Atlético de Madrid Discussion

[Carnivore Chris]

She's been through nearly half of the Argentine national team her

[SirBalon]

21 minutes ago, The Rebel CRS said:

She's been through nearly half of the Argentine national team her

More like they've been through her! 

[Kowabunga]

On 16/8/2017 at 6:58 PM, SirBalon said:

By the way...  "Metropolitano" was the original name of the Vicente Calderón.  Wanda is the sponsor which can be ignored as that will probably change in the future (almost definitely).  But Metropolitano has a massive significance for Atlético Madrid fans.

Metropolitano was not the original name of the Vicente Calderón. Metropolitano was the name of the stadium where Atlético played  before Vicente Calderón, located roughly in the vicinity of the Metropolitano metro station (NW Madrid).

Fun fact: Now there is a Metropolitano metro station and a Estadio Metropolitano metro station

[SirBalon]

55 minutes ago, Kowabunga said:

Metropolitano was not the original name of the Vicente Calderón. Metropolitano was the name of the stadium where Atlético played  before Vicente Calderón, located roughly in the vicinity of the Metropolitano metro station (NW Madrid).

Fun fact: Now there is a Metropolitano metro station and a Estadio Metropolitano metro station

Sorry mate. I knew that the Metropolitano was where they once played. 

How are you with the name given?

I know you don't like the new club crest. 

[Kowabunga]

On 19/8/2017 at 3:53 PM, SirBalon said:

Sorry mate. I knew that the Metropolitano was where they once played. 

How are you with the name given?

I know you don't like the new club crest. 

I dunno. No strong opinion. Things considered, an ok outcome.

I have never fully endorsed the custom of giving people names to stadiums (and other items of microtoponymy, see Parque de Valdebebas->Parque Felipe VI) to begin with.

Was Peineta (folksy name actually given by "Madrilenians" but strongly disliked by Atlético fans with a complex because of this) a decent name? For me yes. Was it a possibility? not at all.

Was Estadio Olímpico a decent name? Except for the LOL, hell no. Was it a possibility? nope.

Do I like the addition of a brandname? No. Was it inevitable? Yes.

Was the addition of Metropolitano a nice touch? Yes.

What do I think of Wanda in particular? I do not think of Wanda Nara, nor in a fish called Wanda when I hear or read the name. What comes to my mind  is the monetization of football. That mind also irrationally accepts the chinese name better than a arabic one (while being the same in essence). The word itself has a decent cadence. 

All in all, it could have been much worse.

[True Blue]

They need Costa bad 

[Cicero]

9 minutes ago, True Blue said:

They need Costa bad 

Should leech them dry

[True Blue]

12 minutes ago, Cicero said:

Should leech them dry

70 mill easy

[SirBalon]

There is no way in hell Atleti will pay 70m for Costa. 

[Stan]

Atletico extend Simeone's contract

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41161373

Quote

 

Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone has signed a two-year contract extension with the Spanish club.

The 47-year-old Argentine, whose previous deal was due to expire at the end of the season, has committed to the club until June 2020.

He is the longest-serving current La Liga manager, having been appointed in 2011.

Also a former Atletico player, Simeone led the club to the Spanish league title in 2014.

His side finished Champions League runners-up twice - in 2014 and 2016, both times losing to city rivals Real Madrid - but also won the Europa League in 2012 and the Spanish Cup in 2013.

Atletico began this season with a 2-2 draw at newly promoted Girona, before thrashing Las Palmas 5-1. They next play away to Valencia on Saturday.

Simeone originally agreed a deal that ran until 2020 two years ago, in March 2015, but he and the club agreed to a two-year reductionin September 2016.

 

 

[Asura]

haha his case is kind of strange, he signed four year deal then had it cut short to two for whatever reasons and then re-signed again for two more years... 

[SirBalon]

A NEW ERA FOR ATLÉTICO DE MADRID

Wanda METROPOLITANO

 

Tonight on the 17th of September 2017, Atlético Madrid wrote a new chapter in the history of their football club.  They moved home from the Vicente Calderón to the new 70,000 seater stadium, The Wanda Metropolitano.

 

The King of Spain who is known to be an Atleti fan, Felipe VI attended the inauguration.  These are aficionado videos released of the event.

 

 

[SirBalon]

Diego Simeone: "It was unique, I will remember the moment all of my life!"

 

In Diego Siemone's post-match press conference after beating Málaga CF by 1-0 at the first ever game in the Atlético Madrid's new stadium, Wanda Metropolitano, he said this:

"The truth is that when we came out in the arena, it was tremendous.  I've never seen anything like it in my life and the memory will remain with me forever.  It was unique, the flags waving, the fireworks, the music, the fans.  It must've been spectacular for those watching on tv."

"Griezmann is now like Luis Aragonés, the weight in years to come will be visible."

[Carnivore Chris]

 

 

And now this one:-

 

 

I think it's quite clear here who Atletico fans do like and don't

[SirBalon]

4 hours ago, The Rebel CRS said:

 

 

And now this one:-

 

 

I think it's quite clear here who Atletico fans do like and don't

I was watching a piece on Fernando Torres being interviewed outside the new Atlético Madrid stadium by José Ramón de la Morena where he commented on those steel legends plates en-route to the stadium.  The Atleti fans are very vocal and I can see them putting their own comment on those as time goes by! 

[SirBalon]

A stadium called Wanda: Opening night at Atlético Madrid's new home

The Metropolitano isn't the Vicente Calderón, the nostalgia lingers, and there is maybe even a sense of loss.  But wow, it's certainly impressive

 

There was a glint in Diego Simeone’s eye as he pointed at his chest, mouthed “me” and turned. Right-footed, he struck the ball into the back of the net, not far from the near post. It was Friday evening north east of the capital, the final rehearsal before their grand opening night and one big question had been resolved already. Well, sort of. Some 68,000 seats sat empty, yet to be broken in, and the tap-tap of training was the only sound still, real noise put on hold for 24 hours, but the first goal at Atlético Madrid’s new home had been scored by the captain of their double-winning side and manager of the team moving in.

“The most important thing is the three points,” Simeone said soon after, but that grin underlined that he knew better than anyone that really wasn’t true. “You try to focus on work but it’s not easy: we’re all human,” he admitted the following night. “When you get to the stadium, however much you tell yourself ‘don’t look, don’t feel, don’t watch, don’t gaze around’, you do it.” Everyone did – from the moment they arrived on Saturday morning. This, wrote Atlético-supporting Patricia Cazón, “was one of those days that’s historic just because the sun comes up.” After 50 years at the Vicente Calderón, Atlético had a new stadium. “Your dream home,” Marca called it.

They were excited for sure, although the fear it wouldn’t be a home at all was as inescapable as it was natural. Twelve years after the idea was first proposed, Atlético were heading to the Wanda Metropolitano, a stadium their president Enrique Cerezo called “the best in Europe”. There was much to cheer and, almost finished at last, he was cheering all right: about the escalators in the new metro station alongside, the acoustics, the architecture, the colour, the comfort: “The seats, please! They’re lovely for people of great weight!” A huge concrete bowl near Barajas airport, with a waved roof and red seats, a little like Wembley, the Emirates or San Mamés, Cerezo insisted: “On the outside it’s pretty, on the inside it’s the business.”

It is also, he hopes, going to be the scene of the 2019 Champions League final. Which could, for those of a mischievous mind, prove the most classically atlético thing of all: you build a stadium, take a decade doing it, missing deadlines along the way, spend €310m, ask for a Champions League final, get it, get there, and then lose. To Real Madrid. But, some asked, would it be truly Atlético? Could it be? The Calderón was crumbling, a mess, and 13,000 seats smaller, but it suited somehow and they would miss it. There was something loveable about that place, raucous and rough, something theirs, the area around it Atlético territory. Now here they are, right over the other side of the city, on an exposed plot of no man’s land 20km from home, in a stadium called Wanda.

Not just Wanda, though. Atlético’s Chinese shareholders and investors provided half of the title; its history provided the other half. The Wanda Metropolitano is named after the stadium Atlético had before they moved to the Calderón in 1966. Aware of the sense of rootlessness the move could provoke, there has been a conscious attempt to embrace their history, to create continuity and recreate community. To make it fun, too. And fans have responded: 13,000 extra seats has not meant empty seats. Season-ticket sales have increased and the opening games have sold out.

 

The desire to celebrate what they had and also what they will have was clear on Saturday’s opening day, from the moment they got off the metro, decorated with images from the club’s history and their former homes at the Retiro, the Metropolitano and the Calderón. It was clear too in the fight to keep their best players this summer: offers came for a dozen footballers, but none were accepted and players were renewed instead. It came at a cost, and a big one, but it was important. It’s no good moving into a new home and not taking everyone with you. Improve the stadium and weaken the team doesn’t work. Still less in the debut season, where there is anxiety as well as anticipation.

Apart from the sense of being uprooted, there are concerns over the practicalities and the economic impact. What was originally presented as effectively a ‘free’ stadium, Atlético taking and rebuilding the arena earmarked for three failed Olympic bids in return for their old place, has in fact cost them €170m plus the €140m value of the Calderón site. Costs have grown since it started in 2008; they needed a loan in 2016 to keep going. And keeping the players has increased the demands on them to the extent that Champions League qualification is not an objective, it’s an obligation. But Cerezo says it will be paid for in seven or eight years, and that it is a necessary step into a new era.

Before the roof was placed and redesigned from an olympic arena by 85%

With to roof put in place.  Only 15% of the olympic arena was kept which was mainly the foundations

 

It was a big step, and an uncertain one. The stadium is still unfinished – inside and out cables hang unconnected, painting is not yet done, trees are unplanted, taped-up print-outs act as signs, and dust from the building work lingers, while the access from the M40 motorway that borders it to one side have not been built. But on Saturday, the Wanda was ready at last. Car parks were full – although at €300, season tickets there cost almost as much as they do in the stands, and most come by metro. The travel chaos feared did not happen, not least because fans arrived early, encouraged to do so by opening-day activities. There were bouncy castles and fan zones, music and two happy hours.

And so, Saturday comes.

On the concourse outside the stadium there are metallic plaques dedicated to every player who has made 100 appearances for the club. Fans seek out Luis Aragonés, and Simeone, Fernando Torres, Garate, Kiko. They seek out defector Hugo Sánchez too, scuffing at it and putting stickers over the top. Players’ pictures run along walls. Red and white, the biggest flag in Spain flies outside. It is not an especially pretty stadium outside, but the doors open at 7pm, an hour and 45 minutes before kick-off, and the inside impacts. It is genuinely spectacular: huge, high and steep. The King is in the directors’ box. The radios are in early and they’re getting emotional. There is an homage to their former homes pre-game. The play-list in the arena is the same as was at the Calderón: 80s rock, mostly. Thunderstruck booms out.

Down in the tunnel, players head out to warm up. On the walls are the slogans that have been covered until the morning:

"It’s not just a league title. What these lads transmit to you is something much more important than that: if you believe and you work, you can do it” – Diego Pablo Simeone.

"You are Atlético Madrid and there are 50,000 people out there who will die for you. For them, for the shirt, for your pride, you have to go out there and express on the field that there is only one champion and he’s in red and white” – Luis Aragonés.

 

When they go out, there is a roar. When they return for the game, the anthem is played. It is the same anthem as ever, with the same opening line: “I’m going to Manzanares”, and, although they’re not going there any more, the fans belt it out. They’re almost ready. The match ball has been brought in by parachute. An Atlético flag follows, as does the Spain flag. There is a minute’s applause for the club member No1, a socio since 1933, who sadly didn’t make it. The honorary kick off – kept a secret – is performed by Garate, Torres and a youth teamer called Hugo. Past, present and future. “I’ll never forget it: it’s an honour to be with José Eulogio and a kid who we hope has a great future,” Torres says. He’s not a starter but eight Atlético youth-team products are, three of them for Málaga. And then the game begins.

It’s not always great: however impressive the stadium, however historic the day, it’s still Atlético versus Málaga in week four. On the eve of the game, Saúl had said: “I hope it’s a canterano who scores the first goal. It almost happens – just not the way they hoped. The first goal-kick is for Roberto, the first foul from Koke, and the first shot from Saúl, while the first shot on target is from Málaga’s Borja Bastón. All of them are Atlético canteranos, youth-team products. But Atlético don’t have a shot on target until the 44th minute and an hour in, it’s still 0-0. Not much is happening. “New stadium, same football,” El País writes the next day. “Leaden,” they call it, and it is a bit – certainly until Yannick Carrasco comes on.

“We didn’t go to watch the football, we went to see the stadium,” Juan Tallón writes, but while the communion may not (yet) be complete, they still depend on each other.

The noise drops, there’s a lull. A few of them, in fact. For all the legend, and for all that it is real, there were lulls at the Calderón too, times when it went quiet there as it does here. At the new place, the songs from one end don’t always catch on at the other. The noise doesn’t always reach them, some say after; it’s not so easy to sing along when you can’t make out the song. Maybe it’s not just the players; maybe the fans are looking around a bit too, taking it all in, not yet let loose, not yet at ease, as if trying to keep it pristine, tip-toeing about. It feels almost like a European final, like they’re visitors, although that sensation will surely subside. Perhaps there’s a little of the modern stadium thing, too: big, broad passageways, ample aisles, space between seats, a little too comfortable? Boundaries are not yet broken down, nor communities created. They miss the Calderón. It may take time; they may need to live in it a little longer.

That’s when they see Torres by the touchline, ready. It is hard to do justice to just how much of an icon the Kid is for Atlético, and this seems set up, the perfect story. Simeone aside, if anyone should score the first goal here, just as Aragonés scored the first at the Calderón in 1966, it is him. But he is standing there waiting when Ángel Correa escapes and lays it to Antoine Griezmann to get the goal. The Wanda Metropolitano erupts for the first time, and Torres returns to the bench. The moment is Griezmann’s: the man who was about to leave but said it would be “dirty” to do so, scores. “It’s not just any goal, that’s for sure,” he says afterwards. Griezmann has played at the Stade de France, San Siro, the Camp Nou and the Bernabéu, Ipurua too. “This is the best stadium I have ever played in, and I don’t just say that because it’s mine,” he insists.

 

“Luis Aragonés was a crack and Antoine is a crack,” Simeone says later. It is the first goal at the Wanda. It is also the last of the Wanda’s opening night. Victory is secured, which is a little unlike Atlético, and which is not reflected on the three giant scoreboards – they stop working soon after. At the end, gravelly-voiced folk singer Joaquín Sabina’s Atlético anthem is played, lauding: “What a way to suffer! What a way to win! What a way to lose!” It’s the same album they couldn’t play on their centenary, the night they were supposed to, because of a problem with the rights. The players go on a lap of honour, and fireworks race into the sky, round and round the roof. The stadium rocks.

Fans head out, happy. Cautiously optimistic. It’s not the Calderón and the nostalgia lingers, maybe even a sense of loss, but, wow, it’s certainly impressive. The first night has mostly been good and others will, they hope, be better. Down the stairs, through the press room, which is not yet finished and has suffered a minor flood in one corner, Simeone appears. “Since I have been a player and a coach I have never seen anything like it. This memory will stay with me my whole life; it was emotional,” he says.

“Fans will never lose the memories, the nostalgia, the love they had for Metropolitano before and the Calderón after and they’ll fall in love with the [new] Metropolitano as well because what really makes fans fall in love is the shirt.”

Atlético Madrid fan Andrés Cabrera created this video of his experience on the opening day of the Wanda Metropolitano against Málaga CF

 

[SirBalon]

UEFA say no to the 2019 Champions League Final: Too many seats for fans!

 

UEFA have eliminated Atlético Madrid's new state of the art stadium, the Wanda Metropolitano as the venue for the 2019 Champions League Final.

The reason?

Not enough seats for corporative and VIP attendees...  In other words, Atlético Madrid who promised their fans that most of the new stadium would be dedicated to football fans has been punished.  Funnily enough the Wanda Metropolitano has dedicated 7,000 of their almost 70,000 capacity to corporate and VIPs and is more than 80% of European stadiums have done.  Atlético Madrid's Wanda Metropolitano has actually met the capacity shared rules UEFA put forward two years ago, but it seems that because they haven't exceeded this, they will look elsewhere for now.

THIS IS THE NEW FACE OF FOOTBALL!!!

[Danny]

It does look class, I'd love to go to it. I'm not sure how good the atmosphere would be but with the distance the stands are from the pitch, I imagine the roof goes a long way to keeping the noise in.

Love that they've managed to put a grand stand sort of thing in there and not a complete bowl.

[SirBalon]

7 hours ago, Danny said:

It does look class, I'd love to go to it. I'm not sure how good the atmosphere would be but with the distance the stands are from the pitch, I imagine the roof goes a long way to keeping the noise in.

Love that they've managed to put a grand stand sort of thing in there and not a complete bowl.

Yeah, the stadium looks really impressive to be honest.  It will take a lot to enamour the hearts of the Atleti fans though, but from the majority I'm hearing that they really love it.  Even a couple of melancholic Atleti fans I know that haven't liked the change of the crest and then the change of home are saying that the new place is incredible.

I went various times to the Vicente Calderón, but I'm now dying to to go the Metropolitano.

[Carnivore Chris]

When it's full of fans it looks great compared to what it did on the pictures when empty. It's one of the bigger club stadiums in Europe now  as well and the noise levels you got from the Calderon don't seem as though they will be affected.

[Kowabunga]

16 hours ago, SirBalon said:

UEFA have eliminated Atlético Madrid's new state of the art stadium, the Wanda Metropolitano as the venue for the 2019 Champions League Final.

THIS IS THE NEW FACE OF FOOTBALL!!!

Karma is a bitch, right? As Atlético had the Azerbaijan Land of Fire kit sponsor for a while this seems eerily fitting.

Make Atleti Great Again and get MARBELLA back!!!! 

[Stan]

On 19/09/2017 at 9:18 AM, SirBalon said:

UEFA say no to the 2019 Champions League Final: Too many seats for fans!

 

UEFA have eliminated Atlético Madrid's new state of the art stadium, the Wanda Metropolitano as the venue for the 2019 Champions League Final.

The reason?

Not enough seats for corporative and VIP attendees...  In other words, Atlético Madrid who promised their fans that most of the new stadium would be dedicated to football fans has been punished.  Funnily enough the Wanda Metropolitano has dedicated 7,000 of their almost 70,000 capacity to corporate and VIPs and is more than 80% of European stadiums have done.  Atlético Madrid's Wanda Metropolitano has actually met the capacity shared rules UEFA put forward two years ago, but it seems that because they haven't exceeded this, they will look elsewhere for now.

THIS IS THE NEW FACE OF FOOTBALL!!!

THE NEWER FACE OF FOOTBALL!!

They're hosting the 2019 final now  

https://gianlucadimarzio.com/it/champions-league-la-finale-2019-al-wanda-metropolitano

 

[SirBalon]

44 minutes ago, Stan said:

THE NEWER FACE OF FOOTBALL!!

They're hosting the 2019 final now  

https://gianlucadimarzio.com/it/champions-league-la-finale-2019-al-wanda-metropolitano

 

As it should be!  As far as I'm concerned there's no better stadium right now to put on a wonderful football show like the Wanda Metropolitano.   The news I got was from L'Équipe which was also echoed by all four of Spain's major sports newspapers.  Happy Atleti have got it! 

[Carnivore Chris]

Looks like the whole saga with Diego Costa(which has dragged on) will finally be coming to conclusion then. They say the deal is worth £57.2 million.

Atletico with Diego Costa and Vitolo in their squad in January will look very strong indeed. Not just a strong starting 11, but Diego Simeone's strongest squad ever. Correa looks brilliant lately

As long as they can keep winning(and get through their Champions league group) then I see them as being ones of the favourites again in this Champions league. It's all about them either avoiding Real Madrid, or overcoming their terrible record against them in Europe. It's the only real thing in their way, but when you look at their team, there aren't really any weaknesses now.

Vitolo for the past few seasons was the best Spanish player in La Liga, Diego Costa is proven and suited to Atletico, Correa's finally showing what all his potential is about, Thomas Parley is becoming more important, they still have Griezmann, Oblak is in best keeper in the world type of form, their defence still looks solid enough and Koke and Saul are players who would walk into pretty much any team.

 

 

[SirBalon]

39 minutes ago, The Rebel CRS said:

Looks like the whole saga with Diego Costa(which has dragged on) will finally be coming to conclusion then. They say the deal is worth £57.2 million.

Atletico with Diego Costa and Vitolo in their squad in January will look very strong indeed. Not just a strong starting 11, but Diego Simeone's strongest squad ever. Correa looks brilliant lately

As long as they can keep winning(and get through their Champions league group) then I see them as being ones of the favourites again in this Champions league. It's all about them either avoiding Real Madrid, or overcoming their terrible record against them in Europe. It's the only real thing in their way, but when you look at their team, there aren't really any weaknesses now.

Vitolo for the past few seasons was the best Spanish player in La Liga, Diego Costa is proven and suited to Atletico, Correa's finally showing what all his potential is about, Thomas Parley is becoming more important, they still have Griezmann, Oblak is in best keeper in the world type of form, their defence still looks solid enough and Koke and Saul are players who would walk into pretty much any team.

 

 

Yeah, that's the story coming from Spain on Diego Costa.

He's made for the way Atlético Madrid play and he will only make Atleti stronger on options.  They're not all that far away from being an authentic elite club in my opinion.