Hercules Hercules Hercules!

Newly promoted Hercules made their mark on La Liga this past weekend by going to the Camp Nou and beating the almighty and all powerful Barcelona 2-0.

Quick note: the promotion/relegation system that they do in the European soccer leagues is the greatest sport invention ever. Here's how it works: In Spain for example, they have various soccer leagues. At the end of each season the bottom three teams in each league are relegated to the league below them and the top three teams are promoted to the league above. So last year the bottom three from the Primera Division - Valladolid, Tenerife and Xerez - were sent down to the Segunda Division while the top three finishers from the Segunda Division - Real Sociedad, Hercules and Levante - were promoted to the Primera Division for the following season. It's just genius. It's an incentive for each team to play hard throughout the season. No more tanking it at the end of the season. No more getting rewarded for losing by getting a high lottery or draft pick. If you lose, then you get relegated which means lower revenue and ticket sales because you are playing lesser competition. Losers don't win and get rewards like they do in the NBA, MLB or other sports.

You know where this system would be great? College Football. I hate the BCS as much as the next guy, but one way to fix it and settle the debate of whether the Boise State's and the TCU's of the world can play a full season in the Big 10 or SEC would be to promote them to the BCS conferences. Each year they should send the top three teams from the WAC, Mountain West, Conf-USA and the other non-BCS conferences to one of the BCS conferences and send the bottom three teams to non-BCS conferences. Those teams deserve to get relegated anyways. Washington State and Vanderbilt didn't even win a conference game last year. Maybe Boise State wouldn't run the table in the Pac-10 or the SEC, but they would at least win a couple games and do a whole lot better than Washington State and Vanderbilt do each year.

Sorry, I digressed a bit there. Just trying to show that Fútbol is once again superior to Football as Fútbol has a better system in place. Back to Hercules.

Some people were already anointing Barcelona as champions after only one week and saying ridiculous things like they shouldn't even play bother to play out the season as Barcelona will clearly win it all. Somebody is eating their cyber words. Not really actually. I don't think this changes anything. I don't want to take anything away from the win. It's impressive. But Barcelona has too many weapons and is still too good and they will run away with the league this year. To reassert their dominance they came out and beat Panathinaikos 5-1 in the Champions League yesterday.

Regardless, a 2-0 win at Barcelona is something Real Madrid can't even do and something only 1 or 2 other clubs will do all season. Is Hercules here to stay? Who knows, but they at least deserve a brief spotlight:

Name: Hercules Club de Fútbol

Location: Alicante, Spain.

Nicknames: Herculanos and Blanquiazules. Herculanos (Herculeans) by the way, is an awesome nickname. Almost as awesome as their club logo.

Although, their logo designer must have been fired or something because check out this year's away jersey:
Mother of Zeus those things are hideous. Even Hades can't stand them (I'm here all night).

Their home jersey is much better. I particularly like that they are sponsored by Ciudad de la Luz. Apparently that is a film studio in Alicante. Pretty awesome sponsor. I also like that their jerseys are made by Kelme. A great soccer brand that you don't see that often. Lots to like about the Herculeans.

Players: Not too many household names on the Herculean squad.

They do have Nelson Valdez. Apparently he's good or something. He scored the two goals against Barcelona. He's got some great hair. I wouldn't expect anything less from a Paraguayan (not sure what that means exactly).

They also have Royston Drenthe. Not exactly a household name but he did play for Real Madrid. Yet another martyr to their system. He played some his first year on the squad, sat the bench the second year and transferred out the third. Vaya Madrid!

So there you have it. Some basics on the Herculanos. Not too much info but probably 100% more than what you already knew. Hopefully they have continued success and maybe even beat Barcelona again later in the season. It's possible, but probably safer to hope they don't lose by more than 5 goals.

Here are the highlights from the game:

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Just Give Them the Championship and Cancel the Season

Less than three minutes into their first game of the season, Lionel Messi scored for Barcelona. I realize that the season literally just started and that there are still 9 months to go, but why even bother playing it out? Just last week I was saying that the English Premier League is exciting because you can't predict much this early in the season. You have a decent idea of who will likely finish at the top, but you don't know exactly who will win or in what order the teams will finish. That isn't really the case in La Liga. Barcelona completely dominated last year. If by chance there was anyone out there that questioned if they would dominate again, they wasted very little time answering the question.

The goal, although seemingly simple, is rather brilliant. Iniesta provides a great pass after drawing the defense to the left. Once everyone shifts, he just provides a beautiful through pass to Messi. Then Messi takes over with his amazing speed. He runs faster with the ball than the defender can run without it. But it's not just the speed, but also the fact that the ball stays so close to his feet the entire time. A lot of players are fast but they will often run so fast and touch the ball too far in front of them so that the goalie or a defender can move in and take the ball away. Not Messi. He keeps the ball so close. Which allows him to finish here with the soft chip over the goalie. It's world class all the way. So soft and so smooth.

To add to the early dominance, the newly acquired David Villa also scored in his Barcelona debut. This team is ridiculous. Just crown them champions now and cancel the season or acknowledge that everyone else is already playing for second place.



Somewhat related, but not really, Carlos Tevez had a fantastic miss on Sunday. It's only somewhat related because two months ago in the World Cup it seemed like Tevez couldn't miss, well, until he and the rest of Argentina met Germany. But Messi, much to the surprise of most fans, didn't score a single goal in the World Cup. Now that La Liga is back up, Messi seems to already be back in stride and looks like he hasn't missed a beat. Not that Tevez is off in the Premier League by any means. I just love the announcer when Tevez misses. He's as surprised as everyone else.

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David Villa to Barcelona: Bad News for Spain as the Rich get Richer

David Villa signed with Barcelona today. It's not a surprise as there have been rumors of him leaving Valencia for a few months. But it is somewhat disappointing as it just confirms that the rich in Spain are getting richer.

Last season, Real Madrid finished with 96 points, the second most ever for a team in one season in La Liga. Who holds the current record? Barcelona. When did they set that record? This last season. Barcelona finished with an unprecedented 99 points and Real was barely behind them with 96. They absolutely dominated the league. Valencia finished in third with 71 points. They were 25 points behind second place Real Madrid. 25 points! Just not even close. Sevilla finished in fourth with 63 points. Over 30 behind Real and Barcelona. So now Valencia, the third place team which could hardly compete with the first and second place teams, is losing their premier striker and leading goal scorer to Barcelona-the team that absolutely dominated La Liga. It's not helping the competition in the league when the two already rich teams, just get richer.

It's particularly unfortunate because more than anything the move is a commentary of the status of teams in La Liga. Mallorca, who finished in 5th in the league, confirmed today that they will be filing for bankruptcy. It has long been rumored that Valencia is also having serious financial difficulties and on the verge of bankruptcy. Finishing third in La Liga and qualifying for the Champions League helps, but they still can't afford to keep their marquee players - like Villa. They need to sell their players to get themselves out of the red. Although they finish well, instead of being able to capitalize on their success and build on it, they still have to sell off their players in order to stay afloat. So they, along with most other teams, aren't about to change the landscape of La Liga anytime soon. We are likely destined to another two horse race before the season even starts.

Finances aside, you can't really blame Villa for the move. As a Real fan it would have been great to see him go to Madrid, not that we need yet another galactico to intimidate Kaka in the locker room. But as a fan of La Liga it would have been nice to see him stay at Valencia to help build up competition in the league. But Villa is somewhat like Fernando Torres and the rumors that he might leave Liverpool. In soccer, a player's prime only lasts a few years. And while it would be nice to see a player show loyalty and stick with a team and help build that team or dig that team out of their woes (Liverpool), it's hard to fault the player for wanting to make sure his prime years are spent with a team that can contend for a title. It's a sad reality, but I think you'd be hard pressed to find a player that wouldn't do the same thing if they were in Villa's boots.

Anyways, I've posted this video before, but it's worth posting again especially when you consider that Villa will now be playing up top with Messi. Good night. It's almost unfair. Great news if you are a Barca fan. Bad news for everyone else in Spain as the rich get richer. Not that you can blame Villa though. Most everyone would do the same.

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Still A Year Away

The much anticipated, but somewhat uneventful El Clasico happened on Saturday. It's the biannual meeting between Barcelona and Real Madrid. It was "the game" in La Liga not just because the two teams were tied for first in the standings, but also because La Liga has pretty much been a two horse race this year. Valencia, the team currently in 3rd place, is 20 points behind Barcelona and Real Madrid. Even if Barcelona or Real lost the rest of their games, Valencia still couldn't catch them. The two teams have been completely dominant this year which makes for good drama twice a year when the two teams do play each other, but leaves a lot to be desired the rest of the weeks. As exciting as it may be to watch Real and Barcelona play each other or other teams, the league is definitely better off when the there is talent accross the board.

Even that sentence however may be a little incorrect as it lumps Real into the same category as Barcelona. While other teams may not be able to compete with Real, Real still can't compete with Barcelona. Barcelona is like the varsity sports team of the world right now and everyone else is JV. No one can compete with them. On some days the JV teams might surprise or shock the varsity team and pull out a tie, maybe even get really lucky and pull out a win. But whenever that happens, the varsity squad just comes out the next day and thumps the JV team and reminds them that they can't really compete despite their victory. The perfect example of this was a couple weeks ago in Barcelona's Champions League game with Arsenal. In the first leg of the series that was played at Arsenal, the two teams tied 2-2. Despite Barcelona going up 2-0, Arsenal clawed their way back to a tie. It was an exciting and inspiring victory by the JV squad (Arsenal). So what happened next? The following week when the teams played the second leg at Barcelona, Barcelona came out and thumped Arsenal 4-1. Any slim hope or belief that Arsenal had that they could actually compete with Barcelona was smothered by the end of the first half.

So on Saturday, I was curious to know if Real Madrid, with all of their off-season acquisitions, was still a JV team or if they had made the jump to varsity. Could they really compete with Barcelona? Well, no. They couldn't. Here's three reasons why:

1. Dominant center midfield.

Good night Xavi is ridiculous. Every Spain fan has to be salivating in anticipation for the World Cup this summer. Xavi and his passes and the way he controls the game are...well, Zidane like. I said it. I'm surprised as well that I went there, but Xavi is deserving. He's up there with the finest in the game right now. His vision and control of the game and his incredible through balls are just lovely. He's so great to watch. He just takes over the game and controls the pace and the tempo and controls every player on the field. It's magnificent to watch, unless of course you are rooting against Barcelona in which case its incredibly frustrating. But yet you have to admire his skills, which makes the situation even more frustrating. I hate you Xavi and Barcelona, but you are so good.

Real doesn't have that player at the moment. Kaka was supposed to be that player and was that player with AC Milan, but he was injured on Saturday and he's been nonexistent all year. The huge contract and huge expectations have really made him seem lost. Real also has Guti, but he's so erratic. Sometimes brilliant but sometimes dismal. He was actually brilliant on Saturday and provided the beautiful pass that set up Real's best moment of the game, but again, he's not a consistent player unfortunately.

2. Team Chemistry and Rhythm

This is another one that is just awesome to watch unless you want Barcelona to lose. Barcelona is just one fluid mass moving up and down the field. They will possess the ball and barely advance it for 5 minutes and just frustrate the other team. They are so patient and every player is moving and knows exactly where they need to be. They have a lot of veteran players and a lot of role players. Everyone knows where they need to be and they all do their job. Xavi and Iniesta control the midfield and the game, Puyol and Pique take control in the back and Messi scores the goals. All the other players understand that, respect it and play their supporting role as needed.

Real has no chemistry. For one, their midfielders that are supposed to control the game, Kaka and Xabi Alonso are new to the team this year. Granted, the season is almost over, but as mentioned, Kaka has really struggled to take the reins of the team. That's probably because he has to deal with C. Ronaldo running all over and trying to keep him satisfied, which is no easy task. Speaking of which:

3. Barcelona has the best player in the game

Remember how two years ago when Ronaldo set those crazy scoring records in the Premier League and he was considered the greatest player in the world, and then the following year Messi and Barcelona went on to dominate the league and people started to wonder who was better, Messi or Ronaldo? Then everything culminated in the Champions League final last year when Messi's Barcelona palyed Ronaldo's Man United. Messi scored, Barcelona won, and Ronaldo, who had little impact during the game, eventually left Man U for Real Madrid in the offseason.

Now, I'm not saying that C. Ronaldo isn't an amazing player, but can one honestly argue that he is better than Messi? Last year it was a great debate. Now, not so much. Ronaldo is still probaby the second best player in the world, but no one can compete with Messi right now. And that's mainly because Messi always comes to play. I mentioned above that Messi is on a team with better chemistry and a better midfield, but it's not that Ronaldo is playing with chumps. Ronaldo is surrounded by great players, just like he was at Man U. Yet for some reason, in the last couple of big showdowns, Messi has proven that he is the better player. Yet again on Saturday Messi scored a goal and had a few other great opportunities. Ronaldo was fairly silent throughout the game. He didn't create much for his team and he didn't do much on his own. Again, not saying he's a bad player by any means, but until something changes, the debate is over as to who is the better player.

So even though Barcelona proved that they are the varsity squad and that Real Madrid is still a JV team, the nice part about JV is knowing that you are so close to making the jump. Which is where Real is right now. Assuming they don't fire their coach and blow up their current team (which is more likely to happen than not), they could easily make the jump next year and finally compete with Barcelona. Between Kaka, Xabi and Guti, they have the midfield playmakers. They have Higuain and Ronaldo that combined can be as great as Messi and in a year they will have a defense and a team that has had time together to form and identity and chemistry. They are close. You can tell that the pieces are there and that they want to be considered a varsity team. But they aren't. They are still a year away.

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The Beautiful Chip Shot

While there is something to be said for a goal that is a rocket from outside the box, there is nothing quite like a beautiful chip shot. Maybe not as "exciting" but as demonstrated by David Villa yesterday in Valencia's 2-1 win over Getafe, it can be such a magnificent goal . As always, the play is started by a wonderful pass from David Silva - Villa's constant partner in crime. Villa has a breakaway, the goalie comes out to cut off the angle and challenge the play, Villa sizes up the situation and without taking a touch first he just gracefully lofts it over the goalie's head and into the back of the net. Calm. Smooth. Effortless.

The beautiful chip shot.

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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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Guti-ful!

I went off in the last post about beautiful fastbreaks, but didn't even mention "El Tacon de Dios" or "The Heel of God" that happened on Saturday in Real Madrid's game against Deportivo de la Coruna. I didn't quite realize it was a fastbreak because of the assist that overshadows everything else that transpires, including the goal. Not sure if you will find a more selfless move than what Guti did. Few players in the game would ever turn down the goal scoring opportunity that Guti had. An even smaller percentage of those players would actually have the huevos to make that pass in that moment. It's just brilliant. Phil Ball provides a great commentary and analysis of the goal and Guti (he also coins the term 'taconazo' - the heel pass version of 'golazo').

Here is just an excerpt:

"If you were at all conscious this weekend and vaguely interested in football you will have seen the back-heeled pass that Real Madrid's Guti conjured up on Saturday night for Karim Benzema to score against Deportivo de La Coruña, up in windy Galicia. If not, take a look now. This is because, to return to the point that Ken Loach was presumably trying to make in his film, it's the unexpected that causes the greatest impact in your life - perhaps a moment where you dared to take a risk and it came off, and then you remember it for ever as a life-changing decision because you know you could have taken the safer option. But if you had, your life would have been the poorer somehow.

The wonder of Guti's 'Tacón de Dios' (Heel of God, dixit Marca) is that it has changed in an instant the player's image, from burned-out waster outliving his time in La Liga and entertaining us only with his weird declarations to the press - the latest that he intended to retire to Bangkok - to reconfirmed genius."

As always, Phil Ball is spot on. If Guti had just scored the goal, it would have made the highlight reel for the games this weekend. Instead he took the other option, the one that isn't nearly as safe, but etches the goal in soccer highlight history. Who knows what will happen with Guti this season. He's always been all over the map. But if he continues to play like he has in the past couple of games, he could be the piece that relaxes the team and also brings them together and makes Madrid a dominant force again.

Check out the goal. It's at the 1:20 mark.

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A Two Match Ban?

The Cristiano Ronaldo show was in full effect on Sunday. Ronaldo scored both goals in Real Madrid's 2-0 win over Malaga. The first goal is just a beauty. Fantastic team play. The ball moves so fast down the center, then to the outside and then centered for a great finish. I think the combined salary of the 4 players that set up and scored the first goal is somewhere near $100 million. Quite the bargain. It's nice to see Guti, the blonde spaniard, getting some playing time again. The second goal is also pretty. I love the reaction from the bench. For every player on the bench that is going crazy and celebrating, you always have at least one or two that are sulking in the background and mad that they aren't getting any playingtime. At one point they too might have celebrated in order to try and impress the coach and look like a "team player" and someone that cares about the team's success. They have since given up though. They probably didn't even bother to put their shorts on underneath their warm up pants.

Anyways, a Ronaldo show isn't nearly complete without a little drama. Later in the game, Ronaldo does what he does best and gets red carded when the game is already won. Even though he clearly hits the player, I was actually surprised by the straight red card. I understand that Ronaldo hit the player in the face. He was flailing his arms and it does appear that he intentionally swung his arm back at the player. But the guy was holding his jersey. The red card seemed a little harsh. Apparently not though as Ronaldo was given a two game ban for what he did instead of the customary 1 game suspension. Two games?! Real Madrid is of course going to appeal, as well they should. I realize it was a punch to the face, but two games? Plus, "punch" is used loosely here. I'm no street fighter by any means, but Ronaldo doesn't exactly look like he would have a death blow up his sleeve. He looks more like an arm flailer and a cheap shot guy. Kicks people when they have their back turned and things like that. This looks like another example of Ronaldo just being a baby.

Maybe that is why he got a two game ban. Maybe La Liga is sick of dealing with a 3 year old. Which is what Ronaldo basically is. He whines, pouts and full on punches and kicks people when they take his ball away from him or he doesn't get his way. And maybe that is what is going on with the two game suspension. La Liga has realized that Ronaldo, like other 3 year olds is slow to learn and isn't correcting his ways, so they needed to be harsher in their discipline.

Well, whatever the reason is, I'm not a Cristiano Ronaldo apologist and I think he deserves most of the red cards he gets, but I don't agree with this one.

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El Clasico: Barcelona 1 - Real Madrid 0.

El Clasico was, well, a classic. Brilliant in my opinion. I'm not quite sure how to recap the game, so here are my observations/impressions after watching the game:

1. I'm not a soccer guru by any means, but Real Madrid and Barcelona along with Chelsea have to be considered the best clubs in the world right now, at least if they are playing like they did on Sunday. If it's any other team, besides maybe Chelsea, Real Madrid wins that game on Sunday. At the same time, if it's any other opponent, Barcelona wins 4-0. I haven't watched every game this year with these two clubs, but I've watched enough to know that both teams were playing some of their best football.

2. Goal(s). If there was a downside to the game, it was that there was only one goal scored. For soccer fans, one goal is sufficient, especially in Sunday's game where the quality of play and the stakes were so high. However, a common complaint from casual and non-soccer fans is that there is a lack of scoring in soccer. Because Sunday's game had everything else: two storied teams, two rivals, Barcelona celebrating their 110 year anniversary, first place on the line, the current reigning club champion trying to repeat and the other team using all of it's massive spending power to dethrone the club, brilliant play, world class players, etc. the only thing that could have helped the game would have been a couple more goals.

With that said, the goal from "the Nose" was superb. One of those goals where you don't realize right away that it's a world class goal because the player makes it look easy. But to volley that ball into the side of the net from a cross over your head 25 yards away, is not easy. Casillas was shifting over so Ibrahimovic had only about a 3 foot window on the near post for the shot. Not every player makes that shot, few make it look so easy.

3. The Barcelona midfield. I know it's a broken record at this point to praise the Barcelona midfield, but it's just so hard not to do after watching a Barcelona game. The manner in which they control the tempo of the game and create opportunities is just amazing. Midway through the second half Barcelona lost a man because of a red card. You would have never noticed they finished the game with only 10 men, and that isn't because Real played poorly. It's because Barcelona's midfield was still able to control the ball and keep possession as if they had 11 men. If Barcelona wins La Liga again this year and wins the Champions League again and Spain goes on to win the World Cup Iniesta and Xavi will go down with Magic/Kareem, Lennon/McCartney, Mario/Luigi, and Lindsey Lohan/alcohol as one of the greatest duos of all time.

4. Real Madrid is much improved. They can't expect to have team chemistry overnight, at least not like Xavi and Iniesta seem to have- look at them frolicking together, giving piggy-back rides to each other. They're tight. But it takes time to really have a rhythm and know the other players on the field. Although they didn't win, Real can actually compete with Barcelona this year. Last year they lost 2-0 at Barcelona and then were embarrassed and lost 6-2 at home. In both games it was evident that they were playing against a team that was flat out on another level. It will still take a brilliant effort to beat Barcelona when Barcelona is playing at the top of their game, but Real could actually do it. Kaka is finally showing flashes of brilliance and showing why he is considered one of the best midfielders and set up men in the game (The first set up in the clip below is a beauty. Ronaldo can't be missing those types of chances with the paycheck he gets. Messi also uncharacteristically misses later on as well - not set up by Kaka though. Kaka's set up around the 1:30 mark in the clip below is also incredible. I still don't know how he keeps the ball). You also can't undervalue the importance and addition of Xabi Alonso and Lass Diarra. They did wonders for wreaking havoc on Barcelona's midfield. They made it very difficult to Barcelona to establish their rhythm and wouldn't let Barcelona control the ball for too long. A lot of clean, hard fouls, forcing Barcelona to make bad passes and keeping possession when they won the ball. Despite losing, Real proved that they can actually play with and even beat Barcelona, something they couldn't do last year.

5. The next Clasico. I know it's early and the next Clasico isn't until April. But at the end of the game, I couldn't help but think about how much will be on the line in April. Barcelona has yet to lose in La Liga. At most they might lose one or two between now and then. Sevilla, Valencia and Deportivo de la Coruna are playing well this year and are within striking distance of Real and Barcelona; but if Real continues to play like they did on Sunday, there is no reason to believe that they won't be in second come April. I don't see any other teams being able to overtake Real and Barcelona. During the game they mentioned that in the past ten years, Barcelona has had 1 coaching change. Real has had 9. Barcelona develops their players, Real broke two world transfer fees to buy two players this summer. I don't think anyone favors Real's business model over Barcelona's. But can Real Madrid buy a championship? Barring any sort of catastrophes or team blow ups (which is very possible with Real's history and all the egos) we should find out in April. It will all be on the line. Hasta entonces.

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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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Serious Trouble for Madrid: Sevilla 2 - Real Madrid 1

On Sunday, Sevilla not only handed Real Madrid their first loss but also completely embarrased Real Madrid and their defense. Sevilla beat Real at their own game. They didn't play for possession, they just came out firing in an all out attack. I didn't think C. Ronaldo meant so much to Real, but they had no spark and were never really a threat on offense. More importantly though, Sevilla completely exposed the terrible back line that call themselves Real Madrid's defense. Talk about unorganized. Marcelo is a joke, as will be shown in the video. Pepe can't organize anyone, and Sergio Ramos is too interested in scoring goals. They are not in sync, and no offense should feel intimidated having to go up against Real's defense.

In a previous post, we discussed the SI.com Power Rankings and the fact that they had ranked Real #1 and Barcelona #2. We argued that Barcelona is still deserving of the top spot and also that there was no way Real Madrid's defense was good enough to control the top spot. There were a lot of statistics mentioned, but the premise was basically that Barcelona controls the ball practically the entire game and they hold their opponents hardly any shots and chances on goal. Real has a weak defense that allows too many shots on goal. This was demonstrated again on Sunday:

Barcelona vs. Almeria:

Barcelona - 17 shots, 7 were on goal. Almeria - 0 shots, 0 on goal. Barcelona controlled the ball for 73% of the game.

Real vs. Sevilla:

Real Madrid - 17 shots, 3 on goal. Sevilla - 24 shots, 10 on goal. Real controlled the ball for 58% of the game.

Ok, of course Sevilla is a tougher opponent than Almeria, but 0 total shots! That is complete domination. Almeria isn't the best team in La Liga, but they are far from the worst. If this was the first time Barcelona had held a team to 0 shots on goal, then it might be more of a statement about how poor Almeria is. But this is the third opponent with 0 shots on goal (Almeria being the first with 0 total shots), so its more of a statement that Barcelona is just that good.

Meanwhile, Real has serious issues. Below are the highlights from the game. Iker Casillas was other worldly. His performance deserves a post of its own. His saves at the 3:05 and 3:23 mark are just phenomenal. Simply amazing. Sadly for Real's defense, he makes incredible saves like that in almost every game. Mainly because Real's defense just stands around and lets opponents roam free in the box. The way in which Marcelo stands around on the first goal (2:09) is a perfect representation of Real's defense right now. Sevilla had so many open men and chances, it was just absurd.



The issue isn't so much that Real Madrid isn't deserving of the #1 spot in the Power Rankings. Those are just arbitrary rankings that don't really mean anything. The issue is that it's the same song and story for Real: Spend lots of money on offense yet forget about your defense. That equates to losing to Barcelona in La Liga and another early round exit in the Champions League.



Brief addendum to the post. In the comments for the previous post about the rankings, Brad thinks that the rankings should be:

1. Barcelona
2. Chelsea
3. Real Madrid
4. Man U
5. Man City

Personally, I wouldn't put Real Madrid before Man U or maybe even City. I would struggle putting Real anywhere before where ever Liverpool would fall in the rankings. Liverpool may have lost to Chelsea, but I think they fared a whole lot better than how Madrid would have done against Chelsea. Chelsea can shut down Madrid's offense and their high powered offense could put up 4-5 goals against Real Madrid's terrible defense. I think upcoming matches for Liverpool against Man U and Man City will be interesting. I'm still not impressed with Man U and I think City is still figuring things out. Arsenal is also quietly doing well. I think the only thing for sure is that Barcelona is 1 and Chelsea is 2. After that, its a crapshoot in my opinion.

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ESPN agrees

Apparently we here at Fastbreak Futbol aren't the only ones that think La Liga could potentially be boring. In an earlier post we discussed Valencia's first lost of the season and that the only two remaining unbeaten teams are not surprisingly, Barcelona and Real Madrid. Despite the talent on those two teams, the parity between the top and the bottom isn't a good thing.

Lucy Turner, some blogger over at ESPN seems to have a similar view (you can read the full article here). She begins:

"Spain's La Liga brands itself as 'The League of the Stars' and, in fact, the celebrity summer signings fit the term perfectly. But those star names might not have the hoped effect of making the domestic league the best competition in the world....

Twelve months ago, Guardiola's side struggled to even draw against Racing Santander in the first month, while Madrid crashed against Deportivo in the league opener. So either Barcelona and Madrid have improved a lot, or their rivals are not as strong as they used to be. At the other end of the table we have two lesser giants, Villarreal and Atlético, in the Europa League and the Champions League respectively, who are now in the relegation zone with two points in four games and still waiting for their first wins this term.

A few voices have been heard complaining that the Spanish league is turning into a weak league, like the Scottish or Belgian one (apologies to any offended) in that there will soon be a huge gap between the top two clubs and the rest. Maybe now UEFA's proposition to set a spending and wage limit makes more sense. Michel Platini is busy designing his new 'Financial Fair Play' project to set some kind of ethics and logic in the business of buying, selling and paying players...."

She focuses her article on the spending of the two clubs and that their financial situation but she too questions if La Liga is becoming boring and mediocre. She concludes:

"But clearly, making one team strong with very attractive players, ensuring world entertainment, doesn't lift the whole of the league. The remaining 18 clubs below Barça and Madrid are struggling financially and competitively in a season that indicates it will have high levels of boredom and predictable results."

It true. We said the same thing. We used the grammatically proper term 'ho-hum' to describe the season, but boring works as well. Madrid and Barca have created impressive squads. They have somehow (a.k.a. good business and development of players within your system, and buying the best talent no matter how far it puts you in debt) gathered the premiere talent in the world. Both teams are like watching an All-Star team because top to bottom they have household names-assuming the houses aren't in the U.S. Most fans cant help but tune in and watch because of all of the star players. But has it been worth the cost? The cost being their league is struggling and cannot compete with their spending and thus their players and team. The two teams may have a superb product, but the league is so mediocre that the overall product is no good. Can winning the league even be considered much of an accomplishment?

People want to see quality sport. That is why a league like the MLS struggles. The players aren't bad by any means, but they just don't compare with the top quality players in the EPL and other european leagues. The game in the EPL is just better and faster. Madrid and Barca may have quality teams, but you also need quality competition, otherwise the game gets boring. You have to have quality, but its worth reducing that supreme quality if it means that it will bring up all of the other squads. I'm no socialist activist or anything. I'm also not presenting any solutions to the issues with La Liga. But it is certain that as good as these teams may be and amazing as the talent may be, they are both heading for boring seasons, because of their competition.

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Probably not the real deal

Valencia suffered its first loss of the season Wednesday night. Valencia had a surprising start to the season by winning its first two games. No one expected much from Valencia this season with all of their off the field issues, evidenced by the fact that they tried to sell their two marquee players in the off season in order to save money. However, they started off with two strong wins which shouldn't be too surprising for any team with David Villa. The strong start created a little stir and excitement that perhaps Valencia was once again contender. The excitement was short lived after Valencia suffered a 2-2 draw on Sunday to lowly Sporting Gijon. That was followed by a 3-1 loss to Getafe on Wednesday. More importantly, it leaves Barcelona and Real Madrid as the only two undefeated teams left in La Liga.

It is of course far too early to make any conclusions about any particular team or the league in general, but Valencia was the lone bright spot in what has been an otherwise predictable start to the season for the Spanish league. It is hard to see great talent like David Silva and especially David Villa wasted on a club that does not play in the Champions League. A consolation would have been for Valencia to at least challenge in La Liga, despite being practically bankrupt financially.

Again, it is early in the season, but it is already looking like La Liga will be overlooked and overshadowed by the English Premier League. On the European stage everyone wants to know if Barcelona, which only looks improved from last year, will be able to dominate the rest of Europe. People are equally as curious to know if Real Madrid with their bottomless pockets, can actually buy themselves another championship. Unfortunately, there are no other teams left in La Liga. 8-10 years ago Valencia would have challenged for the top spot. Champions League qualifiers Atletico Madrid have had a dismal start in the league. Sevilla is decent again, but they wont be able to challenge the top two. Barcelona and Real should make waves on the european stage and they might make headlines when they clash for El Clasico twice this year, but otherwise, it will be a ho-hum year for La Liga. One can only hope that I'm wrong but it already appears that the gap between the top two and the rest of the league increased instead of decreased.

Contrary to La Liga, the EPL finally has contenders that are looking like legitimate threats to dethrone one of the Big 4. It has taken Man City a couple years, but they are proving that they can buy wins. Tottenham is already falling, but their start at least created story lines. Plus, with the early struggles from Arsenal and Liverpool, the door is at least open that another team might displace one of the four. In the end, the normal four might end up at the top. But at least as of right now, it isn't ridiculous to think that a team like Man City or Aston Villa could claim one of the top spots. Something that already can't be said about La Liga.

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