Matchday 3 Preview

0:01Phil Kitromilides:This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Listening to this podcast instead of doom scrolling? Smart move. Another smart move? Getting help from one of State Farm's 19 ,000 local agents when you choose to bundle home and auto. Bundling. Just another way to save with the personal price plan. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state. 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.

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1:23Listen to the heartbeat.

1:25Phil Kitromilides:Let's Drive.

1:34Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week's TSFP Friday preview, where we look ahead to what's coming up this weekend in La Liga EA Sports, and Sidney will invariably get the prediction of that game wrong.

1:46Phil Kitromilides:Hello, Sid. Hello. You see, Alex hasn't got the results written down from last week, which makes me suspicious that I did rather well, and it's actually a cover-up to try and hide my success from last week. We will count up what you said and we will let everybody know just how well you did. It's actually, it's a bit of a running joke that you're not very good at the predictions, but actually, you're probably not that bad. It's probably not, it's quite hard to predict every single game, the outcome, even if you are the world's most foremost expert on Spanish football in the English language, Sid, and been doing this for 28 years.

2:22Phil Kitromilides:28 years well i mean there's a couple of issues there um one is i'm not sure i am the world's foremost expert in anything and second and secondly the the the the uh what's the word the the fact well this is proving the point actually i can't find what you just said in the english language is what i use really the english language anymore it's an approximation of yeah yeah okay we are now finally finally guys all on the same page it's the start of match day three after match day one lasted 15 days um yeah the final game of that uh last night two games last night uh Osasuna beating Celta 2-1 and Barcelona beating Athletic Club uh 2-0 it was quite funny actually yesterday Sid and I were discussing the Barca game and I in typical Spanish fashion decided to go down the polemic route and talking about a possible card not shown to La Mignamale on the Rafale on Laporte and you and I were arguing about this and then I realised it's midnight, I'm doing a bloody podcast with you in a few hours, why am I doing this?

3:29We could talk about lots of other stuff I don't need to be arguing with Sid at midnight about this so sense prevailed but I woke up and saw that you'd actually responded to a couple more messages

3:40Phil Kitromilides:and Al woke up and said he was very delighted to be able to wake up to this wonderful debate Yes, 40 useless messages, I think you said. This is what's happening on Matchday 3 in La Liga EA Sports. This is the preview pod, so I do kind of feel like we should look ahead. I mean, would you like to reflect on what happened last night? No, just to say that I thought Barcelona were very good. And I must confess, I didn't watch the Celta-Osasuna game. But I thought what an evergreen tweet it was from Osasuna to have penalty won by Budimir and then penalties scored by Budimir, it feels like this is what happens with Osasuna.

4:20Yes, but yeah, I agree. I thought Barcelona were terrific and I thought it was even more promising than the 5-0 win against Elche, the performance from them last night. All right, match day three starts tonight. Where are you going, Sid?

4:36Phil Kitromilides:What games are you going to this weekend? I'm actually only going to one game this weekend and it's not even in the first division. I'm going to Alba Theta this weekend. This is actually a weekend I'm genuinely off. So I'm going to Alba Cetis, Real Oviedo. You don't have a column on Monday? I don't know. You don't have a column on Monday? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So I felt the, if you like, the moral obligation, which I always feel to be back for when the season starts, but I hadn't actually taken my holiday. And so then I'll do the first two weeks. Then we're all kind of set up to go. And then I take the break.

5:07Phil Kitromilides:When in theory I do nothing, but of course I will be on the podcast every day. How long is this theoretical break? Well, I mean, it theoretically started on Tuesday and runs to the Monday, the first Monday of September. Second Monday of September. First Monday of September. First Monday. Good. Okay. Glad we got there in the end. So Sydney's enjoying this theoretical holiday and we are going to ask him what's going to happen in La Liga this weekend. So it all kicks off at El Sardinero, 7pm local time tonight for Racing Santander against Elche, Sid. Yeah, and it's a very difficult one to call. I'm going to go for a 1-1 draw.

5:50I would also go for a 1-1 draw. You read my mind. That was the result that was in my head. Alaves hosting Villarreal. Do you think that Mariano can do it again?

6:00Phil Kitromilides:I mean, you know, after the first week, I just kind of laughed at this, but I'm starting to think this might actually be a thing. If he scores in three consecutive games, What is that? What's that? Is that the end of the world? Is it the apocalypse? I think it is. I mean, you know, each of those goals is riding in on one of the horse of the apocalypse. I mean, I suppose that would mean there should be a fourth one coming up the week after. But yes, it's it's it's quite extraordinary. I was going through the statistics again the other day and it's absolutely nuts. This is a guy who has one season where he's got lots of goals for Lyon.

6:30Phil Kitromilides:But apart from that, his highest goal scoring season ever is three. So if he was to score this weekend, it would be his best season ever in Spain. Well, there we go. Reason enough for us to tune in and see Alaves against Villarreal. Also, let's see if Villarreal can get their first win as well. Yeah, I've actually quite liked Villarreal, the way they've played. Admittedly, the first half against Ratham wasn't great, but then I thought the second half of that and I thought the majority of the game against Atletico Madrid was pretty good. I don't think it's easy to go to Alaves and get something.

7:01Phil Kitromilides:I can see the kind of game where Alaves are very, very defensive and it's difficult to break them down. I'm going to go for a draw as well, actually. I'm leaning towards Villarreal, but I'm going to go for a draw as well. I think Alaves will make life very difficult for them. OK, we're going for Villarreal, three games winless at the start of the season. There's a game that you really could have got to, Sid, if you wanted to on Saturday, Levante against Betis. I could have done, but I would much rather go to Alba Teta to see Oviedo play at this at the same time. Otherwise, I would have gone to this, yeah.

7:30Phil Kitromilides:Oh, right. That was my balance. It's like, what do I do? and obviously I'll go and see Oviedo if I possibly can, particularly if I'm not having to write on this. So Levant against Betis. Betis? Yeah, totally, totally agree. Not being particularly impressed with Levant at the start of the season. Feels like it might be a long-hour season for... It does. ...Los Granos does. And Betis, who... We didn't actually talk about the Champions League draw either, Sid, but we were counting how many English against Spanish ties there are. There's a lot. You're going to be busy, Sidney. You're going to be busy.

8:03Phil Kitromilides:Quite a lot of them are in England. I think a bit more than half of them are in England, if I remember rightly looking at the list. I remember sort of thinking, wow, that's a lot. And I'm thinking, oh, but that's in England and that's in England and that one's in England, so I might not have to go. Man City are the first to come, aren't they, if I remember rightly? I think Man City are the first to come. And I've got – am I right in saying that someone goes to Arsenal very early as well? Or is it Arsenal come to someone here very early? Anyway, I haven't looked at it properly. I need to write this all down and kind of get my – but I can't get my proper diary out until I know what the – fixtures are in the week five of La Liga, which we still don't know.

8:36We still don't know because they're waiting to see when the Champions League... So they're kind of doing what I'm doing.

8:41Phil Kitromilides:They're waiting on the Champions League fixtures. The difference is that I don't have a responsibility to put games on for an entire nation of football fans. Every other league has been able to sort out their fixtures without the Champions League? Every other league. And explain to me why the Spanish second division is also waiting for the Champions League fixtures. Yeah. Anyway, Levante Betis. We've gone for Betis there. We have, yeah. We got sidetracked because obviously Betis are in the Champions League and they play Arsenal. That's the first one, isn't it? That's the first one. That was the one I was saying.

9:13Phil Kitromilides:Yeah, yeah. That's the first one that Arsenal come here. The Hector Bellerin game, although Bellerin wanted to go back to London. I bet he did. I bet he did. Real Sociedad against Espanyol. Obviously, La Real starting the season with the back-to-back defeats, although away to Betis and away to Real Madrid are two games. Home to Espanyol and Espanyol side who have performed relatively well in their first two games. Well, we discussed this, didn't we, the other day about the slight concern about Real Madrid not having gone into the market. The feeling that there hasn't been a kind of, if you like, an improvement on the squad.

9:49Phil Kitromilides:that doubt still about the impact of the new manager last year and whether that's a sustainable impact for a new season and what kind of impact that has. I've just used the word impact rather too much going forwards. And I actually think if they don't win this, there will be some real concerns. Español I haven't disliked. Before the season, I was a little bit worried about them. You pointed out the signing of Calatrava, which I must confess I hadn't really paid a huge amount of attention to, but I've liked him a lot. I think this might actually be quite difficult for Real Sotilad, but I'm going to go for a home win.

10:27Phil Kitromilides:I'm going to go for a home win. Real Sotilad against Espanyol. Just on thesaurus.com, Sid, to see if there was any other word you could have used instead of impact. Effect, I suppose. Effect, yes. What effect it will have. Yeah. Yes. What bearing it might have. What bearing it might have. Who needs thesaurus.com? I've got Sydney.com to use different words. So there you go, Sydney, there you go, different words. Sevilla against Atleti is the Saturday night game. Well, I mean, I don't want to sort of take this away from the purely game element of it and go into the, take it away. The issue that has occupied us more than anything else over the last 10 days or so.

11:07Whether Lucy Nagome is going to leave Sevilla or not.

11:10Phil Kitromilides:That's the one. Yeah. We've all been focused on that. Julian Alvarez has not trained for a third day in a row I think this reinforces something that I picked up on yesterday which was to say that I felt myself in what I'd written and us in the podcast that we talked a lot about all of the elements in this and possibly maybe not as much as we might have done about Julian Alvarez's kind of staging of his anger or his disappointment or his disconnect with Atletico Madrid I personally think this is a third day in a row in which he's done it I'm sorry, I don't believe that he's got the shit still if indeed that was what was wrong with him as we were talking about yesterday.

11:43Phil Kitromilides:He's got a very severe case of get-me-out-of-here-itis. I think it's a problem. I think it rarefies the atmosphere. And I think there's a purely footballing element to this, which is that at the moment, Atletico Madrid don't have a recognised first-team striker available. Diego Simeone said after the game against Villarreal that he basically said the first thing he said to Luckman was, sorry, sorry to make you play in this position. Sorry to have to have you do this. Sorry that you're not in the place where you enjoy your game, which is to have space in front of you to run up people, to go for people and so on.

12:15Phil Kitromilides:We will give you that back. And we need strikers. And I think they do need strikers. And right now they haven't got any. And by the way, I'm not entirely convinced that Soarov doesn't go as well. And so Atletico Madrid have a real scramble for a striker if Soarov goes and if Alvarez goes. And right now, you know, if we thought the situation with Alvarez was bad on Monday, I think now after three consecutive days of him not training, I think it's even worse. And I think any sympathy that there might have been towards Alvarez on Monday, maybe not any, because I think there's probably still some there, but a lot of it has eroded over the last three days.

12:49Phil Kitromilides:And it tells you that this situation is really, really bad. And so what does this mean in terms of the game? Well, it means they go into it without a striker. Are they a better team than Sevilla? Yes. But it's a way at Sevilla. There's a severe side who started okay, who must be thinking, in fact, I know they're in the game. They've started with two wins from two, see. Two wins from two, they're top of the table, stop the count and all that, end the league title now and let them be champions because that is a start that they wouldn't have expected. It's a start that possibly slightly exaggerates the quality of their performances.

13:17Phil Kitromilides:But there is something there. And I actually think Atletico won't find this easy. And I think without a striker, that kind of game where you win it sort of on the break or you win it with a ball that drops in the area is obviously diminished a little bit. I'm still going to go for an Atletico win. But I say it with very little conviction, very little conviction. I'm going to go for a narrow 1-0. I'd have to come and win, but I am not at all convinced by my own prediction there. Understandably so. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Listening to this podcast instead of doom scrolling?

13:53Phil Kitromilides:Smart move. Another smart move? Getting help from one of State Farm's 19 ,000 local agents when you choose to bundle home and auto. Bundling. Just another way to save with the personal price plan. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state. 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.

14:28Phil Kitromilides: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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15:36Phil Kitromilides:Yeah, because it's a closed roof, but it's not like there's air conditioning inside there. It's just a closed roof. Real Madrid against Malaga, Sid. This is, I mean, apologies to say this, Malaga fans, but this is a clear home win, isn't it? I would say so, although, you know, Malaga have been relatively impressive in certainly the way that they set up against Atleti in their first game of the season. they went to the Metropolitano and played with bravery and tried to take the game to Atleti. I can see a scenario where they have a decent opening half an hour or so and then Real Madrid are too strong.

16:11Phil Kitromilides:Exactly. And that's a scenario that I think fits with what we've seen from Malaga so far. I think it fits with the nature of the way they are likely to approach it going to the Bernabeu. I mean, you know, theoretically, they're quite a daring team, quite a brave team, but I think they'll try and protect themselves. So that fits with that. It also, to be honest, fits with what we've seen of Real Madrid so far, which is that they're a team that can disengage a little bit. But Real Madrid have... This is one of the reasons why, you know, at the start of the season, I was leaning towards, well, Real Madrid could win the league because they have so much that even if they're not playing well, you know, you can't help thinking that these kind of games, they'll get you in the end.

16:45Phil Kitromilides:Now, the reason they didn't win the league last year was because these kind of games, once in a while, they would allow them to slip away from them. More maybe away from home than at home, but there would be draws that they shouldn't have been. There would be moments where they couldn't get through. And this season, I just think that will happen far less. Home win, really quite clearly. But yes, I agree with you. I can see a scenario in which maybe it's nil-nil at halftime. Real Madrid last season won 16 of their 19 home games. They had two defeats against Getafe and Celta Vigo without scoring.

17:13And they also drew 1-1 with a side that were eventually relegated, which is Girona. That was their home record last season. They won all the other matches. Okay, that's the early game on Sunday. then Deportivo a Coruña against Valencia, Reactor Sidney.

17:54Phil Kitromilides:Really? Really still? She said, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's been 30 years. In part, I suppose it's because fans sort of like to hang on to something that gives it emotion. And it's partly put on, but, you know, it gathers a momentum of its own. It just becomes a thing. Even when people have kind of forgotten. Sorry, why did we dislike this lot? Was there a reason for it? Briefly explain why this rivalry existed. Well, I mean, if we can reduce it to one single moment, because there's one or two other elements. I mean, obviously, partly it's the fact that they were the two teams that could actually compete with Madrid and Barcelona for a little while.

18:25Phil Kitromilides:But if we can reduce it to one moment, it's, of course, it's against Valencia that Deportivo missed the last-minute penalty in 1994. Is it four or three? Oh, my mind's gone. I think it's three or four that they could have won the league. Dukic misses a penalty. The Valencia goalkeeper jumps up and celebrates. And it's like, hang on, why have you got any skin in this game? Why are you kind of rubbing it in? And then it later turned out that Valencia were on a sizable bonus to win that game against Depor. Sid, you got six out of nine predictions correct last week. I mean, that is... I knew it was a conspiracy.

18:57Phil Kitromilides:You were trying to hide it, but it's not that much of a conspiracy for the end. So actually, here's the results. And it was quite good. Very, very good. So forget everything we said about your predictions being questionable. The rabbit is back in the box. Yeah. Yeah, literally. Depor against Valencia. The result? The actual result. I'm going for a home win, you know. Yeah, why not? I don't really like the look of Valencia. I don't think they're in a terrible way and I don't think they're going to struggle this year, but I don't enormously like the look of them at the moment. Okay. Some new signings for both of these teams during the week.

19:34Adama Traore joining Depor and Valencia signing Arnaud Martinez from Girona, which is a very good signing.