Better than Messi (with the outside of his foot)

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0:22Phil Kitromilides:First day fits, handled. Walk out ready for whatever's next. Visit your nearest Crocs store today. This episode is brought to you by Facebook. So, you were scrolling on Marketplace, and there it was, the bike you'd been searching for. You sent a message, and it turned out the seller was super chatty, kind of funny, and an avid cyclist. The next thing you know, you're in a cycling crew. Well, a community cycling group. The thing about Facebook, you might find more than what you're looking for. From a browse to a bike ride, this summer, find more on Facebook.

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1:37Hello everyone and welcome to the 12th season of the Spanish Football Podcast. I'm Phil Kitramelidis, joined as ever by Sid Lowe and we're back for another season talking about Spanish football. Hello Sydney.

1:51Phil Kitromilides:Good morning Philip, how are you? I'm good my friend. Even for us what we're doing is a little bit ridiculous. I'll let the listeners into a little secret We are recording very, very early on Monday morning, perhaps the earliest we've ever recorded a podcast. So we're a little bit bleary eyed and hopefully we're still sharp enough to assess what happened at the weekend. But yeah, it's early and I'm still having my coffee. So hopefully we'll. Oh, you've actually managed to have a coffee. I've not reached that point yet. I'm not even dressed. I mean, I'm not going to stand up at this point. Put it that way.

2:26Me neither. OK, so we are in various states of undress, but we're here to talk about what happened on Matchday 1 in La Liga EA Sports. Friday night, the first game of the season, saw the mighty Rayo Vallecano beat Girona 3-1 at Montelivio. My boy Fruity G, that's Jorge de Frutos, Fruity George, scoring the first goal of the season. Villarreal also beating Reylo Viedo 2-0. Then on Saturday, Barcelona went to Mallorca and won 3-0. Alaves beat Levante 2-1. And Valencia and Real Sociedad played out a 1-1 draw. Then on Sunday, big win for Getafe at Celta Vigo. They were down to the bare bones Getafe.

3:07Didn't have too many players, but they still managed to go to Galicia and win 2-0. Athletic Club beat Sevilla 3-2 in Bilbao. And Espanyol came from behind to beat Atletico Madrid 2-1 at Cornear. just a few hours ago, basically. Two games still to go on match day one. We've got one on Monday night, Elche against Betis, and one on Tuesday night, Real Madrid against Osasuna. Now that the season is underway, we're back to our regular schedule at patreon.com forward slash TSFP. So what better time to join us? Patrons get the Monday pod and the Friday preview pod without any ads. They get the Tuesday Q &A pod and the Thursday bonus pod every single week during the season.

3:50and we're also making the weekly TSFP newsletter available for all patrons. And there's also our brand new content, which is TSFP's Weekly Diary, which is a behind-the-scenes look at what it's like to be covering Spanish football slash a rambling voice note from either Sid, me or Al. But we think it's going to be good. So come and join us. You can be a patron from€4.75 a month. Sydney, you've been at three games so far this season Villarreal Oviedo, Mallorca Barça and Espanyol Atleti We'll start with Oviedo because I guess we won't do that too many times this season In the first half with Oviedo already 2-0 down the TV cameras cut to you and your family, Sid in the stadium got a lovely surprise you were looking pretty dejected, has to say

4:50Phil Kitromilides:so one of the things that happened in the in the build-ups this game was kind of before the game more than anything else and talking to to friends around the ground there was a lot of aviado fans there there wasn't kind of the recurring conversation was wow we're we're in the first division this is pre-game outside the ground sort of looking up the ground we're actually here we're actually in the first division and then 10 minutes into the game it was oh we're in the first division this is this is another level again it's really quite difficult um and you know obviously it's not just playing a first division team it's playing it's playing Villarreal who are a Champions League team a very very good Champions League team as well who who was so so superior to Real Oviedo in in the opening 10 or 15 minutes that it was really quite something um And Aaron Escondi, the Oviedo goalkeeper, had already made, I think, four very good saves.

5:45Phil Kitromilides:And then suddenly they gifted us a ridiculous penalty, really silly penalty. They made a mess of the only time, I think, that Oviedo kicked the ball roughly in the direction of the Villarreal half. And it ended up with a penalty. You think, I don't believe this. We're in the first division and we're about to be given the lead. Maybe somehow by some kind of miracle we'll hang on to this. and then it's fair to say the penalty really was not very good from Solomon Rondon. An easy save and then Villarreal got the two goals that they deserved and possibly would have got more had they needed more at some point in the game.

6:20Phil Kitromilides:The game then drifted but yes, I think that more than anything else this was the game that kind of reminded us that for all the excitement and by the thought it's worth, I'd said before the game to people listen, I don't care if we lose 5-0 today and obviously I knew that wasn't true. I did care if we lost 5-0, but it really sort of didn't matter. It was about saying, well, we're actually here. Let's see if we can compete for the beginning part of this game, at least. For the first half of this game, maybe a little bit more. Oviedo just didn't. And then the second half wasn't really much of a game at all.

6:48Worth mentioning that Oviedo played the majority of the game with 10 men as well, which I guess conditions things a little bit.

6:54Phil Kitromilides:Did you notice, by the way, I'd like to hand up, you know, everyone's going to accuse us of bias all year and they'll be absolutely right. We will be completely biased. By the way, I'm glad that you haven't opened this pod, or disappointed maybe, that you haven't opened this pod by pointing out that Rai Vaikana were a joint top and Rai Lovia were a joint bottom. So at the moment there is an entire league between our two teams. But I didn't hide behind the red card, which I must admit I thought was a little bit harsh in that it was for two yellows. It was really quite early. Generally speaking, a referee would try and back away from giving the second one.

7:25Phil Kitromilides:I suppose rulebook in hand it was the right decision, but yeah, it didn't help. and also I was just very impressed with Villarreal and the sad thing I think is that sitting where we were, as you say, the cameras picked us up partly because I think we were in a part of the ground that was easy to pick us up sitting where we were, which is the end of Villarreal we were attacking the first half and it's a pity that this is what I'm going to say because he then went off injured very, very early Gerard Moreno is a hell of a player up close his ability to bring people onto him to be seemingly surrounded by defenders and then find a way of turning away from it.

8:00Phil Kitromilides:Find a way of finding teammates. And Villarreal have so many runners in the team. They're a really athletic team, a really dynamic team. To be honest, Oviedo couldn't really live with that. Story of his career, really. He went off injured. Yeah, I'm afraid so, yeah. OK, so Oviedo losing their first game back in the Primera División. Next up, it's Real Madrid. Yeah, nice easy one. That'll be fine. We'll see how they get on. You'll be heading up to the Tartiere for the first home game back in nearly a quarter of a century. So that should be pretty decent, even if you lose 5-0, Sid. Let's move on and talk about another game that you were at.

8:36We're doing this sort of in chronological order. We can talk about Mallorca 0-0, Barcelona 3. And there is obviously stuff to talk about from this game. Barcelona winning thanks to goals from Rafinha, Ferran Torres and Laminia Mal. First goal as an adult for Laminia Mal. And if I tell you La Minha Mal scored, you can imagine what goal it was. You could literally picture it in your head. It was the La Minha Mal goal, cutting in from the right and finishing brilliantly with the left. But before we talk about those kind of stuff, and you guys know that we don't like to dwell on refereeing decisions, unlike almost everyone else in this country, but it has been quite polemic, quite controversial.

9:16the second goal scored by Barcelona because Ferran Torres scored it while Antonio Rayo, the Mallorca defender, was sprawled on the ground having cleared a shot with his head. Everybody expected the referee to blow up. The referee looked like he might be blowing up but he didn't and Ferran shot and ended up with a second goal and from there on it felt like Barcelona were always going to win, particularly when Mallorca lost their heads and started getting people sent off. What was your feeling on the decision, Sid, before we go into the analysis of the game?

9:52Phil Kitromilides:Yeah, OK, so let me tell you, my feeling on the decision was different to what my feeling on the decision is now. And my feeling on the decision was that the referee had made the right decision, because I don't think you could be stopping the game when someone heads a ball away. And this wasn't a ball in the face, it wasn't two metres away, it was a guy heading the ball away. but it is true that he kind of stumbled forward and hit the ground but I kind of thought actually it's a good decision and probably a brave one the reason why I've changed my mind is is two things one I've seen more clearly how the referee appeared to have blown his whistle because he kind of leaned forward and went towards the movement and had the whistle in his mouth and in fact at a Saturday the Mallorca manager said post-game that he heard the fourth official saying blow up blow up it's a head injury and actually thought he had and indeed when the goal went in no one really celebrated because it all felt like it had been stopped in fact the Barcelona players kind of weren't really celebrated so as if to say oh great shot for him pity it doesn't count um and that's one of the things that made me change my mind but the most important thing that made me change my mind is actually according to the protocol he should have stopped and I didn't know that so hands up the reason I thought it was the right decision was because I had misinterpreted the protocol on head injuries and so he probably should have shot uh Fran Torres produces a brilliant shot which I think got forgotten in all the in the noise is actually how well he took it.

11:08Phil Kitromilides:And Mallorca were down. And obviously this was the beginning of the end for them because although they were already a goal down, this led to the first of the two yellow cards for Mateo, who then got sent off. There was then another red card for Maurici, which was initially a yellow, but VAR turned it into a red. And so at that point, the game was over. I actually thought Barcelona were pretty good and probably would have won anyway but of course you can never know that for sure can you? No, no Robert Lewandowski so Ferran Torres started for Barcelona and then on came Marcus Rashford in the second half.

11:44What did you make of what you saw from him?

11:47Phil Kitromilides:What I saw from Marcus Rashford I think was a guy coming into a team not entirely ready yet, willing to move, looked a little bit uncomfortable in my view in the fact that he was playing a centre forward. It took a long time for him to get any touches at all he got 10 I was actually counting them because I was covering this as well um 10 10 times he got in contact the ball during the game there's a couple of times we actually had a glimpse at goal one of which he sort of seemed to tread on the ball as he tried to turn back inside and the other which slotted pass through to him and he didn't respond very quickly to it so the ball kind of escaped him and I think in a way that's a a portrait of maybe the doubts we have about him we think he's a brilliant player running into space and a couple of times when he was able to influence the game was when he left that centre forward position and kind of went out to the left and then came back in again.

12:32Phil Kitromilides:And that kind of tight control, tight passing part of the game obviously is, I think, at least the thing where it might be harder for him to fit. But, you know, it's the first game on a very, very hot night when he comes onto a game that's kind of already done. And so, really, I suppose the short answer, having just given you a long one to what was Marcus Resford's debut like, is not very relevant. OK, if you were listening to us over at patreon.com forward slash tsfp in the summer. We had been talking about Laminya Mal, we had been talking about how good he's been looking in pre-season and how excited we are for the forthcoming campaign and then he pops up with another absolutely brilliant goal in injury time to round off the victory.

13:18Expectations really high this season for Laminya Mal aren't they?

13:21Phil Kitromilides:Yes and I've been thinking about this and I was talk about the need to reduce their expectations on young players and the need to kind of not project onto them what they will be as well as what they already are and I think sometimes part of the problem becomes this forward projection. There's one very very significant problem with talking about dropping the expectation on Laminya Mahdi is that the one person who's absolutely refusing to drop the expectation on him is him. He's the one that you can call it cockiness if you like and I suppose you know walk the walk and all that and if you've got it flaunt it and so on but he's the one that's embracing all of this who's just been given the number 10 shirt but clearly wants it who celebrates the goal by putting a crown onto his head who is very very conscious of kind of saying to people I'm here for this I want this responsibility I want to take this on I want to prove that I'm better than everybody else in this game you know a very small thing perhaps but perhaps a worthwhile kind of demonstration of that is that he started taking the three kicks for Barcelona he didn't do that before and I think he really either is embracing no well absolutely is embracing not either or absolutely is embracing but also absolutely seems to want to embrace the idea of being the star man and so when we talk about right let's not part the expectations on him you kind of look to Lamin and say well he's doing it to himself and then obviously quite apart from that if you like that emotional thing and that that messaging thing and the imagery and everything and everything that goes with him really seeming to quite like the idea of being a superstar is the very basic thing, which is he gets on the pitch and he's worth it.

15:02Phil Kitromilides:He is a phenomenal footballer. And I know that people know this, but when you watch him and when you watch him up close as well, and it happened this weekend, there are moments, even in those moments of the games when he's quiet, where you just think, wow, there's a touch, There's a speed, there's a quality to get away from people. I was very struck by something that Eric Garcia said to us post-game at ESPN. He talked about, you know, he does this in training all the time. Obviously, you know, that's not an amazing thing to say because we hear that from people about very good players, that in training they do this kind of thing all the time.

15:36Phil Kitromilides:And I suppose it's natural that in training you would repeat something that maybe if you're lucky you do once in a match. but then he said something about he he'd had a confrontation Laminya Maul with Jan Salas just about two minutes before he scored and Salas had had a go and said what are you complaining about and he used a a word which basically means it's a stronger version of idiot put it that way you know call it subnormal and as if to say you know you total dickhead it's a bit worse than that and Laminya Maul kind of looked at him and then next thing he does he score this goal and Eric Garcia said post-game he'd had an argument with someone the minute before and as soon as that happened I knew he was going to score and here comes the thing the last person I remember someone saying exactly that about was a little Argentinian guy who also wore number 10 for Barcelona I remember Pep Guardiola saying don't anger Messi because when you anger Messi this is how it gives it back to you this is what happens and it was phenomenal and as you say it was that Laminya mile goal and we talk a lot about how you see it's coming you know what's coming but you still can't stop it I think there's lots of reasons why you can't stop it I mean we could settle for the basic one which is he's very good at it but I also think it's actually while it is the goal he scores it's not necessarily obvious that it's the thing he's going to do because when he plays he doesn't only come inside it's not the only thing he does and the reason for this is obviously when you've got a very very naturally left-footed player on the right hand side you say well of course he's going to come in because he wants to come in into his left foot but Laminia Marl despite not being particularly good with his right foot has overcome that in part and I was thinking about this the other day and I thought that's why why has he overcome it and this is one thing I do think he does better than Messi he's really good with the outside of his foot and so because he delivers really good passes in fact remember last year the last time they went to New York they won 5-1 two of the assists are these unbelievable passes the outside fits from Laminia Marl so I think what that means is that the defender in front of him although he thinks if Laminia Marl's going to score is going to be only one way.

17:32Phil Kitromilides:That doesn't necessarily mean that's going to be the play he goes for this time. Because he does also go the other way. Partly because he doesn't necessarily run out of pitch at that point. Because although it is true that he doesn't want to use his right foot, he's pretty happy using the outside of his left. Laminio Malt better than Messi with the outside of his foot. Yes. OK. This episode of TSFP is brought to you by our friends at NordVPN. Now you guys know we travel a lot covering Spanish football. whether it's heading to the States for the Club World Cup. If it's another free game weekend, whatever it is, a Monday night maybe, somewhere in, well, Elche or somewhere random like that.

18:08And the best way to make sure you've got access to all your content from back home is using NordVPN. Yeah, I know that Al used it when he was away this summer and so did I, in fact. He did and he said it was very easy. You can keep up with the football. Let's just say, for example, Ray Loviedo, Sid, if you're interested in that kind of thing. For example. You can use it for TV shows, movies. NordVPN lets you access your subscriptions back home wherever you are.

18:33Phil Kitromilides:And it's really easy to use, which is really quite important if, like us, you're not particularly tech savvy. We are not tech savvy, and basically even we can use this. So, yeah, that just shows you. It also improves your internet security, which is important if you spend a lot of time using public Wi-Fi like Sid does at train stations, airports, hotel lobbies all the time. You know, those places where I am basically 95 % of my time. You connect with just one click. It's one of the fastest VPNs around and you can use up to 10 devices with one account, which is useful. for more information and this is really important you need to head to nordvpn.com forward slash t sfp hang on phil i'm just making note of this that was nordvpn.com forward slash t sfp that's right sydney nordvpn.com forward slash t sfp hey chicago class it up with crocs you know back to school is coming in fast So why wait to find your new fave footwear?

19:39Step into a local croc store and step into your new look. Try it. Style it. Make it yours. Because the right pair doesn't just show up. It shows off.

19:52Phil Kitromilides:First day fits, handled. Walk out ready for whatever's next. Visit your nearest croc store today. This episode is brought to you by Facebook. So you were scrolling on Marketplace, and there it was, the bike you'd been searching for. You sent a message, and it turned out the seller was super chatty, kind of funny, and an avid cyclist. The next thing you know, you're in a cycling crew. Well, a community cycling group. The thing about Facebook, you might find more than what you're looking for. From a browse to a bike ride, this summer, find more on Facebook.

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21:02We're going to move on. We didn't talk about Jean Garcia making his debut in goal because there wasn't too much to talk about. Barcelona managing to get him and Marcus Rashford registered for this game, which was looking potentially unlikely to get them both registered a few days ago, but they were making their respective debuts. Let's move on and talk about the other game that you were at this weekend, Sid, as we said a few hours ago, Espanyol, coming from behind to beat Atletico Madrid. How did this happen, Sid? Because Atleti had this game seemingly very much under control, leading at the break, dominant, and then they didn't.

21:41Phil Kitromilides:Right, how did it happen? I think the phrase that Coque kept using post-game was that brilliant Spanish phrase, contundente, which is, you know, when you land a punch or when you try to hit someone, you hit them properly. And so the contundent theory is you get a chance, you take it. In your own area, they get a chance, they don't take it, or more to the point, you defend in a decisive way. I suppose decisive is possibly the best word for that, isn't it? Or effective. And that was Koke's answer. Now, I buy that up to a point, but I don't buy it 100%. And it is true that until about 75 minutes, Atletico were in control, and there was a lovely, lovely second-half move, which ended up with Julian Alvarez hitting a post.

22:23Phil Kitromilides:at the end I was at and I thought it was a bad miss watching it close to me and I watched it back later on I was gonna say last night but this night pretty much and and it's a it's an even more extraordinary miss than I thought and it's a brilliant brilliant move and he should score and at that point it goes 2-0 if they score and that's it and we'd probably now be saying you know what this was a really positive interesting start from Atletico Madrid because they were front-footed they were trying to take the game higher there was some quite nice football played at times particularly from Almada and from Baena, who I thought used the ball really well.

22:55Phil Kitromilides:Both of them, less so maybe from Giuliano Simeone, but I think we probably, sorry, Giuliano Simeone, but I think we probably expected that. And then they got caught. And they got caught with one set play, really, really badly defended. Rapsidori didn't pick up his man. He'd only just come on the pitch. Maybe that plays a part. It dropped behind Lenormand. And he's there all alone at the far post. So all alone at the far post, you almost wonder if he must be offside. How can it be that there's no one there with him unless they've stepped out to leave him offside? It wasn't the case, but it was just a slow reaction and he got caught.

23:24Phil Kitromilides:Then you get an amazing header from Pere Milla. Although I'm not sure if it is a header. Does it hit the back of his head, his neck, his shoulder, somewhere around there? Anyway, it loops up and it goes in and they get caught out. Now, the reason why that would appear to kind of reflect Koke's answer, but I don't agree, is that actually for all their control and all they played well, I didn't think Atletico Madrid made as much happen in terms of clear chances as they probably should have done. I also didn't think that the two goals that Espanyol scored were quite as isolated as it sounds like they were.

23:57Phil Kitromilides:Now, they were a bit isolated, but it wasn't quite as isolated. I felt that they took a step forward. And it was quite entertaining listening to Marko Dimitrovic last night because, you know, bear in mind, this is a guy that's played with Mendelevar and loves Mendelevar. He essentially said, yeah, a couple of big guys up front and sling the ball in the box. So if we're looking for the, if you like, the tactical analysis of what changed. They went that way. And I thought that Manolo Gonzalez read that quite well. I thought he found a way of causing problems for Atletico Madrid and Atletico Madrid didn't defend well at all on the first goal.

24:32Phil Kitromilides:I'm not sure that you can really blame the defending on the second. I think it's just kind of an amazing stroke freak header that they can't deal with. But I actually thought that Espanyol did start to make things happen, particularly delivering crosses. I'd also like to point out at this point, by the way, that on came Dolan and I really liked the look of him. Really dynamic, running at people, trying to make things happen. There was a sense of just kind of things getting livelier when he was around the ball. And Espanyol, I don't want to overplay this because I don't want to fall into the trap of because they won, thinking they were really good.

25:07Phil Kitromilides:I think that would be a step too far, but I thought their response was good. I thought their start of the game, five, ten minutes was good. And I thought their response was good later on. And ultimately, you know while they may feel while most people may feel they were possibly a little bit lucky to win I actually thought they played quite well as well Just going back to Atletico Madrid looking at their starting 11, five new signings in that starting 11 Sid, Hanchko, Ruggieri Cardoso, Baena and Almada and ultimately not getting a victory, I think we've spoken about this before but in the opening 11 games of last season Atletico Madrid only won five of those 11 games So actually, if you look at those five wins, two of them were injury time goals and they actually picked up a draw scoring in injury time as well.