Last Week in Las Ligas

The “fight” has already been discussed ad naueseam, but it’s still worth another look. Big win for Zaragoza, too.

In fairness to Barca, they were playing without half their team.

Before last night, Depor had not won in nine, their squad is basically not that good, their president is contemplating walking away, senior players are desperate to do likewise, and they’re skint. But they did have one thing going for them, the greatest of Kings’ gifts: Real Madrid.

One-up within 10 minutes through a Joan Capdevila free-kick, Depor comfortably defeated an utterly, utterly pathetic Madrid side who played with no organisation, no spirit, and too many players in the wrong positions.

Recreativo 1 Espanyol 0

La Liga Loca on Recreativo:

A team following the Getafe’s mantra of modesty, judging by manager Marcelino’s words yesterday – “Our target is 42 points, lets see what happens if we get that”. Now in seventh place, with just four more wins until they reach their target, back to back victories over Real Madrid and now Espanyol means that the current team of the season must surely have secured another year in Spain’s top flight. And played some very nice football along the way.

Athletic Bilbao 3 Mallorca 1

Real Sociedad 2 Osasuna 1

Atletico 0 Nastic 0

To come back from break and struggle like that against one of the worst teams at home is so horrible yet typical—whatever. Tis the season of re-gifting, and Atletico just re-gifted their temporary holding of a Champions League spot.

Valencia 1 Villareal 0

Betis 1 Celta Vigo 0

Levante 2 Racing Santander 0

Here’s Oliver on England:

FA CUP- Round 3
This week saw a break for the Premier League, so that the FA Cup could get some action
For those who don’t know, this cup includes teams from every league in Britain so the two-hundredeth best team in the country have a chance to play against the big guns. Not only is this great for fans who don’t get too see these ‘big’ teams in the flesh too often, but also for the smaller clubs as the big clubs coming to town can provide a significant financial windfall that can be used to purchase new players or upgrade facilities. Every year some small team comes from nowhere to beat up on premiership clubs- sort of like in college basketball and this year was no different
Plenty of vids out there and check out the two crackers between Liverpool and Arsenal:

FA Cup Round 3
Liverpool 1-3 Arsenal http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxnml_liverpool-v-arsenal
Birmingham 2-2 Newcastle http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxnnq_birmingham-22-newcastle-fa-cup
Hull 1-1 Middlesbrough
Nott Forest 2-0 Charlton
Chelsea 6-1 Macclesfield http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZP3LTUW2Tg&eurl=
Leicester 2-2 Fulham
Doncaster 0-4 Bolton
Portsmouth 2-1 Wigan http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxqcu_portsmouth-vs-wigan-goals
Manchester United 2-1 Aston Villa http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxz2a_man-u-v-aston-villa
Sheffield United 0-3 Swansea
West Ham 3-0 Brighton
Sheffield Wednesday 1-1 Man City http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxwni_sheffield-wednesday-vs-man-city-goa
Cardiff 0-0 Tottenham
Everton 1-4 Blackburn (sorry Ryan) http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxwh4_everton-vs-blackburn-goals

Carling Cup Replay after game was called off in Dec due to fog
Liverpool 3-6 Arsenal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hujXjOftocs&eurl=
(my buddy travelled 4 hrs to Liverpool twice to watch this game and the first time it was called off for fog….and the second time his team lose and concede six goals- If god exists, he hates my buddy.)

Other News

Sheffield United
Huge props to relegation candidates Sheffield United from last week. Not only did they beat and outplay Arsenal, but it is reported the struggling Sheffield club are in talks with major Brazilian powerhouse, Sao Paulo to form an ‘exclusive partnership’ to bring some of the best, young Brazilian talent from the Brasiliero to the Premiership. Exact details have not yet been released, but if these rumours are true it will be a huge coup for Neil Warnock and co. Sao Paulo have always produced great talent, such as Denilson, Cafu and Kaka and if somehow Sheffield United can put themselves in the position to sign guys like Kaka, who has been one of the world’s best players for a few years now, the results can only be positive for the Northern club.

Any Blades fans out there can watch this vid and drool at Kaka, the kind of guy Sao Paulo produces (basically a nice excuse to show you guys how good Kaka is and why Chelsea have been sniffing around him the last few years)

KAKA video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNJQwHN9lyw&eurl=

In other news–

The Transfer window is OPEN and lots of teams have money to burn including Aston Villa, Chelsea and Manchester United
Chelsea have been linked with an almost infinite number of players, the most likely include Man City’s star defender Micah Richards, Valencia forward David Villa, Birmingham centre back Matthew Upson and Dani Alves of Spanish leaders Sevilla.
Manchester United supposedly lead the long list of suitors for Spanish star Fernando Torres (actually, hot mamis lead the list of suitors for Torres—Jake) and also may have a successful end to their chase of Bayern Munich’s star midfielder Owen Hargreaves. Villa have been linked with way to many players to list here but Robbie Keane, Joey Barton and Miroslav Klose would be good signings, if Villa are serious about showing their intention of gaining a place in Europe next year.
Another Player likely on the move include Southampton’s seventeen year old star in the making, Gareth Bale who has Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Real Madrid interested in snatching up the Welsh, free kick specialist. England squad players Nigel Reo Coker and Shaun Wright Phillips could also be on the move with Arsenal and Manchester United interested in the West Ham man and Manchester City reportedly only willing to let Micah Richards go to Chelsea, if winger, Wright-Phillips is part of the deal.
(UPDATE- only even slightly big signing in a VERY quiet transfer window so far has been Luis Boa Morte’s £6 million transfer to West Ham- I expect things to pick up toward the end of the month)

Amusing video of the week- the fight against diving
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COevQbe19WY

Goal of the week–
Peter Crouch over head kick against Bolton- he’s 6’7! That’s the same height as Kobe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKuFyIIC63o

Performance of the week
I’m a little bias. But there is nothing better for me than watching Thierry Henry make a shock return to the field against Charlton and then open the scoring in a four goal rout. To round off a great week he also scored against Liverpool in the FA Cup as well. It wasn’t that Henry was that incredible in either game, just having the talismanic Frenchman on the field has been enough to rejuvenate the Gunners. (as I predicted last week) Great to have you back Thierry!

POI

This week one of the most complete football players on earth. Not the best week for Liverpool’s Captain Steven Gerrard- as he lost twice to Arsenal but he scored a great goal in the Carling Cup game and showed that he may be the best midfielder in the Premiership. He can tackle, pass, dribble and shoot…boy can he shoot- Some of the goals on this video prove that-

Great player. Last year was voted the Premiership’s best player (MVP for you yanks)
Here’s why!

Gerrard video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVM5fRT7-zA

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