Levante Vs. Atletico Madrid: 2-0 Full Time, Atletico Turn In A Shocking Performance

Atletico Madrid have turned in a few poor performances this season in La Liga, but nowhere near the magnitude of tonight’s showing against Levante. The entire midfield was absent for the visitors and the superstar strikers, Diego Forlan and Sergio Aguero, completely checked out when Levante went up 2-0. With the way their teammates were playing, who could blame them? In fact, in the first half, Diego Forlan might have been the only player in an Atleti shirt worth of a rating better than five out of ten.

The first goal came only three minutes in off of a corner kick. Rubén Suárez hit a spectacular overhead cross towards a running Victoriano Nano, who was completely unmarked. All he had to do to score was tap the ball with his head. Levante were up 1-0, and Atleti had to change their strategy right away. A team whose most brilliant attacking football comes off the counter attack would now have to chase the game against a team perfectly willing to sit back with a lead.

Unsurprisingly, the midfield of Atletico Madrid struggled to create anything of substance. Paulo Assuncao was substituted off for Mario Suarez in the 31st minute, and it was unclear if it was a fitness or a tactical sub. Either way, it seemed as if it would be addition by subtraction. It was not, and Atletico didn’t play any better after that.

Felipe Caicedo added a clinching goal for Levante in the 59th minute, and it was off of a fantastic finish. The 22 year old striker now has four goals in La Liga and has got this guy thinking about what he might be able to do if Levante surrounded him with serious talent, or if he went to a different team.

Atleti tried to flip the script and get back into the game with a couple more substitutions, notably taking off defender Diego Godin for attacker Fran Merida, but it was all for nothing. Levante closed out the match and walk away with a deserved 2-0 win.

Atletico Madrid’s players and technical staff will have an extremely difficult time explaining this performance to the fans and press. I’m lacking words to accurately describe the way they played. I’m going to call up an old English professor of mine....

...Putrid. He said that the word I’m looking for to describe Atletico Madrid’s performance today is putrid. I think that sums it up nicely. Thanks, professor.