So….close! Atletico Madrid 3- 2 Villarreal

By: Javier | March 15th, 2009

@*#()@&**($&@*($&*@&*$. So. Close. The screw up on Javi really screwed us over. Proof that the Rangers tactics suck. We used a 5-3-1 right after he got red carded from the game. Why, well we wanted to protect our score. Seems logical, right? Wrong. I’ll get more into detail later on in my post.

1st Half
Right at the start Mr. Kun gets thrown down and given the penalty. Of course its Forlan that takes the PK. Right here I’m already freaking out and praying to God that it doesn’t go in (that’s what she said). Diego Lopez being the badass he is, saves the PK and prevents the home team a goal. Nothing but smiles came after that. Our defense was working out great. Atletico did it get to the box a few times, but our defenders were playing top football. Capedevillas long pass to Javi Venta was absolute genius. Not only did Venta go pass the two last defenders but he slides the ball in the middle for Fernandez to score. 0-1 and were up. Some more challenges at goal were made by Atletico only to fail or not even get close to the net. Another through ball to the front almost made Fernandez score a second goal. He should of done better I think. With the half coming to the end, a angry Atletico starts to rise. One slide tackle Kun made was done with some amount of rage I think. I don’t think I’ve ever seen daddy this upset before. I don’t blame him though. Shooting at goal 15 times and not scoring would piss me off as well. With second half coming to a rise, were up 0-1. awesome.

2nd half aka The Fall

Nothing really can make me feel that bad the team right now. Sure we have injured players, but hey, were winning away! I should of knocked on wood when I said that..Cani gets a great goal soon after the whistle blows. Great touch by Rossi to Cani. I was actually amazed at it. It almost looked offside due to the angle that we were watching it from. The replay showed that it was easily on side and a great goal. Great little scoop done by Cani. Remember in football that when you make a goal, its really easy to concede right after? Fifteen seconds from the goal we made resulted with a goal for Atletico. Damn you Kun. I shouldn’t of made that daddy joke earlier. No worries, right? Lopez just did a little mistake and were still up..no need to panic..yet. Red card. Ok time to panic. Ventas horrible challenge on the outside of our box resulted in a fair red card. This is where we start playing like Rangers. Coach decides a change in the line and stadegy. Pires comes out for Franco. Thats a 4-4-2 to a 5-3-1. Lets make a huge line of defense and then there’s no way for them to get another goal! Right? Wrong. Atletico decides to made this interesting and brings in Pongolle for another attacker. So now its almost a 3-3-4 coming our way. All attack. This not only clashes with us terribly but Forlan gets a creeper goal right into the net. Great. 2-2. Just our fears. This whole Ranger tactic is failing us (go figure). Its not even about winning anymore, lets just get the tie. We make acouple of runs towards goal but fail horribly. We only have two lone submarines trying to make a goal. All attempts get swept and headed back to our direction. Now the final nail in the coffin. Lopez throws in a goal with the head and calls it game from there. God, damnit. So much for at least saving a point. We get two freekicks that we could make something from. Sennas goes over and results with nothing. The last one gets headed away from safety. Just our luck. I think we played a great game, its just a shame that Venta had to leave us. Could of ended completely different :-/.

Final Stats

32 shots at us and only 3 went in. Hey, that’s pretty impressive. That easily could of been a 5-2 game with some of the breaks that they made. Forlans in particular. The pathetic run he made on goal was quite hilarious. I shouldn’t say anything though, he did get a goal that resulted in our defeat.

La Liga

Sevilla luckily tied today. So they only gained one point ahead of us. Nothing to get too worried about. Atletico is creeping on our ass with only 2 points separating us. We should be fine against Athletic Bilbao next week. We’ll be at home and our players should be fit for this game. I expect a victory and easy three points from this match. FYI, make sure to post hatemail to Al. He watched this game with me today and he ended up celebrating like a little girl when the final score was shown. Pft.

Vamos Villarreal!!