Nothing to Lose

By: Elisa | November 15th, 2008

Athletic came back and earned a point against Mallorca. For the neutral a fabulous game with tons of goals, 3-3 was the final score. For the Athletic fan, a nail biter and an extremely frustrating game.

Likes: I was happy to see goals galore – Andoni Iraola (our top scorer – don’t laugh) with a pen, Ion Velez got his first goal in the Primera and Fernando Llorente scored again. We need some consistency from our big fella upfront. (On a side note – I was a little surprised that he was called up by Del Bosque to the national team. I am not sure if he has the mental stamina to be an international, but kudos to Fernan. I remember when he played in the under 21s alongside Cesc Fabregas.=)) Oh and I liked the fact that our team did not give up and fought back for a point. Tenacity!

Dislikes: Our defense is still very suspect and still crap. We are missing Amorebieta big time and Ustaritz looks shaky. It’s great that we are trying to attack more, but the gaps in the back are just scathing. Oh and I didn’t like the fact that Aduriz got two assists against us. Sorry, it’s going to take a season for me to get over the whole Aduriz transfer fiasco.

Cut to the chase – we need to start winning games before it’s too late and a large gap starts growing at the bottom of the table. This weekend’s game against Osasuna looks very promising. David Lopez returns to play against his old team. Let’s hope he scores and provides some fabulous crosses. I know it’s early, but this is an extremely important game and this win could mean safety. Let’s face it, we are stuck with Caparros. We can’t afford to bring in a new coach and to continue to pay the man a salary. The team keeps improving but at a snail’s pace. We are just missing that balance in attack and defense. I still feel we have the players to stay up. We just need to get on a good run of games.

It’s a pseudo Basque derby and so this game will be dog eat dog, a true battle royal. We need to play like this is a final and maybe this time, luck will be on our side.

PS – We made it to the next round in the Copa Del Rey! YES!