Liga Pundits articles

[barcetia]

Good read!

It may be a tad unfair to rip this underperforming pair to shreds every week, but it’s fun

Hahaha

[Beast]

The Heel of God
Phil Ball

saw Ken Loach's film 'Looking for Eric' a few weeks ago, in a small art cinema in San Sebastián - the only place in town brave enough to put on films in 'VO' (versión original), despite the city always giving itself cinematic airs every September with its grand festival and its bevy of superstar visitors. There are certain films that I don't mind seeing in Spanish, since the dialogue in many blockbusters is hardly lost in translation, but I suspected that Loach's film needed to be seen in English, from what I'd read of it. I was right.

The film was good, but there was one point that I particularly enjoyed. This was where Steve Evets, the depressive postman who conjures up his hero, Eric Cantona, to help him turn his life around, asks Cantona 'Alright then. Sweetest moment ever?' Cantona stares across the balcony into suburban Manchester and replies 'It wasn't a goal.' The postman doesn't believe him, and in a nerdy flood of recollections, suggests a series of his greatest goals to him. Cantona shakes his head at all of them. 'It was a pass' he says finally. The postman excitedly recalls the incident - a pass to Denis Irwin with the outside of his boot against Spurs, which leads to a goal that Loach kindly shows us in the next instant. 'What if you'd missed?' Evets asks, presumably meaning the pass. Cantona replies 'You have to trust your team-mates', and the scene fades out.

You know where this is leading, of course. 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. And so the postman decides to get his act together&..but I won't spoil the film for you, in case you haven't seen it.

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. Well, we always knew he was a (flawed) genius, but his absence from the Spanish national team since 2003 says it all. Three national managers have all agreed that he's just not worth it.

Guti confessed recently in an interview to Michael Robinson that to have never played in a World Cup or in a European Championship will stay with him for ever as a symbol of his failure - an interesting thing to say from a man not renowned for his capacity for self-criticism, perhaps his major dysfunction among several. But now, in a moment of madness, he has solved the whole problem, because as the tabloid Marca wrote on Sunday morning, people will still remember the back-heel in thirty years' time. Indeed, you do get the impression in Loach's film that the protagonist, Steve Evets, does really remember Cantona's pass, and that he suggested it as part of the script. These things light up lives. Absurd - but they do.

On Sunday morning I went to watch two junior games, and at both matches the parents on the touchline were talking about nothing else. The main focus of the chit-chat surrounded the issue of what would have happened had the back-heel not come off. Most people seemed to agree that he could easily have scored himself. 'Si no llega al francés' said one parent, animatedly, 'a la puta calle' (If he misplaces the pass, he's out on his arse'), a point which echoes the postman's question to Cantona, 'What if you'd missed?' Well it probably wouldn't have mattered, because the intent would have been lauded and the Frenchman's reputation was of such standing with the Man Utd fans that it would simply not have registered as a problem.

Guti, on the other hand, was staking it all on a split-second decision, and one that was not entirely sensible. Madrid were only leading 1-0, in a game where they were attempting to stay on Barça's coat-tails, the Catalans having won at Sporting an hour earlier in the evening. They were nervous, for good reason. An eight-point gap would have begun to look unassailable, and besides, the runes were against Madrid. They hadn't won there in eighteen years, amazingly enough. Even Raúl had never tasted victory in the Riazor, due, most probably, to the meigas, a weird Galician concept vaguely meaning 'witches' but a superstition written firmly into the rainy and windswept culture up there. The meigas apparently had it in for Madrid, and had even travelled down to the capital on their broomsticks in 2002 to help Depor beat them in their stadium in the King's Cup Final and ruin their centenary, one among various slights over the years. So when Benzema received the ball, more in shock than in expectation, one had to also marvel at his coolness. Not even breaking stride, he swept the ball low into the net with the defence in wonderful disarray.

No-one really runs to congratulate him, since all the plaudits are for the maker. 'You have to trust your team-mates', dixit Cantona. What did he mean? You have to trust them to forgive you? I'm not sure, but I hope that's what he meant. That's a great quotation for sport, a wonderful definition of the team ethic. But the players were just knocked out by the goal. You could see it in their reaction. This was probably because Guti didn't seem to look back at any point in the move. T

The whole thing unfolds as Kaká receives the ball out in space on the left, and turns inside for support. Guti makes a sudden dart from an advanced position into the centre-forward's space and pulls away to the right, so that Kaka´s pass releases him into a one-on-one with Aranzubia, Depor's goalie. Aranzubia moves out slightly to confront Guti, and you could argue that he has the angle covered. To Guti's left, a defender is charging in. But all it needs, surely, is a little side-footed shot to the keeper´s right, into the bottom right-hand corner. Then, without apparently having seen Benzema back on the edge of the area, Guti effects the famous pass, and the book of football's aesthetic high moments has a new entry.

I've watched it dozens of times now, and Guti doesn't seem to look back at any point, only after the back-heel. But as with all gifted players, he must have been aware of the Frenchman moving forward before, when he himself first made the run into space. But he takes a mighty risk. His team went on to win 3-1 in a consummate performance in which Xabi Alonso, Alvaro Arbeloa and even Sergio Ramos (despite giving away a penalty) were outstanding.

The only thing that remains to work out is the identity of the person portrayed on Guti's left-arm tattoo. As he fists the night sky, it looks like it might be Che Guevara or his current girlfriend. Not sure. And it remains interesting to note that Guti can apparently pick out a fellow player without even seeing him, and yet go out with a transvestite for a fortnight and not even notice. Men eh?

Elsewhere, in the land of the mortals and the sensible, Villarreal were losing miserably at home to Osasuna and then sacking their manager, Ernesto Valverde, whilst Xerez picked up their first win since dinosaurs roamed the Earth, 2-1 at home to the league's sick travellers, Mallorca. Atlético Madrid seemed to have their minds on the forthcoming King's Cup semi-final and lost 2-0 at home to less-than-scary Málaga, thus continuing their psychotically up-and-down season. In the biggest game of the day, Sevilla fnally got their home act together gain, defeating (2-1) the league's best travellers, Valencia. This win puts them back into fourth place, thanks to Mallorca's slip.

Anyway, sorry to bang on about Guti this week, but it did get me out of my sofa seat. Greatest taconazos of all time? Guti's previous to Zidane against Sevilla in 2006, or Fernando Redondo's little gem at Old Trafford? Answers on a postcard please.

[Beast]

How 'the heel of God' broke Deportivo's curse on Real Madrid | Sid Lowe


Having not beaten Depor in La Coruña since 1991, it took something special to help Madrid get the better of the meigas

Only the burning cauldron illuminated their faces, flames dancing across their pupils in the dead of night. By the flickering blue fire, engulfed in darkness, they waited – four men in silence, the moon peering through the mist. The flames were stirred, the spirits too, and it began: "Owls, toads and witches; crows, salamanders and wizards; howl of dog and call of death, satyr's snout and rabbit's foot … sinful tongue of the immoral woman married to an old man, Beelzebub's fire, burning corpses, mutilated bodies of the indecent, farts from infernal bottoms, useless belly of the spinster … Hark, the roar of the burnt!" They took their cups; fire tumbled in. "With this ladle, I lift the flames and the witches flee on their broomsticks. When this potion descends our throats, our souls will be free from evil."


And with that Arsenio Iglesias, Jacques Songo'o, Fran González and Javier Manjarín stepped back from the centre circle at Riazor, raised their cups, gulped down the brew and started laughing. All around them, lay garlic cloves. "¡Salud!" said Fran. "Here's to another year!" Songo'o, Manjarín and Iglesias joined him; three men with almost 750 Deportivo de La Coruña games between them and the coach who led the original Super Depor, clinked their cups again. "To another year!" To another year of the spell. To another year of Galicia warding off bad spirits and embracing good ones. To another year in which Real Madrid come to the wet northwest and fall. A 19th year, to be precise.


Week 20, the first round of the second half of the season and Madrid were travelling to Riazor, where they had not won in almost two decades. The last time Madrid had beaten Deportivo in La Coruña, on 2 November 1991, Luis Enrique, Fernando Hierro and Míchel were playing for them, Manuel Pellegrini was coach of Palestine but not that Palestine, and Raúl was still at Atlético Madrid. The last time Madrid had beaten Deportivo in La Coruña their latest signing, Sergio Canales, was just nine months old. Madrid had played 18 times and earned just five draws. Up in Galicia, land of superstition and ritual, land of meigas and bruxas, of wise women and witches, there could be no other explanation. It's something supernatural. A curse. A spell. "It's the meigas," grinned Fran. "It must be."


Panic set in. Five points behind Barcelona, Madrid could not afford to lose. They had not won in their last two away trips – to Pamplona and Bilbao. Now was not the time to be visiting a cursed ground – and now was definitely not the time to be doing so without Cristiano Ronaldo, suspended following his red card for breaking Patrick Mtiliga's nose. The desperation with which Madrid pursued a pardon revealed their fears. As if that was not bad enough, they were without top scorer Gonzalo Higuaín, Lassana Diarra and Ezequiel Garay too. "Even a baby on the tit knows the title is at stake today," insisted Marca, its cover announcing "A Game of Life or Death" alongside a photo of Ronaldo emblazoned with a huge red cross.


Many feared death; no team had turned round an eight-point lead at this stage, Marca sighed; Sport gleefully totted up their eggs, heralding "the weekend the league breaks".


It was no such thing. Barcelona extended their lead to eight points by beating Sporting Gijón 1-0 but Madrid immediately brought it back to five by winning in La Coruña, Esteban Granero scoring the first and Karim Benzema getting two in a 3-1 win. "At last!" cheered the relieved headlines. "The spell is broken." And yet for all the firewater, for all the owls and the crows and the farts, the result was logical enough. If Madrid had failed to win their last two away games, Deportivo had won just two of their last seven, their early-season results forgotten. If Madrid had injuries, Deportivo had more. If Madrid's top scorer was missing, so – with three goals – was Deportivo's. And their key central midfielder. And their most creative player. And as for their fundamental centre-back, he was playing injured.


Much as Madrid's bid to get Ronaldo off delivered a disquietening message to the rest of the squad – you're nothing without him – they do have other players. €197m worth of other players, in fact. Good players. Players who, collectively at least, may even be a better side without him. Ronaldo has easily been Madrid's most outstanding performer but he dominates their every move, demanding the ball, sprinting into positions occupied by team-mates, and shooting on sight. It may be coincidence but Madrid's three most outstanding performances as a team have been away at Espanyol, Valencia and now in La Coruña – and Ronaldo did not start any of them. Nor did Diarra, without whom Xabi Alonso appears to have greater space, more options and a clearer role. Saturday night was the perfect example: with Granero and Kaká as outlets, Alonso misplaced just nine of 83 passes.

Not that anyone noticed: they were too busy going bonkers over someone else. The man who was dropped from the side after telling Pellegrini where to stick it at half-time of Madrid's humiliating defeat at Alcorcón, was injured immediately after and snapped "anyone who doesn't believe me can go and pick poppies" when it was put to him that two months was an awfully long time to be out with a bruise, offered to undergo a psychiatric examination during a press conference, said he wanted to leave and set up a million easy jokes when he revealed plans to retire in Bangkok: José María Gutiérrez Hernández, Guti. The night belonged to him thanks to what Madrid's website called "a heel-flick masterpiece".


The masterpiece in question – one Ángel Cappa claimed they should clear a room at the Prado for – was a wonderful assist for Madrid's second. Passing up a one-on-one, with what David Gistau described as "the disdain of someone treading on a hamster", Guti instead left goalkeeper and defender on the floor to backheel the ball into the path of Benzema.


He could have scored himself. But scoring would have been too easy; in the words of one of Guti's former team-mates, it would have been "too vulgar". Too ordinary. Too dull. Too normal. Too so what? Guti, said AS's editor Alfredo Relaño, is a cross between Danny Blanchflower and Curro Romero. Blanchflower once claimed that "the game is about doing things in style and with a flourish, about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom," while Curro Romero was a bullfighter. And in bullfighting, it is not about the result, invariably 6-0, but the art, the style, the skill. The means, not the end.


Yet, the end does matter. Even to Guti. At the end, he sank to his knees and punched the air. "I thought we'd never win here," he admitted, relieved. At last, for the first time in his entire career, he had – thanks to what AS's cover called "a golden backheel" and Marca dubbed "the heel of God". And even meigas can't compete with Him. Even fiery cauldrons and midnight rituals are no match for the Almighty.


Talking points
• Jesús Navas's flick was none too shabby either and Alvaro Negredo's finish was even better – a neat chip to secure Sevilla's 2-1 victory over Valencia in what was set to be the weekend's biggest game but ended up being a little disappointing. Valencia are third and Sevilla fourth; Valencia are 13 points off Barcelona – and that, unfortunately, pretty much sums up the difference at the top. Valencia could be entitled to feel a bit hard done by after Andres Palop kung-fu kicked David Villa in the final few minutes, only for it to go unnoticed by the ref. Why is it that goalies are allowed to lead with their knees and studs every single time they come out for the ball?


• Barcelona dominated Sporting but were a little fortunate with the goal, scored by Pedro, which is mighty close to being offside (although from some angles it looks onside, some it looks off – and it looks suspiciously like the media have been tampering with photos to 'prove' their case). More importantly, it came via a free-kick taken a good few yards from where the foul actually happened. After all the fuss over Ronaldo's elbow this week, there is bound to be some backlash against Leo Messi too, after he seemed to kick out at an opponent.


• Two former Athletic Bilbao coaches have been given the chop. Ernesto Valverde was sacked by Villarreal last night after they were beaten 2-0 by Osasuna. José Luis Mendilíbar has been sacked by Valladolid today after his side drew 1-1 with Almería. They have won only three times all season, having escaped relegation on the final day of last season – and through no merit of their own, having diced with death at Betis.


• Xerez didn't just score this weekend, they actually won. Mallorca's dreadful away form continues. Question is, how long can they maintain their home form? For the second game in a row, Aduriz missed a penalty – and for the second game in a row, his attempt was absolutely appalling. Zaragoza won too – their first victory in 11 games.


Results: Espanyol 1-0 Athletic, Deportivo 1-3 Real Madrid, Sporting 0-1 Barcelona, Getafe 0-0 Racing, Xerez 2-1 Mallorca, Tenerife 1-3 Zaragoza, Villarreal 0-2 Osasuna, Valladolid 1-1 Almería, Atlético 0-2 Málaga, Sevilla 2-1 Valencia.

[yusuf]

wow, he just jizzed over guti the whole freaking article.

[Raed]

Does Ronaldo really run into positions already occupied by teammates? That is something I never noticed, it could be true but I never noticed.

[Raed]

wow, he just jizzed over guti the whole freaking article.

It is over done however, usually articles are about one specific even that happened on the weekend.

[Gnegneri]

I've watched it dozens of times now, and Guti doesn't seem to look back at any point, only after the back-heel.

That's also bullshit by Phil. He does look.

But yeah, Guti can has its moment, but it is a bit too much though. Nice, but not unique or never been seen before.

[Raed]

When does he look?

[Raed]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJw_6bgwtrk

There, 2:45 onwards, he just runs into the box at full speed there is no way he looked back, not until he let go of the ball.

Or do you just want to argue

[Beast]

He just want to argue, it's K new fav. hobby in the last 2-3 weeks

More Humiliation For Awful Atlético...



Ahead of Sunday's visit to the Vicente Calderón to take on Atlético Madrid, Málaga boss Juan Ramón López Muñiz was asked for his prediction ahead of the clash.

"I don't know," admitted Muñiz, "you never know what you're going to get with them."

Fortunately for the manager of a side stuck in a relegation battle, Málaga faced the pathetic, dire, awful, gutless version of Atlético Madrid - as opposed to the barely competent one - stuffed with players that Roberto Palomer brands in Monday's Marca as 'immature, irresponsible and incapable of walking and chewing gum at the same time'.

'Investing one gram of energy in this team is a waste of time,' argued the columnist.

Much of the depressed Rojiblanco support now seems to feel the same way.

After most of Atlético's dismal displays this season, hundreds of fans have been gathering outside the stadium's dingy VIP entrance to call for the club's shady owners, Enrique Cerezo and Miguel Angel Gil Marin (and his clan), to sell up and get out of town.

But after Sunday's loss to Málaga there was barely a murmur of discontent from the supporters either during or after the game.

The Rojiblancos, a fanbase that supposedly enjoys a good wallow in self-pity, had simply endured too much to care any more. They had been made comatose by one calamity too many.

Conceding a goal barely three minutes into the game after yet another defensive howler from the side's ludicrous back four seems to have chucked a large bucket of p*** over the last flickering flame of hope in Atlético hearts.

The Rojiblanco faithful had endured a league campaign that now sees them just six points off the relegation zone but 11 from the European places. On top of that, Atlético were the winners of the worst 'Champions League campaign from a Spanish club, ever' award after scraping just three points and three goals in their six ties.

One of the causes for the despair for the suffering support is that there seems to be no solution whatsoever to Atlético's ongoing problems.

Aside from the comedy defence, there is more than enough talent in the team for Atleti to be in the top six, especially with the cash-strapped and decidedly limited Mallorca and Deportivo currently occupying two of these spaces.

It's just that the dysfunctional leadership from the two barely-on-speaking-terms clowns that own and run the club has lead to a culture of abject incompetency and a squad of players that simply don't have the mind to put their finger in, never mind pull it out.

Take Atlético's winter transfer dealings for example. At the end if 2009, Enrique Cerezo boasted that the club had no need to reinforce and that everything was tickety-boo at the Calderón club. Soon after, moves for former Chelsea midfielder Tiago, and Lanus winger Salvio were made.

The latter transfer meant that the Calderón club had too many non-EU players in their ranks, meaning that Brazilian midfielder Cleber Santan, had to be moved to Sao Paolo after having renewed his contract with Atleti just a few months before.

The front four in the side compose of Diego Forlán, who has been lethargic and sulky since extending his current deal with the club; Kun Agüero, who knows that he is 'doing a Torres' and will be released from the asylum over the summer; Simao, who has barely been worth a single cent of his €19 million fee paid nearly three years ago, and José Antonio Reyes, who is not exactly reliable when the going gets tough.

The fact that none of them apparently get on with each other doesn't really help the Atleti cause either, with Forlán and Reyes needing club captain Antonio López to step in to prevent on-the-field fisticuffs during last week's defeat against Getafe.

"This is nothing new, things have always been this way," sighed Kun Agüero last week on the latest footballing fiasco at his club.

The manager that is charged with having to cope with this unruly rabble is Quique Sánchez Flores, the former Valencia boss who was brought in during October after his predecessor, Abel Resino, repeatedly tried and failed to get his players vaguely interested in the concept of winning football matches.

Resino himself was preceded by Javier Aguirre, who was fired a year ago and claimed that after his spell trying to steer the Atlético ship of fools he "went to a neurologist, a cardiologist, a dentist and a nutritionist".

Quique's favoured tactic of late to get the best out of his players and avoid the kind of health makeover required by Aguirre has been to publicly shame his footballers into a response.

"I've got to look for players that won't let me down," blasted the Atleti boss after a 3-0 away defeat to second division Recreativo in the first leg of a Copa del Rey clash at the beginning of January. "Some of them aren't going to cheat me anymore."

But on Sunday night the 44-year-old Quique looked 20 years older and bereft of spirit as he tried to explain away the 2-0 defeat to Málaga. All the forlorn figure could do was make another apology to the fans for the complete lack of consistency and effort from his players.

"I felt the desperation of the crowd during the game," said the Rojiblanco coach.

The only tiny glimmer of hope left in Atlético's dismal season is a two-legged Copa del Rey semi-final against Racing Santander over the next ten days and a potential final against either Getafe or Sevilla.

Indeed, Kun Agüero made it clear after Sunday's defeat that it was this clash that was possibly the only thing on the players' tiny minds. "Now we've got to think about the cup," admitted the Argentinean striker.

But Atleti have barely been half decent in this competition, either, with two Second Division sides having only just been overcome in the previous rounds. Thursday's home clash sees the side facing their first opponent of any kind of substance.

A victory in the Copa del Rey would hardly paper over the gargantuan cracks at the club.

Atlético are in desperate financial straits with a hefty debt and the club's income dwarfed by a fat wage bill - a wage bill partly made up by a payment of nearly a million euros to one of the owners after last season's qualification into the Champions League. That precarious situation is set to worsen next season with Atleti set to lose out on another fix of Champions League income.

But neither the players nor indeed the fans seem to care anymore.

Sunday's game was possibly the worst seen at the Vicente Calderón this season. Worse even than the 1-1 draw against second division Celta Vigo just two weeks before when Quique admitted that "he didn't like anything" about his team's performance.

Although the sensationalist Spanish press tend to hail every win as proof positive that 'Atlético are back' and every defeat as a disaster, the club is on the steepest of declines - a decline that may be almost impossible to halt.


Round 20 Results

Espanyol 1-0 Athletic
Deportivo 1-3 Real Madrid
Sporting 0-1 Barcelona
Getafe 0-0 Racing Santander
Xerez 2-1 Mallorca
Tenerife 1-3 Zaragoza
Villarreal 0-2 Osasuna
Valladolid 1-1 Almería
Atlético 0-2 Málaga
Sevilla 2-1 Valencia


Tim Stannard

[Metaphysical]

I don't think he looks back, it's just a brilliant assist.

not as good as this piece of awesome however.

more ballsy, perhaps, but not as magnificently incisive.

[Beast]

La Liga’s Good Day, Bad Day - Week 20

Monday 01 February 2010 14:30
RESULTS Sat Jan 30 Deportivo La Coruna 1-3 Real Madrid, Espanyol 1-0 Athletic Bilbao, Sporting Gijon 0-1 Barcelona Sun Jan 31 Atletico Madrid 0-2 Malaga, Getafe 0-0 Racing Santander, Sevilla 2-1 Valencia, Tenerife 1-3 Real Zaragoza, Valladolid 1-1 Almeria, Villarreal 0-2 Osasuna, Xerez 2-1 Mallorca


GOOD DAY

Barcelona
“Invictus” cried Sport after Barça’s 1-0 win over Sporting. “Cheating scumbags” was the vibe from both AS and Marca, who feel that Pedro’s goal was offside and came from a freekick taken in the wrong place.

What’s more, Leo Messi should have been sent off, apparently, and Sporting were deserving of a spot-kick after a push from Rafa Marquez.

“A strange penalty against Madrid and a strange goal for Barcelona,” complains Tomas Guasch in Monday’s AS.

To this end, Real Madrid are now just a point behind Barcelona in Marca’s league table based on their own refereeing of la Liga’s games.

Happily for the Culé collective, Pep’s Dream Boys still have a five-point lead over Madrid in the real world, after a game where the scoreline was narrow but the dominance over the opposition was immense.

And as for Pedro’s goal? Spanish TV channel Cuatro built a graphic showing that the Barça forward was offside when Andrés Iniesta made his pass. Another, Gol TV, used the “latest technology” to show that it was valid, after all. Make of that, what you will.

Guti
These are strange days indeed. Flying machines, talking boxes, and a Madrid media that now feels that Guti’s showboating, shot-bottling back-heel to Karim Benzema is justification enough for the midfielder to go to the World Cup with Spain. And not as the official jester, either.

“If he continues this way he could be very useful in South Africa,” argued the paper that branded the footballer ‘God’ and forced the picnic blanket-wearing Real Madrid player to recreate his magic moment in his back garden.

Xerez
A 2-1 win over Mallorca sees the club’s points tally moving into double figures and within touching distance - in the Mr Tickle sense - of fourth-from-bottom Valladolid who are seven points away.

Duda
With all due respect to Málaga - which is very little, as it happens, considering their owner is Lorenzo Sanz - Duda is far, far, far too good for the Andalusian side and should play more than the role of a midfielder who bounces between Málaga, where he is on loan, and Sevilla.

Duda’s early effort against Atlético and constant attacks down both flanks inspired a win for an injury-hit Málaga side at the Vicente Calderón. He should surely persuade someone, somewhere that the Portuguese international deserves a move to a higher footballing plain.

Alvaro Negredo
Having had more sticky patches than Ever Banega’s keyboard, Alvaro Negredo bought himself some breathing space from his many critics with two goals for Sevilla to defeat Valencia on Sunday night, including an absolute peach of a lob.

It remains to be seen if Sevilla are getting back to their best, as Manolo Jiménez claimed after the match – but having Luis Fabiano, Fredi Kanouté and an on-form Negredo in the ranks can’t be a bad thing.

Espanyol
A miserable, miserable game in El Prat saw Espanyol come away 1-0 winners against Athletic in a match that Paul from Barcelona joined the blog in taking one for the team by enduring.

“A very comfortable victory for Espanyol against a weak Athletic team. Athletic seemed to spend most of the game pretending to be injured [harsh!!!! - LLL] and hoping to stop the play.

"Bizarrely, they went mental when an Espanyol player was down and the ball was kicked out. Not much of note to report except a fine move led to Luis García's tap-in. Athletic tried hard in injury time but never looked like scoring.

"Points of note - slim pickings, I'm afraid. Espanyol's Javi Marquez was excellent yet again. Came through the youth team and is a gem. Funny though, we don't tend to bang on about it like other teams. Didac, another from the youth team, had a solid debut – the seventh junior to make his debut this season.

"Athletic's away support was poor by their standards and their team was just as poor. The only thing poorer was, yes, you’ve guessed it, the officials. Athletic were so poor, even the ref couldn't find a way to help them score. He was bad but his linesmen were abysmal.
-- Paul, Barcelona"

Zaragoza
After 11 attempts Zaragoza managed to win a game and had it all tied up in a mad eight-minute spell when Gay’s men knocked three past the hapless Tenerife defence.

BAD DAY

Ernesto Valverde
Wow. Like the rest of the inhabitants of la Primera’s punditland, La Liga Loca really didn’t see the Villarreal coach being fired this weekend. Then again, it really didn’t expect the 2-0 home defeat to Osasuna either.

The combination of the poor start to the season, the embarrassing cup exit to Celta Vigo - a side that even Atlético overcame - the near-capitulation against Zaragoza last week and this latest reverse sees Valverde out on the street.

Atlético Madrid
“They’re back!” “They’re terrible!” “They’re back!” “They’re terrible” - and so the Spanish press continues in their coverage of Atlético Madrid, who are now lurching from lamppost to bin like Giovani dos Santos after a good night out.

Sunday’s Málaga defeat was probably the worst performance it has seen at the Vicente Calderón this season and didn’t have a single positive that could be taken from the game. Aside from the comedy result, that is.

Athletic Bilbao
The two worst halves of football endured by La Liga Loca this season that haven’t involved Deportivo - they take up 27 places - have involved Athletic Bilbao.

The first was the opening 45 minutes against Mallorca at the beginning of January. The latest was Saturday’s encounter at Espanyol that still makes the blog shudder just to think about it.

Valladolid
A truly desperate 1-1 draw against Almería sees Valladolid coach José Luis Mendilibar in Monday’s papers being tipped as the second manager this week to be losing his job.

Manucho
The Africa Cup of Nations already made it hard for the Valladolid striker to fulfil his promise of 40 goals this season. Now the forward has another game fewer after his sending off against Almería, leaving him a target of 38 strikes from just 18 games.

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[Gnegneri]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJw_6bgwtrk

There, 2:45 onwards, he just runs into the box at full speed there is no way he looked back, not until he let go of the ball.

Or do you just want to argue

I don't think he looks back, it's just a brilliant assist.

No. He looks.

Just after he controlls the ball and before he decides to make the backheel pass. He doesn't turn his head fully, just slightly. But his head is never constantly pointed towards the direction of the ball or the goal. It's not a shame, it is a brilliant execution of a world class assist.

To illustrate: (look at the thing in his hair, that's what gives him away)



So yeah, he does see Benzema. And no, it's not for the sake of argueing.

[Raed]

I don't think he looks back, it's just a brilliant assist.

not as good as this piece of awesome however.

more ballsy, perhaps, but not as magnificently incisive.

More ballsy? No man, that I disagree. guti was infront of the goal, playing on ground we only earned 5 points from in the past 19 years going for the second, and eventual winner.

Ibrahimovic is a lot more skill but Guti's is more ballsy...

unless I understood you wrong.

[Raed]

No. He looks.

Just after he controlls the ball and before he decides to make the backheel pass. He doesn't turn his head fully, just slightly. But his head is never constantly pointed towards the direction of the ball or the goal. It's not a shame, it is a brilliant execution of a world class assist.

To illustrate: (look at the thing in his hair, that's what gives him away)



So yeah, he does see Benzema. And no, it's not for the sake of argueing.

He himself said he caught Benzima with the corner of his eye, but that is barely a look, it is more instinct than anything...