They must have known I was coming……

Well, a few weeks later than planned, I finally got to see some live football on this trip and, predictably Atletico lost 2-1 at home to Espanyol, six times I´ve been now and I´m yet to see us win, I must give off some kind of negative vibe.

By rights this should have been fifth game I had seen on the Iberian peninsula over the last few weeks but various distractions, and alcohol consumption, meant I missed my planned visits to Levante, Benfica, Boavista and Real Sociedad. Let´s just hope next weeks game against Getafe, then the trip to the Nou Camp a week on Wednesday for Barcelona v Atletico prove more fruitful.

I´ve not really been keeping up with football developments back home since I´ve been away, but this story caught my eye earlier and I just hope the F.A. are going to show some backbone and punish it suitably. After all Altrincham were docked 18 points for an indiscetion in this field last year, and surely all clubs should be treated the same whatever level they are playing at? There can be no worse form of cheating than selecting players who aren´t even eligible to play.

Those of you who think my strong feelings on the matter are because of the team involved couldn´t be more wrong. If the F.A. decided to dock City 18 points for employing an ineligible/incompetent/incapable manager then I´d be inclined to agree with that too!

Almost another perfect sporting weekend

So City and the Bulls both won, meaning it was down to Atlético to cap another good sporting weekend for me in the Madrid Derby.

We should have got the points, but we didn’t – at the start of proceedings I’d have been happy with a point in the Bernabeu but, given the way the game went, we really should have had all three.

I watched the game in a pub in Bradford, I got more than a few funny looks when I jumped up shouting “YES” when Mista gave us the lead after six minutes (everyone else in the place was watching the Premiership game on the screens, I was confined to a corner and a small TV without sound) and again in the last minute when Aguero missed a sitter which would have given us the win.

I went to the bar for a pint midway through the second half and was delighted when someone recognised my shirt (“That’s an Atlético Madrid shirt isn’t it?”), the reason for my delight was that since I’ve had it I’ve been accused of being a Paraguay and then Sunderland fan, so I was happy for the recognition.

Of course it probably had something to do with the fact that, by the time this took place, the game was on most of the screens in the pub and Atlético were running around in the very shirt I had on!!

Hopefully I’ll still be in Madrid for the return game in February, obviously I’m not a local, but I really got into the game this afternoon, though I’m sure City v Town next week will be a much more passionate affair!!

Fácil, fácil, fácil

Was it ever in any doubt? Atlético ended Sevilla’s unbeaten record with a 2-1 win tonight, meaning great results for all my teams this weekend, which has to be a first.

It’s the big one next week, the Madrid derby against Real, no doubt that’s when the good start to the season will all go tits-up but, that’s football.

Well, that was a good day

Wasn’t yesterday fun? It didn’t rain, Yorkshire did what they needed to do to stay up, City won away at Cheltenham and the Bulls trounced Salford in the play-offs.

To cap it all off I even had a nice curry and a very welcome few beers.

Now can Atlético beat Sevilla tonight and cap off a great weekend? I doubt it, but I can but hope.