Around the League: Round 23
Here’s another detour through the Spanish Primera Division.
Barcelona: After three less than stellar outings, culminating in a poor performance against Stuttgart, coach Pep Guardiola knows, “what needs to be done” to force a reaction from the club and return to their consistent form. The first change sees the return of Dani Alves, the second change has been in addressing the club as a whole, and meeting with select players privately, about their collective and singular effort: interesting note that while Guardiola detest calling out a player publicly, he has been known to criticize privately. The club never revealed if Zlatan had been fined heavily for his snowmobile accident while on vacation.
Real Madrid: ex-coach Berndt Schuster came out publicly and blamed Real Madrid’s failed summer signing of David Villa on “many people who didn’t want him to come. From the first team to the top, who stepped back (from the signing). When asked if Raul was one of the culprits, Schuster cupped his mouth and started coughing, adding ironicaly, “I have a cough you wouldn’t believe..”
Sevilla: Coach Manolo Jimenez notes that the draw at CSKA Moscow left a bittersweet feeling. It could have been the first time in their existence that Sevilla made it out of the quarterfinals of the European Cup or its successor the Chamions League.
Valencia: David Villa is pulverizing records. The Valencia forward and pichichi leader, who hadn’t scored in 5 games before his brace against Getafe. His goals are decisive in Valencia’s wins leading that category in La Liga’s most valuable player category. 20 goals in all competitions, 2 assists and a penalty won, he is already the fifth leading scorer in Valencia history.
Real Zaragoza: coach Jose Aurelio Gay sits English winger Jermaine Pennant for failing to make training on time in 2 out of the last 3 sessions. Last week, the player got in late because he was speeding through the streets near the training grounds because he was late to practice.
Europe: Interesting stat from Tomas Gonzalez-Martin in his ABC.es column. The Champions League has a total of 750.7 million euros at stake. The Europa League is well below that at 150.36 million euros. That’s a drop-off of 20%. No wonder clubs can’t take it seriously. Villarato, now a problem in Europe? The wingnut conspiracy that blames every questionable Real Madrid loss and Barcelona win on an institutional referee’s bias is now infecting their European campaign. Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers failed to award two penalties, one on a Pique handball in the 28th minute and the other on a Rafa Marquez push on Stuttgart’s Gebhardt, and all because he’s a countryman to Johann Cruyff? A stretch in my opinion.
