La Liga - this weekend

What the hell happened here:
Deportivo 1-5 Valencia

Depor: Pandiani 65'
Valencia: Corradi 18', Di Vaio 36', Vicente 42', Rufete 46', Baraja 49'


???
 
Valencia look great, continuing their form of last year.
Ranieri is the luckiest coach, having inherited a virtually untouched team that Benitez coached
last year.
Can't believe Madrid are only 1 pt behind
them.
 
Vicente's goal for the third was an absolute peach. I think it also says quite a lot about Deportivo's demise really - no additions to ageing squad, problems between Pandiani & Luque etc...

I was suprised they got a win a Bilbao at weekend actually although it was a last minute winner. The Basque clubs are struggling a bit though it would appear.

Poor old GB, 4 days was all it took for Espanyol to go from beating Real and top to losing at pointless Getafe - cheer up big fella !
 
denirobob said:
19th December - Barca v Valencia
The most serious candidates to the league, the new derby.
Marco Di Vaio is incredible in Valencia and miss Pablo Aimar yet.
 
ss4_goku said:
what's the new formation for Barca?? their default on WE don't really fit Deco...hahaha
In the Champions League they played this:

------------------------Valdes---------------------
-----------------------------------------------------
Beletti---------Puyol--------Marquez-----Gio VB
-----------------------------------------------------
-----------------------Gerard----------------------
----Deco----------------------------------Xavi----
-----------------------------------------------------
----Giuly-----------------------------Ronaldinho--
------------------------Eto-o-----------------------
 
Double trouble

Sid Lowe on why there are not one but two crises at Real Madrid

Monday September 27, 2004


Real Madrid president Florentino Perez: a very, very nice man. Honest.

Inflated by his own self-importance, his rule is autocratic, his power immense, his authority to give and take jobs unlimited. He hates the middle classes. And he has an army of yes-men, henchmen and sycophantic cheerleaders.
He claims to be following the heritage of those who went before, but he is not. He loves nothing more than grand, unrealisable plans inevitably doomed to failure (and making others carry the can when those plans finally, inevitably, fail). And he is an expert in double speak, economic with the truth, presenting disaster as glorious triumph, a success in which all can share.

He thinks he is the party. He is a calculating leader, demanding the impossible, undermining his underlings and shedding those he mistrusts or who no longer serve his needs, impervious to questions as to why, prepared only to face his own, pre-selected, cowed inquisitors. He even has his own propaganda machine. Not state news agency Tass this time, but official party organ AS, which neatly even manages to rhyme.

And yet for all that, and try as he might, Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez just isn't Joseph Stalin.

You see, communism really isn't his thing (rampant marketing being the name of his game; well, it's certainly not called football). He would look rather silly in a moustache, although they're fine for his powerless stooges. And you wouldn't catch him dead in a party uniform: Pérez always wears a dark suit and a blue shirt. He is, after all, the leader of a "gentleman of a club" (not a gentleman's club: he's not Peter Stringfellow).

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But most of all Pérez is not Stalin because when it comes to re-writing history, he's actually a bit of an amateur. He shed toiling, sweating Stakhanovite coach José Antonio Camacho last week, refused to answer questions, and tried to pretend the whole nasty business had never happened. But while Stalin used an airbrush and ice-pick and, hey presto, all was sorted, Pérez went through the less effective, long-winded process of having the 2004-2005 official team photo re-done. All. Over. Again. Just 14 days after the first one.

It was a decent enough attempt, but when it comes to true despotism, it just wasn't in the same league - not least because, like the Never, Never, Never and the website denial - the old, politically suspect photo still exists; incontrovertible truth of the latest lie.

Virtually all the players are in the same place as before, Pérez too - surrounded by the galácticos, well away from the plebs - and honorary president Alfredo Di Stéfano is glaring again. "Curiously, Don Alfredo wore exactly the same (i.e. grumbling) expression as he had in the first photo," said Marca when it wasn't that curious really. After all, Di Stefano has been wearing the same expression since 1973.

There was but one change: Camacho was removed from history, new manager Mariano García Remón appearing at Pérez's side instead, like he'd been there from the start; as if nothing had changed.

Which it hasn't, really. Camacho has gone to the States "for a month" (he's expected to leave there next week) but García Remón has carried on where his predecessor left off. Inevitable, really, as Pérez - who, despite talk of player power, was the real nail in Camacho's coffin - has created a beast not so easily tamed, a club not so easily changed.

If it wasn't for the two photos, and the lack of insane shouting and armpit humidity on the bench, you'd hardly be able to tell the difference. So far García Remón has picked up a rubbish 1-0 home victory, secured by a sensational David Beckham-free kick, and a single goal away defeat - 2-1 at Athletic Bilbao on Saturday night. Which is pretty much what Camacho picked up: two rubbish 1-0 victories (the home one secured by a sensational Beckham free-kick) and a single goal away defeat that could, and should, have been more.

And like Camacho's final day against Espanyol in Barcelona, this weekend in Bilbao wasn't just a defeat. It was a slaughtering at the hands of a side whose philosophy could hardly be more different, the second most politically charged game in Spain, in a ground where Madrid were welcomed with whistles and jeers - which at least made their players feel at home. Ismael Urzaiz and Santi Ezquerro took advantage of Raúl Bravo's comedy defending to put Athletic two up by half time. They were their only goals, but it really should have been more.

García Remón bizarrely insisted that Athletic - who, committing a cardinal sin, he called Atlético - were "not superior to Madrid". Actually, they were. Very, very superior. Raúl may have scored for the first time in 189 games, and it may even have been a blinder, but Madrid were never in it: they put the ball into the box just six times, compared to Athletic's 41 and didn't force a single corner. And in Bravo they boasted the least appropriately named footballer ever. Unless, like galáctico, "Bravo!" has taken on some kind of post-modern irony. "Embarrassing," sighed both Marca and AS.

No, it wasn't just a defeat, it wasn't just a goal, and it's not just a crisis. It is, in fact, two crises. Because while Pérez's five-year plan unravels, bitter rivals Barça are four points ahead, level with Valencia, and beginning to look like genuine candidates. And this weekend, big-hearted loveable nutter Samuel Eto'o - the defector who snubbed Madrid - returned to Mallorca, scored twice, didn't celebrate and was welcomed with banners, a cuddly lion slightly less indomitable than him, and an emotional standing ovation.

It was richly deserved, too: Eto'o is now Spain's top scorer, on five. More than all of Madrid's players put together. It may be time for that ice pick.

http://football.guardian.co.uk/continental/story/0,8018,1313721,00.html
 
ThomasGoal is right CD, for he is ThomasGoal ok?

Over here we don't get to see Spanish football. I think that's so fucked up, because I always hear about how brilliant Barca plays.
 
I dont really get to watch my Spanish footy, see the occasional game, but from an outsiders point of view, it DOES seem like a complete shambles at RM.
 
Cúper captured by Mallorca
Tuesday, 2 November 2004

Former FC Internazionale Milano coach Héctor Cúper is returning to Spain for a second spell in charge of RCD Mallorca.

The 48-year-old Argentinian has agreed a three-year contract at Son Moix, just over a year after he was sacked by Inter. Cúper had been out of football since then but could not resist the chance to replace Benito Floro, who parted company with the island club last week after just four months at the helm.

Cúper, who took Valencia CF to UEFA Champions League finals in 1999/00 and 2000/01 and also coached CA Huracán and CA Lanús, enjoyed a successful stay at Mallorca between 1997 and 1999. The club reached the Spanish Cup final in his first season - losing on penalties to FC Barcelona - before succumbing 2-1 to S.S. Lazio in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final the following campaign.
 
Good for Cúper, I believes Héctor Cúper, will be able to fix in part the bad situation of the spanish team.
 
Thought id bring this threadackto life, 4 games to go in La Liga and looks like Barca are going to hold on, Madrid got battered by Real Sociedad and were lcky to come out with the three points. anyone seen anything of that Leo Messi before great liitle 3 minute cameo for a 17 year old. Barcelona have a far harder run in than Madrid but im sure they will holdon to win it.
 
Anyone see the celebration party of Barca? Eto'o had to publicly appologize as he began chanting "Madrid! Madrid! Bastards! Bastards!" infront of 90 000 fans.
 
Is anybody going to watch the Levante vs Valencia derby match this weekend?

Looks like it's going to be a cracking game......finished 2-1 to Valencia in the last game.
 
1. Valdes, Victor
4. Marquez, Rafael
5. Puyol, Carles
12. van Bronckhorst, Giovanni
15. Edmilson
23. Oleguer
6. Xavi
8. Giuly, Ludovic
10. Ronaldinho
20. Deco
9. Eto`o, Samuel

Substitutes
25. Jorquera, Albert
2. Belletti, Juliano
16. Silvinho
17. van Bommel, Mark
18. Gabri
24. Iniesta, Andres
7. Larsson, Henrik

Subs

On - 68 Henrik Larsson
Off - 68 Ludovic Giuly
On - 68 Juliano Belletti
Off - 68 Edmílson
On - 80 Andres Iniesta
Off - 80 Xavi

:)
 
Stringer Bell said:
Is anybody going to watch the Levante vs Valencia derby match this weekend?

Looks like it's going to be a cracking game......finished 2-1 to Valencia in the last game.
Saw this last night, nice game and a nice goal by Aimar to win it :)

Barca seemed unlucky not to win in their earlier game yesterday
 
Some great games tonight!

Hopefully Real pull it off and dont newb out away from home.
 
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