“José Mourinho is looking mean and moody on the front cover of Monday’s edition of AS. Then again, the Madrid manager is always looking mean and moody. But in this particular photograph it looks as if Mourinho had spent the past two months living next door to The Libertines in their drug-addled pomp and is about to blast the band’s front door down with a shotgun.” FourFourTwo
“Though the coach will have to repeat the ‘league is not won yet, the league is not won yet’ mantra pretty much every minute of every day for the next two months, Pep and the Dream Boys know that the title was moreorless sewn up, thanks to Saturday’s double delight of a defeat for Madrid and a win for Barça at Villarreal in a match where a draw probably would have been a fair result.” FourFourTwo
“Pep Guardiola said it was the last thing he wanted to see, but no one really believed him. Sure, the trip east won’t be much fun, but a matchup against Shakhtar looked like the perfect draw for his Barcelona team in the Champions League quarterfinals.” SI
“Police helicopters buzzing about; beer-fueled fans pouring through the turnstiles; TV cameras squeezed onto the narrow strip of grass separating the pitch and stands – Rayo Vallecano’s Estadio Teresa Rivero was certainly the place to be in Madrid late on Sunday night.” FourFourTwo
“Faith in youth due to financial turmoil is not uncommon but Espanyol have had to place more in their Cantera than others. Welcome to IBWM David Cartlidge.” In Bed With Maradona
“The Champions League is now to the quarterfinals which will begin on April 5-6 and conclude on April 12-13. There are two Spanish sides, three English sides, one Italian club, one German club, and one from Ukraine.” The 90th Minute
“An awful week off the pitch with the news of Eric Abidal and the outlandish insinuations of doping coming from the direction of the Spanish capital came to a relatively happy end with a 2-1 win over Getafe. It was a match that appeared to fit a similar pattern at the Camp Nou of late – Barça creating oodles of chances but missing pretty much all of them.” FourFourTwo
“Tactical observations from Champions League action this week…” SI
Jean-Pierre Clatot
“The draw begins at 11am UK time. By which what we mean, of course, is that the video montages, unnecessary musical interludes, and same-old boring lecture we get every year about how wonderful the Champions League is begins at 11am. Then, all of a sudden, the draw will happen very quickly just when you’ve given up waiting and gone to make a cuppa instead. Fear not, though, I shall be here without to make sure you don’t miss a thing.” Guardian
“José Mourinho has a problem. When fans approach the world’s most famous coach—and they do so in great numbers, from Madrid to London to Los Angeles—they are seldom satisfied with a typical autograph. They want something unique. Distinct. Dare it be said: special. ‘I’ll sign JOSÉ MOURINHO,’ says the Real Madrid manager after a practice in the Spanish capital. ‘But most of the people say, “No, no, no. You will sign THE SPECIAL ONE!” ‘ Mourinho sighs, the edges of his trademark smirk curling into a faint smile. ‘Everybody wants me to be The Special One. But I don’t worry. There could be a worse nickname.'” SI
“If true strength can come from real adversity, can ideals of beauty be pulled from an ugly defeat? Welcome to IBWM Brian McDonnell” In Bed With Maradona
“Tough to know where to stick Barcelona in today’s section. It was two points dropped – which a concerned Pep Guardiola would have probably taken before the clash – but it was a match that could easily have been won in the final minutes with Barça having efforts crashing against the bar and being cleared off the line.” FourFourTwo
Sevilla 1-1 Barcelona: Sevilla recover from poor first half to hold Barcelona to a draw
“Barcelona failed to win for only the fourth time this season in La Liga. Having favoured a 4-3-1-2 formation in recent weeks, Gregorio Manzano returned to a 4-2-3-1 system here. Didier Zokora came into the centre of midfield, and Diego Capel started over Diego Perotti on the right, so Jesus Navas was on the left.” Zonal Marking
“Not too much to talk about with Barcelona and their 1-0 home win over Zaragoza best described as perfunctory. But it’s a better day for Pep Guardiola, who got the go-ahead to leave hospital on Monday after two nights being bed-bathed by buxom Barça-loving nurses whilst suffering from a hernia in his back.” FourFourTwo
“While we much prefer to bask in their refracted glory, it’s important to note that 2010-11’s all-conquering superteam known as Barcelona stood on the edge of a very different and much more depressing era not too long ago. Before lawyer/politician Joan Laporta took over in 2003, the club had been mired in rising debts and dismal on-pitch performances, so much so that Real had become dominant while the Blaugrana could only reflect on their last trophy, the 1998-99 La Liga title. It took time, effort, and a great deal of patience for Laporta’s vision to take shape, but in the years since, life at the Nou Camp has never been better.” James T
Valencia 0-1 Barcelona: both sides try different systems, but both switch back to the usual
“Lionel Messi had an off-day…and yet still scored the winner as Barcelona temporarily move ten points clear at the top. Unai Emery had been trying Juan Mata as a number nine all week in training, and used him that position here, as Valencia went into the the game with no real striker. There was a reshuffle at the back, and two full-backs were used in tandem down the left flank.” Zonal Marking
Valencia 0-1 FC Barcelona – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – La Liga
The 90th Minute
“I have a new piece in Slate on parity in soccer, which of course means the lack of parity in soccer, which means the fact that Real Madrid and Barcelona have combined to win 51 La Liga titles compared to 28 for all the other clubs in Spain, and Blackburn is still the only club outside the Functional Big Three ever to win a Premier League title, and even a plucky underdog like Leyton Orient, after bravely winning an FA Cup draw against Arsenal at home, can expect to be roto-rooted into oblivion by Nicklas Bendtner at the Emirates.” Run of Play
“A certain Madrid-mad Primera pundit was last week trying to convince LLL that Barcelona were ‘in crisis’ having dropped points against Sporting in la Liga and been beaten by Arsenal in the Champions League.” FourFourTwo
“With the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 done and dusted, here are five things we’ve learned…” ESPN
“I know I promised fun-filled clangers, but those will have to wait while I tackle something a bit more serious: the persistent misunderstanding of goalkeeping by well-paid pundits, commentators, and other assorted football experts. I say this without malice or snobbery. None of them actually were goalkeepers, and so it makes sense that they all, be it Andy Gray (once upon a time), Craig Burley, or Jamie Redknapp, tend to trot out well-worn cliches in absence of more in-depth knowledge.” The Goalkeepers’ Union
“Karim Benzema scored on his return to Lyon, but Bafetimbi Gomis netted a late equaliser. Claude Puel fielded a 4-2-3-1 system, making just one change from the weekend game. Jimmy Briand’s spectacular bicycle kick against Nancy wasn’t enough to keep him in the side, so Brazilian Michel Bastos played instead. The only minor surprise from Jose Mourinho was at left-back. Marcelo was left out, Alvaro Arbeloa started.” Zonal Marking
“Little Leo was insanely good in spells in Barcelona’s 2-1 win against Athletic Bilbao that should steady a few nerves in the Catalan capital without the need to resort to a swift drink or two. With the Sunday night score at 1-1 after an early David Villa goal and penalty converted by Iraola – and the headline writers in Madrid about to release ‘Hay Liga!’ onto the world for a second weekend running – Messi popped up with a winner in the second half and it was just reward for a spell of pressure on Athletic where Messi was truly sublime.” FourFourTwo
“Below are the power rankings for the UEFA Champions League heading into the knockout stage (round of 16). We will release a new rankings list after each round of the competition (until it reaches the semifinals).” The 90th Minute
“They say there are things in life money can’t buy. Love, happiness, health and it now seems we can add the La Liga title to this list. Real Madrid now sit 7 points behind fierce rivals Barcelona in the league. A points tally which is increased to 8 when you take into account the head to head with the 5-0 dubbing they encountered at the Camp Nou. But perhaps because of that game and Barcelona’s current unstoppable form, psychologically it may feel like 18 points.” The Oval Log
El Tel, Archigol and Los Ingleses
“So strong has Barcelona’s production and promotion of young talent been over the last few years, it is easy to forget that the club has traditionally had a more multinational feel to it. Of the team that started the 5-0 demolition of Real Madrid in November, eight were Spaniards and the same number graduates of the famous La Masia academy.” The Equaliser
“Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola has committed his future to the club for another 12 months, extending his contract through to the summer of 2012. Guardiola, who would have been out of contract at the end of this season, has led Barca to an unprecedented 16 consecutive victories in La Liga – they have not dropped a single point since drawing at home to Mallorca on October 3 – which eclipses the record set by Real Madrid in 1960-61.” ESPN
Josep Guardiola
ESPN – Pep Guardiola
“Don’t take one defeat as a sign of decline, after ten straight years in La Liga, the Yellow Submarines show no sign of relenting. Welcome to IBWM Ross Mackiewicz.” In Bed With Maradona
Ronaldo
“Does anyone know who’s leading the Liga? No, not La Liga; the Liga, the Primeira Liga—Portugal’s first tier of domestic football. Does anyone know? Does anyone care? Heck, even I’ve been known to look past the Primeira Liga, and I’m Portuguese. That’s the lure of the fast-paced, money-rich, crowd-packed Premier Leagues and Bundesligas and La Ligas of this world, whose fan-friendly cable packages are often too much to resist when the alternative is a game between Paços de Ferreira and Olhanense in an empty back-lot stadium that wouldn’t make it in League Two in England. Most teams in the Championship have bigger attendances and heftier budgets than, oh, around 12 of the 16 teams in the Primeira Liga.” Run of Play
“If the Premier League’s final day of the winter window was a giant paella of SKY TV excitement, la Liga’s was a manky grain of rice sitting at the side of the pan with just six piddling transfers being made in the final few hours in Spain. Perky Carolina from Gol TV had been sent to the offices of the LFP where she made the giddy-eyed promise of fax machines whirring away, churning out contract details of Andrés Iniesta heading to his secret love team of Espanyol and Cristiano Ronaldo enjoying the Pamplona experience so much, on Sunday, the forward had decided to opt to play for Osasuna for the rest of his days.” FourFourTwo
“It isn’t a lack of strikers that sees Real Madrid seven points behind Barcelona and Marca’s back page on Monday instructing the Spanish FA to blast the message from their HQ with a megaphone that the Catalan club can ‘pick up the trophy from our offices, whenever you want’.” Football 365
“You’ll forgive me if I ramble a little this week, or even if I fail to tickle your interests, but I’ll try. I’ve been in England all week, and have only just come back. I missed the Valencia versus Malaga game on Saturday night (4-3) which sounded like a cracker, but I did manage to take in the Villarreal versus Real Sociedad game on Sunday evening (2-1), which was also very entertaining fare. In midweek, whilst Betis were doing the unthinkable and beating Barcelona, I was eating my takeaway curry and watching the FA Cup replay of Leeds v Arsenal on the hotel telly.” ESPN
“Playing Málaga just after seeing Real Madrid drop two platinum-precious points against Almería could have gone one of two ways for Barcelona. Pep’s Dream Boys could have choked and had their own Primera wobble. Or they could have humped the opportunity to pieces by mauling Málaga. Seeing as this team is strong like some kind of graceful ox-type creature, Barça did the latter. The title is now officially theirs to be lost.” FourFourTwo
Barca Half-Win La Liga As Real Slip…
“After nearly two months of inactivity, the slumbering, blubbery beast that is Spain’s title race momentarily showed signs of life on Sunday night with an effulgent fart and a boisterous burp before rolling over to whack the snooze button and go back to sleep, perhaps to the end of the season if Bar軋’s astonishing form continues.” Foolball 365
Grand Bleu
“It’s proving increasingly difficult not to like Villarreal. The team is in a distant third place behind Barcelona and Real Madrid in La Liga and therefore receives relatively little media coverage outside of Spain. But in a league that has been simply too predictable this season, Juan Carlos Garrido’s side continues to excite with its beautiful, attack-minded football.” ESPN
“Or rather, ‘Argentines in Spain and Portugal,’ with a few quick additions, since there wasn’t a lot to write home about elsewhere aside from Carlos Tevez’s goal in the FA Cup. Ben Shave and David Cartlidge, though, are here to keep us up to date with the weekend’s happenings. In the wake of his FIFA World Player Of The Year coronation, I’m also adding a video of Lionel Messi’s hat trick in the Copa Del Rey on Wednesday night. Enjoy.” Hasta El Gol Siempre
Nicolaes Pietersz Berchem – View of an Italian Port
“Pep’s Dream Boys – as officially endorsed by FIFA on Monday night, according to the local press – beat Deportivo using the most basic trick in the tactical book against the Galician outfit: staying awake for the whole ninety minutes when facing their terrifically tedious opponents.” FourFourTwo
Real Madrid 4-2 Villarreal: Real battered in first half, but press higher to dominate the second
“Cristiano Ronaldo scored three goals and assisted another for Kaka, as Real came back from 1-0 and 2-1 down. Jose Mourinho used his usual 4-2-3-1 system. Sami Khedira was dropped with Lassana Diarra playing instead, whilst Kaka was again on the bench. Juan Carlos Garrido played Villarreal’s usual 4-4-2 / 4-2-2-2. Nilmar is still unavailable, so Marco Ruben started upfront. Marcos Senna and Carlos Marchena were also out – Jose Catala played at the back. Villarreal were excellent in the first half – by far the better side, and Jose Mourinho admitted after the match that the away side deserved to be leading at half-time.” Zonal Marking
“Nearly two years ago, the Daily Mail’s Matt Lawton published a piece under what should surely be considered one of the most dunderheaded headlines in recent football journalism: ‘The best players of the world (and Xavi): Ronaldo crowned king of football.’ In the wake of Cristiano Ronaldo’s ascension as the world player of the year in 2009, Lawton took the time to cheekily ridicule Xavi Hernández, a player whose patience, measure, and impeccable sense of the tempo in attack and defense has helped to make Barcelona the best club side in Europe (arguably) and Spain the best national side in the world (most certainly).” Run of Play
“Everyone knows the impact that Johan Cruyff had footballing philosophy of Barcelona. But what if there had been another totemic figure present at the Camp Nou? What if El Tel had decided to depart a season early? Alex Dimond, ladies and gentlemen.” In Bed With Maradona
“Barcelona have shuffled their pack in 2010, starting to prefer to Messi to play centrally rather than in the inside right role. Not formed in the archetypal central forward role, his pee-wee frame would perhaps lead some central defenders preferring to battle against the Lilliputian Argentinian.” Talking About Football
Good Day, Bad Day: Perfect Pedro and Awful Atlético
“The league has got to such a barmy bipolar state that panic breaks out across the Spanish sporting media unless Barcelona thrash another side a billion nil. In the English Premier League, sides such as Manchester United have off days – ones where they eke out points rather than rubbing their tackle in their opposition’s faces for 90 minutes – without everyone flapping their arms about in panic. But in Spain, this simply isn’t tolerated. Barça weren’t great against a disciplined Levante, but Pedro was with two goals that gave his team the three points, which is all that matters really.” FourFourTwo
“It appeared that the biggest cultural change to life in Spain since the controversial 1986 deregulation of the ham market was just too much for a small chunk of the country’s work force. Being unable by law to smoke in bars – without exceptions or loopholes, this time – from the 2nd of January and having to play football on the same day apparently caused such a rumpus for Spain’s dilettante, pipe-puffing footballers that their union went to court to request the suspension of any activity, on Sunday, involving kicking a ball about in front of paying punters – even the meagre handful who bother to turn up to see either Getafe or Mallorca.” Football 365
“Xavi Hernandez, the world’s finest midfielder, remembers the advice he received when, at age 10, he made a first tentative journey to La Masia, the 18th century farmhouse in the shadow of the Camp Nou where Barcelona school their youngsters.”‘My coach said, ‘Watch how Pep Guardiola plays. He is perfect in his position – your position.’ And he was right. If Pep was still playing he’d be in the side ahead of any of us.” Xavi’s progress meant he eventually played alongside Guardiola, now the first La Masia graduate to coach the first team.” The National
“With the squad’s best players such as Borja Valero, Mario Su疵ez and Ariz Aduriz sold off, the club slipping into administration over the summer and subsequently thrown out of the Europa League by UEFA, a position won after a fifth-place finish last season, Mallorca were expected to be one of the strugglers in la Primera, this time around.” Football 365
“The fact that Real Sociedad are no suffering saps – or Real Madrid perhaps – makes the 5-0 win for ‘Qatar Foundation presents Pep’s Dream Boys!’ over La Real so darned impressive. It’s hard to know whether the match highlight was Leo Messi weaving past five defenders on the edge of the box to equal Ronaldo’s league tally of 17 goals, or the outstanding Argentine finishing off a 28 pass move straight from the second half kick-off. ” FourFourTwo
The kids are alright
“The news that January’s Ballon d’Or will be handed to one of the three musketeers, Andres Iniesta, Leo Messi or Xavi Hernandez, is significant in various ways. Despite that opening assertion, it’s not the first time that one club has offered up all three candidates for the prize. In 1988, if I’m not mistaken, Marco van Basten won the gold, with his Milan team-mates Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard slightly lower on the podium, and the next year the same guy took the top prize, challenged only by Rijkaard, again, and Franco Baresi.” ESPN
“Two Cristiano Ronaldo goals gave Real an important three points at the Bernabeu. Jose Mourinho changed to a 4-3-3 system for this game, with Karim Benzema replaced with Lassana Diarra and Cristiano Ronaldo used as the lone forward. Ricardo Carvalho and Sergio Ramos were replaced by Raul Albiol and Alvaro Arbeloa at the back.” Zonal Marking
“A brand new pastime has been added to the favourite hobbies of the good people of Spain, which currently include the mass blocking of pavements by groups of dithering pedestrians and taking three days off work in the middle of a crushing economic recession – a luxury afforded by bank holidays on Monday and Wednesday, no less. This new manner of getting through those long, cold Iberian nights is to get one’s knickers in a right old twist about Barcelona – and more particularly – Pep Guardiola supposedly insulting Osasuna, the people of Pamplona, Real Madrid, la Liga, and probably his Majesty the King of Spain, too.” Football 365
“In the aftermath of Barcelona’s incredible 5-0 win over Real Madrid in the clásico Monday, here are some postgame reflections…” SI
La Liga Lowdown, Jornada 13: Magnificent Barcelona victorious in El Clásico
“After weeks of constant hype, Barcelona and Real Madrid finally met in the Camp Nou last night for the first Clásico of the season. Weeks of “Messi vs Cristiano”, “Guardiola vs Mourinho” were finally put to an end as Barça emerged as winners. And, not only did they win, they did it in style – their style.” Just Football
Barcelona, the ‘Orgasm Team’, win another epoch-defining clásico
“Eric Abidal raised his hand. Gerard Piqué raised his. And then the crowd that engulfed Jeffrén Suárez raised theirs. Víctor Valdés raised his, latex glistening in the light and soon the rest of Camp Nou joined in. So did the fans who gathered down the Ramblas – palms open, fingers outstretched. Not far away, a hand was being raised on the front cover of Sport. On the back, its cartoonist was taking the easy way out. ‘Today, instead of drawing,’ he wrote, ‘I have decided to scan my hand.’ So he did.” Guardian
What does Mourinho have on the drawing board?“In January this year, Football Further examined the first few months of Manuel Pellegrini’s stint as Real Madrid coach and discovered that he fielded 16 different midfield and attack configurations in his first 16 league matches. Pellegrini’s time at Real ended in disappointment – despite phenomenal success in the goalscoring department – and a look at how his successor, José Mourinho, has approached team selection in the early weeks of his tenure reveals a very different style.” Football Further
Pep Guardiola
“Barcelona produced a truly legendary performance to go top of the table. Pep Guardiola deviated little from his favoured XI so far this season – the closest thing to a surprise was at left-back, where Eric Abidal played ahead of Maxwell. Lionel Messi started in the centre, with David Villa on the left.” (Zonal Marking)
Barcelona as Slime
“Poor Sergio Ramos — not to excuse or justify him, of course, but he’s an elite athlete, accustomed from childhood to running circles around other people, and now, before an enormous world-wide audience, to have people running circles around him — and so evidently enjoying it — well, that’s an insult not to be borne, I suppose. Everyone gets beaten sometimes: even Messi was dispossessed a couple of times yesterday. But to be humiliated for ninety minutes almost without respite, as Real Madrid’s players were yesterday . . . that doesn’t happen very often at that level of sport.” (Run of Play)
Barca teaches Real a master class
“Greatness is not measured in medals alone but in style. ‘Great clubs,’ Arrigo Sacchi said, ‘have had one thing in common throughout history, regardless of era and tactics. They owned the pitch and they owned the ball. That means when you have the ball, you dictate play and when you are defending, you control the space.’ There can hardly have been any doubt about the greatness of Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona, but beating Real Madrid 5-0 confirmed its place in the pantheon.” (SI)
David Villa strikes twice as slick Barcelona thrash Real Madrid
“José Mourinho always said that his side would lose one day but he did not expect to lose like this – not after enjoying the greatest start of any coach in Real Madrid’s history. His team, so impermeable before, were punctured. Five times. They were sunk. A 5-0 victory for Barcelona was described by the Madrid coach as a ‘historically bad result’ for his club – it was the worst defeat he has suffered in his career.” (Guardian)
No contest in clasico
“No contest. Those are the only two words that can sum up the clasico, a disappointing occasion if you’d been expecting an evenly-fought slug-out, a euphoric one if you’d been hoping that Barcelona could re-stamp their authority on the Spanish scene, after their rivals’ previously unbeaten start to the season. Whatever, the least one expected was a manita (little hand), the phrase reserved for games that end in a 5-0 scoreline. In some ways, they’re worse than a 6-0 result, because the latter has no nickname, no bruising synonym created to humiliate.” (ESPN)
Barca simply the best after Real rout
“It was said that Monday night’s game at Camp Nou – hyped like few other domestic league ties in the history of the game – would settle two raging debates: who are the best team in the world, and who is the best player in the world? If this solitary match could be said to be decisive in that regard, then the judgement was emphatic. It left no room whatsoever for argument.” (ESPN)
FC Barcelona 5-0 Real Madrid (El Clasico) – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – La Liga
(The 90th Minute)
“El Clásico is not just the biggest game in Spain; it is the biggest game in all of European football. A clash between two of the game’s most famous institutions, this is a derby that transcends the boundaries of traditional rivalry and a fixture which has come to represent regional identities and the quest for pseudo-political superiority. This Monday, in a city that will be feverish with civic activity in the wake of the latest Catalan elections, Real Madrid and Barcelona will once again take to the field to do battle, the spectacular Camp Nou providing a fitting backdrop. As Phil Ball writes in his excellent book, Morbo: The Story of Spanish Football, the context to any Clásico is a century of mutual antipathy. This is no ordinary game of football.” (The Football Ramble)
“The biggest game of the season so far, and a clash between – possibly – the two best teams in Europe at the moment. The first thing to consider is the mentality of Jose Mourinho. One point clear of Barcelona going into the game, it’s entirely likely that he would take the draw if it were offered to him now. His previous trip to the Nou Camp saw his Inter side defend solidly for the entire game with little or no attempt to get a goal (granted, with ten men, and a two-goal advantage going into the second leg), which shows he knows how to stop Barcelona playing.” (Zonal Marking)
“Tim Stannard (AKA The Spanish Thing) answers all your questions ahead of Monday’s El Clasico. So are Barca a one-man team? Will they still buy Cesc Fabregas? And who wants Llorente?” (Football 365)
“If not for the UEFA millions of the Champions League, Ajax won’t have anything to look back on once these group stage games are done with. Their game against Real Madrid saw them outclassed in every department, highlighted to the extreme by the unique fact of two Madrid players purposefully upgrading their yellow cards to reds by delaying taking a free kick and a goal kick. The video of this sequence of events might serve to illustrate the gap between Europe’s top teams and a struggling Dutch top team at the moment. Tactics hardly played a role in the game, such was the difference in sheer player quality.” (11 tegen 11)
“The big, bold notices splattered across the morning Marca in the run up to a meeting between Real Madrid and Barcelona usually either bring La Liga Loca to blubbering, shuddering tears of desperation or have it clapping like a sea-lion given the chance to puke fish guts over Justin Bieber. Monday was very much the former for a tired and distressed LLL. But Tuesday sees the blog in much finer fettle and able to embrace the madness.” (FourFourTwo)
“It’s that time of the week again – Tim Stannard runs through the winners and losers of the weekend’s action in Spain…” (FourFourTwo)
`Low Life` Mourinho Causes Chaos…
“It should have been a weekend in la Liga dominated by the Super Sensational Sexy Saturday Showdown clash between Barcelona and Villarreal. It was a key, strategic encounter between second and third to see if the plucky, as glamorous as a gangrene-infested granny, east-coast club could prevent la Primera’s prime-movers from breaking away with less than a third of the season gone.” (Football 365)
“English football, for all its quirks and layers of social influence, is a relatively apolitical animal. In a direct comparison with the politically charged clubs of Italy and Spain, English teams are arguably far less representative of ideology and cause. With that in mind, the highly politicised regional struggle played out by Barcelona and Real Madrid can seem somewhat alien to the British football fan, the friction between centralism and the movement for Catalan independence a sketchy intellectual argument between two abstracted factions. That conception of the situation, as it happens, could hardly be further from the truth.” (Equaliser Football)
“A growing and probably quite unhealthy obsession with the concept of Unai Emery caused La Liga Loca to spend Monday musing whether the Valencia manager actually enjoyed his job. It certainly didn’t look like it during the 2-0 loss to Sevilla, Emery watching Mehmet Topal’s rather harsh sending-off scupper any chance of success in the Sánchez Pizjuán.” (FourFourTwo)
Musings on Madrid
“Just in case you wanted to know, Atletico Madrid’s veterans stuffed Real Madrid’s 7-0 on Friday afternoon, and Ricky Carvalho beat Diego Forlan 1-0 in the FIFA 11 (virtual) game in a Madrid hotel the same day. The scorer was Ronaldo, of course. Interestingly, in the real thing on Sunday night, Carvalho opened the scoring and Forlan failed to find the net, but the Uruguayan was at least remaining faithful to tradition. Atletico have now failed to beat their neighbours in the Madrid ‘derbi’ since the 1999-00 season, and often stand accused of not really going for it, particularly in the Bernabeu.” (ESPN)
Accounting Battle Distracts From Barcelona’s Success
“Johan Cruyff, the Dutchman who both played for and coached F.C. Barcelona, once noted that, in soccer, ‘it doesn’t matter how many goals they score, as long as you score one more.’ Winning, however, has not been the only thing that has mattered recently at Cruyff’s former club. Instead, one of Barcelona’s most successful presidents, Joan Laporta, found himself last month on the receiving end of a lawsuit initiated by his successor, Sandro Rosell, alleging unlawful accounting.” (NYT)
“Shows absolutely no signs of slowing down, maybe because much of the forward’s game is played in the 30-metre ‘zone of terror’ where little Leo has scored in five consecutive matches for Pep’s Dream Boys.” (FourFourTwo)
Real Madrid 2-0 Atletico Madrid: early goals and a routine victory for Real“Ricardo Carvalho and Mesut Oezil’s first half goals gave Real a commanding lead.
Jose Mourinho kept the same side as in the 2-2 draw in Milan in midweek. No change in formation either – 4-2-3-1. Qique Sanchez Flores went for the usual 4-4-2 with inverted wingers, Simao Sabrosa on the left and Jose Antonio Reyes on the right. Luis Perea was out, so Tomas Ujfalusi moved over to the centre-back position he made his name in, whilst Juan Valera started at right-back. Mario Suarez made his second start for Atletico in the centre.” (Zonal Marking)
“A pulsating game that finished all square, with both sides disappointed to have given up the victory. Milan recalled Ronaldinho in place of Robinho, and moved back to a 4-3-3 rather than the 4-3-1-2 they used in the first half against Juventus. Only Alessandro Nesta remained from that back four, with Gianluca Zambrotta, Ignazio Abate and Thiago Silva coming into the side.” (Zonal Marking)
AC Milan 2-2 Real Madrid – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – Champions League
(The 90th Minute)
“Some goals Werder Bremen conceded in the 4-0 drubbing at Internazionale last month were so soft that Italian football paper Gazzetta dello Sport rechristened the team ‘Werder Crema.’ It was a charitable assessment; Gazzetta easily could have reached for a stronger Italian word.” (SI)
Panathinaikos 0-0 Rubin Kazan: little invention from attackers and a good result for neither
“A disappointing match in which both sides’ shooting ability deserted them.
Panathinaikos lined up with their now customary 4-2-3-1 system. Simao sat infront of the defence with Kostas Katsouranis playing a more energetic role, and linking up with Giorgos Karagonis. Luis Garcia started from the left and drifted into the centre, whilst on the other side, Stergos Marinos linked up with with Loukas Vyntra, the right-back.” (Zonal Marking)
Inter Milan 4-3 Tottenham Hotspur – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats
(The 90th Minute)
Twente 1 – 1 Werder Bremen: A self fulfilling prophecy for defensively tuned Twente
“Dutch champions FC Twente faced Werder Bremen at home for their third Champions League Group stage match tonight. This offered them a chance at revenge for both team’s match-up last season when the Germans knocked Twente out of the Europa League competition in the first knock-out stage. After winning 1-0 at home, Twente went on to lose the second tie 1-4.” (11 tegen 11)
UEFA Champions League Power Rankings After Matchday 3
“The Champions League is halfway through the group stage and the contenders to win the title have not really changed. Barcelona, Chelsea, Bayern, and Real Madrid remain at the top. Other teams showing great form are Arsenal and Lyon who are both 3-0-0. The rankings are below and through October 21, 2010 and only include the top 8 (along with teams just missing the cut).” (The 90th Minute)
“An enjoyable contest between the two most successful sides in the history of the European Cup ended in a comfortable won for Real. Real set out in a fairly standard 4-2-3-1 system. Cristiano Ronaldo played higher up the pitch on the left than Angel di Maria on the right, whilst Xabi Alonso and Sami Khedira alternated position, with Alonso generally further forward.” (Zonal Marking)
Real Madrid 2-0 AC Milan – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – Champions League
(The 90th Minute)
Arsenal 5-1 Shakhtar: stalemate turns into a rout
“Arsenal started slowly but ended up thrashing a Shakhtar Donetsk side who offered no attacking threat until the final ten minutes. Arsene Wenger recalled Cesc Fabregas and played him alongside Jack Wilshere and Alex Song, whilst Samir Nasri and Tomas Rosicky were preferred to Andrei Arshavin.” (Zonal Marking)
Arsenal 5-1 Shakhtar Donetsk – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – Champions League
(The 90th Minute)
Ajax 2 – 1 Auxerre: A false nine and a false nr. 10, but a true victory for Ajax
“The double confrontation with AJ Auxerre from France will be decisive on Ajax’ European Football campaign this season. Having faced world class teams Real Madrid and AC Milan in the first two matches, Ajax will have to defend a one point lead over Auxerre to hold onto the third place in Group G of the UEFA Champions League, and to qualify for the knockout stages of the Europa League.” (11 tegen 11)
Spartak Moscow 0-2 Chelsea: usual professional display from Ancelotti’s side
“Yuri Zhirkov’s stunning goal put Chelsea into a lead they never looked like giving up. Spartak fielded a 4-2-3-1 system, with Ari playing close to the main striker, Welliton. The two wide players stayed on their respective flanks for most of the first half but switched in the second. Ibson and Aleksandr Sheshukov played a loose double pivot, with a good understanding allowing each other to move across the pitch.” (Zonal Marking)
UEFA Champions League Video Highlights For Tuesday, October 19, 2010(The 90th Minute)
“If the average, cheese-brained, money-obsessed English footballer paid as much attention to becoming a better player as to the size of their bank balance, Ipod headphones and the press attaché’s tits then a heck of a lot more would have headed to the Spanish league in recent years than the brave few that have manfully taken the plunge in la Primera.” (Football 365)
Why isn’t Wayne Rooney the player we thought he’d become?
“Wayne Rooney is a force of nature: a natural, swaggering, street footballer who used to play the game with the reckless abandon of the best player in the playground and who made the dimensions of the pitch seem to shrink whenever he received the ball. He retains all of these qualities, despite his current loss of form, but he only really got the credit his talent deserved in England when he started scoring goals.” (Football Further)
Wayne Rooney’s arch adviser heads for another big pay day
“Wayne Rooney plays for England in a summer tournament, then returns to gory tabloid stories exposing his alleged weakness for prostitutes. Further stories soon follow, that he has fallen out with his Scottish disciplinarian manager and wants a transfer. The manager denies any falling out, but complains that, despite all his club have done for the ‘boy’, Rooney’s ‘advisers’ say he wants a move.” (Guardian)
Alex Ferguson is not always right
“It seems to be a truth universally acknowledged that, when in want of a new club, a footballer rarely gets the better of Alex Ferguson. The Manchester United manager, we are told, is the right man to send players on their way. He knows when to protect his players, when to discipline them and when to dispense with them. When a player looks set to leave Old Trafford we are fed the usual line, that Ferguson sells players when it suits him but not when it suits them. Well, Wayne Rooney might just be proving that theory wrong.” (WSC)
“The best and worst of the weekend’s Spanish football, in handy tapas-sized dishes…” (Four Four Two)
“The footballing floater that the Spanish team have been trying to flush down the U-bend is a now a problem that Barcelona are suffering from too – the inability to finish games off. It eventually took a late Fernando Llorente winner against Scotland to pick up the three points for Vicente Del Bosque’s men after Spain trotted to an easy 2-0 lead. However, the Barça side which contributes the bulk of La Selección’s stars have not been so lucky this season.” (Football 365)
“With Barcelona and Real Madrid hogging every inch of Spain’s media duvet, it’s easy to get the impression that la Liga shares the philosophical poser of whether falling trees make any noise when there’s no-one around to hear them. For the most part, news of managerial hirings and firings, injuries or even matches taking place far from the attention-demanding duo are covered by a couple of sentences stuck away on page 37 of the country’s main sporting pages.” (Football 365)
“At times it seemed that the players during Manchester United’s Champions League clash at Valencia were on some kind of pre-planned go-slow. It could have been a lot worse, though. Some of them could have actually been on strike. Wednesday was General Strike day in Spain, 24 hours of action called by the country’s main unions in protest over the government’s austerity measures and planned changes to the employment laws, which it claims are required to tackle the country’s debt and improve the crippling 22% unemployment rate.” (Football 365)
Scissors Kick 