While Spain’s La Liga contest has long been seen as a two-horse race, the Champions League is also starting to show signs of falling into the grasp of the Real Madrid-Barcelona duopoly. That impression is, admittedly, based heavily on this week’s elimination of two English giants from the European competition, Manchesters United and City. But with the two Spanish sides strolling into the knock-out stages, their status as the best in Europe has been further burnished. So when they meet on Saturday in Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu to contest the Clásico, the eyes of the world will be on them. Barcelona have eight players nominated for UEFA’s 2011 team of the year; Real Madrid have six. … [Read more...] about El Clásico offers Mourinho a glimpse of glory
Champions League
Wanted: absurdly rich tycoon to lend Spain’s La Liga intrigue
It was while perusing the scoreline of Sunday’s Manchester derby – in which a team of petrodollar-financed stars had trounced the English champions 6-1 - that my mind turned to La Liga. By a twist of fate, something akin to a parallel fixture had been played the day before in Spain, between Real Madrid and Málaga. Real Madrid, like Manchester United, was the big, established power, with a glittering history, a formidable manager and a team built on tradition, as well as money. Málaga was the Manchester City of the piece: a side with no trophies to boast of (at least in recent decades) but with oodles of money provided by a rich foreign owner – Abdullah bin Nasser Al-Thani of … [Read more...] about Wanted: absurdly rich tycoon to lend Spain’s La Liga intrigue
Villarreal’s wayward submarine seeks to get back on course
“It looked like Bayern won with something to spare” Juan Carlos Garrido admitted at the end of Villarreal’s 2-0 defeat at home to Bayern Munich a few weeks ago, adding: “but that’s not quite how it was, even so, they are a great team”, almost as a confused afterthought. Bayern’s players seemed surprised, even underwhelmed by the childish ease with which they dispatched a team that has become known around Europe over the last few years for their adventurous, skilful play. Any artistry that Garrido’s Villarreal may have been capable of certainly was not on display in the defensive styling of their football on the night. Set up with three largely static defensive midfielders, they were never … [Read more...] about Villarreal’s wayward submarine seeks to get back on course
Mourinho’s mad magic loses its lustre
José Mourinho has always insisted that his antics, provocations and pre-match hyperbole are an unselfish gambit, aimed at drawing attention away from his players. Let’s take him at his word, and examine not the state of Real Madrid, but the state of their coach. Mourinho’s appearance has always seemed to speak volumes about his state of mind. When he started at Chelsea, he dressed like George Clooney, kept physically trim and his haircuts were frequently more fashionable than those of his players. When his relationship with the London club’s owner, Roman Abramovich, started to deteriorate and the team’s performances declined, not only did Mourinho start to look tetchy and disgruntled, his … [Read more...] about Mourinho’s mad magic loses its lustre
Hands up if you find Barça’s beautiful game boring
There was something rather strange about Señor Antonio Lahoz’s half-time whistle at Estadio Anoeta in San Sebastián last Saturday. It sounded like a reasonably normal whistle, as whistles go. The short blast, followed by the longer one. Goals: Barcelona 2, Real Sociedad 0. Goalscorers Xavi Hernández and Cesc Fàbregas. Possession: 75 percent to Barcelona. No, everything perfectly in order there. Except it wasn’t. In most football matches, the referee’s half-time whistle precedes a collective expulsion of breath and a moment of calm to reflect on the 45 minutes of play just witnessed. This is so much of the beauty of football, the frenetic nature of this most exalted of pursuits means that … [Read more...] about Hands up if you find Barça’s beautiful game boring
Stable Valencia dreams of challenging Spain’s top two
A couple of years ago, Valencia CF were staring into the depths of an abyss that included foreclosure of their assets and potentially the end of their very existence as a football club. The club’s debts were huge, they had finished out of the Champions League places in sixth, and the departure of their prize players, David Villa and David Silva, looked a certainty. Enter Manuel Llorente, the latest and apparently looniest of a long line of very loopy Valencia presidents. Llorente’s ingenious policy towards tackling Valencia’s money troubles seemed to be to pretend they didn’t exist and hope they would go away. Behold the mysteries of the times we live in, it seems to have worked a … [Read more...] about Stable Valencia dreams of challenging Spain’s top two
Mourinho’s second coming suggests serious title tilt for Real Madrid
“Por qué?” he asked. “Por qué?” came the question again. It was a moment to define José Mourinho’s first season at the home of Spanish football’s most successful club Real Madrid, where in recent years silverware has been lacking. Coming after the first leg of the Champions League semi-final against their eternal rivals FC Barcelona, his comments were an attack against UEFA and the purported unfair treatment dished out to his players who had seen themselves down to 10 men for the fourth time in as many clashes in El Clásico last season. It was also during a run of games that would see the two teams meet four times over the course of three weeks and this was exactly the reason why the … [Read more...] about Mourinho’s second coming suggests serious title tilt for Real Madrid
Barcelona seek to extend Liga dominance
With respect to the other 18 clubs in Spain’s top flight, the one and only major debating point at the moment seems to be: will Barcelona be good enough to again thwart the ambitions of Real Madrid? Certainly that’s how many other pundits see the forthcoming season in Spain. The headline in the annual guide to La Liga published by the Spanish sports daily As was: “The first two and then all the rest.” It sums up the current situation in the top flight of Spanish football. Not since Villarreal had their ‘año milagro’ in 2007-08 and finished second behind Real, has anyone broken the hegemony of the two giants of Spanish football. In fact, apart from when Villarreal upset the odds, … [Read more...] about Barcelona seek to extend Liga dominance
Athletic Bilbao’s golden generation stands at the crossroads
It’s a pivotal week for the future of Athletic Bilbao. On Thursday, July 7th, the club holds its presidential elections, with former Athletic midfielder Josu Urrutia challenging current president Fernando García Macua for control of the Basque club. Urrutia’s candidacy started with a bang when he announced that former Argentina and Chile boss Marcelo Bielsa would be manager should he win. Bielsa, who recently rejected the chance to take over at Inter Milan, is a managerial heavyweight. A deep football thinker, he is known for sending out tactically astute, but sometimes mentally brittle, teams. While his unbalanced Argentina flopped at the 2006 World Cup, Chile were one of the stand-outs … [Read more...] about Athletic Bilbao’s golden generation stands at the crossroads
Betis are back after a trip to hell
Two summers ago, long before the indignados and 15-M, there was Yo voy Betis and 15-J. Following the relegation of Real Betis, and amid growing anger at the alleged pilfering of millions of euros by club owner Manuel Ruiz de Lopera, over 60,000 angry green-and-white clad supporters marched in protest through Seville’s city centre. The evening culminated in a mass rally, where former Spain and Betis left-back Rafael Gordillo demanded Lopera’s departure to cheers from a jam-packed Plaza Nueva. Similar to the 15-M movement’s calls for politicians to reform themselves and banks to play fair, the initial practical impact of “15-J” was difficult to spot. The club’s 2009/10 campaign was … [Read more...] about Betis are back after a trip to hell