Roberto Ayala | 2000-2002

[Uzair]

Name: Roberto Fabián Ayala

Nickname: "Ratón" ("Mouse")

Club: Valencia CF



INFO:

Roberto Fabián Ayala nicknamed El Ratón is an Argentine footballer. Regarded as one of the best central defenders of his generation, he has been captain of the Argentine national team for more matches than anyone else. He has captained 63 matches and has played in three World Cups. Ayala made 115 international appearances, only Javier Zanetti having more caps for Argentina.

During his 7 years at Valencia CF, he helped them reach one UEFA Champions League final in 2001. However his team lost to Bayern Munich in a penalty shoot-out after a 1-1 draw. In the latter of which he was voted the Best Defender of the 2001 UEFA Champions League season. The next year, Valencia won the 2001-02 Spanish La Liga. In 2003-04, Valencia again won the Spanish La Liga and added the UEFA Cup.

In 2004-05 injuries kept Ayala from much of the La Liga campaign and he missed the UEFA Super Cup 2004 victory over Porto.

During his time with Valencia, he was widely regarded as one of the finest central defenders in the world, and with Valencia is where he would spend the majority of his peak playing career.


VIDEOS:




ADDITIONAL LINKS:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Ayala

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Ayala

http://www.123football.com/players/a/ro ... /index.htm

[Luisao82]

On his prime, he was one of my favorite CB's. Great and very tough defender.

Was UEFA's Best Defender in 2000/01.

[jeanclaude]

Name: Roberto Ayala



Number: 2
Position: ★ CB
Nationality: Argentine
Age: 33

Foot: R
Side: B

Length: 177
Weight: 73

Attack: 65
Defence: 92
Balance: 82
Stamina: 78
Top Speed: 77
Acceleration: 76
Response: 83
Agility: 77
Dribble Accuracy: 72
Dribble Speed: 71
Short Pass Accuracy: 76
Short Pass Speed: 77
Long Pass Accuracy: 76
Long Pass Speed: 80
Shot Accuracy: 62
Shot Power: 78
Shot Technique: 68
Free Kick Accuracy: 56
Curling: 56
Header: 85
Jump: 95
Technique: 75
Aggression: 58
Mentality: 90
Keeper Skills: 50
Team Work: 85

Injury Tolerance: B
Condition/Fitness: 5
Weak Foot Accuracy: 5
Weak Foot Frequency: 4

S07 - Man Marking
S10 - DF Leader

[zguc]

His RES can go for 1-2 points, but his JUMP certainly should be higher 96-97

[jeanclaude]

yes dear Zguc,Ayala have a monster jump...

[Uzair]

i remember giving him 97 for jump when i first made him so i'll agree to an increase.
and yeh i could agree to response coming up to 89

[Luisao82]

I'm inclined to agree with the RESP raise.

[jeanclaude]

yea yea guys,thanx for the collaboration it's time to update?!

[Uzair]

i'll update this shit

[Luisao82]

Now that's more like it.

[Plava Čigra]

I don't want to be a party pooper but do you really think that Ayala had better Jump then Tim Cahill who sits on 96 (Height: 175 cm)? Also, I really can't see Ayala on the same level as younger Pelé (Height: 173 cm). Alchomicide, Rubedo and myself had this discussion while we created Pelé's stats and all 3 of us agreed that Jump: 98 (original value was 98 if I remember correctly) was too much for Ayala. Also, I've discussed this with Brezza via pm and he also agreed that Ayala shouldn't have more then 95 (most of these discussions happened 6 or more months ago). After some time I forgot to lower this value and give explanation, so I assume Brezza thought of it and updated Jump.

[Fixer]

Ayala jumped higher than Cahill for sure. I think 97 is a more than fair value to Ayala...I remember when he was on his prime...holy shit that wasn't normal. Even last year on Zaragoza he could jump higher than anybody could even imagine.

[jeanclaude]

dear PLAVA CIGRA,i understand and i respect your point of you. I put Ayala just a little bit under Passarella in JUMP,but i'm unable to decide about the real value: IMO 95 as minimum,not lower than 95. ...But i'm interested to know what is your opinion about my suggestion on RES: it's good to increase from 87 to 89? IMO this is basic,maybe 90/91 it's not an exageration... in 2001 he was elected best defender in the world...2 CL finals !!!

[Plava Čigra]

I'm ok with Response update (87-->89), but I think that 90-91 would be too much. Ayala relied mostly on his defensive positioning. Besides, 89 is a world-class value, Imo (Vidić is on 89, Terry's on 87, for example).

***

Ayala jumped higher than Cahill for sure. I think 97 is a more than fair value to Ayala...I remember when he was on his prime...holy shit that wasn't normal. Even last year on Zaragoza he could jump higher than anybody could even imagine.

No disrespect towards you, but I disagree. I've been following major football leagues regularly for the last 10 years or so, and I really haven't seen a guy with such jump as Tim Cahill's (talking about players that played during the past 10 years). Off course, I don't claim to remember each detail of every player but I have watched Ayala during his prime and I personally think people tend to overrate him sometimes.

P.S. I must ask, is your profile age correct (because if it is, it's hard for me to believe you can evaluate him correctly, if you've watched him when you were 8-10 years old)? I'm asking this only because from your post I've understood you've watched his games during his prime, 2000-2002. Personally, I've watched him when I was 14 years old, and I still had to re-watch 2-3 of his games from that Era to refresh my memory.

[Fixer]

P.S. I must ask, is your profile age correct (because if it is, it's hard for me to believe you can evaluate him correctly, if you've watched him when you were 8-10 years old)? I'm asking this only because from your post I've understood you've watched his games during his prime, 2000-2002. Personally, I've watched him when I was 14 years old, and I still had to re-watch 2-3 of his games from that Era to refresh my memory.

Yes, I've seen him and I can actually remember It quite well. My grandpa was a huge Valencia fan and we used to watch matches together and Ayala was my favourite player due to his toughness and his charisma (at least to me)
I think that anyway, with that age, you can pretty much remember how fast you saw Ronaldo run or how hard Roberto Carlos could hit the ball to make a non suicidal / random evaluation. At least I think so

[BigStu]

as his current topic is locked its best to post it here

[Fixer]

Yep. What a shame he kept playing for these last two or three years. I prefer to remember him as he was back then at Valencia. It was kinda pitiful to see him play for Zaragoza and I bet for Racing too..I hope I'm wrong.

[jurgens]

This is a pretty good classic set, pretty accurate. I'd make some minimal changes in balance and possibly jump, probably just -1 each.. but I'm not sure. Thoughts? Teamwork could come down a few points too.

[jupes]

Excellent set, bar the balance stat. It should be an orange value at minimum.

Ayala was a beast for his height, and not only when it came to jumping. This is the man who BULLIED Drogba in the '04 UEFA Cup Final and could go toe-to-toe with Christian Vieri (check the Inter - Valencia games for reference).

Top speed and Acc could perhaps do with -1 or -2, Roberto was rarely exposed but his pace was average at best.

[jupes]

Balance 85 now? People, this was a 1.77m defender who dominated the strongest strikers/cf's around. His weakness were manouverable and quicksilvery strikers like Owen.

SB?