“There’s a whole slate of FA Cup matches in England, including Sunderland-Arsenal (see PoliticalFootballs’ most recent post for a full list of those fixtures), and domestic matches in Germany, Italy, etc. But we’re finding ourselves getting increasingly fascinated by Spanish football beyond the big two.” Cult Football
Gregorio Manzano
“During a podcast I did for the US a few months ago, I was asked who my three favourite managers were in La Liga, aside from the famous few. I replied with Marcelino, Manolo Preciado and Gregorio Manzano. The perceptive ones among you will realise that they have all been subsequently sacked – a fact that was pointed out to me by the interviewer, a few days ago in an e-mail entitled ‘The kiss of death’.” ESPN
“Gerard Piqué was as good as his word. A week or so ago, when Real Madrid extended their lead at the top of the table to seven points, he insisted that Barcelona would do all they could to make the rest of the season feel very long indeed for José Mourinho’s team. On Saturday night, they did. The rest of the season will indeed feel long for Madrid. And for everyone else: three months of filler before the inevitable, almost half the season just waiting for it to end – for Real Madrid to finally collect their league title, reclaiming it from Barcelona four years later. An entire country of football fans joining the queue at the post office, not daring to move, shuffling a little closer every week. The wait will be a long one, but for Real Madrid it will be worth it.” Guardian
“What is the most you have ever paid for a ticket for football? An official one, mind, not one from a tout. £50? Certainly not if you follow your team away from home and have been to the Emirates, Stamford Bridge, White Hart Lane or even in the nPower Championship at Upton Park recently where £50 will get you entry and not even a sniff of a bottle of Emirates water or pie and mash in East London. What about for a cup final? The FA think fans will bend over backwards to be shafted for these tickets but rarely do they go into three figures.” The Ball is Round
“The miracle continues. In the 91st minute, Ander Lambarri reached a long, hopeful ball into the penalty area and, on the turn, hit a perfect shot into the far corner. 1-2. Mirandés had got one back against Athletic Bilbao and it was no more than it deserved. Athletic had taken a 2-0 lead with two from Fernando Llorente in the first half and had three clear chances wrongly ruled out for offside too. But Mirandés had struck the bar and seen Athletic goalkeeper Gorka Iraizoz make a superb save. Now, just like in the quarterfinal, it had found a stoppage time goal. Now, at last there was hope: next week, Mirandés travel to San Mamés in the Copa del Rey semifinal second leg trailing by a solitary goal.” SI
“Here’s a date for your diaries: March 27, 2012. That’s the earliest that Real Madrid and FC Barcelona can meet each other again. That’s when they will play if they get drawn together in the quarterfinal of the Champions League — and if the first clash is on the Tuesday. If they meet in the semifinal, they cannot face each other until April 17. If that happens, they will play three times in eight days, or possibly maybe even three times in six, because the second league game will be on April 21 or 22.” SI
“Barcelona scraped into the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey with a 4-3 aggregate win over Real Madrid despite letting a two-goal lead slip at Camp Nou. Madrid had started by far the brighter of the two sides and should have been ahead within seconds as Gonzalo Higuain screwed his shot wide when clean through on Jose Manuel Pinto. Higuain then hit the bar and was again denied by Pinto before Barca appeared to have put the tie to bed with two goals just before half-time.” ESPN
Barcelona 2-2 Real Madrid: Real press, continue it for longer, but waste too many chances
“Real started and ended strongly, but a strong five minute spell for Barcelona before half time was enough for them. Pep Guardiola named an unchanged side from the first leg, with Jose Pinto continuing in goal. Jose Mourinho named a very attacking side, with Kaka coming in as the central playmaker annd Gonzalo Higuain upfront. Pepe moved into defence. This was as dominant and proactive a performance as we’ve seen from Real Madrid under Jose Mourinho in the Clasicos – Barcelona were rarely allowed to get into their stride, and were hanging on late in the game.” Zonal Marking
FC Barcelona -2, Real Madrid -2 Highlights
All About FC Barcelona (Video)
“When Pepe, Real Madrid’s Brazil-born defender, steps on the hand of Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, the blame is not his alone. A coach has three main tasks. He selects the team, prepares the strategy – and he also sets the emotional tone for the work. An uptight coach usually produces an uptight team. When the opposition is Barcelona, Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho appears to get carried away with the importance of the occasion, with some personal questions and with his own frustration at losing so often.” BBC – Tim Vickery
“There were just hours to go until Real Madrid’s match against Athletic Bilbao and Madrid were about to finish the first half of the season five points clear at the top of the table with 16 wins in 19 games. Favourites to win the title, they were about to score their 67th goal and Cristiano Ronaldo would soon be on 23, one ahead of Leo Messi. But it was not about that all that. Not now and not later. It would not even be about the 4-1 win – a brilliant game, open, exciting and end-to-end, between two sides that can be great to watch. The focus was elsewhere. Even José Mourinho’s focus was elsewhere. The team meeting at Madrid’s Mirasierra Suites Hotel wasn’t so much about formation as about information.” Guardian
“This victory was a much-needed confidence booster for Real Madrid ahead of the second leg of their Copa Del Rey quarter final against Barcelona on Wednesday. Madrid started in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Esteban Granero given a start in midfield and Raphael Varane alongside Sergio Ramos in central defence. Marcelo Bielsa’s side started in a 4-3-3 shape with Fernando Llorente leading the line up front.” Spanish Football
“Scott Minto was enjoying a holiday in Montreal with his wife and family last summer when he got an unexpected email from Sky Sports, asking if he wanted to present their Spanish football coverage in the new season.” Spanish Football
“Five thoughts from the first leg of the Copa del Rey and Barcelona’s 2-1 win over Real Madrid in the latest clásico.” SI
“Carles Puyol and Eric Abidal were Barcelona’s unlikely goalscoring heroes in the first leg at the Bernabeu. Jose Mourinho surprised many with his team selection, playing both Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higuain, and leaving out Mesut Ozil. Hamit Altintop made a rare start at right-back. Pep Guardiola named the same side as in the recent league fixture at the Bernabeu, with the exception of in goal – Jose Pinto is Barcelona’s cup goalkeeper. The game took a similar pattern to that match – Real started strongly and went ahead, but Barcelona grew into the game and eventually the pressure resulted in goals.” Zonal Marking
Copa del Rey review: Real Madrid CF 1 – FC Barcelona 2
“Oh yeah and there was dancing. Guardiola went for what I’d consider the strongest Barça starting XI at the moment, but of course with Pinto in goal over VV. This was worrying as there’s no way Pinto can compare to VV and I thought playing the second choice keeper in a Clásico was asking for a disaster to happen. But we’ll get to that later. So Barça’s starting XI was as follows: Pinto – Alves, Puyol, Piqué, Abidal – Xavi, Busquets, Iniesta – Cesc, Messi, Alexis. The bench was made up of VV, Thiago, Sergi Roberto, Cuenca, JDS, Adriano and Mascherano.” The Offside
Mourinho: Equaliser the killer blow
“Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho admitted conceding an equaliser from a corner ‘deflated’ his side as they went on to lose 2-1 to Barcelona in the first leg of their Copa del Rey quarter-final at the Bernabeu. Cristiano Ronaldo had given the hosts an 11th-minute lead, but Barcelona levelled when Carles Puyol was left unmarked to head in Xavi’s corner before Eric Abidal struck the winner 13 minutes from time.” ESPN
Real Madrid v Barcelona – as it happened
“The idea that it’s possible to have too much of a good thing was surely agreed upon and created by parents in order to get their children ready for all of life’s many and varied disappointments; can’t have ice-cream every day of the week, put the Playstation away, because you’ve got homework to do and greens to eat. Of course, some of the best childhood memories stem from the random treats life throws at you, the rare occasion you stayed up late to watch a football match or when your teacher couldn’t be bothered on a rainy afternoon and put a film on instead. Here are moments to cherish; special because they don’t come along very often and if they did, well, it would just be another of those things you could shrug your shoulders at with tired insouciance.” Guardian
“Next week is the real Jornada 19, the week that defines the true half-way of the league programme, so I’ll wait until then to do the traditional ‘half-term report’. Next week is also a bit special because the opening games that should have been played back in August, which were called off because of the players’ strike, will finally make their belated appearance.” ESPN
“For Real Madrid and Barcelona, draws are the new defeats and draws like this are the new disasters. For everyone else, draws are the new victories and draws like this are the new cup wins. No one expects to beat Madrid and Barcelona – between them they have lost only 10 of their past 181 games against the rest of the league over the past three seasons and Barcelona have lost four of their past 93 league games – so a draw will do. For Espanyol, a draw like this will do nicely: an intense, breathless derby, a packed house, an 86th-minute equaliser scored by the 20-year-old Catalan who turned them down, a 90th-minute shot smashing against the bar, a penalty appeal ignored, and a 1-1 scoreline that could cost their city rivals the title. Rather like the 2-2 scoreline against the same rivals that cost them the title last time four and half years ago.” Guardian
Borussia Dortmund celebrate
“As the major continental leagues resume following the winter break – Serie A and La Liga returned to action over the weekend, with Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga set to follow suit in the next fortnight – Pitchside Europe looks at ten issues that will help determine the balance of power across Europe in the 12 months ahead.” Eurosport
“While one doesn’t want to talk about counting chickens before the fat lady sings, she’s certainly tucking into a second helping of brownies and custard when it comes to Barcelona’s title chances. A combination of poor away form, the tendency to switch off during games, a bad recent record against Espanyol and a last minute penalty decision going against the Dream Boys left Barça five points behind Real Madrid after a 1-1 draw in Cornella.” FourFourTwo (Video)
“It has been a busy few months for Barcelona, the European champions, making sure of their place in the knockout stage of the Champions League and taking the field in all their domestic games knowing that every point they drop makes it harder for them to retain their Spanish title. Then, of course, Pep Guardiola’s side won their most important match of the season so far, beating Real Madrid 3-1 in the Clasico.” ESPN – Tim Vickery
“Jose Mourinho surprised many with his team selection, but Pep Guardiola adapted to guide Barcelona to victory. The surprise was with the use of Mesut Ozil, who most expected to be omitted in favour of an extra defensive midfielder. In fact, it was Real’s usual front four in a 4-2-3-1 system. Lassana Diarra did start, but in place of Khedira, whilst Fabio Coentrao played at right-back.” Zonal Marking
Guardiola’s tactical switch swings clásico in favor of Barcelona
“There are still those, remarkably, who ask whether tactics really matter, still those who persist with the Luddite insistence that the best players will win out come what may. No matter that Lionel Messi never produces his Barcelona form for Argentina or that Dani Alves regularly flounders for Brazil, Barcelona, these flat-earthers keep saying, win because they have the best players.” SI – Jonathan Wilson
5 Things We Learnt From Real Madrid vs Barcelona
“1) There is a reason why Valdes is Spain’s number three… It’s not rocket science, for the first 15 minutes of any big game the number one rule is do not take any risks, if your unsure always do the simple thing. Somebody forgot to inform Victor Valdes of this. 22 seconds had elapsed when the keeper was far too casual and gifted the ball to Real and Benzema punished him with a nicely taken vollied finish.” Sabotage Times
Bewitched, bothered and bewildered
“There are several ways of saying ‘bewitched’, or ‘under the spell’ in Spanish. I particularly like the words hechizado and embrujado. These words form part of the reason Real Madrid seem unable to function when they come to play Barcelona. Bewitched, bothered and bewildered.” ESPN
Barca ends Real’s winning streak
“Barcelona defeated Real Madrid 3-1 to move into a tie (on points) atop the league standings, although Madrid does have a game in hand. Barcelona is now undefeated (6-0-1) in seven straight league meetings with Madrid, including three in a row at the Bernabeu. Here are five more notes on Saturday’s Clasico — which marked an end to Real’s run of 10 straight victories in La Liga.” Five Aside (Video)
Real Madrid 1 – 3 Barcelona
“Barcelona recovered from conceding the quickest El Clasico goal in history to end Real Madrid’s 15-match winning run and strike a potentially decisive blow in the race for the Primera Division title. Despite having lifted the trophy for three years in a row and enjoying both domestic and European dominance over Madrid over recent times, Pep Guardiola’s men went into tonight’s match as the underdogs, trailing the capital club by three points and having played a game more.” ESPN
Capital punishment for Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid as Barcelona show they aren’t ready to be dethroned just yet
“Pep Guardiola remains unbeaten as a coach at the Bernabeu as the Catalans recorded what could turn out to be a hugely significant victory over their arch rivals in El Gran Clasico” Goal
“Saturday night sees the seventh – and final – Clasico of 2011, and perhaps the one with the most tactical possibilities. There are reasons for that on both sides. Real have played a more attacking game this season, and there’s less certainty that they’ll defend deep, park the bus, and invite pressure. Barca, on the other hand, play the same style of football as ever, but they’ve experimented with a new formation – 3-4-3, which they’ve used in over half of their league games this season. With few injuries and squads stronger than last year, it’s surprisingly difficult to predict the 22 players that will start this match.” Zonal Marking
“iny cracks may be starting to appear in the previously impregnable armour of Barcelona, with Real Madrid rampant and Pep Guardiola’s side rudely obliged to play catch-up, but this team’s place in history is already secure. The trophies and the unique, hypnotic passing style have made sure of that, but less remarked upon is the tactical legacy that they have bequeathed to the game. As the first budding usupers begin to congregate at the gates of the Barca citadel, Football Further looks at five tactical maxims that Guardiola and his team have torn to shreds.” Football Further
“As the clock ticked down on the final minutes of the match, the onslaught became irresistible. Deeper and deeper they defended. More and more attackers appeared. The siege became overwhelming. Desperate challenges, heroic lunges, astonishing saves. The ball thudding against the post. A penalty turned down. Shots raining down upon them. And ultimately resistance proved futile — eventually the winning goal came. The goalkeeper could do nothing. Nor could his outnumbered defenders. To a huge roar, victory had been secured in the very last minute.” SI
Franck Ribéry
“Twelve Champions League thoughts from Round 5 of the Group Stage…” SI
“Real Madrid maintained their lead over Barcelona after an entertaining win over Valencia at the Mestalla. Unai Emery went back to 4-2-3-1 having played two upfront in the previous game against Levante. Sofiane Feghouli started rather than Pablo Hernandez, and Daniel Parejo got a rare start in the centre of the attacking trio. Jose Mourinho changed his system, moving Mesut Ozil out wide, bringing Lassana Diarra into the side and pushing Sami Khedira forward behind Karim Benzema. Angel Di Maria was injured.” Zonal Marking
Spain plays video games after Real Madrid win a thriller at Valencia
“It all happened so fast you weren’t sure if it had happened at all. Not then, not an hour later, not the morning after, not two days on and not that it stopped them. ‘You can see it clearly on the television,’ said Gonzalo Higuaín, but you couldn’t. For some time, you couldn’t see it on television at all, let alone clearly. The only thing you could be sure of was that you weren’t sure at all. And yet they’d never been so sure of anything in their lives. So it was that what started as a soldier against mercenaries inevitably ended in an ugly war. And the trenches were dug in familiar territory.” Guardian
“Raimon is the groundsman at Levante, a man who practically lives in the Ciutat de Valencia stadium and does everything from cut the grass to sweep the steps and paint the lines on the pitch. In a room under the stand he has, over the 24 years he has been at the club, constructed a mini-museum of all things Levante — including press cuttings and posters, shirts and photographs going back years. That is not all he does: under the stand he also collects old farm equipment — his other passion — and cooks. When Levante has a team meal, it sometimes hold it down there with the groundsman as chef.” SI
“The biggest spenders in Spain in the last 3 seasons naturally occupy the top four positions, Barcelona and Real Madrid are on another level, fan base, investment and a disproportionate tv deal ensure it’s difficult for others to keep up. Málaga’s fairly recent new ownership and strategy mean they are now well positioned to challenge in future seasons, although the jury is still out as to what they can achieve in the present. But the other team that currently sits in a Champions League position after 6 games is a lot more surprising – Levante.” La Liga UK
“Pride of place this week goes once again to Levante, who stay second behind Barcelona on goal difference after beating Malaga 3-0 in the duel of the new-teams-on-the-block. It’s true that Malaga lost their goalkeeper Willy (he might have to change the name on his shirt if he ever gets signed by an English team) after half an hour to a sending-off, but Levante proved themselves perfectly capable of taking full advantage, winning a game with lots of symbolic meaning attached to it.” ESPN
“He isn’t green or fat, he doesn’t have a movie franchise and there is no Princess Fiona in his life, but Valencia defender Adil Rami is happy to answer to his nickname, “Shrek.” The French-Moroccan will freely admit it’s because he eats voraciously and has been known, just occasionally, to belch. Loudly.” ESPN
“Tall, powerful, sneering Cristiano Ronaldo and short, slippery, cheerful Lionel Messi ought to form one of the great dichotomies in sports — think Magic/Bird, only in Romance languages. They’re the two best soccer players in the world.1 They star on opposite sides of Real Madrid versus Barcelona, currently the game’s most compelling rivalry. And they’re temperamental opposites — Ronaldo a flamboyant, collar-popping he-diva who measures time in lingerie models, Messi a low-key, affable team player who seems to live for the game.” Grantland
“In the much anticipated replay of last year’s Champions League group stage game ,where Ajax took a true battering and ended up losing 2 – 0 at Madrid, Ajax lost 3 – 0 this time at the Estadio Bernabeu. In terms of ‘face value’ Ajax provided more counter play – in fact their amount of 19 shots registered was higher than any Champions League opponent achieved at the Bernabeu since Bayern in the 2006/07 Champions League quarter final – but the final score line and the dominance expressed by Real’s front four left little to the imagination. Ajax failed the benchmark test that was supposed to show the progress made under manager Frank de Boer in the past year.” 11 tegen 11
Valencia 1-1 Chelsea: Chelsea let the lead slip
“An open game ended with a point apiece. Unai Emery used the same outfield XI he fielded against Barca having rotated at the weekend, although there was a change in goal – Diego Alves came in. Andre Villas-Boas went with the usual 4-3-3 – Florent Malouda started on the left, and Juan Mata drifted in from the right, with Frank Lampard restored to the midfield. This was fairly evenly-balanced – Valencia were better in possession, but Chelsea probably had the better chances. Emery marginally got the better of the tactical battle in the first half, but a draw was a good reflection of the balance of play.” Zonal Marking
“Both Barcelona and Real Madrid can claim to have been more than entertaining in their respective weekend victories. The first 15 seconds at the Santiago Bernabeu, for example, were particularly compelling. And both clubs also delivered in their own special ways on the traditionally fusty, dusty institutional level. Normally a day spent watching pompous, boastful men in their 50s, jangling their jowls whilst talking endlessly about finances and waving voting cards is as skull-dentingly tortuous as a 2010/11 Deportivo season highlights DVD.” FourFourTwo
“It was Fernando Roig who said it best, explaining the truth that lies behind the Spanish League or the LFP. ‘You go to a league meeting and you discuss things, you explain, you talk about your position for half an hour,’ the Villarreal president told the radio station Cadena Cope, ‘and then it turns out to be completely worthless. There you are making proposals, analyzing the situation and it means nothing because the decision has been taken by in some restaurant the day before the meeting. You can talk, but the decision has been made and there is nothing you can do.'” SI
“When it comes to explaining Barcelona’s draw against Real Sociedad – which doesn’t seem so bad when you consider Pep’s Dream Boys still have more points than this time last year – LLL falls into line with Mundo Deportivo. ‘It wasn’t the ‘FIFA Virus’ or the wrong line-up, nor bad luck. Barça dropped two points in San Sebastian because they fell for the old sin of complacency,’ writes Joan Poquí.” FourFourTwo
“Real Madrid seized an early advantage in the Spanish league by beating Getafe 4-2 on Saturday after Barcelona squandered an early lead to draw 2-2 at Real Sociedad. Madrid striker Karim Benzema and Getafe’s Nicolas “Miku” Fedor scored in an evenly matched first half at Santiago Bernabeu stadium.” SI
Barca held, Madrid win
“Barcelona were pegged back from two goals ahead as Real Sociedad snatched a superb and deserved 2-2 draw at the Estadio de Anoeta. Two goals in as many minutes from Xavi and Cesc Fabregas put Barca 2-0 up inside the opening quarter-hour and they appeared to be cruising, but Imanol Agirretxe’s header changed all that and Antoine Griezmann netted a bizarre equaliser – making good on his pre-match promise to prove his commitment to the club after the collapse of his longed-for summer move to Atletico Madrid.” ESPN
“Spain’s unsurprising 6-0 win over Liechtenstein on Tuesday night sealed a wrinkle-free qualification through to the Euro 2012 finals in Poland and the Ukraine. And that got LLL’s noggin a-bogglin’. While the make-up of the Spain squad for that competition and even the World Cup in 2014 could look similar, barring a few Xavi- and Puyol-shaped tweaks, the blog started contemplating how a 4-3-3 Spain in five years’ time may well look for Euro 2016 in France…” FouFourTwo
“La Liga Loca can count at least seven reasons for an enormous smug cloud hanging above Barcelona after Monday night’s 5-0 win over Villarreal – a cloud so dense and orifice-clogging it may lead to mass evacuations.” FourFourTwo
“Every time they say goodbye, La Liga dies a little. Now Juan Mata has signed for Chelsea from Valencia, just as Sergio Aguero signed for Manchester City from Atlético Madrid. For fans of City and Chelsea, the transfers are fantastically exciting, two great additions to two teams aspiring to win the Premier League. For the Spanish league, they are frightening. Despite the injection of around 75 million euros, the transfers are confirmation of a worrisome trend.” SI
“Like two immense superpowers, Real Madrid and Barcelona keep on piling up the arms in the race to outdo each other. Football may never have seen two squads like this head-to-head before and the battle looks set to be fascinating. It may also turn downright nasty again.” World Soccer
David Villa
“One of the notable features from the second leg of the Spanish Supercopa was the positioning of Ricardo Carvalho, and his response to Lionel Messi’s movement into deep, slightly right-sided positions. Messi tore Real apart in the 5-0 win last season, despite it being a rare occasion where he didn’t end up on the scoresheet. Real tried to play high up the pitch, but Messi played so deep that Jose Mourinho didn’t know how to deal with him – the two centre-backs stayed in position, but holding a high line. Therefore, Messi could receive the ball in space, turn, then send a ball through to one of the wide forwards coming inside. His two assists for David Villa’s goals were perfect, displaying exactly why Pep Guardiola wants to play Messi in that role.” Zonal Marking
Cesc Fábregas starts with a night to remember at Barcelona
“Cesc Fábregas’s first big night out since returning to his home town ended in a fight but it also ended in celebration. The former Arsenal captain has collected his first trophy as a Barcelona player, just two days after joining the club. It was 1am when he was parading round the Camp Nou pitch with new team-mates and old friends carrying the Spanish Super Cup, snatched from Real Madrid’s grasp in dramatic fashion. At last the clásicos were something approaching a classic – some way from the four games in 18 days that these teams played last season.” Guardian
José Mourinho describes Barcelona as ‘a small team’ in post-match rant
“Real Madrid’s manager, José Mourinho, has continued his verbal attack on Barcelona, labelling the European champions “a small team” after Wednesday night’s Supercopa second-leg defeat at Camp Nou. Another fantastic spectacle between the two Spanish sides was again overshadowed by the antics of Mourinho, who thrust a finger in the eye of Barça’s assistant coach, Tito Vilanova, in a melee in the closing stages.” Guardian – (Video)
José Mourinho turned to violence against Barça to mask his own failure
“Barcelona’s vision has been a problem for José Mourinho ever since he took the Real Madrid job, so gouging the eye of a Barça coach in the latest melee between the two clubs was a Shakespearian act of desperation by a manager now working outside the laws and spirit of the game.” Guardian
“You can tell the season is about to start when it might not be about to start after all. With barely a fortnight to go, the Spanish players’ union called a strike over more than €50m of unpaid wages and on Wednesday morning another meeting between the league and the players’ union, the AFE, broke down. According to the AFE president José Luis Rubiales, in the last two years alone 200 players have been affected by salaries that have gone unpaid. So, here we are: three days to go and there’s no football.” Guardian
“The 2011/12 Spanish season started with an open, exciting Supercopa first leg between Barcelona and Real. Like the Community Shield, a full-scale analysis of a semi-competitive fixture would be a little much, so here are eight talking points from the game…” Zonal Marking
“For 15,000 supporters to turn up for the unveiling of a 35-year-old forward arriving on a free transfer, the club in question is either based in a city which is clearly lacking in fun stuff to do, or is an institution that possesses a horde of extremely excited fans. As the side in this particular scenario is in the playboy paradise of Málaga, the masses that turned up to give Ruud Van Nistelrooy a warm hand on his entrance are an indication of a club whose supporters are genuinely living the dream and close to peeing their pants in giddy anticipation at the season to come.” Football365
Paying homage to Catalonian Luis Enrique
“Even before the satirical film An American in Rome was released in 1954 with the legendary comic actor Alberto Sordi japing around Trastevere wearing a baseball cap in the style of Joe Di Maggio threatening to destroy macaroni, Italians have held a curious fascination with the strength, opulence and freedom of the United States.” Fox Sports
Super build-up for Super Cup
“The friendlies are all but over, the endless waffle and piffle concerning Cesc and Neymar have been banished to the inside pages, Karim Benzema has been reborn for the 15th time and Leo Messi is back in Barcelona ready to open another can of whup-ass on Real Madrid. This is the state of play in the Spanish press just six days before what has been branded by one paper’s rather feeble attempt at hype as ‘the most important Supercopa in 14 years’.” FourFourTwo
“If you were to pay a visit to a home game at the Saniat R’mel stadium in the Moroccan City of Tetouan, you would be forgiven for thinking you were in the domain of a lower league Spanish side. For although this is the home of Maghreb Athletic Tetouan of the Botola League, there is a distinctly Spanish theme present amongst the clubs fanatical supporters. From the banners honouring ‘Los Matadores’ (the matadors) and the passionately waved Spanish flags, to the replica shirts of Athletic Bilbao and Athletico Madrid that echo the Red and White colours of the home team, the tributes are commonplace on the terraces.” In Bed With Maradona
“What do Sir Alex Ferguson, Ottmar Hitzfeld, Carlo Ancelotti, José Mourinho and Josep Guardiola have in common? They are the only members of an elite group of managers who have won the UEFA Champions League twice. As members of the group, they are always guaranteed work at the top level of world football. This season a familiar face returns to Spain, a man who has come as close as anyone to entering this group. Héctor Cúper will probably feel he is the unluckiest manager in football.” In Bed With Maradona
“José Mourinho has already splurged €55m on five players this summer but the Real Madrid coach and newly appointed ‘sporting manager’ wants one more. In an echo of last year’s narrative, the Special One is desperate to sign another striker so he doesn’t go have to go out hunting with Karim ‘the cat’ Benzema, as he complained last time round when Gonzalo Higuaín knacked his back. Here are the four frontrunners whose names have been bandied around in Spain as the main men who could join the Santiago Bernabeu strike force.” Football365
“Last Thursday marked the pre-season’s first bout of conspiracy theorising and childish screams of ‘it’s not fair!’ in the ongoing media war between Real Madrid and Barcelona. It was the day after the fixtures for the 2011-12 campaign were announced and the loonier parts of the Barça press thought they could smell a rather pungent rat as they cast their eyes over Barcelona’s opening few games, which kick off with a trip to a beefed-up Málaga.” FourFourTwo
José Mourinho
“So in his first season as Real Madrid manager José Mourinho justified his much vaunted reputation as a winning manager, but the problem is that his team only added the Copa del Rey to the trophy cabinet. This was just a consolation prize for the most successful club in Spanish history, especially as their eternal rivals Barcelona won the two competitions that really mattered, namely La Liga (for the third season in a row) and the Champions League, when they out-passed (and out-classed) Manchester United.” Swiss Ramble
“Once the tipping point is reached departures become inevitable and the slide becomes harder to arrest than ever; what starts as an emergency solution risks becoming a permanent situation, the enshrinement of inequality and the inability to compete. Handled well, the effects can be palliated but, barring a sudden shift, the trend is unavoidable. Spanish soccer has reached that tipping point. Valencia certainly have.” SI
“Real Madrid ended October above Barcelona after perfect month – essential in a league where dropping a single point is as advisable as jamming your todger in a toaster. Pep’s Dream Boys carelessly threw away two precious points at the Camp Nou in a 1-1 draw against Mallorca, prompting mass panty-bunching panic in the Catalan capital.” FourFourTwo
“I’ve taken the decision to name my team of the year without any mention of Barcelona or Real Madrid players. You know about them already, so it’s time for the rest of La Primera Division to get an honourable mention.” Footy Matters
“The month began as most do in la Liga – with a big, stinky controversy fishier than a Valencia pavement café which was only cast aside by the Spanish press when José Mourinho said something particularly outrageous and offensive. This particular bit of dodgy business focussed on Hércules – one of the more colourful clubs in la Primera last season – with reports suggesting particular members of the Alicante side may have ‘encouraged’ opposition teams to perhaps not try as hard as they might during the club’s promotion campaign from la Segunda the previous season.” FourFourTwo
“Eighteen days in the spring defined and decided the season. Finally, the inevitable happened and the curtain came down on the rest of Spain, leaving Real Madrid and Barcelona to fight it out for absolutely everything. The clásico series felt like the obvious conclusion, two-and-a-half weeks that acted as a microcosm of the season. The best two sides became the only two sides, league, Champions League and Copa del Rey their own private battleground, and as much of the spotlight was shone off the pitch as on it – where there were accusations and acrimony, formal complaints and a complete lack of class. Where it got genuinely pretty horrible. Just as it was always going to.” Guardian
“Alex Ferguson was left in no doubt. ‘In my time as a manager I would say yes, this is the best team I’ve faced.’ But then, on Saturday night at Wembley, the Manchester United manager wasn’t exactly analysing the issue with the most detached viewpoint. His team had just been utterly dismantled by Barcelona. And as he gets closer to the end of his career, it was a performance that will probably leave as deep an impression as that of Real Madrid at Hampden Park near the start of it in 1960.” The Football Pantheon
“Our man in Spain, Tim Stannard, continues to look back on another incredible year in la Primera with the second installment of his review of the seaon…” FourFourTwo
“With little, bowl-headed Bojan wearing the captain’s armband for Barcelona as reward for a splendid A- in PE, LLL feared the worst for Pep’s Dream Boys at Málaga. A defeat for Barça would have left a table reflecting the fact that Real Madrid had lost the league by a single point, something Marca would no doubt have dined-out on for the entire summer. Instead, the mini-Dream Boys came away from the south coast with a 3-1 victory to give Barça a four point advantage over Madrid after 38 games.” FourFourTwo
“A shimmy and shammy as purty as a Tennessee beauty queen saw Iniesta glide through a sluggish Espanyol defence to set Barcelona on their way in what was, considering the bust-ups of recent years, a somewhat boring Catalan derby. Barcelona just need a single point against Levante on Wednesday to win the title, providing Real Madrid dodge their local civic duty and beat Getafe the day before.” FourFourTwo
Pieter Brueghel the Elder
“In his earliest days at Manchester United, Cristiano Ronaldo would react to tackles on the training ground with a yelp and sometimes a quick roll on the ground. His new team-mates – Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs among them – took him aside and advised him to be less theatrical: not out of righteousness, but because they knew it was the wrong signal for him to send to opponents in the Premier League.” Guardian
“Soccer fans, heave a collective sigh of relief – no pun intended. So much theater, so much wrestling, so much on the line, so much falling over coupled with ankle grabbing and head embracing — the four Clásicos are finally over. Now back to football. Is there so much on the line (millions of dollars aside) when Real Madrid and Barcelona meet that the players have to forsake playing the game for a bout (or four consecutive rounds) of shadowboxing? Do we even have anything close in MLS?” Yanks are coming
Pedro, David Villa
“Barcelona rarely looked under real pressure and completed a 3-1 aggregate victory. Pep Guardiola named the expected XI – Andres Iniesta returned from injury to replace Seydou Keita. Javier Mascherano continued at centre-back, with Carles Puyol at left-back. Jose Mourinho switched to his 4-2-3-1 system but made two surprise selections. Kaka was in ahead of Mesut Ozil, whilst Gonzalo Higuain started upfront. Mourinho was not in attendance at the stadium (as far as is known at time of publishing) so assistant Aitor Karanka was in charge for the night.” Zonal Marking
Barcelona 1 – 1 Real Madrid
“Barcelona comfortably advanced to the Champions League final following a 1-1 draw at home to fierce rivals Real Madrid at Camp Nou. Following a completely one-sided first half in which Madrid keeper Iker Casillas kept his side in the game, Pedro gave Pep Guardiola’s team the lead nine minutes into the second period.” ESPN
Barcelona 1 Real Madrid 1: match report
“For those who came to the Nou Camp expecting a fight, a football match broke out, a decent one. After all the play-acting and name-calling, this was an El Clasico more worthy of the name, ending with the best player on the planet, Lionel Messi, a zephyr with the ball, heading towards Wembley. There were still noises off, squalls of complaints, particularly about the embarrassing Javier Mascherano, who again auditioned for panto, but this was a far less heated affair than earlier episodes of the Antics Road Show.” Telegraph – Henry Winter
Barcelona hold off Real Madrid threat to reach Champions League final
“The last instalment of a four-match, 18-day scorpion dance that became nastier by the hour was a proper contest in which Real Madrid recovered their attacking urges but Barcelona advanced to a probable meeting with Manchester United in the Champions League final at Wembley. ‘This has been one of the most beautiful nights I have ever lived,’ said Pep Guardiola, the Barça coach.” Guardian
FC Barcelona 1-1 Real Madrid (El Clasico) – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – Champions League
The 90th Minute
Sandro Botticelli
“Real Madrid and F.C. Barcelona feature some of the best soccer players on earth, are the world’s two richest clubs, embody drastically opposed philosophies of the game, have combined to win more than 140 trophies, and share a complex, antagonistic history that ties their rivalry inescapably to the Spanish Civil War. (Fascists kidnapped and executed Barcelona’s club president in 1936; the Franco regime used Madrid as a symbol of Spanish nationalism.) Any game between these two clubs is a big deal. Four Clásicos in 18 days is, in the soccer universe, a quasar.” Slate – Brian Phillips
Barcelona v Real Madrid: tactical preview
“Amongst the squabbling, appealing and conspiracy theories, there’s a football match to play tonight at the Camp Nou. Now into the fourth part of a four-part Clasico series, there’s relatively little left to say about the potential tactics of both managers. We’ve had one win for Pep Guardiola, one win for Jose Mourinho (in extra time) and one draw. We’ve had different formations, different players and wildly different patterns to matches, and it’s difficult to predict what more can reasonably be expected tonight.” Zonal Marking
On Mind Games
“Listening to the most recent ESPN Soccernet Podcast seemed to confirm the notion that there is a persistent, perhaps all-too-British, unreconstructed lapdog approach to covering Jose Mourinho.” Run of Play
Scissors Kick 