Just Like We’d Planned It

If everyone reading this blog could send in a check, I’m looking online for a nicely decorated seasonal fruit basket to send over to Riki and his Deportivo la Coruna teamates in appreciation for their match against Mallorca.  We owe you one guys.  You couldn’t have awoken from your zombie slumber a moment sooner.

In what was probably the most important week in La Liga, both for our rojiblancos as well as the rest of the league, we landed precisely where we’d hoped.  Here we are in 4th place, our fate entirely in our own hands, and just one Almeria away win away from a ticket back to the Champions League (or the qualifying round at least).  And Real remained second place as a nice special bonus.

OK.  Obviously the path taken to get to this spot was a little unexpected.  But we are where we’re at.

And I think there are some definite moral victories coming out of that game.  Yes, we went down VERY early and were getting dominated.  But we came out much stronger in the second half and brought it within a goal despite going a man down.  So, whereas I’d worry that an 0-6 loss, as this thing seemed destined for early on, would have destroyed our momentum heading for the final match of the season and our showdown with Atletico Madrid in the Copa, I think we can keep our heads high.

Anyway, just still glowing from our Champs League prospects.  Two TRUE finals coming up for this team.  Let’s hope we can find enough warm bodies to staff our back line (Fazio’s injury didn’t look good in the replays, Konko is inelligible, and Adriano hurt too…  ugh).  This season might just turn out OK in the end.

Racing Santander – Sevilla FC Match Comments Post

Based on standings, recent form, and number of times mentioned in “greatest team of all time” debates, this is the easiest of the three games we have left of the schedule. Of course, in addition to showing that Racing haven’t had a great year, the league table also shows that we’re playing a team very much in the relegation battle, which means two very bad things for us:

1. As relegation-threatened teams always do at the end of the season, they will play really hard and go all out, probably producing one of their best performances of the season.

2. As we always do throughout this season, we will play really poorly and walk a lot, probably producing one of our worst performances of the season.

Plus, you know, they beat us last time. No good match preview would be complete without an injury report, so let me just go ahead and copy/paste that part from any such preview this entire season: “Several key players continue to injured. A couple are coming back. One of them is not healthy enough to play and will be re-injured. Three more will be injured in today’s game/warm-up/bus ride.”

At the same time we’re playing (1pm CST), Mallorca will be playing Real Madrid, leaving me with the sports fan’s worst scenario: hoping for a win for the most hated team in the world. What do I do if CR scores the game-winner?!? If the loathing and rejoicing parts of my brain (I think that’s how the brain works) see each other in that moment, my head will probably explode (I’m positive THAT’s how the brain works). I guess I’ll hope Higuain scores a hat-trick and Cristy misses the open net 8 times. And that Sergio Ramos gets a red card in injury time.