So my daughter ended up being able to book tickets for the game after I’d tried numerous times on my desktop and failed. In retrospect, I think it was my constant refusal to accept cookies which might have been the problem. Whatever, we got to the game eventually.
This was a game of convenience all round really. Matchday was the twins’ 18th birthday and it had long been their clan’s wish to go to Benidorm, after being massive fans of the programme with that name. So they booked a week there and we stayed the night after the game, reducing the 3 hour plus drive.
Me, well I’ve wanted to take in a Spanish game since I bought here and my thinking was probably Elche, but Valencia’s ground, the Mestalla strongly appealed. And when the lads told me they were going to stop off to take a look there, on the way, I wasn’t arguing and decided to do the same.
When we arrived, I was immediately impressed with how big the ground is! Villa park is of course quite a big ground and the Mestalla is probably similar, but it’s quite a bit higher. If you get in the right position you can see the banks of seating and the noticeable thing there was the steepness of the terrace. It reminded me of the seating in the old Filbert street, where I was actually concerned that if you were to trip down the steps, you’d have a job stopping.
So after a walk around the ground and some regrets about not having got there earlier, as you could pay on the door for a tour, we did have enough time for a swift pint literally a hundred feet from the ground. That went down well. The lads had ticked off another ground visited and were well happy, so we carried on to the Estadio de la Ceramica, home of Villareal.
The notable thing of the ceramica is again it’s size, but for different reasons. When you consider the town’s population is about 47,000 at most, the ground capacity is 23,000. Oviously, that’s down to the pull of La Liga, but it’s the equivalent of Villa park having a 500,000 limit. Ridiculous, but I find it an interesting thought, anyway.
I wondered why I’d never heard of the name of the ground and a bit of research showed it’s because it was previously known as the Madrigal, which I’d definitely heard of.
It was renamed afer it’s refurbishment and the latter means it’s very presentable.
On entering the ground, it wasn’t anywhere as sold out as the ticket map on the web made it seem, which was a bit annoying, but hey ho, you could see/hear that it probably makes for a great atmosphere on Europe nights. Six of us managed to sit together, whereas we thought we were going to be scattered all over the terrace, which meant we could all discuss our usual thoughts as the game progressed.
Down to the actual game then and I very much enjoyed it, as opposed to the Liverpool away game, which I left early, feeling quite sorry for myself and wandering why I’d bothered going in the middle of winter. I think the 30 odd degree heat helped there and seeing players stopping for drinks breaks at 9.30 pm seemed a bit surreal.
It was all played in a friendly manner, which I gather was much better than the Marseilles massacre on the previous night and I think I can sum the game up quite quickly and just say that we won, but I’m not convinced we deserved to. Villareal missed two absolute sitters and we all agreed they possibly could have got a third.
Ollie and Emi got our two goals after some nice shooting, but it wasn’t so much about the result to me. It was more about how sharp we look and tactics. On both points, I can’t say I was enamoured. I still think we look really poor in defence. I pointed out Maatsen, who I am really not at all convinced about and said to my SIL that I think he’s useless as a defender. I admit he’s decent going forward, which is the modern way, but for my money it puts too much onus on the centrebacks and we looked decidely dodgy again.
Anyway, when you actually concentrate on the Dutchman’s performance, you notice it can be littered with mistakes and poor positioning. Still Emery likes him and he sees the stats etc, so what do I know?
We still play this, at times, flowing forward play with sharp passing, only for a player to stop and play the ball back 30 yards, giving the opposition time to regroup and it frustates the heck out of me.
While it might seem like I’m moaning, It’s more just me being critical.
The aim of the game is to score more goals than the opposition, simple. We did that and I actually enjoyed it too. Football is a game where you should feel entertained and I left feeling as though I’d got my nearly 50 Euros worth.
Leaving the ground saw a friendly atmosphere all round and the picture above with the twins and the old fella summed it all up very nicely.
Newcastle next and I’ll be writing something about that when I’ve actually pondered the game.
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