7 July 2003
Well, there’s been no rain in Spain today, despite the weather forecasts. The clouds are gone off to the horizon and it’s an absolutely perfect evening for football here at the Riazor with this intriguing match-up between Deportivo and Juventus. I’ll give you the teams in a moment, but the whistle’s gone and the hosts have just kicked off, playing from left to right in striped blue and white shirts, blue shorts, and blue socks. Juventus in their traditional black and white shirts, black shorts, and black socks, sitting back early on.
The ball’s with Víctor now on the near side, ten yards or so inside the Juventus half. He’s closed down by Iuliano and Nedved and it’s played it inside to Valerón. Valerón, intense and in space, out to Fran, the captain, on the Deportivo left. He really has been a great servant for this club and he cuts inside now, then outside, Thuram left for dead there, Tacchinardi’s trying to close down but the cross is sent into the middle. Too high for Tristán, knocked down at the far post and it’s a goal for Valerón! What a fabulous, fabulous goal. Víctor rose well at the far post and nodded it down to Valerón, but he still had a lot of work to do. The ball was dropping behind him, but he somehow got his foot to it and lashed a volley into the bottom corner. Great skill by Fran on the left to create the crossing opportunity as well. Wonderful move, wonderful finish, and well, that’s not what Juventus were after, is it Jim?
No, I’d imagine Lippi will be fuming about that one. Juventus were just a little bit slow starting and they’ve been punished for it. We thought they were going to sit back and try to soak up the pressure but that goal’s thrown all that out of the window. They never really picked up Valerón after he gave the initial pass out to Fran and he’s punished them for it.
As an aside, in real life Valerón is an intense, brooding chap whose speed of passing and thought makes him the fulcrum of a fluid Deportivo La Coruña side. Obviously this is a bit trickier to implement into a video game, although Konami have given him the ‘game maker’ star, so he’s basically a good — but cookie-cutter — attacking midfielder in WE6FE . That this incredibly football nerdly point is one of my major problems with the game speaks volumes about its quality.