little determination. Now, as the season is taking its final breaths, young players have seen the light of the green football pitches, a seemingly normal decision in such circumstances. Sissoko is all that brings hope for Valencia fans, I presume.
What Valencia lacked is firstly more determination and vigour and secondly a bit more luck. Because, whether we want it or not, luck is a part of the game. The frequent changes in the starting eleven didn’t give the players enough self confidence and even the best – such as Aimar- weren’t able to readapt quickly enough. People wanted to much from Valencia in too little time. Had they been more patient – both Ranieri and Lopez – maybe more could’ve been achieved. The latest results – the many draws – are a consequence of poor atacking tactics, with an overdose of the incapable Mista and only shots of Di Vaio, or even…well, that’s all Valencia truly had in front, truly little to work with. You’ll probably disagree with me on this – my view may be biased – but I truly consider that Marco – as well as the whole squad actually – weren’t backed up as much as they should’ve been.
What the future holds, nobody knows. Hopefully, better times for Valencia, because the team I met played lousy football…most of the time. Let this season be forgotten and may many changes occur for the sake of Valencia!
Stefan Carpanu, ROMANIA
· 
VALENCIA FAN CLUB, მსოფლიოში უძლიერესი კლუბის ფან კლუბი
