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.

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.

Real Madrid: The Whiners That Cried Ref! (Madrid El Equipo Mas Lloron De La Liga)

So Jose Mourinho thinks that the referees were unfair to Real Madrid. Awww! Ooh boo!

I feel terrible for Jose and his team. Clearly there is a referee conspiracy against the merengues. In fact, the whole league is probably against them. And, we all know about the governments historic sabotage of Madrid!

Bullshit!

That's right, I'm going to pull the bullshit card on this one. The fact of the matter is, I haven't seen any team in La Liga that has been as coddled, if not illegally favored by the referees of the Spanish league.

Madrid isn't satisfied to be the nina of the referees ojos, they heap it on by whining about how the refs are mistreating them. What a bunch of spoiled cry babies.

Remember when Rafa Van der Vaart played volleyball with a pass in front of goal? He put both hands on the ball and literally setting it to his foot. Sporting had been winning 1-0 (in Bernabeu) and the Madrid goal totally changed the course of the game.

I've seen few more ridiculous referee calls in soccer (although Thierry Henry's France vs. Ireland handball fits the bill) but its indicative of the game-changing calls in their favor that Los B(l)ancos regularly get.



This is just one of many examples of the rampant favoritism that the referees show Madrid. Have you watched Madrid in the last 10 years? Remember when they went from Galacticos to Iker y los diez tontos (Iker Casillas and the ten fools - a term coined by a Madrid fan)? There was game after game when San Iker repeatedly saved his team with spectacular saves while Los Blancos played horribly. Then, just when you thought Sevilla, Almeria, Athletic, Gijon, Getafe, Osasuna, Valladolid or whoever, were finally going to beat Madrid, the refs would come to the rescue. I'm sure every Spanish team has their share of these examples.

Here's another example taken over the course of a season.



Want more? How about Pepe's shameless mauling of Getafe's Casquero (at the end of last season)?

I realize that you could probably find unflattering examples of the play of any top team if you looked long and hard enough. Still, you'll find more examples from Madrid. Don't believe me? Watch their games. You'd have to be delusional not to see that Real not only get more than their share of preferential treatment from the refs but intentionally try to injure players on occassion.

Even so, I wouldn't even bring this up if it weren't for the constant whining about referees that comes out of Madrid from both the Real organization but also Marca, the propaganda wing of Madrid (to be fair to Marca, they clearly love soccer and produce a very entertaining paper - day in and day out). Real's delusional supporters remind me of right-wing talking heads in the U.S., railing against the dangers of the mainstream media - it's so ridiculous it would be laughable - except that some people believe this BS.

To sum up: Madrid - quit your pathetic whining and play soccer - you have an incredible roster, one of  the world's best coaches and more money than a US-government-bailed-out investment banker. Shut up and play!

Is Atletico Back?

Atletico de Madrid had a roaring start to the season, winning the European Cup Winner's Cup (between the winner of the Champion's League and the Europa League)and their first Liga match with in a 4-0 drubbing of Sporting de Gijon. They stayed in first place for the next jornada but ran into Barcelona in week 3. Since then they've had an up-and-down season - but it's been mostly down.

Atletico has recently lost to bottom of habitual bottom dwellers Levante and Alemeria. They're on the verge of elimination in the Europa League too, where they face group-leader (and second in the Bundesliga) Bayern Leverkusen. To advance, they need to tie their way game at Leverkusen while Aris loses at home. So why are they suffering so much?

Atletico de Madrid has an amazing squad. Forlan, Aguero, Simao, Tiago, Reyes, Raul Garcia, Fran Merida, Ujfalusi, Perea, Filipe Luis, Godin and De Gea are all high-quality players. Many of them feature on their national teams and Forlan just picked up his Golden Ball from the World Cup.

Atletico's coach, Quique Sanchez Flores, has a proven track record of success, having taken Valencia to third in the league and deep into the Champion's League. So why the bad recent results.

I'm not sure what caused their recent downward run but they looked good against Deportivo. The game was open where apparently nothing was challenged in the midfield (at least in the second half). Atletico and Deportivo traded runs.

Atletico had more inspiration though. Kun Aguero scored 2 spectacular goals to take the colchoneros to victory. I hope Kun is back because he's a spectacular talent. If he gets his act together, this team can be amazing.

C'mon Atletico, mount a challenge.

Here are the highlights:

Barcelona Vs. Anti-Barca.

When Barcelona and Real Madrid met on November 29th, 2010, it was a meeting of the best team in Spanish football and an excellent team that wanted to usurp that title. It was a meeting of almost diametrically opposed styles of play and football philosophies: offense with possession vs. defense and counterattack. When the smoke cleared, only one team was left standing; Barcelona, with its eye-catching total football, was once again on top - by a wide margin. The reason for this continued dominance is the same for the success of many sporting and non-sporting organizations: the clarity of its ideas and the subsequent superb execution of these ideas that makes Barcelona the world's best football team.

When asked for comment on his victory, Barca coach Pep Guardiola had this to say, "I want to dedicate this victory to Rexach and Cruyff because they are the ones that showed us the path. This is the victory of everyone in these 15 years who has believed in this way of playing. (Quiero dedicar esta victoria a Rexach y Cruyff porque son los que nos enseñaron el camino esta es la victoria de todos los que en estos 15 años han creído en esta forma de jugar al fútbol)." The comment, like the team's football, was spot on.

Barcelona has been perfecting the ability to play offensive, interchangeable-player, ball-control football since (at least) Cruyff became head coach of the team. They inculcate it in their youth team as soon as they can put on a blue-and-red-striped jersey. Perhaps they start even earlier. Guardiola has said on multiple occasions that Barca's players have offensive football in their DNA.

Barcelona always plays attacking soccer and everyone knows it. In case you didn't, Guardiola reiterated before the game, "Mourinho knows what we'll come out and attack them, we'll be who we are: Barça. (Mourinho sabe que saldremos a atacarles, seremos lo que somos. El Barça.)

If Barcelona's style is to attack: Mourinho's style has traditionally been the exact opposite: keep your own goal at zero, the rest is a bonus. He is the master of the Champion's League, where a 2nd match tie or even minimal loss can get a team to advance. No one remembers the name of the general who lost to Pyrrhus, yet Mourinho has elevated the loss-to-advance to an art form. To do this he often plays anti-futbol or extremely defensive football.

The tactic worked to perfection against Barcelona last year. Debate the merits of Inter advancing on numerous questionable calls (annulled goals, questionable offsides, etc.) if you will, but Mourinho's tactics worked to perfection in Inter's home leg, where they outworked Barcelona and lethally counterattacked, and then held off the offensive juggernaut in Barcelona, when Inter "parked the bus" in front of goal in order to lose by only 1 point. Given this tie and others from Mourinho's resultadista career and you'd expect him to try to write defensive football into Real Madrid's DNA. Except that he can't do that.

Real Madrid fans want a spectacle as much as any other soccer fan - perhaps more. They're Spanish, raised on the football of Di Stefano, La Quinta del Buitre and recently reminded of good football by their world-cup winning team. They have an expectation that Madrid will dominate opposing teams with regal authority embodied in their name (Real means royal in Spanish). So, I'm sure Mourinho has had several lectures from management about playing offensive football. To his credit, Real has played spectacularly, with what Guardiola called, "the best counterattack in the world."

Until the clasico, Madrid was the most prolific team in La Liga, winning 10 games, with 2 draws. They scored 33 goals to their opponents 6! They pressed high, got the ball back early and their counter attacks were lightning-quick (I believe I saw one opposing coach say that the counter attacks te revientan, or blow you away). Their defense was rock solid and Iker Casillas barely had a chance to touch the ball. So, as they entered the Clasico, which team were they?

Madrid's uncertainty, met by Barcelona's unshakable certainty, was the reason for the lopsided 5-0 score.

Some analysts have claimed that Mourinho lost the game for Madrid with his tactical disposition and minimal changes. I don't agree. Proponents of this theory will cite Mourinho's errors as playing his defensive line too high and not playing the recuperating Gonzalo Higuain. They see Mourinho's lack of defensive planting at the outset as the key to the game. That was only part of the problem.

It was Madrid's players that failed as much as the coach did, because neither was sure what to do. Mourinho isn't used to coaching an offensive team and his players aren't used to playing Mourinho-ball - either version 1.0 or 2.0. With 4 coaches in the last 3 years, they can hardly be expected to have subconsciously mastered a system the way Barcelona has. This showed on the field.

The Merengues weren't sure how to initiate and maintain their quick strike offense in the face of a team that plays its own offense so well. Barcelona doesn't give the ball back. Once they have it, your best chance to get the ball back is for Barca to miss their shot on goal.

Madrid didn't run and press enough to be able to get the ball back otherwise. The distinct lack of hustle from Madrid was possibly the biggest reason that Madrid lost so badly. The teams that have given Barcelona problems in the last year have left their heart and lungs on the field. Watch Inter's effort in Milan or Kobenhavn's recent effort. These two teams gave Barcelona fits because they didn't allow the blaugrana passing game to get started. Without that effort, Madrid was stuck "chasing ghosts" around Camp Nou.

When Madrid did get the ball back, they didn't know what to do with it. They aren't built to attack from their own goal so much as to counterattack. So, when the ball comes from Casillas, what do we do? Before their players had a chance to say, "Me cago en la puta" they had two Barca defenders on them. And, when Barca got the ball back Madrid was stuck chasing ghosts again.

Barcelona was all to ready for the Madrid counterattack, too. Alves and Abidal played in offensive check all game and Barcelona got back quickly in ordered fashion to meet the few Real advances.

Barcelona played their game to perfection by any stretch of the imagination. It's never easy to beat any team 5-0 - even a team from the Segunda B. Beating Real Madrid by such a convincing scoreline should and will go down in history.

By any statistic you want view, Barcelona played perfectly. Xavi made 97% of his passes (see below), Barcelona outpassed Madrid by almost 3-1, their efficiency on goal was almost a goal every 3 shots. It was as if there was only one team on the field. That's not easy to do whatever the extenuating circumstances.

Barcelona could have scored more. If Messi's shot doesn't hit the post, if some of the early runs aren't ruled offsides, if Messi doesn't get run over by Carvalho in the second half; then Barcelona would have come out with more than 5. It's my impression that Guardiola's disciples took their collective foot off the gas after the 4th goal, too. They knew that Madrid was incapable of fighting back, so they didn't pile on the goals. (Don't believe me? Watch from about minute 65 - minute 90.)

This is a victory that Barca fans can savor for years to come. Will it win Barcelona La Liga? Probably not, but it is an amazing achievement and validation of attractive, attacking soccer.

Will Mourinho's Madrid ever be able to match Barcelona? I think at some point they will. The quality of their players and coach is too high not to mount a challenge. But that challenge won't reach maturity until Real know how they want to play. Do they want to play defensive anti-football, attractive offensive football or some combination of the two? When they reach a conclusion from the President down and give their players enough time to learn that style subconsciously, then they'll mount a challenge.

Until then, the victor and champion is Barcelona.

And, until then, I hope you enjoy this artistic, dramatic video. My favorite part comes at about 4:45 where they shoot close on the feet of the Barca players so you can see how well they keep the ball close at speed. I couldn't like this more (except for the end where the Madridistas turn on their players).