The Iker Muniain Show (Werder & Valladolid)

By: Paul | October 5th, 2009

So, I realize I’m a bit late posting on the last matches that were played, but here’s a post on them.

werdermunian As I’m sure (or, at least I’m strongly hoping) everybody is aware, Athletic played game two of the Europa League group stage away at Werder Bremen last Thursday. I was able to “watch” the game during my research methods class (which is the most pointless class ever, but I digress) via uefa.com’s live match stream. As such, I can say that I was largely disappointed, minus some bright spots in the second half. Athletic were not able to create nearly as many chances, and drew many fouls, leading to free kicks which were largely squandered. The first half the team did not play well at all, but they were given new life in the second half, and this is where the title of my post comes into play.

Muniain came on as a sub for Toquero (who had an excellent chance to score, but failed because he sucks) and he must have been doing something right. In his first 5 minutes or so on the field, he drew something like 8 fouls; more than any other Athletic player had drawn the entire game up to that point. I wasn’t actually able to see the players in action, but this tells me something- he posed a threat to Werder and they dealt with it accordingly. If he were a bit older, I would not have been surprised to have seen him score.

I stopped watching the game when my class ended around the 86th minute, and Athletic were down 2-0. I expected the scoreline to stay the same, but when I was able to check it later the final was 3-1. Llorente was able to grab one back late, but Werder drew a penalty and were able to score a third goal. The bottom line from this game: a relatively poor performance in the first half, but a new life during the second half which was almost solely caused by the presence of Muniain.
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Then yesterday, Athletic were back in action in La Liga with an away game against Valladolid. This was a game I was not able to watch, but I must say- it was raining cards.

Susaeta started things off early, scoring in the 10th minute with what (from what I’ve read) was a pretty sharp looking goal. It wasn’t long until Ustaritz made himself look like a jackass and was shown a straight red card in the 22nd minute, though, and Athletic had to play more defensively and more desperately to hang on to the lead. They managed to hang on until the 60th minute, and then went down 2-1 in the 75th. After that, the sides were evened out when Marcos was shown his second yellow card in the 80th minute for Valladolid. In the next minute, the young man for whom this post has been titled (he was subbed in for Toquero in this match as well) grabbed his first La Liga goal, and became the youngest scorer in La Liga. Another Valladolid player got sent off a bit later, but the final scoreline was 2-2. Not the best of results, but one that I can be satisfied with given both the past few performances we’ve seen and the fact that everybody was getting fouled.

Bad news from yesterday’s match: Llorente was knocked unconscious early and spent the night in the hospital. I believe this was precautionary and he’s ok. Etxeberria filled in for him.

So yeah, Muniain is a badass.

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