It has been a hard week for FC Barcelona. The Catalan giants failed in their fourth attempt to beat Rubin Kazan on Wednesday and ended up with the same result from Sunday's Liga match with Mallorca. Their two opponents played a much different style of football but the result was the same: 1-1.
The same culprit, lack of definition in front of goal, haunted Barcelona both times. Against Rubin they had a lot fewer chances, but they still had more than enough opportunities to go up 2 or 3 - 1.
Against Mallorca, Barcelona played possibly their most beautiful half of football this season in the first half. Open, flowing football gave rise to dangerous opportunity after opportunity. It looked like Barcelona would go up 5-0 but when the half ended it was Barça 1 - Mallorca 1.
Have teams found a way to defeat the most prolific offense of the last two years (an perhaps all time)? I'd lay the blame on Barcelona's players, not the opposing teams.
Barcelona's connection up front has lacked two of its most important components in the past week: Lionel Messi and David Villa. Messi returned late in the game against Rubin and immediately made a difference. Still, after being sidelined for 2 weeks, he lacked the precision that he usually displays. Villa sat out on Sunday as a result of the red card he received against Atletic de Bilbao.
The rest of Barcelona's all-stars don't look so stellar when not playing next to Messi, Villa and Xavi. Bojan had some nice shots but couldn't score when he needed to. Pedro had a beautiful pass to set up Messi's goal, but couldn't find the back of the net when it counted.
Maybe starting Jeffren would have made a difference. Pedro seems to have long invisible stretches before he shows up in a big way. Jeffren may be a little more consistent in the problems he causes opposing defenses.
So, is Barça Broken? I don't think so. I think that once Guardiola gets his starting 11 back and they get a chance to play together, they'll get back to Barcelona's torrid goal-scoring pace.
Here are highlights.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Valencia Leads The League. Can Someone Other Than Barca or Madrid Win Spain's La Liga?
When the 6th round of Spain's La Liga comes to an end, you leader will be: Valencia! You heard right, the leader of La Liga BBVA is not Barcelona or Real Madrid. Given Valencia's early success and the strong start of Atlético Madrid in all competitions; can someone other than FCB or Real win La Liga?
The anser is Yes. Other teams can and have won the Spanish Liga Profesional de Futbol in the last 15 years. Atlético Madrid, Deportivo de La Coruña, and Valencia CF have all lifted the cup that most commonly finds its way to Barcelona and Madrid's halls.
Atlético Madrid shocked the experts winning La Liga in the 1995-1996 season. Coached by Radomir Antić, Atlético had recently cleaned house after narrowly missing descent to the second division the previous season. Led by hard man Diego Simeone and tall striker Kiko, the colchoneros played impressive counter-attacking football to take the title with an impressive 87 points.
La Liga fell under the sway of Real Madrid and Barcelona for the next three years in a very parity-heavy environment marked by low point totals for the Van Gaal's winning teams.
Deportivo de La Coruña, broke the 2-team dominance in 2000. The men in the blue-and-white stripes were led by Roy Makaay, dropped a 5-2 on Real Madrid in El Riazor (Depor's home stadium) and won la liga with 69 points.
Valencia CF got in on the action two years later. With an extremely talented team set up by Héctor Cúper, Valencia had players like Gerrard, Mendieta and Claudio Lopez. These players had taken the squad to the final of the Champion's League in 2000 and 2001 (losing to Madrid and Bayern Munich respectively) and regularly destroyed the dream's of Barcelona under Louis Van Gaal.
Rafa Benítez made the most of his club's talent and took Valencia to the league title in 2001-02 and 2003-2004.
After Valencia's run dominance returned to Barcelona thanks to the spectacular play of Ronaldinho.
So can Valencia, Atletico or another Spanish wild card in the league this year? No. Barcelona and Real Madrid are too talented and they have the two best soccer coaches in the world today. Valencia had to sell stars Villa and Silva before the season started, Atletico regularly falter under pressure, Sevilla has gotten off to a poor start under recently fired Antonio Alvarez and the rest of la Liga teams don't have the depth to handle the 38-game marathon.
Look for Barcelona or Real Madrid to earn the title in 2010-11.
Until then, here's a look at the last non-hegemon champion.
The anser is Yes. Other teams can and have won the Spanish Liga Profesional de Futbol in the last 15 years. Atlético Madrid, Deportivo de La Coruña, and Valencia CF have all lifted the cup that most commonly finds its way to Barcelona and Madrid's halls.
Atlético Madrid shocked the experts winning La Liga in the 1995-1996 season. Coached by Radomir Antić, Atlético had recently cleaned house after narrowly missing descent to the second division the previous season. Led by hard man Diego Simeone and tall striker Kiko, the colchoneros played impressive counter-attacking football to take the title with an impressive 87 points.
La Liga fell under the sway of Real Madrid and Barcelona for the next three years in a very parity-heavy environment marked by low point totals for the Van Gaal's winning teams.
Deportivo de La Coruña, broke the 2-team dominance in 2000. The men in the blue-and-white stripes were led by Roy Makaay, dropped a 5-2 on Real Madrid in El Riazor (Depor's home stadium) and won la liga with 69 points.
Valencia CF got in on the action two years later. With an extremely talented team set up by Héctor Cúper, Valencia had players like Gerrard, Mendieta and Claudio Lopez. These players had taken the squad to the final of the Champion's League in 2000 and 2001 (losing to Madrid and Bayern Munich respectively) and regularly destroyed the dream's of Barcelona under Louis Van Gaal.
Rafa Benítez made the most of his club's talent and took Valencia to the league title in 2001-02 and 2003-2004.
After Valencia's run dominance returned to Barcelona thanks to the spectacular play of Ronaldinho.
So can Valencia, Atletico or another Spanish wild card in the league this year? No. Barcelona and Real Madrid are too talented and they have the two best soccer coaches in the world today. Valencia had to sell stars Villa and Silva before the season started, Atletico regularly falter under pressure, Sevilla has gotten off to a poor start under recently fired Antonio Alvarez and the rest of la Liga teams don't have the depth to handle the 38-game marathon.
Look for Barcelona or Real Madrid to earn the title in 2010-11.
Until then, here's a look at the last non-hegemon champion.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Exciting Match Ups in Wednesday's Champion League Ties
There is some exciting soccer to watch this Wednesday, September 29th. The two games I'm most interested in are Rubin Kazan vs. Barcelona and Valencia vs. Manchester United.
Rubin Kazan are champions of the Russian League and a notorious thorn in the side for Barcelona. During last year's league phase (of the Champions League), Rubin beat Barca at home and played to a draw in Russia. The Russians play tough defense, face jet-lagged opponents and are more comfortable in the cold weather of Kazan. It was snowing in Tuesday's photos of practice.
I see Rubin giving Barcelona trouble only to go down 1-2. The blaugrana will get there act together despite starting with Messi on the bench.
Perhaps more exciting, or at least more high scoring should be the match between Valencia and Man U. This should be a fun display of attacking soccer. Valencia currently lead the Spanish league and are playing incredibly well despite selling stars Villa, Silva and Marchena. They're currently undefeated with 4 wins and a draw.
Manchester United is a perennial performer in the Champions League. They've struggled a bit in English League play but are still running second. Look for them to step it up on Wednesday, especially if Rooney is healthy.
Prediction: Valencia 2 - Man U 3
Here are highlights from a preseason match from last year between Valencia and Man U.
Rubin Kazan are champions of the Russian League and a notorious thorn in the side for Barcelona. During last year's league phase (of the Champions League), Rubin beat Barca at home and played to a draw in Russia. The Russians play tough defense, face jet-lagged opponents and are more comfortable in the cold weather of Kazan. It was snowing in Tuesday's photos of practice.
I see Rubin giving Barcelona trouble only to go down 1-2. The blaugrana will get there act together despite starting with Messi on the bench.
Perhaps more exciting, or at least more high scoring should be the match between Valencia and Man U. This should be a fun display of attacking soccer. Valencia currently lead the Spanish league and are playing incredibly well despite selling stars Villa, Silva and Marchena. They're currently undefeated with 4 wins and a draw.
Manchester United is a perennial performer in the Champions League. They've struggled a bit in English League play but are still running second. Look for them to step it up on Wednesday, especially if Rooney is healthy.
Prediction: Valencia 2 - Man U 3
Here are highlights from a preseason match from last year between Valencia and Man U.
Auxerre 0 - Real Madrid 1, Quick Impressions
I have yet to get a chance to watch the all of Tuesday's Auxerre - Madrid game. What I did see, showed an interesting line-up change.
Mourinho, had Xabi Alonso playing as a single pivot or defensive midfielder while Khedira and Lass Diarra were pushed farther forward on the left and right respectively.
That's interesting because Mourinho usually prefers to play with 2 defensive midfielders. So far this year that's been Xabi Alonso and Khedira. Usually, they are accompanied by a media punta, or attacking midfielder in the Schneider mold - this year usually Ozil and occasionally Canales.
Given Khedira and Lass Diarra's defensive bent, I was curious to see how their connection to the front line was. The verdict: not awesome. Madrid was clearly winning the battle in the midfield in the first half but they were not creating a lot of clear scoring opportunities.
I saw that Ozil came in for Benzema in the second half. I hope to see how that worked out later tonight.
Who do you think Mourinho should line up in the midfield?
Mourinho, had Xabi Alonso playing as a single pivot or defensive midfielder while Khedira and Lass Diarra were pushed farther forward on the left and right respectively.
That's interesting because Mourinho usually prefers to play with 2 defensive midfielders. So far this year that's been Xabi Alonso and Khedira. Usually, they are accompanied by a media punta, or attacking midfielder in the Schneider mold - this year usually Ozil and occasionally Canales.
Given Khedira and Lass Diarra's defensive bent, I was curious to see how their connection to the front line was. The verdict: not awesome. Madrid was clearly winning the battle in the midfield in the first half but they were not creating a lot of clear scoring opportunities.
I saw that Ozil came in for Benzema in the second half. I hope to see how that worked out later tonight.
Who do you think Mourinho should line up in the midfield?
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Sevilla Fires Antonio Alvarez
Sevilla president, José María del Nido has fired Sevilla's coach Antonio Alvarez. The dismissal took place following Sevilla's 0-2 loss to lowly Hercules.
Alvarez took over last year after serving as assistant coach Manolo Jimenez, who was fired for lack of results late last year.
Alvarez guided Sevilla to victory in the Copa del Rey last year (King's Cup) but failed in the early-season Spanish Supercopa, the classification phase of the Champion's League and the early games of the league.
Sevilla has a superb roster, let's hope the newest coach can guide them to greener pastures - and more goals.
Alvarez took over last year after serving as assistant coach Manolo Jimenez, who was fired for lack of results late last year.
Alvarez guided Sevilla to victory in the Copa del Rey last year (King's Cup) but failed in the early-season Spanish Supercopa, the classification phase of the Champion's League and the early games of the league.
Sevilla has a superb roster, let's hope the newest coach can guide them to greener pastures - and more goals.
Levante 0 - Real Madrid 0: Yawn. Snore. Do You Miss Pellegrini Yet?
After 5 League games, mighty Real Madrid has scored a measly 6 goals. Despite spending over 300 million Euro in transfer fees the last two years, despite having "The Special One" as a coach, the Merengues are providing a very unappealing image this year.
In Madrid's favor, they have created numerous scoring chances this year. Ball possession is much higher than it was last year and San Iker (goalkeeper Iker Casillas) has done so little work that he could sit in goal and eat churros y chocolate if he wanted to.Madrid defense has been stellar. They've allowed 1 goal in their 5 games and haven't looked in serious danger all season.
Real's defensive success can't seem to get rid of the poor taste left by their resultadista play in the league. This is not the Champion's League. Fans don't want a series of 1-0 victories so that the team can move on to the next round of play. The Madridistas want breathless, end-to-end action that showcases the speed and skill of their playmakers - and results in lots of goals.
Those fans that remember last year's team will remember that Madrid had already scored 16 goals in their first 5 games. A goal per game average of 3.2 instead of the sad 1.2 gpg/avg. Last year's Pellegrini team didn't look like they were dominating the majority of games they played but they scored a shocking 102 goals. Everything went in. No matter how much you bring up traditional referee favoritism of Madrid (find Rafa Van der Vaart's volleyball goal and you'll know what I mean), this was a potent offense that was a lot of fun to watch.
I'm beginning to wonder if Mourinho is capable of guiding a team to play successful offense. Thus far this year, Real have taken 105 shots on goal with only 5 going in. They lead the league in that regard with superstar CR7/9 taking the individual honors for futility in front of goal with 41 shots and two goals. Higuain has taken 15 shots with 1 finding the back of the net.
I hope that los Merengues can figure things out quickly because I watch the Spain's La Liga to see exciting, attacking football. If I wanted to watch a scoreless draw that is only broken by a debatable penalty, I'd watch the Italian league. Mourinho is an indisputably hard worker - hopefully his work will pay off soon. Until then: there are still Mou goals needed.
See the poll at the bottom of the page. Until then, here's a clip from last year's Real fun.
In Madrid's favor, they have created numerous scoring chances this year. Ball possession is much higher than it was last year and San Iker (goalkeeper Iker Casillas) has done so little work that he could sit in goal and eat churros y chocolate if he wanted to.Madrid defense has been stellar. They've allowed 1 goal in their 5 games and haven't looked in serious danger all season.
Real's defensive success can't seem to get rid of the poor taste left by their resultadista play in the league. This is not the Champion's League. Fans don't want a series of 1-0 victories so that the team can move on to the next round of play. The Madridistas want breathless, end-to-end action that showcases the speed and skill of their playmakers - and results in lots of goals.
Those fans that remember last year's team will remember that Madrid had already scored 16 goals in their first 5 games. A goal per game average of 3.2 instead of the sad 1.2 gpg/avg. Last year's Pellegrini team didn't look like they were dominating the majority of games they played but they scored a shocking 102 goals. Everything went in. No matter how much you bring up traditional referee favoritism of Madrid (find Rafa Van der Vaart's volleyball goal and you'll know what I mean), this was a potent offense that was a lot of fun to watch.
I'm beginning to wonder if Mourinho is capable of guiding a team to play successful offense. Thus far this year, Real have taken 105 shots on goal with only 5 going in. They lead the league in that regard with superstar CR7/9 taking the individual honors for futility in front of goal with 41 shots and two goals. Higuain has taken 15 shots with 1 finding the back of the net.
I hope that los Merengues can figure things out quickly because I watch the Spain's La Liga to see exciting, attacking football. If I wanted to watch a scoreless draw that is only broken by a debatable penalty, I'd watch the Italian league. Mourinho is an indisputably hard worker - hopefully his work will pay off soon. Until then: there are still Mou goals needed.
See the poll at the bottom of the page. Until then, here's a clip from last year's Real fun.
Athletic Bilbao 1 - Barcelona 3: A Hard Fought Victory In the Cathedral
Athletic de Bilbao is known to have one of the most impassioned fan bases in the world. The Bilbaino faithful regularly fill their home stadium, known as La Catedral (The Cathedral), to its 39, 670 capacity; so it was no surprise to see a see of red and white, replete with flags, banners and probably their fair share of kalimotxo when Catalan giant F.C. Barcelona came to town. Rain and inclement weather does not stop these fans.
Unlike many teams in the Spanish league, Athletic (under Joaquín Caparrós) does not assume an ultra-defensive position in the face of Barcelona's imposing attack. The Lions of Bilbao contest the game from start to finish and Saturday's match was no exception.
The red-and-whites attempted to win the battle in the midfield, pressuring Barcelona and not giving their team time to pass at will. Barcelona may have had more chances early on in the game, but they did not show their usual dominance.
In the 34th minute Athletic's Amorebieta was shown a red card for a nasty challenge on Iniesta. Despite going down a man, the rojiblanco's kept fighting the good fight and looked good at the beginning of the second half.
Just when the Athletic looked best, Barcelona broke the scoreless draw. A beautifully quick touch by David Villa left Seydou Keita alone in front of goal. The Mali international scored easily.
Then in 71st minute Xavi looked to have sealed the game with an oddly bouncing shot from outside the area. With a 2-0 lead, and a man up, Barcelona was sure to win right?
There was still plenty of excitement left. David Villa was shown a red card in the 83rd minute, Athletic scored to cut the difference to 1 and then, just when Athletic looked to have the last-minute momentum, Barcelona's Sergio Busquets finished the game off with a pretty strike into the upper-left corner.
So far this season, Barcelona's front line has been dominant - with Messi, Villa and Pedro (or Bojan) each making the score sheet by the end of the game. With Messi out, it was Barca's midfield that made the difference with Keita, Xavi and Busquets animating the game and putting the ball in the back of the net.
This was a true battle between two great sides with even better fan bases. If any conclusion can be drawn from this game, it's that I want to see a game in San Mames before it's abandoned for a newer, bigger stadium in 2013 or 2014. Enjoy the goals.
Unlike many teams in the Spanish league, Athletic (under Joaquín Caparrós) does not assume an ultra-defensive position in the face of Barcelona's imposing attack. The Lions of Bilbao contest the game from start to finish and Saturday's match was no exception.
The red-and-whites attempted to win the battle in the midfield, pressuring Barcelona and not giving their team time to pass at will. Barcelona may have had more chances early on in the game, but they did not show their usual dominance.
In the 34th minute Athletic's Amorebieta was shown a red card for a nasty challenge on Iniesta. Despite going down a man, the rojiblanco's kept fighting the good fight and looked good at the beginning of the second half.
Just when the Athletic looked best, Barcelona broke the scoreless draw. A beautifully quick touch by David Villa left Seydou Keita alone in front of goal. The Mali international scored easily.
Then in 71st minute Xavi looked to have sealed the game with an oddly bouncing shot from outside the area. With a 2-0 lead, and a man up, Barcelona was sure to win right?
There was still plenty of excitement left. David Villa was shown a red card in the 83rd minute, Athletic scored to cut the difference to 1 and then, just when Athletic looked to have the last-minute momentum, Barcelona's Sergio Busquets finished the game off with a pretty strike into the upper-left corner.
So far this season, Barcelona's front line has been dominant - with Messi, Villa and Pedro (or Bojan) each making the score sheet by the end of the game. With Messi out, it was Barca's midfield that made the difference with Keita, Xavi and Busquets animating the game and putting the ball in the back of the net.
This was a true battle between two great sides with even better fan bases. If any conclusion can be drawn from this game, it's that I want to see a game in San Mames before it's abandoned for a newer, bigger stadium in 2013 or 2014. Enjoy the goals.
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