Last Week in La Liga

By Jake Appleman

Youtubing 45 minutes of your life
Because you love it too,
Coño

EL CLASICO

Bonus Hype: Pro-Barca, George Lucas swagger-jacking that has aged like fine Catalonian cobblestone.

RECENT HISTORY:

A pro-Barcelona video that chronicles the two 03-04 matches, but mostly highlights Barca’s redemption in the second match.

The two matches from the 04-05 season.

Ronaldinho’s epic performance from last year. And my column from that match. The final tie (What up Oliver?) between the two last year.

Given all that and their lead in the league, you’d think Barcelona would do no worse than a draw at the Bernabeu.

Wrong.

Real Madrid 2 Barcelona 0

Extended analysis from each half. By watching those two clips, you can basically watch the match and save 78% of the time it would have taken you to watch the whole thing. This appears to be a coming of age performance for Robinho. And if it’s not, he’ll just end up as the Beanie Sigel of La Liga.

Some perspective.

Sid Lowe: This was the Madrid Capello really wanted to see – not too much in the way of knocking the ball around but aggressive, quick and tight at the back, with spirit and attitude, dangerous on the break. This was the Madrid that their fans wanted to see, too. With the pace of Robinho, with Iván Helguera back in from the cold, with Fabio Cannavaro finding his feet, and with Sergio Ramos moved to right-back where he’s a real asset, Madrid have hope again. Just two points behind Barça, they are starting to look like a side that can compete for the league title.

La Liga Loca: As expected, the heart of their problem is the absence of Samuel Eto’o who has always been the finisher to the team’s midfield work. Without him, Barca are just a group of fairly small footballers passing to each other. Barca’s management are surely going to have to bite the bullet and start playing Javier Saviola from the start. A comfortable looking home match to Recre, next Saturday, is a good place to bounce back.

All in White: Fabio Capello, in the press conference following the end of the game, attributed to himself a large deal of credit for his side’s performance: “we are now a team”. When asked why now and not a week earlier, he replied “because of the talk I had with the players after Getafe”.

The ‘talk’, rumoured to have consisted of a full-blown scream-fest and threats of contract terminations and watching out the season from the stands seems to have had the desired effect. It helped that Steaua, Real’s next opponents, would probably struggle against most teams in the Spanish Primera División and played with a generosity in defence hard to find in the rest of the Champions League. A great morale booster.

Deportivo 1 – Atletico 0

Real Madrid up. Atletico down! Of course. Not taking advantage of opportunities. It’s starting to feel like last season…

Racing 2 – Espanyol 2

Scrubalicious tunes to go with this scrubtastic encounter.

Valencia 1 – Osasuna 0

Say it with me: Da-veed VEEE-YA! His name is like a goal themed roller coaster. His game is, more literally, a village of goals.

Zaragoza 2 Betis 1

Choice cut right there. In this match, Aimar to Milito–or “Payasito a Milito” for those that wanna get lyrical–was like Nash to Marion.

Other Results:

Villareal 1 – Levante 1
Getafe 2 – Recreativo Huelva 1
Celta 1 – Athletic Bilba-0w
Sevilla 2 – Nastic 1
Real Sociedad 0 – Mallorca 0