The talk of the week was that the win going to spark us out of the doldrums. Espanyol’s recent form has been piss-poor, losing away to Valladolid and Almeria, losing at home to Real Betis, and drawing at the Montjuic to Bilbao in the Copa Del Rey. They brought in Ewerthon from Vfc Stuttgart who was languishing on the bench in Germany (they said he lacked fittness), but he played so well last year at Real Zaragoza that I was optimistic that we could get through the loss of Raul Tamudo without too much of a blip. They didn’t really need Ewerthon all that much against Getafe, because Jonathan Soriano, straight from the cantera after loan spells at Poli Ejido and Almeria, scored the winning goal.
This week, Carlos Kameni was still in Ghana playing in the Africa Cup of Nations final against Egypt which saw the Indomitable Lions lose despite some remarkable saves by our much missed goalkeeper. He refuted reports that he wanted out at the end of the year, and was concentrating his efforts for club and country. Espanyol’s recent form is usually given to the injury crisis, but true fans know how important the Cameroonian is to the blanc-i-blau.
The opponents: Recreativo Huelva were coming into the match every bit the relegation victims. They had fired their coach Victor Munoz after losing to Sevilla, had lost 3 of 4 matches and were without some key starters for an away trip at the Montjuic.
Expectations: Well, I expected a better performance at least. Huelva got the expected new-coach-bump from Huelva native Manolo Zambrano and a two goal outpouring from ex-Liverpool cast-off Florent Sinama-Pongolle, helped on again by another dubious performance in goal by Real Madrid reject Kiko Casilla. Still, we should have played better. Again they came out flat against an inferior opponent, and at home I might add, Jonathan Soriano and Moises were lost after 20 minutes with head injuries after some rash challenges, and again Valverde was left to praise the opponent and also the League for being so competitive.
Ewerthon did score a late goal and the club did try their best for a late equalizer, but it wasn’t to be. Another loss like this leaves me wondering which club will show up on any given week. Hopefully this really does mark a turning point for Espanyol in the league.
