PinoyPS Fifa 11 League

This might be the best game of the knockout stages so far. Not taking away with Schalke’s victory but I felt that Valencia was the better side in this match. The Los Che dominated the match in terms of possession and shots on goal but one thing that they didn’t expect is that how a select few can easily change the flow of the game. These individuals are Germany no.1 Manuel Neuer, the hard working Mario Gavranovic and Jefferson Agustin “Little Dynamite” Farfan. Gavranovic caused problems to the Valencia defense the whole match resulting to a hard earned goal, that made the match 2-1, and 2 shots that hit the woodwork, more importantly, he was responsible in winning the free kick that led to Farfan’s equaliser. Manuel Neuer was at the top of his game that night, performing countless of saves time and time again, and he bailed Schalke’s shaky defensive partnership of Metzelder and Howedes with a point blank save from an Aduriz shot.  The man of the match was Jefferson Farfan, dubbed as “Little Dynamite!!” by me, was all over the pitch and was involved in all of Schalke’s goals (scoring 2). Little Dynamite was the spark that Schalke needed with his suicide runs into the box. Schalke’s goal chances the whole game were far and few but almost all were finished clinically.








Even though Shcalke won, the majority of the team was inconsistent. Raul was invisible the whole match, Joel Matip barely touched the ball and was responsible in being beaten by Topal that led to the Valencia goal. Another disappointment was the performance of the defensive pairing of Metzelder and Howedes, they looked uncomfortable working together and was punished by Aduriz the whole 90 mins.




Valencia on the other hand, played a great game but didn’t finish their chances.  The Los Che’s offense was causing problems to the Schalke’s defense with runs from the wing and some slick through passes. The only dissapointments are Pablo Hernandez and Guaita. Hernandez looked lost the whole game while Guaita was responsible for the first two goals of Schalke. A much better goalkeerper might have saved Farfan’s free kick and how he handled Kluge’s cross was pathetic as it led to the decisive 2nd goal of  Schalke.




Post match – If Schalke hopes to get past the next round, they better strengthen their midfield as it looked horrid tonight. They just can’t rely on few individuals to lead them to victory, the whole team must work. If they are able to solve this problem, I can easily see Schalke being able to reach the semis.