The Andalusian rivalry that has seen club directors pushed around in their plush seats, family members insulted and a manager passing out on the pitch after being hit on the head with a bottle thrown from the stands was back this weekend with some of its usual drama including a last-minute victory, a glut of goals and plenty of middle fingers in the air. When the two sides met in November, Sevilla emerged triumphant over Real Betis as two goals by José Antonio Reyes ensured a 5-1 thrashing of their city neighbours, but while Los Rojiblancos may have enjoyed bragging rights for a short time, they now find themselves in the same predicament as in the autumn, trailing both the Verdiblancos … [Read more...] about La Liga: Seville and Betis share the honours
Archives for April 2013
The apocalypse comes to Barcelona
The main idea behind Los últimos días, the latest offering from directing/screenwriting brothers David and Àlex Pastor, is far from original. The basic plot - a mysterious and deadly epidemic that creates mass panic and, ultimately, complete social chaos - shares more than a passing likeness with M. Night Shyamalan's 2008 movie The Happening, as well as I am Legend and Danny Boyle's brilliant 2002 release, 28 Days Later. Despite clear parallels with its predecessors, however, Los últimos días is no less worthy in its depiction of all-out human catastrophe. Indeed, it goes one step further, attempting a social critique similar to Blindness, the 2008 movie based on José Saramago's novel of … [Read more...] about The apocalypse comes to Barcelona
Tales for Tapas: Life is a pleasure
A woman of international stature passed from the scene this week. Admired at home and abroad, she touched the lives of millions, a champion of personal freedom who nonetheless came to terms with dictatorship, her instincts were conservative but her choices were often daring – Sara Montiel, the venerable icon of stage and screen, died at her home in Madrid on Monday at the age of 85. Montiel personified – particularly in her later chat-show-celebrity-magazine incarnation – the superficiality of pop culture, yet that very superficiality may have been the key not only to her commercial success but to her importance to Spanish society, particularly in the 1960s. Montiel articulated a kitsch … [Read more...] about Tales for Tapas: Life is a pleasure
Spain’s rugby ambitions foiled in disastrous Six Nations
As this year’s Six Nations proper drew to a close with drama for the British sides, the same cannot be said for Spain and Portugal, who play in the tournament’s second tier. Mustering only a single win between them, the Iberian sides’ performances were sorely disappointing, given that both countries have been aiming to move up a notch in the rugby world, inspired by the example of Italy. And for Spain, a global superpower in so many other sports, this season has been particularly deflating. Played over a two-year cycle (2013-14) alongside the showpiece event, the European Nations Cup Division 1A, to give it its full name, also doubles up as the qualifying rounds of the Rugby World Cup … [Read more...] about Spain’s rugby ambitions foiled in disastrous Six Nations
La Liga: Deportivo fight back
Just three weeks ago, with only three liga wins all season to their name, Deportivo de La Coruña were staring down the barrel of relegation. Currently working with their third manager of the season, it’s a far cry from the glory days of a decade ago. League title winners in the 1999–2000 season and runners-up on five occasions, not so long ago the club was regularly finishing in the top half of the table and featuring in European competition. Depor played in the UEFA Champions League five seasons in a row, and reached the semi-finals in 2004 where they were eventually defeated by José Mourinho’s Porto side who would go on to lift the trophy. They have been relegated before, dropping … [Read more...] about La Liga: Deportivo fight back
Tales for Tapas: Money and mystique
The 19th-century British political economist Walter Bagehot noted that letting “daylight in upon the magic” of monarchy risks diminishing its mystique. A court summons, no doubt, represents a mystique-diminishing dose of daylight, and Princess Cristina’s scheduled April 27 appearance before a judge in Majorca may be dignified but is unlikely to be very edifying. Still, the royal families of Europe are not – and never have been – paragons of public virtue (as anyone who has spent time in Las Vegas recently may be able to testify). What makes the Nóos Affair so problematic is not simply that it is a royal scandal but that it is a royal financial scandal in the middle of a national financial … [Read more...] about Tales for Tapas: Money and mystique
Resign? You must be kidding
When is it appropriate for a public figure to resign? After displaying gross incompetence? In the wake of evident policy failure? Being caught up in criminal acts? It’s not always clear-cut. Sometimes resignation is an option, but not necessarily the only one. An apology might be just as fitting, or a temporary withdrawal from front-line exposure to the limelight. But in the last few weeks in Spain, there have been several cases that would seem to offer strong candidates for the sack. The most recent is that of Alberto Núñez Feijóo. On Sunday, El País newspaper published photographs showing that the Partido Popular’s premier of Galicia had been a good friend of Marcial Dorado Baúlde, … [Read more...] about Resign? You must be kidding
Catalan police gunned down in Barcelona wild boar mayhem!
It’s not often that we sympathise with the Mossos d’Esquadra, Catalonia’s regional police force. All too often recently, they have hit the headlines for truncheoning protesting young Catalans or beating up suspects, so it was rather refreshing to read this on Europa Press: A Mossos d’Esquadra agent was injured in the knee on Wednesday by a bullet that rebounded after another policeman shot at a wild boar which had ventured into Barcelona’s Sants district, according to police sources. This took place between 4am and 5 am, when the animal reached a populated area – it got as far as Calle Numància – and the agents started the search to shoot the wild boar in an open space. The presence … [Read more...] about Catalan police gunned down in Barcelona wild boar mayhem!
La Liga: Despondent Benzema searches for form
Last week, Karim Benzema was booed by the home crowd as he departed the Stade de France during a World Cup qualifier against Spain. It was not the first time this season he has been heckled by his own fans. Whilst the same has not yet occurred at the Santiago Bernabéu, the Frenchman is struggling to score, with every passing week and every goalless game sending his confidence plummeting. Brought in to the club by President Florentino Pérez, who flew to Lyon to personally secure his signing in 2009, Benzema’s trajectory at Real Madrid has been up and down to say the least, going from a cat to a lion and perhaps now back to the cat again. It was coach José Mourinho who, in his first … [Read more...] about La Liga: Despondent Benzema searches for form
Farewell to ETA’s destroyer of peace
When Xabier López Peña was arrested in Bordeaux in 2008 on terrorism-related offences, he hardly looked like an archetypal leader of ETA. Portly, middle-aged and bespectacled, he didn’t even have the carefully sculptured mullet that so many Basque separatists insist on sporting. But as he was bundled away by French police, his wild shouts and screams at TV cameras hinted at the true nature of the man. López Peña, who died of a brain haemorrhage on Saturday, was held responsible by many for the collapse of the 2006 peace process that offered the hope of a lasting solution to the Basque conflict. As a result, many Basque separatists, as well as the mainstream politicians in Madrid, came … [Read more...] about Farewell to ETA’s destroyer of peace