I’m currently one of a handful of people watching Malaga vs Atlante – by the way, Atlante just achieved what Villa failed to do by scoring. As you’ll probably be aware; if Malaga get any sort of result from this game then Aston Villa can not play any further part in the competition after the game against Atlante. If Malaga lose today then Villa have a chance of making it to the semi finals with a convincing win
I’m going to be brief, I’m in a rush to get out.
MON seemed to be thinking along the lines I was when I wrote the preview – throw the senior guys in from the start, the Malaga side have played no more football in pre-season than they had. I picked this up from TV commentary though – apparently Malaga achieved their impressive 8th La Liga finish last season with a fair number of loan players and have been scrambling
I speculated earlier that the local ex-pat community around Malaga might pack out the Estadio La Rosaleda when Aston Villa comes to town tomorrow. Now I’m not so sure.
I’ve just watched LDU Quito beat Al-Ittihad 3-1 in an almost entirely empty Municipal de Chapín stadium in Jerez. The stadium can hold ~20k and is the home to Xerez CD who will be in La Liga next year for the first time in their history. Apparently that isn’t
Malaga finished 8th in last season’s La Liga, which isn’t a bad achievement considering it was their first season back after a two year spell in the Segunda División. Coincidentally, their stadium, La Rosaleda, has the 8th largest capacity in the Spanish top flight. Not important, but a little factoid for you all the same.
Nestled in the heart of the Costa Del Sol, Malaga enjoy the support of the local ex-pat community, so maybe Villa’s visit will split the loyalties
I’m going to resist the urge to refer to this competition as the “Mooney Cup” as I really like the idea of a tournament of this type featuring these sorts of teams during the summer. I’m enjoying the massive crowds turning out in America for the World Football Challenge and with other tournaments going on around the world, I hope this is a trend that continues.
So, despite the slightly questionable backing to this tournament, the terrible website and amateur
The Aston Villa Peace Cup Squad has been announced:-
Brad Friedel, Brad Guzan, Elliot Parish, Marc Albrighton, Barry Bannan, John Carew, Ciaran Clark, Carlos Cuellar, Curtis Davies, Marlon Harewood, Chris Herd, Emile Heskey, Zat Knight, Eric Lichaj, Shane Lowry, Isaiah Osbourne, Stiliyan Petrov, Nigel Reo-Coker, Moustapha Salifou, Nicky Shorey, Steve Sidwell, Ashley Young, Luke Young, Jonathan Hogg, Wilfred Bouma, Andreas Weimann.
The England Under-21 trio – Agbonlahor, Milner & Gardner – are not included. I thought I saw MON
A look back at the games and signings from pre-season 2008/09 and an overview of pre-season 2009/10.
I hope the football will be better than the press conferences!!