Spanish football is a peculiar beast when placed under a microscope, rather like a petri dish teeming with all the bacteria Fifa is currently trying to scrape from its gilded Zurich halls. There is no fit-and-proper-persons test in La Liga, as Racing Santander is currently being left to rue. Match-fixing was made a criminal offence just six months ago. Clubs are traditionally controlled by wildly unreliable clans like the Gil family at Atlético Madrid and the Ruiz-Mateos' at Rayo Vallecano – currently busily covering their own backsides as their Nueva Rumasa congolmerate goes under for the second time, leaving thousands of investors, and Rayo's players, on the bread line. If your club … [Read more...] about Real Madrid’s ‘señor’ status at play as Mourinho takes control
Champions League
How police brutality helped Spain’s 15-M protests
In recent days, music fans and political activists in Spain have been remembering Gil Scott-Heron, the singer-songwriter who died last Friday. The ongoing sit-ins and protests that started across Spain in the lead-up to May’s local elections have seen inevitable links being drawn between Scott-Heron’s anthem The Revolution Will Not Be Televised and the 15-M/Democracia Real Ya movement. But the day after Scott-Heron’s death, when the TV showed images of Catalonia’s mossos d’esquadra local police force brutally charging into a crowd of unarmed, peaceful demonstrators in Barcelona, it seemed more fitting to think of another seventies cultural touchstone: Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork … [Read more...] about How police brutality helped Spain’s 15-M protests
Depor’s glory a distant memory as team slides out of Liga
The only real drama during Saturday’s conclusion of the Liga season was at the bottom of the table, where Deportivo la Coruña were relegated after losing 2-0 at home to Valencia. After a see-sawing 90 minutes which could possibly have seen Mallorca, Real Sociedad, Osasuna, Getafe or Zaragoza drop instead, once-proud Depor followed Almería and Hércules down to next year’s La Segunda. Although they became the first side to be relegated with more than 42 points in a 20 team league, you could not really say Deportivo were unlucky. Their failure to score on Saturday was telling, and familiar. Under the restrained tactics of coach Miguel Ángel Lotina, the Galicians have been poor in front of … [Read more...] about Depor’s glory a distant memory as team slides out of Liga
Porto’s trophy-hungry boss insists he’s no Mourinho clone
The comparisons have been as predictable as they have been widespread. In Britain, the Guardian called him "Mourinho’s apprentice", while the Daily Mail anointed him as "Mourinho Mark II". The Spanish press followed a similar line - El Correo named him Mourinho’s pupil and even El País joined in, headlining their profile "Mourinho’s spy". The potential mini-Mou in question is FC Porto boss André Villas-Boas, whose achievements in his first full season in football management have been spectacular. Last month Villas-Boas's side secured the Portuguese title with five games in hand and this week he leads his team into the Europa League and Portuguese Cup finals. Records have tumbled along … [Read more...] about Porto’s trophy-hungry boss insists he’s no Mourinho clone
Barça must cut theatrics if they want to go down in history
There are plenty of skills young players learn at Barcelona’s La Masia youth centre, and which are then refined at senior level at the club. Tight, triangular passing; quick movement off the ball into space; keeping possession of the ball; respect for the great institution they are a part of. And, you might add, after Wednesday’s Champions League semifinal first leg against Real Madrid: writhing on the floor like a hammy actor when tackled by an opponent; clutching their face when a rival’s hand goes anywhere near their upper body; and generally doing everything possible to get the other team’s players booked or sent off. This is the contradiction that Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona side … [Read more...] about Barça must cut theatrics if they want to go down in history
Real Madrid, Barcelona, Orwell and the evil conspiracy
Let’s forget, for the moment, the fact that Real Madrid and Barcelona had an absorbing 1-1 draw in their liga meeting on Saturday. Instead, let’s look inside the heads of two of the night’s protagonists: Barça midfielder Xavi Hernández and Real Madrid coach José Mourinho. “Everyone could see that Barça were the better team, that we totally dominated. Although that’s not so great given that it was them that gave us the ball and them that shut down at the back in their own stadium.” This was the verdict of Xavi after the game. He had a point in that Barcelona did dominate possession, during one phase enjoying 79 percent of it (according La Sexta television’s onslaught of statistics). … [Read more...] about Real Madrid, Barcelona, Orwell and the evil conspiracy
Everything’s at stake in Real Madrid and Barcelona’s quadruple clásico
Eighteen days, four games and the spoils of almost an entire season to be fought over. Barcelona and Real Madrid usually play each other twice over the course of a season, in their home and away liga fixtures. But due to a combination of luck and their own good form, the biggest rivalry in European football, with all its sporting, cultural and political undercurrents, will be played out four times in just over two weeks, between April 16 and May 3. There’s so much at stake and yet each encounter is loaded with slightly different significance. Of the three titles that these four games – a league match, the King’s Cup final and a two-legged Champions League semifinal – represent, the league … [Read more...] about Everything’s at stake in Real Madrid and Barcelona’s quadruple clásico
It’s Shakira Barcelona should fear, not Real Madrid
Well no, actually. And I base this assertion not on any scientific data, any drop in the percentage of passes that Xavi Hernández makes per game or, in fact, any decline in Barcelona’s performances at all, really. I base it on one word (well, two in fact): Waka Waka. Yes, Barça’s downfall, if and when it comes, will not be masterminded by Real Madrid’s scheming coach José Mourinho, but rather by the unlying hips of Shakira, the new girlfriend of the Catalan team’s central defender Gerard Piqué. As I write this, I’m listening to Dónde están los ladrones, Shakira’s Andean diva-rock masterpiece, released in 1998 (when Piqué was 12 years old, incidentally). It’s striking because it’s … [Read more...] about It’s Shakira Barcelona should fear, not Real Madrid
2011: Grand Slams, Liga intrigue and drugs
Last year was a pretty remarkable one for Spanish sport, doping scandals aside. With the World Cup win in South Africa the obvious pinnacle, there was glory for Spain in football, tennis, swimming and basketball. But what does 2011 hold in store for the country’s athletes and national teams? In tennis, world number one Rafael Nadal has opened his campaign at the Australian Open, seeking to become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four Grand Slams. Nadal already ranks seventh in the list of overall Grand Slam winners with nine, is one of three players in the open era to hold a Golden Slam, one of only seven in history to have achieved the career slam and the only player to … [Read more...] about 2011: Grand Slams, Liga intrigue and drugs
The rise, fall and resurrection of Sevilla FC
On March 16, CSKA Moscow scored one of last season’s biggest Champions League upsets by knocking a half-hearted Sevilla side out of the competition at the last-16 stage with a 2-1 win at the Andalusians’ Sánchez Pizjuán stadium. “It’s a bad result and I ask our supporters to forgive us for that,” said coach Manolo Jiménez afterwards. It was the first time in several years that a Sevilla coach had needed to apologise to fans, after a run that saw the club leave its cross-city rival, Betis, standing and establish itself as a European force. Sevilla announced its arrival at that peak by winning the UEFA Cup in 2006, its first major European title and the fruit of several years’ work by … [Read more...] about The rise, fall and resurrection of Sevilla FC