Want to see a real Cinderella story? There's no better place to find it than Spain's Copa del Rey. This annual soccer championship pits 63 teams from Spain's 1st, 2nd and 3rd (Segunda B) division against each other in home and away matches. Played primarily during the work week, the competition ensures that no passionate soccer fan need go 3 days without futból.
The competition began 1902 to celebrate the coronation of Spanish King Alfonso XIII. It was officially named the Copa Del Rey in 1903 and its first title match saw Athletic Bilbao defeat Madrid FC (later Real Madrid).
Originally formed with a representative from each province, the competition has grown to invite many of the top teams from Spain's first 3 divisions.
The competition is a tournament elimination format that pits 2 teams against each other in home and away matches, with the winner being the team with a greater goal total in both games. As with other Cup ties, even goal differential is broken by weighting away goals more heavily.
The exception to the home-away format is the final, regularly played in one of Spain's most prestigious stadiums.
The giant clubs of Spain's first division regularly face off against smaller teams from the lower divisions. This week Barcelona crossed the straights of Gilbraltar to face tiny Ceuta (you get extra credit if you knew that Spain still has territory in Africa apart from the Canary islands). Barça was able to win their "trap" match but Spain's glamor sides regularly fall to small teams in these ties. The most famous example of this was the Alcorconazo: where tiny Alcorcón defeated Real Madrid 4-0 at home. Alcorcón lost the away match 1-0 in Santiago Bernabeau but advanced on the 4-1 goal aggregate.
Small and outclassed as they are, the teams from Spain's lower ranks do have certain advantages. The first and most important advantage is motivation: their team will be excited to prove that they can play with the best in the world while Spain's first division teams regularly rest their "A" team. The result is that the smaller teams often have greater chemistry - their players are used to playing together while the big teams field a patchwork mix of first and second team players - especially early in the competition.
These early games can often be a trap because of field conditions as well. When Spain's large teams play the away leg, they're forced to play on a small, often poorly maintained field. This limits their passing game (especially in Barcelona's case) and speed (especially in Madrid's case). Nevertheless, Spain's large teams do often win out.
The Copa del Rey's most regular victor has been FC Barcelona with 25 victories. Athletíc Bilbao follow closely with a total of 23 cup wins, the last being in 1984. Real Madrid have the third most victories with 17. They haven't won since 1993.
In 2010, the King's Cup has received quite a bit of attention. Real Madrid have announced that they intend to take the Cup more seriously after being embarrassed the last several years. Coach Jose Mourinho is a master of elimination tournaments and won the Coppa Italia in 2009 with Inter Milan.
Teams like Sevilla, Valencia, Athletico, Athletic and Barcelona seem more likely to hoist the King's trophy at the end of the season.
As you follow the action, here's a look back at one of the best finals, the 2009 match between the Copa del Rey's two most storied teams: Barcelona and Athletic.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Zaragoza 0 - FC Barcelona 2: Barça and the Away-Field Advantage
FC Barcelona won on Saturday. They won as they have often in the last month or so, missing opportunity after opportunity while dominating a clearly inferior opponent.
They did however have many more opportunities to show themselves on Saturday than they have in some of their recent home matches. Which brings us to an interesting issue: is Barcelona better on the road than they are at home?
It sounds strange. Usually teams think of their home stadium as a stronghold and play better in front of boisterous, aggressive and occasionally downright dangerous home fans. Yet this year's Barca squad seems to be doing the opposite: the struggle to beat lesser teams at home and get to show off on the road.
One theory is that the home team can't hide as well: when a team plays Barcelona in the Nou Camp (in Barcelona) it's expected to lose; the visiting team can park 9-10 players by the goal and do everything it can to block real, constructive football.
When a team plays Barça at home, it has a responsibility to its fans to show a minimum of offensive competency. Holding 10 players back is sure to draw cat calls from the fans and even letters asking for the coach to be fired. So the home team plays Barcelona more aggressively - and pays the price for their pride.
I didn't come up with this idea: it was a pearl of an explanation put forth by Ray Hudson on GolTV. This guy makes soccer fun and exciting and drops some real wisdom during the game. Check him out and check out Spain's La Liga (and Barcelona) on GolTV.
For those that don't have GolTV, here are the highlights:
They did however have many more opportunities to show themselves on Saturday than they have in some of their recent home matches. Which brings us to an interesting issue: is Barcelona better on the road than they are at home?
It sounds strange. Usually teams think of their home stadium as a stronghold and play better in front of boisterous, aggressive and occasionally downright dangerous home fans. Yet this year's Barca squad seems to be doing the opposite: the struggle to beat lesser teams at home and get to show off on the road.
One theory is that the home team can't hide as well: when a team plays Barcelona in the Nou Camp (in Barcelona) it's expected to lose; the visiting team can park 9-10 players by the goal and do everything it can to block real, constructive football.
When a team plays Barça at home, it has a responsibility to its fans to show a minimum of offensive competency. Holding 10 players back is sure to draw cat calls from the fans and even letters asking for the coach to be fired. So the home team plays Barcelona more aggressively - and pays the price for their pride.
I didn't come up with this idea: it was a pearl of an explanation put forth by Ray Hudson on GolTV. This guy makes soccer fun and exciting and drops some real wisdom during the game. Check him out and check out Spain's La Liga (and Barcelona) on GolTV.
For those that don't have GolTV, here are the highlights:
Sevilla 4 - Athletic Bilbao 3: Another Reason to Watch Spain's La Liga.
TV Announcer: The Continental Soccer Association is coming to Springfield!
It's all here--fast-kicking, low scoring, and ties? You bet!
Bart: Hey, Dad, how come you've never taken us to see a soccer game?
Homer: I...don't know.
TV Announcer: You'll see all your favorite soccer stars. Like Ariaga!
Ariaga II! Bariaga! Aruglia! And Pizzoza!
Homer: Oh, I never heard of those people.
TV Announcer: And they'll all be signing autographs!
Homer: Woo-hoo!
TV Announcer: This match will determine once and for all which nation is
the greatest on earth: Mexico or Portugal!Quote from Simpson's Episode F501
Funny as the Simpsons episode was, most US sports fans have this misguided impression of soccer. And, sometimes it's not even that misguided. But it sure missed the mark in Sunday's Sevilla - Athletico match.
This is why you need to watch soccer, and Spain's La Liga in particular. It doesn't get much more exciting than this!
Sevilla went up 3-0 in the 62nd minute. Normally at 3-0, a team owns the game. It's over and they can put in their development players to prove it. Not on Sunday!
Los leones (the lions) of Bilbao came roaring back like their namesake from the Serengeti. They brought the score to 3-2 before a questionable penalty (committed on Negredo, executed by Kanoute) put the game out of reach at 4-2.
Athletic didn't stop there either, they scored a 91st minute header to keep hope alive!
They could not however, pull even. Athletic ran out of time and Sevilla added a win to the post-Alvarez era.
All told, it was a breathless 30 minutes of soccer. I can think of very few sports that can serve up this kind of emotional roller coaster in such a short time.
Ride that football roller coaster with me with this embedded video:
Holy Mouly: Madrid's Playing Well And Scoring At Will
Okay, I apologize; I've used another groan-worthy made-up Mou word. Still, after watching Real Madrid's last 3 games, "the special one" is worthy of headlines - and the rest of the league is left to groan.
Madrid's latest experiment in running up the score (and I mean that in the best possible way) came at the expense of Racing Santader. After their 6-1 drubbing the Racing boys have officially changed their team colors from black and green to black and blue, with makeup artist bruises for effect.
Madrid got on the board early courtesy of Higuain in the 10th minute and then ran off 4 straight Christiano Ronaldo goals. CR7/9 gattling-gun-goal run was followed by an Ozil goal that left los merengues up 6-0. Racing did get the "goal of honor" to ease the drubbing, but it's still hard to cover up that 6.
This isn't the first Madrid rout, either. Madrid recently put down Malaga 4-1 and pummeled Deportivo La Coruña 6-1 as well. That's 16 goals in 3 games!
Los Blancos (Madrid is known as "The Whites" in Spain in reference to their jerseys - and maybe because fans from the capital think they are the good guys) boast a whopping +18 goal differential after 8 games. The feel-good stat for fans from the capital is that 16 of Madrid's 22 goals have come in the first 60 minutes, compared to just 1 of their opponents goals. These are not garbage goals - Madrid is going out hard and putting good Spanish league teams down like ugly rabid dogs.
This article is my way of apologizing to Sr. Jose Mourinho (as if he cares). I heckled him early in the year. I was wrong. I shouldn't have doubted. I stand super-corrected. Jose, if you're reading this, you can lay off now. Down boy!
I expected Madrid to play well at some point in the season, but their recent run has exceeded my wildest imaginings. This is a super-dotado (talented) team with a (self-professed) genius of a coach. I shouldn't have doubted.
Real Madrid 6 - Racing Santander 1
Madrid's latest experiment in running up the score (and I mean that in the best possible way) came at the expense of Racing Santader. After their 6-1 drubbing the Racing boys have officially changed their team colors from black and green to black and blue, with makeup artist bruises for effect.
Madrid got on the board early courtesy of Higuain in the 10th minute and then ran off 4 straight Christiano Ronaldo goals. CR7/9 gattling-gun-goal run was followed by an Ozil goal that left los merengues up 6-0. Racing did get the "goal of honor" to ease the drubbing, but it's still hard to cover up that 6.
This isn't the first Madrid rout, either. Madrid recently put down Malaga 4-1 and pummeled Deportivo La Coruña 6-1 as well. That's 16 goals in 3 games!
Los Blancos (Madrid is known as "The Whites" in Spain in reference to their jerseys - and maybe because fans from the capital think they are the good guys) boast a whopping +18 goal differential after 8 games. The feel-good stat for fans from the capital is that 16 of Madrid's 22 goals have come in the first 60 minutes, compared to just 1 of their opponents goals. These are not garbage goals - Madrid is going out hard and putting good Spanish league teams down like ugly rabid dogs.
This article is my way of apologizing to Sr. Jose Mourinho (as if he cares). I heckled him early in the year. I was wrong. I shouldn't have doubted. I stand super-corrected. Jose, if you're reading this, you can lay off now. Down boy!
I expected Madrid to play well at some point in the season, but their recent run has exceeded my wildest imaginings. This is a super-dotado (talented) team with a (self-professed) genius of a coach. I shouldn't have doubted.
Real Madrid 6 - Racing Santander 1
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Real Madrid 6 - Deportivo La Coruna 1
Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid got it together - and how! I guess I can stop commenting on Mourinho's lack of goals. Check out some highlights and comment if you will.
Barcelona 1 - Mallorca 1: Is Barça Broken?
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.
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.
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.
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