| There
appears to be no competition this year, and we may as well give the prize to
Cañizares already and pack up shop. Another clean sheet against Racing
leaves him five points clear, as Molina lets in three and Leo Franco two. The
only hope for the other keepers is that Valencia now have to play Depor,
Barça and Real Madrid in consecutive matches, although with the cushion
he has even that shouldn't be too much of a problem. A better day for keepers,
maybe because they all returned from the holidays a little more portly after
all that food and therefore filled more of the goalmouth. Three other clean
sheets, for Mora, Nuno and Nacho González, who comes in to our chart for
the first time in place of Esteban, who got hit for three by the Barcelona
forwards. several of our leading 'porteros' were however left out of their
sides, with Ceballos injured and Lopetegui and Pinto losing their places,
temporarily at least, to Keller and Cavallero. A warm welcome too to the last
of the rockers, Argentina's Mono Burgos, who replaces the injured Roa in the
Mallorca squad. He will have difficulty displacing Leo Franco, especially as
the youngster has an EU passport and Mallorca have four non-EU players, but at
least he is back on the bench. Let the show begin! (07.01.01) |
