Liga Pundits articles

[Beast]

Could Guti be Spain’s World Cup Wonder?
Tim Stannard

Wednesday 03 February 2010 17:00

Bernd Schuster says the concept is “ridiculous.”

Vicente del Bosque muses that “the door is open.”

Sport claim that he can’t change his ways at 33.

Penelope Cruz screams “in the name of all that is holy, La Liga Loca! Leave me alone! How did you get my number, anyway? Don’t you understand that it’s over between us!”

All week, the whole country has been a-buzzin' with the notion that Guti could be the most unexpected of entries into Spain’s World Cup squad for South Africa 2010.

And all because of a back-heel to Benzema up in La Coruña.

Many argue that the idea is insane, ridiculous, barmy, ludicrous, absurd, risible, nonsensical and farcical.

Others maintain that the debate is complete b*llocks, dreamt up by AS and Marca after some kind of bet to see what they can get away with.

But La Liga Loca asks: Guti at the World Cup with Spain? Why the heck not?

Why It's Crazy Talk

1) In Guti’s 14 seasons as a Real Madrid professional - stretching that term to breaking point - the midfielder has played in fewer than half of the available minutes during that spell.

This stands in comparison with the 78 percent racked up by Raúl, who is just nine months older.

This rather hefty absentee rate has been down to laziness, injuries both real and... (checks law book...) real, falling out with coaches, being suspended, awful form, dentist appointments, christenings, holidays, something good being on TV and offering naff all for much of the season aside from a couple of over-hyped passes the blog’s dead granny could make given the opportunities Guti has handed to him every year.

Guti would be as committed to Spain’s World Cup cause as Maniche is to a bowl of Special K.

2) Guti may claim this week that he would like to go to South Africa, but this is the player that Katy Perry writes songs about (two of them, in fact).

In the course of a recent interview Guti revealed that he wanted to see out his career at Real Madrid, play in England (see proof on the YouTube!), play for Inter Milan and retire to Bangkok to bomb around on a moped.

The Madrid player may be itching to go to the World Cup now, but what happens when Del Bosque calls him up and Guti pulls out due to the opening of a new hat shop?

Or the home delivery of a disco ball?

3) Because he waddles like Liam Gallagher circa What’s the Story, Morning Glory?.

Why It's Perfect Sense

1) When the chips are down, the turnips are up and it’s all gone Pete Tong out on the pitch, the footballer that Spain really needs coming off the bench is not Cesc Fabregas, but Guti - the only player in the world who can change the fortunes of his team in a split second with a moment of pure genius.*

*Not technically true. Guti generally likes Madrid to be a good two or three goals to the good against beleaguered opposition before making his “killer passes,” which tend to be fairly ordinary when taken out of context of the Madridista hype-machine.

2) Spain may well come up against all kinds of dastardly, dark-arts devils during this summer’s footballing festival.

The midfielder is the one cat who is guaranteed to remain cool, calm and collected in the midst of the most horrendous of hullabaloos.**

**Again, a slight white lie. Just boot Guti a couple of times from behind (see Osasuna games) and you can be sure he’ll be sent off after a retaliatory knee-breaker just seconds later.

3) Guti is better than all of Spain’s current midfielders combined. And then some. For example...

Xavi has suckered the world into thinking he is a superstar due to his ability to complete five-yard passes.

“Whoopedy do!” says the blog. Guti can do them backwards. And he’s a more useful presence in the dressing room when items off high shelves are required.

Iniesta? Forehead too big, scalp too bare and hasn’t scored for his club this season. Guti? Cool hair and THREE goals.

And as for the new young tyke, Jesus Navas?

All Luis Fabiano needs to do in their upcoming clash in South Africa is show the Sevilla man a photo of his house and he’ll be sobbing into the turf and shipped home before you can say “I should never have left Andalusia.”

These are the arguments both for and against Guti’s World Cup inclusion, plain and clear.

Now it's time for the blog collective to chew over this week’s big issue: Guti - should he stay, or should he go?
---------------

[Gnegneri]

Amazing.


Thanks beast.

[Beast]

Good habits stand Barca in good stead
By Phil Ball

"Successful football is about good habits," quoth Brian Clough, more or less in those words. Maybe so. What he meant was that you inculcate good habits into a player on the training ground to the extent that the player then reproduces them automatically on match-days, usually without the manager's further intervention.

Clough, for one, was famous for not turning up for training sessions, preferring to take his dog for a walk, which was his implicit way of acknowledging that the habits had been taken on. Vicente Del Bosque is another one from this school of management, preferring not to change the well-oiled Luis Aragonés machine, and only applying fine-tuning when necessary.

When this works well, a team can seem invincible. When it's the other way around, the negative runs can seem irreversible. The phrase that often accompanies these two states is 'winning/losing mentality', since a simpler explanation seems to be required by the general public. But it's a combination of habits and a state of mind, from the background work that has been put in.

My team, Grimsby Town, lost at home to Notts County last Saturday and established a club record of 20 consecutive games without a win. That's some going, since the club was founded in 1878. I saw them play at Christmas, as I mentioned in this column, and they drew at home to Bury, needlessly conceding a penalty in the last minute of the game. It was a result of bad habits, an inability to both kill the game and hold onto the ball for any longer than a couple of seconds. It was nothing to do with bad luck.

With this not particularly in mind, I watched an indulgent amount of football over the weekend, for a married man with children. May St Peter understand, in the end, that it was all in the service of ESPN. On Saturday morning I watched a junior game of my son's ex-team, then nipped home to watch the Liverpool derby on the box. Early evening I watched some Spanish second division fare, with Murcia playing Real Sociedad, then wandered out to the bar to have a look at Barcelona versus Getafe. The wonderful Strictly Come Dancing has been replaced by the appalling So You Think You Can Dance?, leaving me no option but to leave the house. When I returned, I took in Real Madrid v Espanyol, and finished off in a semi-vegetative state as the English Match of the Day droned by.

On the Sunday morning I went to watch my son play for Antiguoko, the boys' team that produced Xabi Alonso, Mikel Arteta, Aritz Aduriz and several others now plying their professional trade. They won 3-0, went top of a league in which they are a year younger than the rest of the teams, and basically proved Clough's point - or is it Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola's?

Antiguoko were visited by a delegation from Liverpool last year to see how it's done, and visited this year by a Japanese delegation for similar reasons. They're a humbler Ajax Academy, and are not affiliated to any professional team. Neither do they enjoy the facilities that Ajax possess. The visitors sent by Benitez were stunned to find that the club had no ground of its own, sharing a municipal one with a score of other local clubs. The present squad, plus recent additions like my son, went the first three years of its existence without losing a single match. The first time was to Barcelona, in a national tournament. Their tactical system is slightly rigid, and it takes time for newcomers to get used to it, but the players are basically wired into a curious 'we shall not lose' paradigm. It's kind of scary, and I think they'd probably beat Grimsby, in spite of only being 14 year-olds. Scary in the same way as Barça were, on Saturday night.

Barça still haven't lost in the league this season, and the Getafe game in the Camp Nou was an interesting demonstration of why not. It marked a line across the league, a possible 'they shall not pass' in reference to their closest pursuers, Real Madrid. If ever there was an occasion in which they were likely to lose, this was it. The fact that they won comfortably (the 2-1 scoreline masks the truth), was a slap in the face of Madrid's dogged rearguard actions, condemned for several weeks now to the act of entering the fray with the sole motive of needing to win in order to reduce Barça's temporary eight-point lead to five. They must be getting a bit fed up of waiting for the leaders to blow it.

But hope springs eternal in the breast, despite the fact that Messi had opened the scoring with another wonder goal to add to his burgeoning collection, hitting a curling shot first time with his instep that left Codina grasping at the ether. Twenty minutes later, Gerard Piqué took out Rafa with a clumsy and aggressive-looking challenge which earned him a direct red, although you might argue that the decision was a tad harsh. It wasn't the first problem of the night, since Dani Alves had already gone for an earlier bath having injured himself in the warm-up.

Problem? Not really. Getafe are a good side, and are not afraid to have a go in a place like the Camp Nou, and for twenty minutes or so after Pique walked they controlled the game and should have equalised. But the curious thing about that initial period of numerical inequality was that it made absolutely no difference to Barça's basic approach. Helenio Herrera once said that he preferred to play with ten men because it suited his tactical mentality and approach to the game, but he was talking about parking the bus and renouncing anything resembling so much as a counter-attack. Barça did no such thing, and only made minimal tactical adjustments.

At one point (I made a note of the time - 33 minutes, 24 seconds), Getafe gave the ball away just inside their own half and were suddenly swarmed upon by marauding azulgranas, effected with such speed that Getafe were suddenly outnumbered four to five at the back. Xavi almost scored, and the pattern for the second half was set.

As time wore on in the game, particularly after Ibrahimovic had given way to Sergio Busquets, Barça seemed to have more men on the pitch than Getafe. It never occurred to Barcelona that they might lose. Instead of retiring into the trenches and letting Getafe have the run of Camp Nou, they simply played their usual possession game, using Messi as the lone reference up front, but making sure that whenever he had the ball he would scare the Getafe defenders into the sort of defensive scurrying that impeded their staging a comeback. When you're 11 on 10, you wage a war of attrition on your tiring opponents, and eventually it pays off. Instead, Getafe seemed to be constantly on the back foot, much to manager Michel's growing desperation.

Messi sealed it after 66 minutes, setting off with five Getafe players in pursuit and like a mother bird leading predators from her nest, he za-zoomed to the left of the area as Xavi crept up behind and stole into the unguarded space to the right. Messi stopped on a 50-cent piece, turned and passed it over with his right foot, upon which Xavi finished the game. Getafe's penalty in extra-time, which resulted in Rafa Marquez being sent off, was hardly significant.

The funniest aspect of all this was the continued campaign in the Madrid press the following day about how Barcelona are being aided and abetted by the referees. Interesting one that. Barça had two players sent off and conceded a penalty. The referee, Teixiera Vitienes, was clearly a secret Catalan. If it weren't so pathetic it would be amusing. Apparently Ibra was offide for the first goal, and the ref turned a 'clear' penalty down when Rios actually dived over Abidal. Sending off two Barça players was clearly an attempt to hide his bias, and the fact that the two players will be missing for the trip to Atlético Madrid next week is irrelevant, of course. Txiki Begiristain, finally losing his patience with this niggly little campaign, let forth some emotional steam on Sunday morning, but he might be better off just ignoring it.

Barcelona sent out a message to the rest of the league on Saturday night. Its content was basically 'we're going to win the league again, and there's not much you can do about it'. The good habits have not been formed entirely by Guardiola, but he has added to them and is not a hands-off manager. Barça do not view defeat as a possibility. So far it's a mojo that's working fine.

[Beast]

Madrid Press Lose Plot In La Liga...
Whilst Xavi Hernández can't have been best pleased to see his team-mate Gerard Piqué being sent off after a tasty, two-footed tackle against Getafe on Saturday night, the Barça midfielder was still able to see at least one positive side to an otherwise unfortunate event.

"At least there'll be a little less talk about referees," noted the scorer of the second goal in the 2-1 win over Getafe - a clash that also saw a red card for Rafael Marquez that reduced the Camp Nou club to nine men in the final minutes of the encounter.

'Fat chance' was the collective response from the Madridista press who have been running an insane campaign of late, claiming that every aspect of Barcelona's success this season is down to the largesse of corrupt officials participating in a plot to prevent the almighty Madrid taking their rightful place at the top of the table.

'This can all be seen in 'the other league' where Guardiola's men have six points more than they should,' sniffs Marca's editorial on Monday, that advises readers to look at their own table, adjusted to reflect the paper's interpretation of refereeing decisions to leave Madrid just one point behind Barça.

It is press-produced lunacy driven by petulance over Barça's five-point lead, jealousy over the Catalan club's continued success, the need to shift a few papers when there is naff all else going on and perhaps a phone call or two from Real Madrid with some 'editorial advice'.

The madness began in earnest a fortnight ago with Cristiano Ronaldo's expulsion and two-match suspension after an elbow to the face of Málaga's Patrick Mtiliga - a footballer who deliberately got his nose broken by CR9 to become more famous, according to some Real Madrid fans known to your correspondent.

After the subsequent appeal against that ban was turned down, the Madrid press leapt upon this injustice and jammed it together with a 1-0 win over Sporting for Barcelona in the same round as proof positive of a pro-Barça conspiracy that explains the league champions' 'superiority' in la Liga.

The victory in El Molinón was down to a narrow - but correct - offside decision in Barcelona's favour and saw a fruity tackle from Leo Messi that was a punished with a yellow rather than a red card.

However, replay after replay, photo after photo, was broadcast of the offside call involving Pedro with Marca being accused by the Barcelona press of photoshopping the image to move the culé striker into an offside position at the moment of the pass.

TV channel 'Cuatro' used a virtual offside line that looked somewhat diagonal in its slant to this column's eyes to rule out Barcelona's goal as illegal.

"These campaigns are intolerable," complained Barça's sporting director Txiki Beguiristain after a week of editorials from Marca and AS claiming that Barcelona's undefeated 21-match league record along with the team's 52 goals scored and 11 conceded was all down to perfidious referees.

However, Pep Guardiola has been taking the whole ridiculous affair a little less seriously and commented on a controversial midweek penalty awarded to Atlético Madrid from a tackle that took place outside the box.

"We called Atleti and told them, 'don't worry', we can help!" joshed the Barcelona coach ahead of Saturday's victory over Getafe.

Unfortunately, the Madridista press are in no joking mood with Marca putting Pique's tackle on Sunday's front cover, asking the question, 'so how many matches is this worth?'

Later on in the same edition, their resident referee was still not satisfied with Madrid's 3-0 victory over Espanyol from Saturday night and felt that a penalty should have been awarded to the home side to make it a four-goal victory along with three red cards to Real's opponents.

And that was on top of the paper's analysis of Barcelona's win which apparently came about through two illegal goals and should have seen a sending-off for Eric Abidal.

'Before, there was Madridismo with objectivity,' sighed Santi Nolla in Monday's edition of Barcelona-based Sport on his capital city counterparts, 'now there's just Madridismo.'

If truth be told, it is doubtful that most of the journalists involved in this nonsense believe the rubbish that they are spouting. However, papers have to be sold and sports shows need to be watched.

The problem, at the moment, is that there is almost nothing else to write about in regards to the Big Two in la Liga and there is little interest in Spain in the goings-on of the other 18 also-rans of la Primera, aside from Atlético's ongoing adventures.

Madrid have now won 11 from 11 at home after swiping away the likes of Zaragoza and Tenerife whilst Barcelona have rarely been in serious danger of losing their unbeaten record so far this season.

The league campaign, up to now, has been a big phoney war that has left second-placed Madrid eight points ahead of their nearest challengers Valencia and 13 from Sevilla, in fourth.

But soon, papers of both Big Two persuasions may have some actual news to jam onto their front pages as opposed to childish bickering.

Barcelona face a potentially stern challenge in the Vicente Calderón next Sunday against an Atlético Madrid side that is more than capable of defeating the league leaders - as well as losing 15-0 too.

With Madrid expected to overcome bottom of the table Xerez - despite The Man working against them - the gap at the top of the table may, just may, be reduced to a more intriguing two.

Real Madrid's next two encounters at the Bernabeu will be against Villarreal and Sevilla, two sides who may show a little more resistance than Espanyol did on Saturday with the visitors failing to manage an away goal in the league since September.

Moans and groans about referees having it in for side A or side B are hardly restricted to Spain. After all, both managers in last week's horror-fest between Sunderland and Wolves whined that decisions had been going against their clubs all season.

Indeed, it would refreshing to hear a manager admitting, one day, that a dodgy penalty against his team was "only fair, as the refs have helped us loads this year".

While a lot of this media madness in Spain can be laughed off, reading every paper and watching every channel as they spout the same conspiratorial nonsense can genuinely drive you nuts. Especially when a fair amount of it stems from political rather than editorial concerns.

But what is really distressing is that people are actually taking leave of their senses and beginning to believe what is being written and said.

They believe that Madrid are being robbed of the league title.

They believe that Cristiano Ronaldo is the victim of a miscarriage of justice.

They believe that Kaká and Karim Benzema are great value for money.

But more incredibly, they believe that Barcelona are top of the table due to referees and not because of the simple fact that they are much better than everyone else.


Round 21 Results

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

Tim Stannard

[Gnegneri]

"a tasty, two-footed tackle"
It's OK if you call it a red cause it is, but that is far from the truth.

Also the 33m24s event from Ball? Getafe lost the ball but Xavi wasn't even close to the box, nor were there 5 players marauding getafe.


For the rest all cool and thanks beats for the copy/paste.

[Raed]

I was watching the game with my Culero friend and when Getafe did not do anything worthwhile with the ball, this depressing feeling came over me knowing that Barca have constructed a system which can withstand dents and can be punished yet stay effective. Not to mention, that their players are committed and those who are not, are replaced by ones who are. There is very little room for error, very little room for failure, they are just that superior. In Europe maybe it is different, but here is hoping so!

[Beast]

Valencia grateful for the awe-inspiring improvement of Ever Banega | Sid Lowe


In the summer they tried to give him away, but the Argentinian is now regarded among Los Ches' best players

No one would touch Ever Banega. Except Ever Banega. You'd think he was highly contagious, struck down by a particularly nasty bout of bubonic plague, a huge red X splashed across his front door as the fearful scurried by, clutching hankies to their faces, nervously crossing themselves, holding their breath until they were a safe distance away. You'd think he was a hand grenade with the pin pulled, a pass-the-parcel packed with poison, a copy of Socialist Worker or the Watchtower. Valencia had given him to Atlético Madrid and Atlético had given him straight back. Now Valencia were desperately trying to give him to someone else, anyone else. But everyone just dashed past shaking their heads. No one else wanted him, no one else dared.

No one else who counted, anyway. No one who could touch Banega, would touch Banega. No one, in other words, who Banega would let touch him. Last summer Real Madrid came for David Villa clutching €40m (£35m). Barcelona followed waving €42, and another €20m for Juan Mata. Juventus turned up in a truck with €25m in the back, asking after David Silva. And there was even €16m for Pablo Hernández, if they wanted it. But they didn't want it. At every turn, temptation clawed at them. €500m in debt, the pull was almost irresistible but the new president, Manolo Llorente, resisted. Over €125m worth of bids came in and only Raúl Albiol departed – sold to Madrid for €18m.

Llorente announced that Villa would only depart if Valencia received a "scandalously scandalous" offer and the coach, Unai Emery, pleaded with the club not to sell Silva, but Banega was different. Forget Madrid and Barcelona and Juventus, the teams that came for Banega were Napoli and Stuttgart and Marseille. And forget €40m, or €20m, or even the €10m buyout clause on his contract. The offers that came for Banega weren't much higher than €8m. Yet when it came to the Argentinian, Valencia decided to say yes.

Villa had begged to go; Valencia begged Banega to go. They even tried to force him to join Everton on loan. No money, just go. The reason was simple. Banega was trouble. And not that good. He was damaged goods. Sure, there had been flashes – but they were the wrong kind of flashes. There had been alcohol abuse and self abuse. One of five kids from a family he claimed was so poor they "practically ate mud", he had a face like a cartoon mouse, all protruding ears and nibbling teeth, and claimed that football had saved him. Yet he appeared an awfully long way from salvation. Part of the Argentina Under-20 squad that smashed up their hotel at the 2007 World Championship (and filmed themselves doing it), Banega left for Europe at 19, having played just 28 first division games. He was too young, he'd come too soon. No sooner had he arrived in Valencia than he was caught on a webcam performing some online onanism. Soon he was picked up by the police having jumped a red light. At 3.30 in the morning. While over the limit.

It was not an isolated incident. One week he was out on the town four nights running. He joined Atlético on loan, having signed a no-going-out clause, but still he went out. Night after night. Within the club, there was a feeling that unlike Maniche – the man who managed to lose two club suits during trips to away games (and ask yourself how you lose a suit) – he wasn't a bad kid. And, they suspected, he might not be a bad player one day. He wasn't just off the rails, he was screeching across the platform, maiming terrified commuters. He set a new club record for disciplinary fines. He was, says one observer, a cabra loca – a crazy goat. When he turned up over an hour late and "practically asleep" to a team meeting the chances of the rojiblancos exercising their right to buy finally disappeared.

"Before this season, Ever was known more for what he did off the pitch than what he did on it," commented Emery. Hardly surprising, as he'd done plenty off the pitch and precious little on it. He always wanted the ball and produced the occasional great display, but it was very occasional: he won just the one crack award. "I've done nothing to warrant them keeping me," Banega admitted of Atlético, and the same was true of Valencia. Bought as the man to finally replace Rubén Baraja, the creative force in the middle of the Valencia midfield, he'd failed like Hugo Viana, Fernandes and Edu. In two seasons he'd scored none and produced just one assist. At Atlético he made just five starts and led their stats in only one area – red cards. €18m for this? According to AS's average ratings, in his two seasons he had been Spain's 374th and 327th best player.

No wonder Emery told him Stuttgart was nice this time of year; no wonder no big clubs would touch him. But Banega wasn't for turning, telling one team-mate: "The only way I'm leaving here is in a box." The clubs didn't impress him and nor, more importantly, did his own behaviour. Something changed. Banega changed. He had a new girlfriend – described as a "sergeant major" – and a new attitude.
In pre-season training he threw himself into every session; team-mates could not believe what they were seeing. Tetchy when he was asked about alcohol, there was nonetheless a tacit admittance of his sins. "This year, I'm starting from scratch," he said. "I arrived at 19 and made mistakes. I wasted two years and have thought about things. Now I hardly ever go out." "Banega," declared José Luis Hurtado in Marca, "has had a facelift – in his brain. Everything he didn't need has been binned. There's nothing left of that lad who was run over by the league and by life."
At just 21, he'd become a new player. Just ask anyone who was at Mestalla on Saturday night as Valencia defeated Valladolid to go to the top of the other league – the one teams other than Madrid and Barcelona are allowed to play in.

David Villa resuscitated a move that had already been read the last rites to help make the opening goal and got the second with a diving header, David Silva was his usual feisty, creative self and Juan Mata was a bundle of movement and missed chances. But Banega was Valencia's outstanding player, thumping in the first, wonderfully picking out Villa for the second, and running the game from deep – quick in the tackle, smooth on the ball, always available. "Banega," said Marca, "robs like an Italian, shoots like a German, and plays like the Argentinian he is."

Not just on Saturday night, every night. On the opening day, El País's headline noted that Mestalla had "discovered Banega" – 18 months after he joined the club – and he's carried on from there. He's already doubled his career total of goals. Outside Madrid and Barcelona only one player has completed more passes. No one in the Valencia side – a side that boasts Pablo, Villa, Silva, Mata and Joaquín – has completed more dribbles. Only four players have more assists than him. And he's even among the players who commit the most fouls. He is, in short, the complete central midfielder. It's no coincidence that when Emery has removed him to play more defensively or protect a lead, he's paid for it: twice Banega has been withdrawn late on with the score at 2-1 only for Valencia to draw 2-2, and he was mysteriously left out as Valencia travelled to Sevilla last week. And lost.

It was a terrible decision. When Banega refused to leave, Valencia were furious; six months later their former sporting director Amadeo Carboni insists: "Banega is the most important player in the squad. He dictates the pace of the game, he gives assists, he organises the play from deep, he runs the game." In the summer, the only one who would touch Ever Banega was, famously, Ever Banega. Now Valencia are holding him tight – and this time they're not about to let go.

Talking points

• Madrid beat Espanyol 3-0 having kept the same line-up for consecutive games for the first time all season – in other words, Xabi Alonso, Guti and Granero together in midfield. Barcelona, meanwhile, beat Getafe 2-1 despite being down to 10 men from the 25th minute. Another red card and a penalty came in the 93rd minute. Both reds, for Gerard Piqué and Rafael Márquez, were probably just about the right decision. The first was one of the most ridiculous curlers you're likely to see – Messi's shot was heading for the corner flag and suddenly it was inside the post. Barcelona go to Atlético next week without Piqué, Márquez, the injured Daniel Alves and Yaya Touré.

• Dirty weekend? The dirtiest ever. Nine red cards were dished out, three of them, unsurprisingly, from jelly-headed referee César Muñiz Fernández. But in truth, almost all of them were strictly speaking justified (in fact, there could have been more). Alfonso Alvarez Izquierdo didn't send anyone off but he did trip over the ball, which was nice. The Sporting defender Gregory was sent off for saying something to a ballboy.

• Villarato. Please, please, please. Will someone just make it go away?

• New manager, definite victory? Perhaps not: Valladolid were beaten by Valencia with the new coach, Onésimo Sánchez, on the touchline, while Villarreal were beaten by Mallorca in their first game under Juan Carlos Garrido. 1-0, scoring from a set piece, which tends to be the Mallorca way. They're back in a Champions League place having won 10 out of 10 at home. It's still unbelievable.

• Pennant watch: the English winger came on as a sub for Real Zaragoza, got a yellow card within a few seconds, and created a great assist that was wasted. Nothing new there – the only surprise was that the man who wasted it wasn't Angel Javier Arizmendi.
Results Valencia 2-0 Valladolid, Barcelona 2-1 Getafe, Madrid 3-0 Espanyol, Málaga 0-0 Deportivo, Athletic 3-2 Xerez, Mallorca 1-0 Villarreal, Osasuna 1-0 Tenerife [a fourth win on the trot for Osasuna], Almería 3-1 Sporting, Zaragoza 2-1 Sevilla, Racing 1-1 Atlético.

[Beast]

Good Day, Bad Day - Round 21

Monday 08 February 2010 17:00
RESULTS: Sat Feb 6 - Valencia 2-0 Valladolid, Real Madrid 3-0 Espanyol, Barcelona 2-1 Getafe. Sun Feb 7 - Zaragoza 2-1 Sevilla, Racing Santander 1-1 Atletico Madrid, Osasuna 1-0 Tenerife, Mallorca 1-0 Villarreal, Malaga 0-0 Deportivo, Athletic Bilbao 3-2 Xerez, Almeria 3-1 Sporting Gijon.


Good Day

Real Madrid, Barcelona

Right. That’s it. The blog can’t take any more of this. It’s heading for the roof. Goodbye, cruel world.

After watching Saturday night’s Spanish footie, La Liga Loca was fairly optimistic that it would be a nice, normal week in the wacky world of the Spanish sports media - a world that the blog has to sift through on a daily basis.

After all, the weekend saw two wins and five nice uncontroversial goals for Real Madrid and Barça.

What’s more, two explusions for the Catalan club that seemed to be fair dinkum would mean that both warring camps could agree that there isn’t a pro-Barcelona refereeing conspiracy underway and put the past fortnight’s nonsense to bed.

Sadly, it was not too be.

That Gerard Pique should be banned for life for his tackle and that both of Barcelona’s goals were offside was the vibe from the Madridista press.

“More than beating Getafe, Messi had to beat the referee,” claimed Josep Casanovas in Sunday’s Sport, a paper that feels that both red cards were outrageous and the result of relentless pressure on referees to punish Barcelona, pressure instigated by Marca and AS.

The blog's helpful suggestion in response to all this is that both teams and their fans s*d off to an unpopulated atoll somewhere in the Pacific, set up their own league, with their own referees and leave everyone else alone.



Gonzalo Higuaín

Remember, Barcelona and Atlético fans, every goal from the Argentine striker causes an extra wrinkle of rancour on Florentino Pérez’s face.

Especially when it coincides with another finger-up-nose display of apathy from Karim Benzema.

And especially, especially, when Higuaín’s goals are absolute corkers, too.

Leo Messi

Thanks to the wondrous footballing stylings of little Leo, we all saw the same future at the same time, when four Getafe defenders followed the Argentine forward on his run, whilst failing to notice the downwind Xavi.

Osasuna

Four very good days for Osasuna sees Camacho’s men picking up 12 points from 12 and snug in mid-table.

And four very good days for La Liga Loca, too, means that the blog has not had to sit through any of the tedious, hoofing encounters that brought about those victories for the Pamplonan side.

Mallorca

Putting every ounce of energy into their home games and defending their goal as if their lives depended on it sees Mallorca with 10 wins from 10 at the Ono Estadi and having conceded just three goals in the process.

The manager behind this brilliant madness, Gregorio Manzano, was in full hailing mode after their latest triumph, a 1-0 win over Villarreal.

“The win is worth so much as it was against a side who have designs on the European places.”

As usual, most Mallorca fans couldn’t be bothered attending the encounter with just 12,000 showing up for Sunday afternoon’s clash.



Ever Banega

Poor Diego Maradona is currently caught in 1,000 tiny minds over which players to take to the World Cup, having called up 102 in the past year-and-a-half.

However, Ever Banega is making life a little easier for the confused international coach with some outstanding displays for Valencia and some cracking goals along the way.

Despite a rather limp start to his career in la Liga, Banega is a midfielder who is really coming on strong this season.

Fernando Llorente

The Athletic striker dug his side out of the deepest of holes on Sunday with two goals to force a narrow 3-2 victory over Xerez, of all teams.

Almería

Despite losing defender Chico after just two minutes after a fine one handed clearance - “a great save” notes AS - Almería survived a bruising battle against Sporting to pick up three points.

And that is a very bad thing indeed for a blog that desperately wants the southern side dropping out of the top flight and replaced with the infinitely more interesting Betis.

Zaragoza’s new boys

The law of averages suggests that at least some of Zaragoza’s seven winter signings would work.

And that’s the case with the new centre-back pairing of Matteo Contini and Jiri Jarosik, whose mean and moody ways and all round tightness have given Zaragoza more security to go forward - a security that has produced back-to-back wins against Tenerife and Sevilla.

The blog is less convinced by newly-arrived striker Humberto Suazo, who appears to have based a career in South America on having big googly eyes and little else.

Only one of his 11 shots in Sunday’s Sevilla clash were on target.

Bad Day

Miguel Angel Portugal

La Liga Loca is going to be honest and admit that it hasn’t seen a second of Racing’s late clash with Atlético Madrid.

It was going to have a little look on Monday morning but after reading yet more moans and complaints about fouls, cards and referees, it really doesn’t have the heart to do so.

So, it calls on the great blog readership to take one for the team and explain why the Racing boss felt the need to call the referee for the 1-1 draw a “son of a b*tch” after the encounter.

Tenerife

Unlike John Terry, Tenerife are less keen on playing away this season.

The side’s eighth defeat in 10 away from the Canary Islands came at Osasuna on Sunday.

“We’re lacking confidence,” noted the side’s astute manager, José Luis Oltra.

Alvaro Negredo

A hopeless, gutless performance from Sevilla in the 2-1 defeat at Zaragoza topped off a fine week for one of its star players, Alvaro Negredo.

The former Madrid man was substituted in the first half of the midweek cup clash with Getafe, much to the striker’s displeasure.

His mood must have worsened a further notch after scoring a headed own goal and receiving a red card for managing the impressive feat of both tumbling to the ground in a dive whilst booting out at Zaragoza defender Contini.

Juan Carlos Garrido, Onésimo

Two new managers at the helm of Villarreal and Valladolid respectively made excellent starts to their new jobs with a couple of defeats.

Onésimo at Valladolid looks the far more entertaining of the debutantes with the former ‘B’ team boss being an angrier, more snarling version of predecessor José Luis Mendilibar.

And that really is saying something.

Guti

The Madrid midfielder built on last week’s Oscar award-winning backheel by doing diddly-squat against Espanyol.

After allowing Perico winger José Marqués to go past him twice unmolested - as it were - Manuel Pellegrini finally banished Guti to the bench.

Pablo Alvaréz

The dirty man of Deportivo should have seen red for a handball and then knocking an opponent out in a somewhat violent challenge.

Instead, the midfielder eventually got his marching orders after a supposed dive that seemed a little harsh to a blog that feels that the ends probably justified the means with Alvaréz’ eventual sending off.

Espanyol

Without an away goal in the league since September. And didn’t look vaguely like getting one on Saturday night against Real Madrid.

Luis García has never looked more narked.

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[Metaphysical]

good articles. phil's in particular was great.

thanks for posting, beastie.

[Beast]

Thanks guys


It’s time to leave la Liga’s refs alone
Tim Stannard

Tuesday 09 February 2010 12:00
Now, La Liga Loca has no idea if it all stems from a post-Franco distrust of authority figures or the persistent culture of blame-shifting, finger-pointing and responsibility-dodging.

But Spain has an obsession with putting the boot into their referees, who seem to be the cause of all ills in the world.

Indeed, Marca employs its own (ex) official who pulls apart his former colleagues decisions every week - which must make him immensely popular at reunions - whilst awarding Real Madrid 17 non-existent penalties and sending off most of the opposition.

Last weekend, it was just the three Espanyol players who should have seen red, says Rafa Guerrero.

“He had a first half to forget” tutted Marca’s man-in-the-middle on Alfonso Pérez Burrull’s performance in Madrid’s 3-0 win over Espanyol.

This love of picking apart the work of referees sees Tuesday’s AS getting their panties in an almighty bunch over the impressive total of nine red cards that were issued during last weekend’s round of action in la Primera.

In a peculiar editorial, the paper’s boss Alfredo Relaño goes all postal on the a**es of the league’s officials and complains that someone refereeing their top flight debut - as happened in the Racing vs Atlético clash - should not have done so because the previous encounter between the two teams a few days before was a bit controversial.

“It is tough being a referee,” concedes Relaño before suggesting that clubs could perhaps vote on whether individual referees are any good (an action that would quickly thin the arbitrating ranks a tad) with “the referees that nobody likes” being dropped.

These are interesting - some would say curious notions - from the chief AS at the paper and an understandable reaction to last weekend’s red-card rain storm, which at first glance looks excessive.

However, there’s one thing missing from Relaño’s mini-thesis.

Every single one of the nine expulsions from those 10 games was completely justified, despite what fans, managers and the press on the receiving end of them say.

And here’s why:

Barcelona vs Getafe

Piqué - Whacked Rafa in the knee with a clumsy, late, dangerous challenge.
Marquez - Pulled Kepa down in the box in a dangerous play. Barcelona will not be appealing either red card.

Málaga vs Deportivo

Pablo Alvarez - one yellow for deliberate handball, one for an alleged dive which was a 50/50 call. The midfielder would not have walked had he not been such a buffoon over the first incident (see Ronaldo vs Almería).

Almería vs Sporting

Chico - direct red for handball after saving a goal-line shot.
Barral - a red for a nasty flying elbow.
Gregory - red card for picking on a ball boy, apparently. Which doesn’t sound very nice.

Zaragoza vs Sevilla

Alvaro Negredo - was in a foul, niggly mood all match and eventually went for kicking out at Contini in a huff.
Stankevicius - another player who went nuts with a ridiculous late tackle.
Colunga - Two yellow cards, the first of which for a stupid, needless tackle from behind on Jesus Navas in the dying seconds of the game.

The only debatable call from those was the second yellow for Alvarez. The rest were all perfectly fine.

And that leaves La Liga Loca a little mystified as to what Relaño’s point is in Tuesday’s rant.

Mistakes are made, of course - his paper makes them every minute of every day - but more often that not they stem from players being cheeky little cheats (yes, you Xavi against Espanyol).

Marca are already criticising the referee from Sunday’s key clash between Atlético Madrid and Barcelona some five days before the match actually kicks off.

“Iturralde is the ref,” blasts a headline in Tuesday’s edition “a guarantee for Barcelona.”

It then states that this particular official has officiated clashes with the Camp Nou club on 30 occasions with Barça winning 20 of the games.

The article also notes that in these clashes 84 yellows and nine reds have been handed to those sides playing the Dream Boys, with Barcelona themselves picking up just 53 yellows and four reds.

La Liga Loca would reply to Marca that with Barcelona having been fairly strong in recent seasons, all referees would have overseen a majority of wins for the Catalan club. But it doubts the paper is listening.

But this is par for the course for a rag overseen by the pea-brained Eduardo Inda, an editor who has scrawled a double-page long “letter” to Pep Guardiola castigating him for commenting on the Madrid media campaign against his side in regards to being helped by refs.

“It’s undeniable that there should only be a one point advantage over the Whites,” complains Marca’s main man whilst talking of the “scientific certification” by his paper of this universal truth.

“I am aware that you will never respond to this as the divine never mix with mere mortals,” is the charming sign-off.

The immediate reaction to such poppycock from La Liga Loca is to wonder if the legal defence of extreme provocation would work were the blog to drop a piano on Inda’s empty head as he goes about his day.

One average day, two papers and two editorials which say an awful lot in regards to the sorry (but highly entertaining, nonetheless) state of Spain’s football writing.

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[Valon]

Those journalists from Marca and AS are the most pathetic ones I've ever seen.

[Beast]

funny enough both Valdano & Real along with the rest has all slammed/discredited the campaign and said Barca leading on merit...

[Valon]

Yeah but I was talking about the journalists not Valdano and RM.

[Cule Angles]

funny enough both Valdano & Real along with the rest has all slammed/discredited the campaign and said Barca leading on merit...

Several individuals have, but there's been nothing from your president, who I'm pretty sure is the one pulling the strings in this campaign.

[Beast]

In all honesty Adam , did you ever hear much from Perez all season ?

i don't think he talked more than 4-5 times including the new year's annual speech ..

You guys need to realize this is not the old Perez.. nothing happened this season say it's the same old bastard .
the old Perez would have played Benziza each game and sacked Pellegerini last November

however i won't rule out the possibility that he is behind the campaign