La Liga Weekly

Now, I’ve gone on record that the best man for the job at Madrid is sitting on the bench as we speak. I’ve been there. I’ve known what it feels like when the boss wants you out and no matter what you do, the people around you make it increasingly difficult for you to continue. The zone of no-confidence hits. The one where the middle manager chimes in and says, “they have every confidence that he’s is doing a good [...]

Manuel Pellegrini should have known. He had it good in Villareal and even before then at River Plate. He won the 2002-2003 Apertura in Argentina with River. Management sells his best player Andres D’Alessandro and he leaves after year. To Villareal in the suburbs, the Valencian Community, the 10th largest city in that region, and a mere 65k hike from Valencia. One hour away from Rafa Benitez, the Tinkerman Claudio Ranieri, Quique Sanchez-Flores, Oscar Ruben-Fernandez, Ronald Koeman and Unai Emery. [...]

I could pile on when the club is down, and usually I don’t spare the rod when ridiculing what has happened to a bloated, over-hyped monstrosity like the Super-Galactic Fortress Real Madrid (by the way from now I shall be referring to them according to this their Japanese anime name), but you have to feel sorry for them. Don’t you? I realize that glamor signings Kaka and fake-Ronaldo were out. Benzema and Xabi Alonso have been out. You would think [...]

Stop laughing people. The little guy has been through a lot. He’s an excellent player, one of the few pieces of flair a troglodyte like Dunga has allowed in his Office Space, I mean he was even supposed to be the next Pele? Squint your eyes a little. Smoosh your cheeks in. Tilt your head and then twirl a bit until you’re dizzy and then maybe you might have mistaken him for O Rei, maybe. Sure, he says he played [...]

I was going to start this new feature on the La Liga Team of the Week by writing on Saturday night with the improbable 4-0 win by La Pulcela in Valladolid over Somewhat Super Depor but I’m glad I waited. FC Barcelona’s 6-1 demolishing of Real Zaragoza at the Camp Nou was expected but not to this extent. The blaugrana were reeling midweek from losing to some Russian guy named Rubin Kazan (sounds like a clown-and-magic act doesn’t it?) and [...]

Look around the fixture list for yesterday’s games and you’ll find a lot of “dull draws” in three games in the eighth round of of play and a total of 2 goals all around. The first reaction is to say, “What’s going on in Spain?” or more specifically, “What is wrong with the top teams in the league?” Real Madrid struggled in Asturias against an inspired Sporting de Gijon who deserved the point nonetheless in this 0-0 draw. Sevilla couldn’t [...]

It was obvious as to their poor form that Atletico Madrid, like I wrote yesterday, were going to give Abel Resino the axe. He “lost the dressing room.” Well maybe that wasn’t the obvious reason, losing a ton of games played into it as well, but the same was said a year ago when Javier Aguirre was fired. Could the real culprit, instead of the revolving door of shepherds leading this flock, actually be the inattentive and highly unmotivated sheep [...]

Obviously the first thing one mentions when talking about Madrid and football in the same sentence is Real Madrid. Conquerors of Europe, the club of the last century, it’s all a bit embarrassing really. There are some that prefer Rayo Vallecano, or Getafe from the suburbs, but at the heart of the city, the true Madrileños, the ones like my favorite idiotic arm of the law Torrente, the Atleti-loving cop from Santiago Segura‘s dark comedies, are the long suffering center [...]

Keeping this intro short, join Mark, Corey and myself as we cover the surprises of Champions League 2010 Group Stage match day 3 with losses by Real Madrid, Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Manchester United barely edging out CSKA Moscow in Russia. This is a double episode so put aside 20+ minutes to listen in. If you wish to download the OGN/La Liga Weekly Minute+10 podcast and listen later,right click the audio icon -> and save or subscribe to iTunes to [...]

The prevailing thought here is that we have two massive clubs meeting again in the biggest football competition on the planet and one (Madrid), has been on the downturn for so long in Europe that they have gathered up their money and spent their whole kitty to rebuild and recapture what they see as rightfully their’s (the weird looking cup), and the other (Milan), well they’ve been quietly trying to right their domestic form under Paco Rabbanne, I mean Leonardo, [...]

As is usual for slow weeks, international breaks and such, the Madrid papers like to dredge up old stories, like nudging Joan Laporta awake with an attack on Barca or writing a piece to bury or praise Raul Gonzalez Blanco, but recently the one constant has been to write about the Galactico that got away: Cesc Fabregas. Here’s Cesc, Catalan by culture and either, or, or neither, Spanish by birth, who willfully plays for Spain’s red fury, who left the [...]

One of my friends from the Bay Area was coming to town for a few days, and mistakenly asked me what we should do. Why, Barca is playing int he Champions League, of course! He didn’t stand a chance. While there are a large number of quite brilliant things to do in this wonderful city, I could only steer him to the Camp Nou and the unparalleled adventure that comes with going to a Champions League match. Ok, maybe a [...]