La Liga 2007/08

I had the pleasure of watching Real Madrid go to Villareal last night and put 5 goals past the home side, who had won 3-0 away to Valencia the weekend before. The football Real played was sublime with Wesley Sneijder being absolutely fantastic.

They lined up like this in a 4-2-3-1:

Casillas;
Sergio Ramos; Metzelder; Cannavaro; Drenthe;
Diarra; Guti;
Robinho; Raul; Sneijder;
Van Nistelrooy;

Straight away you notice they’re far more energetic and have much more athleticism and speed than last year with the addition of Drenthe and Sneijder added to Ramos and Diarra. Guti and Raul looked really fit and sharp and it was the best I’d seen either play in a good few years. The partnership at the back was also solid.

They might be worth keeping an eye on and throwing a few quid on for the Champions League as they’re only 5th or 6th favourites and have a relatively straightforward group with Werder Bremen, Lazio and Olympiakos.

Barca were impressive enough at times in beating Athletic Bilbao 3-1 at home but they were the beneficiaries of a shocking decision when a YaYa Toure shot hit the underside of the bar and bounced out but the lino, who was in line with the edge of box, decided it was over the line.

Post edited by: Bandage, at: 2007/09/03 19:21

i concur bandage- very impressed with them last night- robinhio is a great playermetzelder & cannavaro in defense will be very strong-

i concur bandage- very impressed with them last night- robinhio is a great playermetzelder & cannavaro in defense will be very strong- might throw money on them to win the CL as well

Only saw a small bit of the Barca game but I gotta ask how Oleguer still gets his game there. They had Thuram and another central defender that I can’t think of on the bench. It’s going to be an interesting CL this season with Barca, Real, Liverpool and Milan all looking likely winners. By the way, I’m predicting Kolo Toure to go to Barca next season.

I also had the pleasure of watching Real tear Villarreal to shreds. They are certaintly a good bet for the Champions league, I believe they are 10/1 at present and as such are good value, an e/w is certaintly worth a look

I thought Zambrotta and Thuram would solve Barca’s full back problems when they bought them but they persisted with Belletti last year, who is a decent attacking full back but a brutal defender. Oleguer isn’t good enough either. He’s a fans’ favourite though because of his Catalan politics so I’m sure that helps.

Barca’s team the other night (in their usual 4-3-3) was:

Valdes;
Zambrotta; Oleguer; Marquez; Abidal;
Deco; Toure; Xavi;
Messi; Henry; Ronaldinho;

Marquez was awful and got sent off for two cynical body checks, picking up two yellow cards in the space of 5 minutes halfway through the second half. I’m not sure what the story with Puyol is but they brought on Gabi Milito for his debut near the end and as he gets a run of games he should shore things up a good bit. Abidal was quite impressive down the left and will be a huge improvement on Van Bronkhorst. I expect them to be much more solid in a few weeks once centre back partnership between Milito and Puyol has bedded in.

I forgot about Abidal joining. That’s a strong back 4 of Zambrotta, Puyol, Milito and Abidal with Thuram on the bench. Oleguer isn’t good enough as a full back and he’s a worse centre back. Marquez is fairly crap as well.

Iniesta, Gudjohnsen and Eto’o are all cracking options too.

Barcelona/Sevilla is on tonight at 9pm. It should be worth a look as they’ve had some cracking games in the past few years.

Relatively poor game so far for the neutral Saturday night babysitter. It’s 0-0 at half time and there’s been few chances of note. It started off promisingly with a couple of sweeping end-to-end moves from both sides but gradually it’s reverted to a game where Barca are having a lot of ball without really threatening and Sevilla, with Kanoute up top on his own, seem satisfied to defend deep with 10 men behind the ball. That said Renato headed against the post after a great move on the break and that was probably the best chance of the game.

Ronaldinho is missing with a groin strain and Barca are missing him. Henry is playing the central striker role and he looks like a fish up a tree (copyright Paul Merson). At Arsenal he drifted left and came deep but it appears he’s been asked to play the penalty box role for Barca with Messi doing the other stuff. He has very little space to work in with Sevilla so deep and looks a bit forlorn and frustrated. Ya Ya Toure’s having a storming game in midfield though.

Cracking little spell for Henry. That was some ball for Messi and a superbly taken goal.

Thought Henry was superb once Giovani came on and he was given the freedom to roam. Cracking pass by him for the first goal but it was all about Messi’s first touch and finish. The move shortly after Messi’s penalty where Henry was involved a few times with Giovani before playing Messi in was class - great save by Palop to prevent the hat-trick for Messi. Nice finish in injury time by Kanoute but Barca deserved the 2-1 win based on their second half display.

Sid Lowe’s article from the Guardian this week. Good read as always.

Ronaldinho misses Barcelona’s big night out

As Lionel Messi marked the Camp Nou’s 50th anniversary, the Spanish press reported a disgruntled Brazilian is out of shape and out of favour.

Sid Lowe
September 24, 2007 5:50 PM

Saturday night at the Camp Nou. The world’s best player flicks the ball into the air, swivels and acrobatically thumps it into the net with startling pace, power and precision. Before the goalkeeper has even reacted, he’s racing towards the delirious, hero-worshipping Barcelona fans, a cheeky grin spreading across his face as he performs that famous gesture - the cartoon-style surf-dude trademark now so identified with Bara that it’s been fashioned from foam and put on sale in the club shop. Out come the thumb and little finger and there it is … wiggle-waggle! Fiesta!

Only there’s something wrong. This time the wiggling digits don’t belong to a cuddly bouncing Brazilian with wonky teeth and Soul Glow dripping from his luscious locks but a mumbling, awkward Argentinian with a hobbit’s ears and a hobbit’s height too. It is Leo Messi standing there a hero, having finally broken the stalemate and scored the opener against Sevilla; Ronaldinho, meanwhile, is nowhere to be seen. Which is pretty odd, really. After all, it’s not like Samba Tri’s bongo player to miss out on a party - and, boy, was there a party on Saturday night.

It was 50 years ago today that Bara began to play at the Camp Nou and they marked the occasion with a celebration that was, literally, a load of balls: 50 inflatable golden balls were released from the stands while four more hung from the roof adorned with the names of Bara’s greats. And Winston Bogarde. Dangling from one was a gymnast in a disturbingly revealing leotard, not so much Linford’s Lunchbox as Fiona’s Thermos Flask, down on the pitch some people hit oil drums with big sticks, flashy lights zoomed about and fireworks raced into the sky. The 1957 team, the first to play here - thanks to a bit of wangling from the Francoist council, but don’t expect Bara to tell you that - waved a bit. So did current captain Carles Puyol, and in the stands Samuel Eto’o shook lots of hands.

Meanwhile, in the jam-packed directors’ box, Joan Laporta was busy stuffing his face with pork pies, looking smug and somehow managing to keep a straight face when he told Norman Foster, the sexologist’s husband responsible for some of the world’s most impressive erections: “Bara are more than a club and you, Sir Norman, are more than an architect.”

You see, not only did Bara celebrate 50 years of the Camp Nou on Saturday night, they also unveiled plans for the new stadium (which could presumably be called the Nou Nou Camp and get opened by Boutros Boutros Ghali). The Camp Nou will get a 250m facelift, which, like every other architectural project was described as a fusion of the traditional and modern. It is inspired, or so said Foster, by Antoni Gaud but looks more like it was inspired by a particularly heavy night on the pills and an especially vicious Pimiento de Padrn.

Yes, Ronaldinho missed a big old night, alright - and the biggest game of the season so far: Barcelona against Sevilla. But then, Bara said, he did have a minor injury. Not that you could trust them: Rijkaard knew nothing about it and this is the club that when he missed over 50% of last season’s training sessions insisted the Brazilian was in the gym working up a sweat when in fact he was at home working off a hangover.

Minor injury? Major strop, more like. Already irritated at having been substituted for three successive games this season, the Brazilian awoke on Thursday morning (OK, Thursday afternoon), to stories accusing him of being out on the sauce 48 hours before a match, thus breaking Barcelona’s new-fangled code of conduct. Meanwhile, an anonymous member of the coaching staff admitted that he can no longer outrun opponents and a board member feared he was on course to throw his career away. All of which would be bad enough, but the fact that the story was written by two proper papers - El Pas and La Vanguardia - as opposed to Catalan comics Sport and Mundo Deportivo made it even worse. Alongside a picture of Ronaldinho with his tongue hanging out like a dog in a hot car, the following day’s headlines screamed: “Crisis!”

Sensing a sneaky boardroom leak, Ronaldinho was furious and brother Roberto denounced a “conspiracy”, accurately suspecting a club plan to make sure fans knew that Ronaldinho’s lack of fitness and expanding belly was his fault, not theirs. So it was that on Saturday morning, the Brazilian pulled out of the game; so it was that Messi celebrated his goal with Ronaldinho’s famous gesture.

Trouble is, while he meant it as a gesture of solidarity, Messi could end up being precisely the reason why Bara could afford to lose Ronaldinho. He is, quite simply, ridiculously good. He has, as Ray Slijngaard-loving Laporta put it, “no limits”, while the headlines described him as the “Messiah”. Not only did he score a brilliant goal that put Bara in the lead, he then rolled home a comically cool penalty that made it 2-0, securing victory against a Sevilla side that came for a goalless draw and only briefly stirred for Freddie Kanout to score a neat consolation in the last minute.

A week ago, Bara were on the verge of a crisis. Now, Messi has led them to victories over Lyon and Sevilla, to within two points of Madrid and to a bit of optimism. Thierry Henry still isn’t quite right but is slowly settling, the introduction of Eric Abidal and Yaya Tour has left the defence more solid than ever (Oleguer’s comedy cameos apart), Iniesta dominates possession like few midfielders, and although a fit and focused Ronaldinho is still the world’s best, if he does not prove, in Rijkaard’s words, “recoverable”, some fans think it may not matter. After all, Bara have Messi. He is the new messiah and he’s not a very naughty boy.

Results: Recreativo 2-1 Espanyol, Barcelona 2-1 Sevilla, Zaragoza 2-1 Osasuna, Levante 1-2 Athletic, Villarreal 2-0 Murcia, Almera 1-1 Mallorca, Betis 1-2 Valencia, Getafe 0-0 Deportivo, Atltico 4-0 Racing, Valladolid 1-1 Real Madrid.

Another very good article from Sid Lowe:

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/10/15/raulrage_pays_off_for_aragones.html

Ral-rage pays off for Aragons
The Spain coach’s outburst over Ral lacks logic, but the win against Denmark suggests he is right to ignore the striker.
Sid Lowe
October 15, 2007 12:25 PM

Thursday night at Las Rozas, the Spanish Football Federation’s headquarters 25km north-west of Madrid. Training has finished and it’s gone dark but a gaggle of fans still gathers behind the metal fence overlooking the car park, waiting for a glimpse of the players, an autograph, a hand to shake, a cheek to kiss, or a photo. Through the bars, Luis Aragons appears. A few fans wish him good luck, then one shouts something about Ral and the Spain coach does his nut. In the presence of a cameraman from La Sexta.

Approaching the fan, he asks: “Do you know how many World Cups Ral’s been to?” There’s a pause. “Three,” says Aragons. “And do you know how many European Championships Ral’s been to?” This time Aragons doesn’t even wait for a reply. “Two. Three and two, that’s five [major tournaments]. Tell me how many he’s won. Tell me, come on, tell me how many he’s won.” The fan, suddenly not so brave, doesn’t reply, although he knows the answer. Luis turns away - leave it, it ain’t worth it - before turning back: “How many? None.”

It was yet another bizarre piece of Aragons behaviour, ranging from his dug-out attack on Samuel Eto’o to his marvellous touchline rant at Darko Kovacevic for being “uglier than two horses”; from the pliers-to-wires tomfoolery of snipping television cables that ran “suspiciously” close to the dug-out, to the escaping dentures, or the surreal monologue about the Japanese mate who is a “chicken sexer.” And of course the infamous harangue of Jos Antonio Reyes when he described Thierry Henry as a negro de mierda, or his subsequent rant about wolves and deer and empire.

It was also a ridiculous thing to say. So, Ral hasn’t won anything with Spain? Nor has a single Spain player since the 1964 European Championships (if you can even count that). And in a 13-year career, Ral has won five league titles, three European Cups, and two Pichichi awards. He’s the all-time leading scorer for Spain (with 44 goals in 102 matches) and has scored more Champions League goals than anyone else ever. He’s also scored more La Liga goals than anyone currently playing. In a coaching career spanning over 20 years, meanwhile, Aragons has won just one league title and four cups. Since Ral made his Real Madrid debut in October 1994, Aragons has won nothing. Nada.

And yet, at the same time, his latest outburst was understandable. The headline on the front of AS the following day declared: “Luis caught out with his favourite obsession.” His favourite obsession?! Your favourite obsession, more like. In the week running up to the biggest match Spain had faced since the World Cup, the game that could make or break their qualification for the European Championships, the talk was not about the match, opponents Denmark or the brilliant form of Andres Iniesta, Cesc Fbregas, or Sergio Ramos. No, instead the man they were all banging on about was someone who wasn’t even in the squad: Ral.

Handily forgetting that they were the ones ignoring all logic to demand his appointment in the first place, the Spanish press has turned on Aragons. Not because of the Henry rant, because he said he would walk if Spain didn’t make it to the semi-final of the World Cup, because most of the players haven’t got a clue what he’s going on about, or because of the defeats in Sweden and Northern Ireland that left them on the edge of the abyss, but because he refused to talk to them in Oviedo. And because he dropped Ral from the squad.

Ral’s form had been so bad for two years that despite the outcry from the player’s belligerent supporters, it was a decision Aragons got away with. Until now. On his performances so far this season, Ral probably deserves to be in the national team but he hasn’t presented a watertight case and certainly shouldn’t be placed above Fernando Torres or David Villa, while he hasn’t scored as many goals as Espanyol’s Luis Garca. And yet seven good games have been enough for the crusade to crank up again. Ral was the perfect big stick to beat Aragons with and everywhere he turned, he was confronted with the Madrid captain. No wonder he blew his lid, thus providing more ammunition for the Ralistas, spinning into self-righteous indignation over the “disgusting” attack on the “greatest player Spain have ever had”.

Then on Friday Torres, like Villa, picked up an injury. Aragons called up Ral as a late replacement and it worked a treat. With Iniesta, Xavi and Cesc magnificent in midfield, Spain were sensational in the first half against Denmark, running out 3-1 winners - a result which was nicely rounded off with a superb debut goal for Albert Riera. It was Spain’s seventh win in eight games and all but secures their qualification. Better still, Ral scored the first and provided the assist to round off a fantastic 28-pass, one-minute-and-13-second move for the second, cleverly finished by Ramos.

There was just one teensy problem for the drum-banging Ralistas: the Ral in question wasn’t Ral Gonzlez Blanco, captain of Real Madrid, but Ral Tamudo Montero, captain of Espanyol. Aragons had ignored Ral. And got it right.

Not that the press saw it that way. Sport declared it a Catalan victory because Iniesta, Cesc, Xavi, and Tamudo were the main men and, er, Spain were sponsored by La Caixa. AS’s mad Madridista Toms Roncero claimed it was down to the “virginal, clean white”, Madrid-style shirts of the seleccin and insisted that his Ral would “definitely” have scored. And Marca’s Jos Vicente Hernez - a man who manages to be dangerously unbalanced despite having colossal chips on both shoulders - insisted: “Luis had better not think that he won this game, because he did not. We won it by brainwashing him with our insistence that he played Cesc, Iniesta and Xavi together.” As for the brainwashing on Ral, that obviously doesn’t count.

He’s very good is Lowe, no Graham Hunter though.

I wondered recently why Raul never really gets a mention in World XIs and best player in the world polls. He’s Spain’s top scorer ever, Real Madrid’s top scorer ever and the Champion’s League top scorer ever.

Then it passed.

About 4 years ago he was a cracking player. Really classy striker who was as good a finisher as he was skillful. It all went horribly wrong though.

The simple reason Raul wasn’t mentioned much in recent times is because he just wasn’t performing. Last season he found a bit of form and is playing much better now.

He won’t be top Champions league scorer for much longer methinks.

Changing tack slightly, does anyone have the list of all time CL goalscorers? Get it posted if so.

I think this may be not quite up to date