I’m Late Posting This Because Athletic Pulled Off A Late Win

By: Paul | August 22nd, 2009

Sorry that I’m a bit late getting around to a wrap of the game. I’m leaving for my senior year of college on Tuesday (my birthday!) so I have been hanging out with my friends as much as I can until then. Last night I stayed up till past 5am, and naturally it’s almost 1pm here and I just woke up. But hey, if Athletic can’t beat Tromso until late, surely I can be forgiven for posting post-game commentary late, right? Enough excuses from me, let’s get right to the game.

It seems that Athletic Club still haven’t quite found their form. The defenders (from what I’ve read, I missed the game) looked pretty sloppy, the strikers were average, but it seems the midfielders owned this game for Athletic (well, except Yeste).

Going into halftime, Athletic had put on a poor performance and trailed 0-1. Just like Young Boys, Tromso have already begun their season in good form while Athletic clearly still struggled to hit their stride. The second half came along and then Athletic just seemed to come alive. During the second half, they dominated possession and put Tromso’s goal under siege, but were not able to find a goal until Javi Martinez was able to deliver off of a penalty in the 62nd minute. Tromso were able to take one back in the 78th and, even though Athletic were able to own the second half, it looked like this would be a 2-1 loss with Athletic giving up precious away goals.

And then the Lions battled back. De Marcos once again showed his quality, scoring in the 86th minute. Four minutes later, just nearing the end of the match, Llorente (finally!) came alive to score the winner. And that was the game- Athletic win 3-2.

So here’s what I take from this match (again, though, I wasn’t actually able to see it, but this is what I gather from what I’ve read):

First off, Yeste had a pretty terrible game. I hope this isn’t a sign of things to come, as he hasn’t really performed up to par the last couple seasons. Yeste can be a key player and if he is not able to show up, expect another relegation battle- same goes for the defense. However, the defense is usually a stronger area of the team so I’m expecting that the defensive performance was more of a fluke than a sign of trouble.

I’ll also say this again: De Marcos is looking like a quality player, and that was a beauty of a goal. I was unsure of him when he first signed (remember this?), but I am happy that he has been able to make plays from the midfield and get himself on the scoresheet when the strikers can’t. I like what I see from this guy, and I hope he keeps it up.

Munian made his first start. He didn’t really make an impression during the game, but I’m glad to see a striker next to Llorente who is not Toquero. Honestly, he may only be 16 but I would say right now he’s only just under Toquero ability-wise. I think if he’s played and coached well through the season, he can easily be better by the halfway mark, if not by the end of the campaign.

So yeah, Athletic won- but they also gave up 2 away goals. If Tromso wins, say, 1-0 in the next game, Athletic is finished in Europe. I am confident, though- Los Leones were able to go to Wankdorf (YES! I STILL FOUND A WAY TO MAKE FUN OF WANKDORF!!!) and beat BSC Young Boys (also a silly name) after falling 1-0 at home.

Here was Athletic’s Lineup (precisely as I had predicted!):

Iraizoz
Castillo-Aitor Ocio-Amorebieta-Iraola
Yeste-J.Martínez-De Marcos-Susaeta
Muniain-Llorente

Subs: Armando, Ustaritz, David López (Susaeta 85′), Etxeberria, Ion Vélez, Iturraspe (Yeste 80′), Toquero (Munian 74′)

Tomorrow: time to face Barcelona again for the second leg of the supercup. Athletic has to go into Camp Nou trailing on aggregate so I don’t see them winning this (but would love to be proven wrong), but I will be hoping that they show some better form. Also, I can tolerate losing to Barcelona- they’re not Real Madrid.

After that the team travels to Norway on the 27th to face Tromso again and then three days later the season opens against Espanyol. It’s going to be a long ride this year, and expect me to be here throughout.