Derrotado - Invicible Barcelona Finally Loses

Barcelona was defeated (derrotado) at the hands of Atletico Madrid on Sunday. It was their first loss of the season in league play. Going undefeated would be an awesome achievement and quite the exclamation point on Barcelona's dominance over the past two seasons. Although it's quite a bummer for Barcelona fans they didn't complete the undefeated season, there are actually some positives to losing.

1. No more pressure

Going undefeated is an extremely difficult feat. While it clearly would be historic, it can almost have a negative affect on a team. As the season wares on, the pressure to go undefeated can become unbearable. It can overshadow everything else and become a hindrance. In the end, it would be better to win a championship, than go undefeated. Sure, both would be ideal, but sometimes the continued pressure of remaining undefeated can be the team's toughest opponent and actually cause the team to lose. The added pressure and discussion of the undefeated season is now removed. Now the focus can shift back to discussing how it is that all of your star forwards and midfielders are under 5'7" yet completely dominate the world's game.

2. Perfect time to lose

The loss couldn't have come at a better time. The second half of the Champions League starts up this week. The last thing Barcelona wants is to lose prematurely in the Champions League because they are thinking and focusing on upcoming La Liga games and remaining undefeated. While winning La Liga and being undefeated would be great, it's not worth the opportunity to be repeat Champions League winners. They of course want to win La Liga as well. But they are in the driver's seat for the La Liga title. It's theirs to lose at this point. Now they can focus just on winning and repeating as both La Liga and Champions League. Not that it's an easy task, but being repeat champions in both instead of just one because you were too focused on the one, is worth the loss.

3. Better Atletico than Real

If you have to have your first loss come at the hands of a Madrid team, better to have it be Atletico. This is obvious not only because Real Madrid and Barcelona are bitter rivals, but also because its been a tough year for Atletico. It's been fraught with disappointments and underachievement. They aren't the rich white boys (los blancos) from the north part of Madrid, they are the poor stepbrother team that rarely gets any attention or recognition. When they finally do, like this season when they qualified for the Champions League, they self destruct and embarrass themselves and the rich, white boys laugh and mock at the embarrassing younger stepbrother. This win will help Atletico much more than it will hurt Barcelona. Barcelona is fine. They will continue to steamroll and crush future opponents. Atletico on the other hand needs a lot more help to save their season and finish near the top of the standings. They needed this. Consider it a charitable act of service to the poor stepbrother who constantly gets abused by your enemy, as opposed to a loss for your team.

4. El Clasico will be better

Of course there is always some Real Madrid aspect to the loss. But admit it, even as a Barcelona fan, you are more excited for El Clasico now. Even with the loss Barcelona is still in first place. So if Barcelona hadn't lost and both teams continued to win, then when the two teams play each other (El Clasico) later in the season, the game would have been meaningless. The game would have been highly contested of course as both teams hate each other and want the bragging rights. But ultimately, win or lose, Barcelona would have remained in first place. If they would have won, all the fans would have bragged about the dominance. If they would have lost, all fans would have argued that the players didn't care because win or lose, they were still going to be in first place. But now, assuming neither team has any unexpected losses, the league title will essentially be on the line on April 11.

Bonus

A little added bonus of the loss for the Barcelona fan. If Real Madrid didn't have a chance to overtake first place with a win on April 11 (which they wouldn't have if Barcelona had remained undefeated) then the victory wouldn't nearly be as sweet. But now, you can go into Madrid on the 11th and rip the league title away from Los Blancos right in front of all of their fans. THEN, you can follow that up by going back to Madrid for the Champions League final (at Real Madrid's stadium) and really put a dagger in the heart of all Real Madrid fans by winning that title and having your fans celebrate on their streets of Madrid. There could be no better way to win the two championships.

So you may be derrotado right now. But enjoy the highlights below, they may be the moment you look back upon at the end of the season as the moment that led Barcelona to a fantastic finish.

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La Liga Preview

Even though there are no English Premier League games this weekend, the chicos to the south still have some games going on. Here are some games worth interrupting your Valentine's weekend:

Real Madrid v. Xerez - There is always drama with Real Madrid. The drama queen, C. Ronaldo is back from his two game red card suspension. Although lowly Xerez is in last place and Real should easily beat them, it will be interesting to see how Real plays with Ronaldo back in the lineup. They were actually playing better without Ronaldo and had some incredible chemistry the past couple of days. Everyone looked like they were actually having fun.

Well, except for Raul. Looks like he's on his way out. This will deserve a future post of it's own. For now, I'll continue to pretend like it's not actually happening, even though I've known for awhile that this day was coming.

Also, Sergio Canales, an 18 year old star agreed to play with Real next season. He should fire his agent. Doesn't he know that if you want to play for Real, you first have to go to another team and become a huge star and then come over? He'll ride the bench for a year and then go out on loan.

Sporting Gijon v. Valencia - La Liga is essentially a two dog race. It's probably too late for Valencia to catch either Real Madrid or Barcelona, but they continue to do well despite having financial difficulties. I'm not sure how exciting this game will be, but if Valencia wants any chance to keep their star players, they need to keep winning and finish in the top three of the league.

The game of the weekend:

Atletico Madrid v. Barcelona - When these two teams met earlier in the season, Barcelona thumped Atletico 5-2. The games between these two teams are notoriously high scoring which is always entertaining.

A Barcelona game is always worth watching because of their dominance and their amazing team play on the field. Plus, they have Messi. The 5'7" beast that leads the leage in both goals and assists. Amazing. Plus, Barcelona is still undefeated in league play, so every game is compelling. I don't really think Atletico can beat Barcelona. Atletico has had quite a disappointing season. But they are playing at home and Barcelona is struggling with injuries so an Atletico win is possible. I wouldn't bet on it though.

Here is the little man doing his thing:

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Well, at Least They Didn't Give Up: Real Madrid 3 - Atletico Madrid 2

Atletico Madrid lost to Real Madrid in the Madrid derby over the weekend. You always hope for exciting derbies, and this one delivered, mainly because Atletico played until the 90th minute. From just watching the game, you would never know that one team (Real) is in second place and the other is third to last (Atletico) and would be relegated if the season ended today. Real jumped out to an early lead with a screamer from Kaka and a goal from Marcelo at an extremely tough angle. Real played better than they have in any game since the loss of Christiano Ronaldo. They finally showed that they have loads of talent even without C. Ronaldo. Derbies seem to bring out the best in players and Real came out strong. In the second half, Real took a 3-0 lead on a terrible defensive play from Atletico's Luis Perea. Players lose their starting jobs on blunders like that. Just poor play. Higuain just ran up and took the ball away and scored. However, only a minute later Sergio Ramos was red carded and Atletico came back to life. Granted, Real was only playing with 10 men, but Atletico went on to score 2 goals in the 79th and 81st minutes. They went on a tear and almost made it a match for the storybooks. Atletico made a valiant effort, but in the end they did fall short.

So while Atletico deserves a lot of credit for their effort on Saturday, they needed more than a moral victory. They needed some sort of silver lining on the extremely dark cloud that is the start of their season. A win against Real could have been that lining and the start of their climb out of the cellar. As mentioned, to their credit, they never gave up and they played the entire 90 minutes. They had as many shots and controlled the ball as much as Real. They are as good of a team as Real and most every other team they have faced this season. They have all the players, but haven't been able to piece it together. It almost came together in Madrid on Saturday night, they just needed a Manchester United stoppage time to get another goal. Another goal to tie the game would have been huge for Atletico. To crawl back from a 3-0 deficit against their rivals could have saved the season from an emotional standpoint. Unfortunately it didn't happen and their season is over. I know it's only November, but they only have 7 total points, while the league leaders already have over 20. Atletico won't be relegated, but they aren't catching the leaders this season. Much like the photo, the loss on Saturday was probably the knock-out blow. Hopefully Atletico doesn't give up entirely because they have loads of talent and can easily disrupt other teams down the stretch. Still, it's a sad consolation and role for a team with so much talent and that had such high expectations at the start of the season.

Real Madrid 3 - Atletico Madrid 2

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Atletico Madrid: The Ten Year Curse and their Free Fall

To say that this year has been a disappointment for Atletico Madrid would be a huge understatement. It has been downright abysmal and they are in an all out free fall. Other teams, like Liverpool for example, have been up and down. They win one week against Manchester United and make you think they are coming together, but then they lose the next week to Fulham (how about that Clint Dempsey by the way? Why isn't he the captain of our National Team again?). But Atletico Madrid is falling fast and it's hard and sad to watch.

Ten years ago in the 1999/2000 season, Atletico had a terrible season and they were relegated to the Segunda Division. They spent a couple years in the Segunda division and finally pulled themselves out of it in 2002. The following years were the coming of age years for Fernando Torres where he started to make his mark on the world stage. He really left a mark and a blow for the team when he left for Liverpool in 2006. However the team continued to progress. In the 2007/2008 campaign they finished 4th in La Liga and qualified for Champions League. Last year they finished 4th again and again qualified for the Champions League. For a team that constantly plays second fiddle in their own town to Real Madrid, they finally seemed as though they had established a solid foundation and were going to be constant legit league contenders.

Then they hit the ten year mark. This year is the 10th anniversary from their last relegation season and given their recent success it's hard to comprehend that Atletico could be off to such a terrible start. Yesterday they tied Chelsea in their Champions League match. Normally a tie against Chelsea is somewhat of a victory. However, having lost two of their first three group games and tying the other one, the tie yesterday to Cheslea eliminated Atletico from any possibility of advancing to the knock out stages. Atletico has only two points in their group while Chelsea and Porto sit at the top with ten and nine points respectively. Even with wins in their next two matches, Atletico cannot overtake the top two teams. Their Champions League season is done.

At least there is always next year, except that "next year" probably won't happen because they can't even compete in La Liga at the moment. They have 1 win in 9 matches, and 4 ties and 4 loses. They have a -9 goal differential and only 7 points in La Liga. Currently they are 18th in La Liga and if the season were to end today, they would be relegated again. It is still somewhat early in the season and it's doubtful they will be relegated, but it's also extremely unlikely they will be competing on the European stage next season. They are already a distant 11 points behind 4th place Valencia. Granted, eleven points isn't an impossible task to overcome, but it seems doubtful with the way the team is playing.

It's the team play which has been most difficult to figure out about Atletico this year. Besides their goalie, the team is essentially the same. Yet for whatever reason, they cannot find the chemistry and piece things together like they did in the past two years. You can see from the highlights against Chelsea that they have flashes of brilliance and enough talent to put together quality attacks, but they continue to fall short and cannot play for a full 90 minutes. Last season Diego Forlan was incredible and scored 32 goals in La Liga which earned him the Golden Boot or Pichichi. This year he has only 3 goals in 8 La Liga matches. If that pace continues, he will finish with only 12 goals, a massive drop off from last year. Not that Forlan is entirely to blame (he does sport a lucky mullet -who wouldn't with those golden locks?). The entire team has only scored 10 goals in the 8 matches. Not the worst in La Liga, it's far better than a team like Xerez which has only has 3 total goals. But they are far off the league leaders who have roughly 24 goals already, and also far off their pace of last season when they finished with 80 goals.

On Saturday Atletico will host Real Madrid for the Madrid derby. A win would be a huge boost for Atletico. They need some sort of spark to get the team going. They are in an all out free fall at the moment. It doesn't make sense that they should even be in their current position, so who knows when the free fall will end. A win against Real might stop the fall, but a loss at home to their city rivals, could accelerate the fall and only make things worse. It already looks as though the ten year curse has a hold on Atletico Madrid and has destroyed their season. Hopefully the team can stop the free fall before history repeats itself and the season is completely destroyed and the curse relegates them all the way down to the Segunda division again.

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