Good news for those watching on the net: gol tv is picking this match up so this match is watchable.

Is it just me or does it seem that every time Valencia plays a team not named either Real Madrid or Barcelona they have an ex-Valencia player. Del Horno of course is the ex-Valencia, well technically loaned player, that will make his way with Athletic Club Bilbao. Sadly, or not, he is not going to play as he is rehabilitating a muscle tear in his right leg. I feel sorry for Del Horno because the last two years or so he has become the player that no team wants. Chelsea signed him and promptly got rid of him. Valencia signed and got rid of him, but that was mainly because Quique Sanchez Flores was whiny, retarded little child and didn't want to play with the toys that Papa Carboni got him. Speaking of which, I seem to remember that Aitor Ocio was one of those players that Quique wanted, but maybe to everyone's loss (we can't figure out just how good he is) he will be suspended for the match. As for Valencia, nobody carries a suspension, but call me selfish, I wish Albelda was suspended for the remainder of the season.

Athletic Bilbao points of interest:

-Not very good away from home, as they've only scored 6 goals and conceded 10.
-So far, they're not tickling the underbelly of demotion like the last few seasons, so the worry of them being dropped is away, at least for now. Athletic, Barça and evil overlords Real Madrid are the only teams to stay in the top flight for the entire existence of organized nation-wide league football.
-The Pichichi is named after Rafael Moreno, former Athletic player who died of Typhus just after retiring at the age of 29.

It's going to be a special game for Koeman now.
Will he take out Albelda and have Edu - Fernandes/Sunny as the midfielders?
Is Moretti really ready?
Is Helguera starting!?

Lots of questions now...

I predict a 1-0 win Koeman-style, that means totally boring and with alot of luck.

Hoser, if you want a more active Valencia-site in english, you can visit http://www.xtratime.org and their Valencia-forum because it's got alot of people there.

As for the invitation to xtratime, thanks, but this feels like home to me. If some fans from Valencia felt compelled enough to reach out to the English speaking by creating a sub-forum because they value input from around the world, then I think that should be recognized and appreciated. Of course I wish people posted more, but what exactly can I do?

Allegedly confirmed line-up:



The only substitution I would make is Timo for Canete, but that's about it. Albelda deserves to be punished for acting so foolishly against Schalke. I imagine the next question stirring in the minds of Valencia fans is 'who should play on the left: Silva or Vicente?' but it's too soon to think about that I think.

I expect either a 2-1 or 3-1 victory.

edit: I dislike these two gol tv announcers... they never seem to shut the hell up.

0-1 to the bad. Valencia started out well, but they've been pedestrian for the last 20 minutes of the first half. Canizares was a statue on the Yeste goal, but then again I don't think many goalkeepers would have saved that.

That goal was unsavable, still doesn't explain for everyone else being woefully bad aswell.

I think that was the worst that Valencia has played this season. Maybe the match against Rosenborg equals this effort, but I didn't watch the match. I don't think anybody played well, though I'd say Fernandes was okay, but that's about it.

It's easy to explain this:

Solér have no idea how football works and the same with Ruiz.
First:
You can't switch Carboni with Ruiz during Carboni's signing alot of players, it's totally idiotic.

Second:
You can't not leave a team without replacements (No replacement for Miguel nor Moretti) and you can't have 3 targetmen.

Third:
If you have a coach, stick with him and do not start to change this during the bad time.
I wasn't even close on liking Quique but you can't fire a coach during 1/4 of the league, that's more the things Atletico do...

Fourth:
Hiring Koeman?
Tell me, what have he done in the past that you can hire him on?`
Yes he won a couple of titles but look which teams he had and the coaches that were there before him.
It was a "big name" to bring some "happiness" to Valencia but this isn't going to last.

Im not even going to bother to write about the match.

Just wanted to congratulate Hoser on his new blog & wow man,u write amazing

Hope to see more of it.

Thanks, glad you like the writing style. I'd like to update it at least once a week but I'll try for twice a week.

I agree with your first two points, disagree with the third and I'm uncertain about the fourth. Choosing Quique over Carboni was a mistake, the bench is either young or ineffective and I would have fired Quique in the summer and not at the end of October. The worst thing about firing Quique early in the season is that it makes things difficult for the replacement, Koeman. As for hiring Koeman, I don't know enough about his track record to figure out what kind of coach he is.

I meant that Solér should have fired Quique during the summer and not during octobre, it's totally idiotic and just makes chaos.
Stick with the coach atleast to the winter despite that I swore my ass off when having Quique.

Koeman has won titles but he's not a very special coach, more average that has his name.
With Ajax, he took over from Co Adriaanse which is probably the best coach that Holland has and he actually didn't do that much.
He played more boring despite having players like Zlatan and Van Der Vaart.
He also had big problems with taking up talents, he prefered to buy players.

He took over Benfica and ask a Benfiquista what he thinks of Koeman and he will just say very negative about him.
He played like Quique there, even worse.
He sometimes had a midfield (from what I saw in Champions League) with Beto - Petit - Manuel Fernandes.
The only guy that could make something decent in the attack was Manuel there, Beto and Petit was just pure destroyers.
He did also come third in the league, got knocked out the cup very early but he managed to (with luck though) come into quarters in Champions.

At PSV, well, everybody that saw PSV with Hiddink (their former manager) saw how good they was.
They ran for the team, did make some great counterattacking combinations and they had a very good movement of the team.
Suddenly with Koeman, they started to become alot slower, alot more boring, ALOT defensive minded and that stuff.
Again he won the title but after a team that had been build up by Hiddink.
Also, he didn't take up talents there too...

I was really angry when I saw that the team had signed Koeman, I only see this a temporarly insurance because of his name.
Everybody thinks that he has the same philosophy of Cruyff, the same style etc.
No, he's not even close on that.