Intertoto: Gloria Bistrita 2 Atlético 1 (1st Leg)

Dear God, I honestly don’t know where to begin. 

Atleti conceded two goals in the first half as a result of defensive errors. The first goal, in the 7th  minute, was the fault of Luis Perea: poor marking and casual defending by the Colombian centre-back. The second goal was caused by a shambolic pass by– who else?– midfielder Peter Luccin. Why on God’s green earth haven’t the club sold Luccin? He’s absolute rubbish; wasteful on free kicks, sloppy passing, and picks up cards for unnecessary tackles. A complete liability, he is.

Furthermore, why on earth did manager Aguirre field Luccin and Maniche as central midfielders with Raul Garcia, a natural in that position, as a second striker behind Mista? While I realise it is his first official game with the club and he will need time to adjust, it makes absolutely no sense to play him out of position. Raul looked almost uncomfortable. I hope that in future games he is not played as a support striker– a role, in truth, that belongs to a player like Luis Garcia.

When the scoreline read Gloria 2 Atleti 0, I was literally speechless. Atleti had plenty of possession, but lacked ideas and concentration for significant portions of the game. I can only remember one clear chance at goal for Maxi and he was most unfortunate to have his effort saved by the Gloria Bistrita keeper.

What saddened me most is that the team looked exactly like they did last season: lacking ideas, lacking that extra bit of creativity. In essence, Atleti lack a true playmaker to create goal-scoring opportunities.  They also, at least to me, lacked hunger & desire and did not threaten at goal as much as they should have.

As the Spanish commentator said at the end of the first-half, los rojiblancos needed a ‘change of attitude’ more than anything else.

The highlight of the second half (and the entire game for that matter) was Seitaridis ‘golazo’ from a long distance.

Conclusion
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if Atleti expect to reach new heights this season, they must invest in a top-notch centre-back. I found myself biting my nails when the back-line were trying to clear dangerous balls from the area. Luis Perea and Leo Franco lacked communication– there were two instances where they nearly collided with each other to clear out a ball.

The front-line lacked bite and any real initiative with Mista as the main target-man (of course, the squad did lack two big signings, Forlan and Luis Garcia). Braulio did not shine at all.

Midfield, as I said previously, lacked a true playmaker. Maniche had a fairly decent game in comparison to others.

All in all, a completely disappointing result and performance, but at least Atleti managed to score one goal.

Hope springs eternal.

Gloria Bistrita: Albut; Frasinescu, Abrudan, Ragipovic (Damian, 72’), Sepsi; Rus Mircea, Nalati (Ion, 87’), Coroian (Caju, 59’), Dobre; Tilinca y Zaharia.

Atlético de Madrid: Leo Franco; Seitaridis, Perea, Eller, Antonio López; Luccin (Costinha, 75’), Maniche, Maxi, Petrov (Jurado, 57’); Raúl García y Mista (Braulio, 60’).

GOALS
1 Gloria Atleti 0 (7′)
2 Gloria Atleti 0 (38′)
2 Gloria Atleti 1 (54′) Seitaridis