Los submarinos amarillo pele con Panathinaikos.

By: Javier | February 26th, 2009

Amarillo means Yellow if you can’t read Spanish or can’t see the sign due to the Inaikos player in front of it. Thats enough for Spanish 101 with Mr. Javier.
What a game! Yes a tie and we gave away an away goal, but still. If you noticed, we have our attack back. The whole front of our squad was in tip top shape. I’m not at that level to be Issiah and rate every individual player, but I can try for the guys that stood out. If you have input by all means tell me what you think/if I’m going crazy.

First Half
Ibagaza. What a game. Great passes, always kept the defense pushed back and working. During the 20th minute he had a great opportunity to score with his left foot and it just went wide. Terrible luck. We didn’t stop there though. We kept on pushing and Rossi was all over the place. Not only did he score the goal later on in the game, but he kept the hope and excitement alive for Villarreal fans all over the world. A cross came some time after Ibagaza’s run and almost leading Rossi with a header goal, only to go a bit wide . Good defense from the back line regardless of my main D man Capedevilla. We go into the end of the first half goalless. However, We leave with the upper hand. Being at home and being on the attack surely gave all of us in the Yellow Submarine hope.

Second Half
Now here comes the shaky defense that we have. Bruno’s mistake led to quite the goal made by Giorgias Karagounis.Diego Lopez is quite the keeper, but even he couldn’t stop this freak of nature goal. Shortly after another defensive mistake was made. By captain Senna too, which isn’t that much of a surprise to me. Ever since coming on to the pitch after the half he just looked beat up and tired. Shortly after, Wawrzyniak took the ball and with quite skill at that. Almost making it 2-0 at home. Luckily Lopez had our ass on that mistake, we really have to stop relying on him for saving us at all times. I’m look at you defense. >_> I think something must of triggered right there and then, because here we are pulling the Liverpool fighting back spirit and pushing the front (Great win today guys by the way ). Now here is where the shit hits the wall. A penalty. Pires isn’t one to “flop” or take a dive. I mean, his name isn’t Christiano after all. You can look at the highlights and be the judge and see if it was a legit or flop from the fallowing highlights. The way I see it, the man down went for the legs and just knocked him down completely. Fair call, and Rossi throws one in the bag and makes this a tie game. Were not done fighting there though, at least Rossi isn’t. Pieres thows a great cross into the box and then after some stumbling is passed to Rossi. He takes a great shot at goal only to be off by a yard if that. Now after a stupid touch going out on Pana causes a mini Espanyol Barcelona riot. Panathinaikos had enough and are pissed off. Their gaffer and squad get up and pretty much start some harassment going on. Sure, we kinda pushed back, but hey, you started it! (Wow I’m 5 years old all over again). The ending whistle comes in and we come out with a tie. Gave up the away goal yes, but still didn’t get our asses handed. We also played great attacking football, which brings me joy to watch.

Highlights and Goals can be found here.

Stats
Villarreal Panathinaikos
Shots (on Goal) 23(7) 6(3)
Fouls 18 26
Corner Kicks 10 2
Offsides 2 3
Time of Possession 66% 34%
Yellow Cards 2 2
Red Cards 0 0
Saves 2 6

Thats the Villarreal I know. Great ball possession and shots on goal for us. Should of scored 2 more or at least one, but the result will have to do.

La Liga
We play Real Betis on Sunday, which should be an interesting game at the least. We need points and a Champions League spot on the table would be a great thing to have. We obviously belong there, don’t you think so? A preview will come up for that in the later days.

Now I think Villarreal deserves a rest for now. We have a lot coming up for us. Champions League game in two weeks from now and keeping up in La Liga is more then enough busy work. I’ll change my vamos villarreal with something very….DC Comics like.
VILLARREAL PREVAILS! (Guess the movie/comic if you’d like lol)