Athletic continued their Europa League campaign yesterday, opening the group stage with a 3-0 win over Austria Wien. I personally did not see the game due to my class schedule, but the scoreline tells it all: Athletic have found their form. They opened up the La Liga campaign with two wins, and yesterday proved their worth with a strong showing. Because I didn’t see the game, I will post my impressions from what I’ve read, but if you saw it feel free to correct me or leave your personal impressions.

Llorente awoke (finally) scoring twice, once off of an 8th minute penalty and again in the 24th minute. Munian was given a start and scored the third and final goal of the match in the 56th minute, once again showing great work ethic, pace, and proving to me that he is the future of the club. I hope he and Llorente are cranking out the goals for years to come. As shown in the Xerez game, the Basques drew more fouls and capitalized on the other team’s mistakes. Yeste was able to shake off an injury, return early, and play the entire match. Athletic’s defense did not give up goals like they had previously against what I view as weaker teams (Austria is no different) and for the first time in this campaign I am able to smile comfortably without any doubts as to Athletic’s form.

Athletic will be returning to league action on Saturday with a game against Villareal, and return to the Europa League on October first against Werder Bremen. The next five games are Villareal (9/20), @ Tenerife (9/23), Sevilla (9/26), @ Werder (10/1), and @ Valladolid (10/4). This is a jammed fixture list and the games against Villareal, Sevilla, and Weder will be very tough. Hopefully the good form stays and the boys can get through it with some points.

One more thing to point out- yesterday marks Etxeberria’s 500th appearance for Athletic Club Bilbao. Hats off to him- he has 500 caps (get it?).

Well the team squeeked by with another win in London, but this time a little rough housing occurred. Here’s the jist of it.

* Early score thanks to a link up by Susaeta and El Gallo, Extebe~*
* Missed Opportunities galore, yes you Llorente!
* Missed penalty by Charlton’s Thomas. Hit the post.
* Second half full of argie barge and substitutions galore.
* Aitor Ocio yellow carded for dissent. Whuh???
* Aduritz red carded in the 90th for violent conduct or rather trying to smack Fortune.

Check out the Charlton Athletic view/Match Report.

Colchester should be fun! I hope we hear from dear ol’ Dave with his personal report on the two games.

RUMORS

It looks like President Macua is working on another kit sponsorship deal. This time with Umbro. The deal is for an additional $2M Euros per year for 3-4 years. More needed cash flow per our Prez. Athletic’s shirt sales average 60,000 units per year. This is second only to Madrid and Barça. An official announcement from the club is expected this week.

More NAYS to Premier Clubs, this time Everton who put in a bid for our young starlet midfielder Javi Martinez. Rumored to be around 6M Euros. NO, no way! Too cheap and he is critical to our success. Thank you, but NO thank you.

Under the fact stranger than fiction category – Restorations in a 13th Century Spanish Cathedral have discovered the shield of Athletic Bilbao. What??? If someone finds a foto of this, please send me a link.

FRIENDLY IN BIZKAIA VS LEMONA

7/30/08 – Another near miss. Athletic eked out another one-nil win. This time on an Own Goal forced by Orbaiz. OK, we played a reserve team, but this little Third division team from Viscaya almost beat us!

Six friendlies to date. Just nine more to go… Is Caparros sane?

Los Leones squeaked by with a win on penalties against AS FAR from Morocco in the Semi Finals.

Here are the stats:

34′ 1-0 Kaddioui
42′ 1-1 Fernando Llorente off a cross from Javi Casas

Penalties:
Athletic: 1-0 David Lopez
FAR Rabat: Mohamed Mrini hit the post
Athletic: 2-0 Gurpegi
FAR Rabat: Issam Eraki miss
Athletic: 3-0 Muñoz
FAR Rabat: 3-1 Mohamed Anime Kabli
Athletic: 4-1 Aitor Ocio

OK, Athletic played poorly for the most part, but grinded out the win and now we face UEFA Cup bound Udinese on Friday 7/25. It should be a fantastic match.

ANOTHER TOURNAMENT

Athletic will participate in the Ramon de Carranza tourney in Cadiz along with Villarreal, Cadiz and Sevilla – August 14, 15 and 16th.

TIDBITS

* The club is trying to offload Tiko. So far no takers. Sigh.

* Yeste refuses to talk to the Bilbao press. i don’t blame him. Leave our resident psycho genius alone. He needs his space.

* Xabi Castillo from Real Sociedad refuses to do any business with Athletic. What can I say. There is too much bad blood between our respective teams. Best to lay low and allow the recent bad karma to play out. Athletic needs to leave La Real’s players alone and stop depending on stealing their players, at least for the interim.

*Fernando Amorebieta is still in Bilbao recuperating from his nose surgery. He will most probably join us for our friendly tour of England against Charlton and Colchester.