The last few weeks have been a study in ugly for the Yellow Submarine. Ignoring the return-leg 3-0 win over Odense to reach the Champions League group stages, Villarreal have wallowed to a 5-0 disgrace against Barcelonain the Camp Nou, a decent 2-2 draw against Sevilla in El Madrigal, a poor 0-2 loss against Bayern Munich at home (a loss which might put Villarreal out of the running for the knockout rounds of the Champions League before the competition really gets going), and a simply embarrassing 1-0 loss against an Ikechukwu Uche-led Granada side that had been sitting at the bottom of the La Liga table before Villarreal came visiting. I have not been able to bring myself to look at the Primera table since the weekend. Ugly.
On Tuesday, Villarreal welcomes to El Madrigal a team that would love nothing more than to make the season feel downright execrable. Mallorca, who must feel at this point that Villarreal is the nemesis that will not die. At the conclusion of the 2009-2010 season, they thought they had secured a Europa League bid with an admirable 5th place finish, on the back of Borja Valero. Villarreal then participated in some degree (although surely not to the point of making a definitive difference) in knocking Mallorca out of Europe, due to the islanders’ financial considerations, and securing the Yellow’s own spot in the Europa League. We followed that up, to unintentionally spit in their eye as it were, by managing to pluck Borja Valero on loan from West Bromwich Albion, a man that Mallorca surely wanted to hold on to. And then, how do we follow up a year of outright spite coming from the island club? By taking their best player, Jonathan De Guzmán, of course. I am sure things are going to go swimmingly between President Roig and President Cladera tomorrow, assuming the two speak.
Villarreal has had a slight edge in head-to-head match ups over the last couple of years. Last year, Villarreal managed a strong 3-1 victory over Mallorca in El Madrigal, but only a 0-0 draw in the return leg. Altogther, Villarreal have managed 4 wins, 3 draws, and 1 loss against Mallorca since the 2007-2008 season began. Villarreal are desperately looking to continue that streak of form against their non-European competitors.
Read the rest of the preview at VillarrealUSA.com…