Moudrid Should Bench Their Bipolarity

This year there have been 2 different Real Madrid teams. The uncertain, unconvincing Real Madrid that has trouble scoring without referee assistance and a fast, powerful squad that robs the ball in the midfield and charges towards goal with incredible velocity over and over again. You could call it the Madrid del Mourinhato vs. the Once de la Alegria

Madrid del Mourinhato showed it's head early in the season, from Madrid's preseason games in July (and narrow win over the LA Galaxy in August) until the end of September.

In October, the Once de la Alegria exploded onto the scene. Madrid started blowing out lesser competition with 6-0 score lines. They were impressive and many, including me, thought they were the best Real team in the last 12-14 years. But then they ran into Barcelona.

Barcelona's 5-0 drubbing of Real showed the weakness of the Merengues and set them back for at least  2 months. Madrid didn't immediately lose to many points - but they should have. There were numerous games when Mourinhato Madrid made the most of it's Most-Favored-Team status with the arbitros. Even in the games that they won Mourinhato Madrid looked horrible. At the midpoint in the season, Villareal was playing  much better than Madrid.

Recently, victories over Real Sociedad, Levante and especially over Espanyol (when Iker Casillas was sent off  in minute 2) made it seem like the Once de la Alegria was back. Now with a new striker, Emmanuel Adebayor, they'd be able to keep pace with world-beating Barcelona.

I don't think that's the case. There are still too many problems in the Casa Blanca (the White House) of Madrid. In my mind if the Merengues want to make a league of it, they need to stick with their best  personnel. Here's what they need to do.

• Always start Emmanuel Adebayor. Keep Benzema on the bench. The team plays much better with Adebayor on the field.
• Keep Kaka on the bench. He's got horrible form and his presence means a valuable Real playmaker (Ozil, Di Maria, Granero) will have less opportunity. Addition by subtraction here.
• Generate free kicks for CR7. His goals from balon parado are crucial for Madrid to get the lead and  keep it. 
• Play Marcelo. Whether as Left Back or in the midfield, he's one of Real's most dynamic players and he opens the field for everyone else.
• Always play Xabi Alonso. No one else can give form to the attack the same way.
• Give Pepe some tranquilizers instead of stimulants before the game. As long as Pepe can keep his cool, the center of Madrid's defense, with Pepe and Carvalho, is solid. When the bald baller loses his head, he's a liability to his team.
• Stop diving and whining. Play soccer.

That's it. I think if Mourinho stuck with the personnel mentioned above, he'd keep the "alegria." Switch it up to try to rotate players in and Real's title hopes will go up in smoke. Every time Madrid has tried to rotate, they've paid the price the poor play. They might win more than their fair share thanks to the refs, but that won't be enough to win titles.

Here's a lighthearted pop-up video view of the acting that regularly takes place in the Mourinhato

Adebayor: Mourinho's Best Mid-Season Signing

Jose Mourinho knew it from the start. He needed another striker. At the beginning of the year, he had the opportunistic Argentine Gonzalo Higuain and a talented-but-lazy Karim Benzema. When Higuain went down, Mourinho must have strung together a string of Portuguese-accented-Spanish curses to make the Virgin Mary's ears ring.

Mourinho had known he needed another striker and now his worst fears were confirmed. He must have made Sporting Director Jorge Valdano's ears ring as well. Throughout the first month of the transfer period, Mourinho repeatedly brought up the need for a striker in the press. The Special One is not shy, so I can only imagine that he did the same in person.

Finally, the executives at Real Madrid listened to Mourinho, they brought in Emmanuel Adebayor and he's been a bargain.

Adebayor has a lot of qualities that make him good for Real: he's fast, he's a big target, he hustles, he's usually in very good position, he finishes well and he doesn't try to do too much.

In fact, his last quality may be his most valuable. Watch Adebayor play and you'll see that in 80-90% of balls played to him, he keeps the play going. This is in stark contrast to Karim Benzema, who is often nowhere to be found or who will blow a clear shot on goal.

By keeping plays alive, the tall (6'4") Togolese creates more opportunities for CR7, Di Maria and Ozil. With players of this quality, that's a winning proposition.

Adebayor is usually in good position, too. He sets up onside with his back to goal where he can turn and shoot or easily set up the pull-back for one of Madrid's fine forwards or midfielders. He's no Ronaldo (Nazario da Lima) and he knows it; if he gets the ball too close to midfield with numerous defenders back in coverage, he passes off and let's Xabi Alonso, Ozil or CR7 advance the pelota.

Finally, Adebayor can score! The tall man has the cool confidence to put the ball in the back of the net. He's not afraid of success. And, with CR7 and Di Maria serving him opportunity after opportunity, that's a good thing.

I'm not sure which Madrid executive made the decision to sign Adebayor, but I'm going to give the credit to Jose Mourinho. If I was at Real, I'd listen to the Special One and sign Adebayor for years to come. Then, I'd start him every game until Higuain comes back. Personally, I think it's Madrid's only hope for a title.

Barcelona 3 - Atletico de Madrid 0: Too Many Superlatives

Barcelona erased Atletico from the field of play Saturday night and set yet another record in the process. Barca have won 16 straight in the league - a record that trumps the record of 15 straight wins set by the Real Madrid of Di Stefano's era. Considering that La Liga is a much more competitive place in today's era, that's an amazing record.

Last year's Barcelona set it's fair share of records, yet I still felt that the Barca of the 08-09 season, Pep Guardiola's first, was the best Barca ever - and best soccer club ever. The trident of Messi, Eto'o, and Henry was just too effective for me to rate an Ibrahimovic-led Barca higher. Then came the 2010-2011 season.

This season's FC Barcelona is the best soccer club I've ever seen. They're rolling over strong, effective clubs as if they didn't exist. Somehow it seems that they're playing on cruise control, as if they were the Harlem Globetrotters sent to put on show against the local team from Bufu, Renada - population 2,106. They've already broken their share of records and they're sure to break more.

Here are a few other things that are amazing about this year's FC  Barcelona club:

• Their powerful trident of Messi, Villa and Pedro has 50 goals in the Spanish league - more than Real Madrid's  48 - which  is the second most prolific team in the league.
• Messi, Villa and Pedro have scored 76 goals in all competitions and are on pace to wipe away the record of 100 set over the course of a whole season by Messi, Eto'o and Henry.
• Every (non-goalkeeper) player on Barcelona has scored this year with the exception of Javier Mascherano. It's a good bet that he'll score sooner or later this year.
• Barca's second team: the one that includes Pinto, Adriano, Maxwell, Milito, Mascherano, Thiago, Afellay, Bojan and Nolito - is amazing. They're playing almost as well as the starting lineup.The ability to make rotations with a relatively small squad  is one of the greatest strengths of this club.

Fernando Torres Now Plays For Chelsea

You probably already know that Fernando Torres was transferred from Liverpool to Chelsea. It was, without a doubt, the blockbuster signing of the winter.

European newscast have bubbled over with scenes of fans purchasing blue jerseys with the number 9 on the back. Just in case you didn't know how excited Chelsea fans were about this transfer, one fan has made a song about it. To the tune of Frankie Valli's, "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" here's the Fernando Torres Song.



Oh, be sure to read the comments - they're almost as entertaining as the song.

This Is Not A Goal: Real Madrid 1 - Sevilla 0

This is not a goal - at least not when you play against Real Madrid. The referees annulled this clear score at the end of the first half of Wednesday's Copa del Rey (King's Cup) match up in Sevilla. Madrid's 12th man strikes again. They are clearly the most helped team in Spain's La Liga.

A Memo Recieved, Tactics Changed and Other Thoughts on the 18th Jornada.

2011 is here and La Liga is fully back from winter vacation. The return to action and focus showed in some of the games of the 18th week. Here are some thoughts on a few of them.

• After their 2 games with Athletic, some dared to call Barcelona boring. They clearly heard about this in practice this week and their transitions from defense to offense were much quicker. Watch the goals here and you'll see that 2 of their goals originate in (or close to) there own half with just a few passes before the goal. Iniesta's goal comes from a quick transition from defense to offense and a shot from outside the box. This was a much more direct Barca. 
• Fans in La Coruna gave Iniesta a standing ovation as he went off. It's January and Spanish fans still celebrate a club player who plays against them. Can you think of a more beautiful display of patriotism and love of football? 

• Christian Ronaldo,WTF? CR7/9 has 22 goals in 18 games! Your average superstar would be excited to score 22 goals in 38 Liga matches. Ronaldo is a one-man wrecking crew.
• More than any of his predecessors on the Real bench, Jose Mourinho has mental flexibility. Faced with a Villareal that was running circles around him a-la-Barcelona, Mourinho flipped the script, went with 3 defenders, sent Marcelo and Di Maria up the wings beefed up the Madrid vertebrae and took away possession from the men in yellow.
• Can anyone really expect to beat Real Madrid at home with the refs on their side? Penalties missed, offsides not called and card after card shrugged off because Real intimidates the referees. This out-of-balance favoritism damages the image of La Liga and is a disservice to a team with the players and coaching (see above) to win on their own.

•  What would it take to get Villareal to beat the Madrids and Barcelonas of  the world? Would one major star, say a forward, do it? How many Champion's League matches would they need to win to afford that star?

• Does Athletico de Madrid need a new coach, new players or a really, really good sports psychologist? They were beat  4-1 by Hercules and look to be returning to their mid-table ways despite a strong start.

• Malaga is buying players by the dozen - well, almost. Since being purchased by Sheik Abdullah Bin-Nasser Al-Thani of Qatar, they've picked up Sergio Asenjo, Enzo Maresca, Martín Demichelis, Julio Baptista and they're talking about Emmanuel Adebayor, and Diego Buonanotte.  They're under direction of  Manuel Pellegrini and are being called  the Manchester City of the Costa del Sol. The players and coach are here but when do the wins arrive? 

You don't have to wait until Saturday for the action this week. Wednesday's matches include Villareal-Sevilla and Barcelona-Betis. Thursday's matches feature Real Madrid - Athletico Madrid and Almeria - Deportivo.

The season is heating up, here are the goals from the Madrid-Villareal game.

Stalemate and Fresh Comeback

A hard-fought stalemate and a spectacular comeback highlighted the last round of the Copa del Rey. As the King's Cup arrives at it's quarterfinals, only 2nd-division Real  Betis resembles a cinderella story. Yet as the magic of an underdog fairy tale disappears, the stage is set for the hype of a battle of the titans.

The most evenly matched ties were the ones I was most looking forward to: Barcelona - Athletic and Valencia - Villareal. (Upon reflection of the score, the Mallorca - Almería draw was rather even as well.) The Barca - Athletic match turned into a hard-fought stalemate while the battle  of the killer Vs (they'll sting ya!) started slow but yielded fireworks.

Athletic de Bilbao plays with more heart than almost anyone in Spain's first division, so I wasn't surprised that they corked Barcelona's prolific offense. The Basque defense held strong the first match to salvage a 0-0 tie in Camp Nou.

Athletic's hustle looked to be paying dividends in their home tie as well as they stifled Xavi, Messi and co.for most of the match. Unfortunately for them, Eric Abidal, who had never scored for Barcelona, ended his drought putting a ball into the back of the San Mames net. Athletic fought back valiantly, tying the game at 1 on Llorente's goal. Unfortunately, they couldn't get a second goal and Barcelona advanced on away goals. (In the event of a tie after 2 matches, the team with more away goals goes through to the next round.)

The Valencia - Villareal matchup was more enticing and more rewarding. Valencia and Villareal are local rivals separated by a mere 65km on Spain's East Coast. Valencia is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia. Villareal is a virtual suburb of Castellon, a city which serves as the capital of one of the community's sub regions. Think parental-favorite big brother, Valencia, meets younger, more financially successful sibling, Villareal.

This matchup started slowly with a  0-0 draw in Valencia. Things looked good for Los Che when they went up 2-0 in Villareal going into halftime. Then the tide changed. A thrilling start to the second half saw Villareal get 2 goals in 3 minutes. Once on top, the men in yellow played the pretty football that has put them third in the Spanish league to win convincingly. There's some beautiful goals here, so this is our video of the post.



There were several other interesting matches in octavos de final. Real Madrid pounded modest Levante 8-0 to equal Barcelona's total against Almeria in league play. Madrid lost 0-2 in the away leg but the game was meaningless.

Almeria made themselves the sentimental favorite of the tournament, winning 4-3 in both their home and away legs. This despite their lowly position in the La Liga table (currently tied for last in La Liga).

Sevilla went through with a flurry of goals against Malaga, winning their home match 5-3 and then mopping up 3-0 in Malaga.

The last round also served up a tie between the league's vice royalty, Espanyol - Athletico de Madrid (the alternative teams in Barcelona and Madrid respectively). Kun Aguero made the difference and Athletico goes through to the next round.

Here's where things get good. Athletico went through only to meet in-town rivals Real Madrid. The colchoneros are over matched by Mourinho's squad but they should still deliver passionate, fast-paced football. I'm looking for Flores' attack-minded squad to liven up Mourinho's typical defensive cup stance.

Perhaps even better will be the Villareal - Sevilla draw. As mentioned above, Villareal is playing heroic football. They are probably the best team per Euro (dollar) in Spain. Sevilla hasn't managed to solidify their back line since the coaching changes of late last season (and early this season) but they can score. Look for Kanoute and O Fabuloso, Luis Fabiano, to make this one interesting.

The winner of the Villareal-Sevilla match plays the winner of  the Madrid derby.

On the other side of the table, Barcelona plays Betis in a rematch of the Ronaldinho era Supercopa. They'll play the winner of Deportivo - Almeria.

If the favorite wins through in each draw, and they should, the final will be between Barcelona and Real Madrid. It could be one of 4 Clasicos in April and May. Get ready for a wild Spring.