Unfortunately there’s no official word as far as I can see from the club itself, but many media outlets including the not-so-credible Goal.com are reporting that Getafe has been or will be imminently purchased by the Dubai firm Royal Emirates Group. There have been reports of an unspecified Spanish club being bought out by someone from Dubai for quite a while, and initially Real Zaragoza was the one linked to a takeover, but it seems that a spokesperson for the group has been quoted as having identified Getafe as the target of their bid. The extent to which these reports are entirely factual remains unclear at the moment, but for a club that has been struggling to both fill its stadium every week and find adequate replacements for players sold off each summer, this move could bring many positive effects. Perhaps for once Getafe will be able to actually carve out a permanent place for itself near the top of the table, instead of the inconsistency we’ve seen over the past few seasons. That is not to say that such a takeover does not entail some negative aspects, as many fans of other bigger clubs are aware. It’s unclear at this point how much difference this will make in the amount of transfer funding and other financial effects this will have, but Getafe is particularly well-known among smaller La Liga clubs for our open, short passing-based, quintessentially Spanish style of play, and it would certainly be a shame for that to change were there a huge influx of new players. Another potential issue is the naming of the club- reports suggest that if the purchase was carried out, Getafe would be renamed to “Getafe Team Dubai”, which while the slightest bit catchy certainly doesn’t have as much of a ring to it as “Burger King Boys”. Lastly, I’d like to congratulate Real Madrid fans and the hard-working members of the Real Madrid Offside in particular for their triumph in the Copa del Rey, and wish Paul of the Bilbao Offside good luck in his deployment with the U.S. Navy (?). That’s all for now folks. [EDIT: the reports have now been confirmed by several better sources, and as you can see  we have pictures, so the only thing that remains is seeing whether the name change will be approved by the La Liga governing body.]

Here’s a video (in Spanish) that seems relevant, but I have no idea what it actually means:

-Macca

Stats for both matches shamelessly stolen from ESPNSoccernet.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot to say about either of these matches, but after a pretty demoralizing losing streak, we’ve at least gotten points from our last two matches (although we really should have done better to protect the two-goal lead against Malaga). Perhaps we will hit good form in the upcoming matches. Other than that, there are two things to be taken out of the last few matches:

1. At the moment, we are definitely not a second half team. Both games that I held live blogs for ended with an embarrassing second-half rout, and we let two easy points slip through our fingers last weekend.

2. We are exceptionally good at conceding penalties, for whatever that’s worth.

Obviously the winter transfer also closed a couple weeks ago, and there were no new arrivals or departures to discuss, which while slightly disappointing is to be expected. Hopefully we can strengthen the defense over the summer then. Anyway, here’s the La Liga table (again stolen from the same source):

As you can see, we actually sit at a respectable seventh place currently. The catch is that the only thing separating us from tenth place is goal differential (and ours isn’t even that great). We’re six points away from a Europa League spot, which is definitely attainable if we hit a hot streak- in fact, for optimism’s sake, we still probably have a good chance of finishing as high as fifth. Another thing that one might notice is that our away record is pretty underwhelming, and that is certainly consistent with our apparent lack of mental fortitude as evidenced by our tendency to fall apart completely after conceding. That’s about it for this one though; like I said, keep an eye out for a live blog and more activity on the blog in general!

-Macca

-Macca

Anyway, one would think that this match would provide a great opportunity to restore morale to the squad, which must be in short supply in light of recent events. It’s hard to see us bouncing back into form anytime soon if we earn yet another defeat Sunday, but it’s not as if this match is a must-win, per say. A draw against such a highly placed team would probably be good enough for most intents and purposes, but I think if we enter the match with the right mentality, Espanyol is the kind of team we can win against. The teams that we have the most difficulty against seem to be the ones that are content to sit back and defend and launch the occasional lethal counterattack. Indeed, that is largely what happened in our latest defeat, as for all our possession, in terms of actual effectiveness within the penalty box, we were impotent in comparison to our opponents. I keep repeating the word “impotent”, but it’s honestly the best word I can think of to describe that performance. Back to the upcoming match, Arizmendi and Gavilan look set to miss the game due to their respective injuries, but I would hope that we could get by without them. Arizmendi really hasn’t had the effect we might have expected so far this season, and we have plenty of options in midfield to cover for Gavilan. I think I’ll be optimistic and predict a 2-2 draw.

Lastly, I’ve been talking with some of our friends over at the Real Madrid Offside and I’m going to try hosting a liveblog for the game, which by the way kicks off at 11am EST tomorrow (Sunday). I’ve never done this before, so I apologize if it falls through, but I think it would be a great way to encourage more activity on the blog, and the live blogs hosted by the Real Madrid and Barcelona offsides are always great fun. Hopefully I’ll have an update on the live blog situation later today, but until then that’s all I have for you.

-Macca

[EDIT: I was able to register successfully on CoverItLive, and I held a brief test live blog and tested out all the features. It looks like we're set to have the live blog tomorrow, so remember to come by and participate. I will have the post containing the live blog up soon, but it won't go live until about fifteen or twenty minutes before the match begins.]

As I said in my previous post, which you can find here, I’m going to be trying something new for this game; I’ll be watching the game live and taking notes, and at halftime and full time I’ll publish them.

Unfortunately this is the only stream I could find (GolTV seems to be showing a different game- bastards), and it’s choppy as hell, but I guess it’s better than nothing.

Our starting lineup consisted of Adrian Colunga up front, with Gavilan, Manu, and Victor Sanchez supporting him. Dani Parejo and Derek Boateng played deeper in midfield, and the defense was from left to right Mane, Rafa, Cata Diaz and Miguel Torres, with Codina in goal.

The game started off very energetically, with end to end attacking in the first five minutes. Both sides looked threatening, but we conceded a penalty only nine minutes in after Miguel Torres clearly handled the ball after Codina parried a cross. The goalkeeper had no chance on the penalty, which was buried by Xabi Prieto.

The pace of the game slowed down immediately following the first goal, but Getafe tried to respond, doing well to attack and regain possession. A suspicious incident occurred in the 16th minute in which a cross blocked by a Recreativo player’s arm, but the referee doesn’t blow the whistle, and all we got was a corner kick. Boateng did well to control the midfield, and we threatened on the counter after successfully defending a corner in the 24th minute.

That said, Sociedad had their share of possession and attacks, but neither shot has been able to put many shots on goal yet. Cata diaz picked up a yellow with a stupid cynical foul on Llorente while he was breaking away, but he looked to be running toward the corner flag anyway. Socieded has blocked almost all the crosses put into the box by the Getafe midfielders.

Disaster strikes. Promising young French player Antoine Griezmann scores from the back post on a great volley. Unfortunately Getafe down by two goals now, but the scoreline doesn’t represent the flow of the match. Michel only shook his head.

The match has turned pretty ugly for Getafe, but five minutes until halftime to try to score. Manu earned a free kick right outside the area, which looked to be a good crossing position, but Parejo shot over the bar. Getafe continued to attack desperately, as going into the dressing room two goals down is something no team wants to do. In the final minutes of the first half, Mane made a great run forward, and produced a threatening-looking shot that just fizzed over the bar.

There was only one minute of added time that expired quickly, and the referee blew the whistle to end the first half. Despite leading in possession, Getafe find themselves down two goals. The second half looks to be challenging for los Azulones. One can’t help but wonder if the game is already over, and there’s nothing I hate more than shooting oneself in the foot by conceding an early penalty. If I recall correctly, this isn’t the first time we’ve done this either.

First Half Statistics:

Getafe                  Real Sociedad

HALFTIME SCORE: Getafe 0-2 Real Sociedad

Getafe started off the second half with the same attacking mentality, limiting Sociedad to counter attacks and forcing their goalkeeper to produce a number of good saves. Despite los Azulones’ offensive tactics, the second half has been much slower, and the home crowd has been subdued.

The best chance so far for Getafe was a close range effort that went straight to the goalkeeper and in the 57th minute, Parejo put yet another free kick way high, about summing up how our offense has been today.

Once again, we have put a fine passing performance in to be let down by our shooting and defending. We have consistently played well this season in term of possession, but our scoring form has been patchy at best. It looks like after going on the seven game undefeated streak we’re back in a pattern of unfavorable results. If the admittedly suspect rumors are to be believed, Roque Santa Cruz might help in the scoring department.

With less than twenty minutes left in the match, there’s not much to discuss, except that Real Sociedad is actually starting to break forward a bit more, which is really the last thing we want to see. Throughout the contest, Sociedad has defended our crosses and set pieces, and for all our possession we seem to lack that cutting edge today. Boateng seems to have fallen into the shadows during the second half, but that’s not to say that our other players are outperforming him. Our shots today have for the most part either lacked the necessary rigor to make it past a goalkeeper or missed the goal entirely.

Eightieth minute and mostly whistles coming from the crowd at this point. The final nail in the coffin as Sociedad breaks away in the 87th minute and Mikel Gonzalez  sinks a low shot from the top of the box. Once again, probably against the run of play, but for all our passing we’ve been downright ineffective and impotent.

Just two minutes later and Sociedad have yet another. A back post half-volley from Aranburu. About sums up this nightmare for Getafe. The stadium has emptied and the last few minutes will be played with almost no fans watching. Finally the ref blows the whistle to end this debacle. What a torrid scoreline and discouraging performance by los Azulones. Michel has to be very disappointed, and I’m sure the fans will be too.

FINAL SCORE: Getafe 0 – Real Sociedad 4

Well, that’s it. I hope you enjoyed the coverage, even if the watching the game was about as fun as going to the dentist, because I certainly wasn’t looking forward to having to blog for the second half. I’d appreciate feedback on whether you’d like me to do something similar for future games, or if you’d like me to just stick with traditional preview and review. Anyway, until next time!

-Macca

-Macca