Bravo Villareal!

[mike412]

Really says it all doesn’t it! A team from a town of 50,000 people which had never before won a major title beat the Premier League giants from the second largest city in England. Think Hickory vs South Bend Central. A team whose total budget is less than Man U pays Paul Pogba holds the Cup. The 7th place team in La Liga, which wouldn’t even have qualified for the Europa League next year except for this win, holds the Cup. The victory will put them into next year’s Champions League.

Villareal didn’t even make it to the Spanish first division for the first time until 1998. They made it to the Third Division for the first time in the 1960s. Prior to that, they had played in Regional Leagues. They bounced around between the Second and Third Divisions for more than 30 years. They were relegated to the Second Division in 2012.

They were a fun team to watch the last few years, playing total attacking football. They actually are less fun to watch now with Unai Emery as manager, but his success is hard to argue.

To me, Villareal was just a stop on the express train between Barcelona and Valencia — the first stop in the Valencian Community. But, now this victory symbolizes everything that was wrong with the proposed Super League. This match never could have happened if that league had come to fruition. This match symbolized everything that European soccer potentially offers. Though it doesn’t happen often, the small fry does sometimes make it into an important match with a great white whale. And, today, David slew Goliath.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

View embedded media

Really says it all doesn’t it! A team from a town of 50,000 people which had never before won a major title beat the Premier League giants from the second largest city in England. Think Hickory vs South Bend Central. A team whose total budget is less than Man U pays Paul Pogba holds the Cup. The 7th place team in La Liga, which wouldn’t even have qualified for the Europa League next year except for this win, holds the Cup. The victory will put them into next year’s Champions League.

Villareal didn’t even make it to the Spanish first division for the first time until 1998. They made it to the Third Division for the first time in the 1960s. Prior to that, they had played in Regional Leagues. They bounced around between the Second and Third Divisions for more than 30 years. They were relegated to the Second Division in 2012.

They were a fun team to watch the last few years, playing total attacking football. They actually are less fun to watch now with Unai Emery as manager, but his success is hard to argue.

To me, Villareal was just a stop on the express train between Barcelona and Valencia — the first stop in the Valencian Community. But, now this victory symbolizes everything that was wrong with the proposed Super League. This match never could have happened if that league had come to fruition. This match symbolized everything that European soccer potentially offers. Though it doesn’t happen often, the small fry does sometimes make it into an important match with a great white whale. And, today, David slew Goliath.

Eh.....this isnt Hickory vs South Bend Central. Villareal has been a solid club in La Liga for a long time. I realize Man U is a brand but Villareal has been competitive with the big boys for it seems like forever now

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

FWIW, ESPN's world club soccer rankings have Villareal as the 20th best team in the world. Man U is 8th.

 

[mike412]

Eh.....this isnt Hickory vs South Bend Central. Villareal has been a solid club in La Liga for a long time. I realize Man U is a brand but Villareal has been competitive with the big boys for it seems like forever now

Villareal was relegated to the Segundo Division in 2012. Only made it back to Primera in 2014. That is hardly “forever now.”

It also doesn’t change the fact that they do it on a shoestring budget and whenever they develop good young players, they lose them to the big money teams. They have a young FB named Pau Torres who was terrific today, and big teams have been lined up for him for months. In fact, the big rumor is that he is going to Man U.

To me what epitomized the game was Villareal’s keeper, a backup who only plays in Cup ties and who they plucked out of obscurity from Argentina, scoring the PK against De Gea, the multi-million dollar GK for Man U, and then saving De Gea’s PK attempt to win the trophy.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

To me what epitomized the game was Villareal’s keeper, a backup who only plays in Cup ties and who they plucked out of obscurity from Argentina, scoring the PK against De Gea, the multi-million dollar GK for Man U, and then saving De Gea’s PK attempt to win the trophy.

Apparently De Gea has now allowed 36 consecutive penalties against him to be successfully converted.

That is borderline unbelievable.

 

[mike412]

Apparently De Gea has now allowed 36 consecutive penalties against him to be successfully converted.

That is borderline unbelievable.

A really good penalty kick can’t be saved even if the GK guesses correctly. That is because it will
be put high in a corner. The GK, even if he guesses right, goes low. He can’t get to a high shot. But, most players don’t shoot high because they are afraid of getting under the ball and skying it. I was impressed that 3 of the Villareal players roofed it.

Even if you kick it low, if it is near a corner with enough pace, it can’t be saved. The GK won’t get there in time.

But, giving up 36 in a row in unbelievable because about 40% of the PKs I have seen taken are poor shots. I thought 2 of Man U’s before De Gea’s could have been saved. His shot just had no pace and was a relatively easy save.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

A really good penalty kick can’t be saved even if the GK guesses correctly. That is because it will
be put high in a corner. The GK, even if he guesses right, goes low. He can’t get to a high shot. But, most players don’t shoot high because they are afraid of getting under the ball and skying it. I was impressed that 3 of the Villareal players roofed it.

Even if you kick it low, if it is near a corner with enough pace, it can’t be saved. The GK won’t get there in time.

But, giving up 36 in a row in unbelievable because about 40% of the PKs I have seen taken are poor shots. I thought 2 of Man U’s before De Gea’s could have been saved. His shot just had no pace and was a relatively easy save.

Yeah, of course a really good penalty can't be saved. But the average penalty conversion rate is no where near 100%, because many (maybe even most) penalties are not really well taken.

You'd think that once in all that time someone would have mis-hit one and sent it wide or leaned back a little to much and sent it over the bar, to say nothing of De Gea actually making a good play on a savable one. Probably no one really knows, but I wonder what the record is in the high level leagues. I would think 36 in a row has got to be close, if it isn't the record.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

A really good penalty kick can’t be saved even if the GK guesses correctly. That is because it will
be put high in a corner. The GK, even if he guesses right, goes low. He can’t get to a high shot. But, most players don’t shoot high because they are afraid of getting under the ball and skying it. I was impressed that 3 of the Villareal players roofed it.

Even if you kick it low, if it is near a corner with enough pace, it can’t be saved. The GK won’t get there in time.

But, giving up 36 in a row in unbelievable because about 40% of the PKs I have seen taken are poor shots. I thought 2 of Man U’s before De Gea’s could have been saved. His shot just had no pace and was a relatively easy save.

DeGea has never won anything. At least that’s what my United friends keep screaming. Hard to believe this is true. But it was great seeing him miss that last penalty to lose the Cup.
In my life I’ve never seen 21 straight made penalties, and then it came down to the 22nd and final starter and he missed. Glad I watched that. Even though it was just the Europa League, that was historic.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

FWIW, ESPN's world club soccer rankings have Villareal as the 20th best team in the world. Man U is 8th.

The official ratings had Arsenal ranked ahead of chelsea by several spots as of a couple weeks ago. I think they were top ten. That’s ridiculous. Lol. I wanted to vomit.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

The official ratings had Arsenal ranked ahead of chelsea by several spots as of a couple weeks ago. I think they were top ten. That’s ridiculous. Lol. I wanted to vomit.

ESPN (or I guess technically 538) has Arsenal 13th right now. That makes them the 5th highest rated team in the Premier League. Which just seems batshit crazy.

Maybe even crazier, they have the 6th highest rated team in the Premiere League as Brighton (just ahead of Leicester and Tottenham). As in 16th place finishing Brighton. I know Brighton apparently has some underlying metrics that show them to be a lot better than their place in the standings, and even if you just look at goal difference they are much better in goal difference than several teams that finished ahead of them in the standings. But I can't imagine anyone ranking the EPL teams this year having Brighton anywhere close to the 6th best team in the league.