La Liga Weekly

Around La Liga is a scenic bus-trip through the news, rumor and transfers from all of the Primera Division clubs representing all of the regions in Spain. Valencia: Valencia: According to Superdeporte in Valencia, Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez will be loaned out by new club Manchester United to Valencia CF replacing Nicola Zigic. If that’s true, Roberto Soldado and Chicharito in attack is a nice signing (however temporary) for a club on the wane. Another option apparently, is that in the signing of David [...]

Tactically naive. One dimensional. They leave space open and are vulnerable on the counter-attack. All flash. No grit. No winning mentality or history. I’ve heard it all about Spain recently and I’m tired of it. Just wanted to rub it in a little. I know they haven’t won anything yet and a very tough match against Paraguay looms, but I just want to point out the fallacy of so-called substance over style. The ghosts of Otto Rehagel and Jose Mourinho [...]

check out this video, Keane always has some words of advise so listen to him stick it to the British media has they try to influence thought in the wrong direction. It would be nice to see a Special1TV skit with Capello’s impression of events but for now back to Spanish concerns, hopefully we can move away from this England rubbish, “done and dusted they are, done and dusted“

Is it just a matter of pride for the shirt, that connection to the patria, the land of your birth, to the soil in which you were raised, that separates the American teams in the World Cup (especially the South Americans) from the Old World. Apparently so, if you are an analyst on Argentine television and you are asked why it is that European teams are disappointing in this World Cup? It’s difficult to say. It is true that nationalist [...]

Contests between these fierce Iberian rivals used to be regular occurrences. They played 25 times between 1921 (their first meeting) and 1964, but only nine times since. Spain have won only one of those recent clashes, 3-0 in Lisbon seven years ago, but recent history is unlikely to play a part in this meeting – they have not clashed since Portugal won another Lisbon showdown in June 2004. This second round encounter loomed large in the draw for both teams [...]

Most pundits would say that the biggest disappointment of the tournament has been, well a toss-up between either one of the bluish-tinged sides in Western Europe: Italy or France. Let me put this bluntly, that’s a load of crap. Neither team was expected to do anything in this tournament were they? France got in by the skin of their teeth, or rather by the skin of a hand I’d say, and Italy had a spotty qualification and an elderly team [...]

Episode 5 of the World Cup focus at OGN welcomes Goal.com writer and Serie A Weekly regular Kris Voakes back to the podcast. Kris is also the Italian Serie A analyst on World Football Daily. Kris and Kevin review Sunday’s matches with Germany’s 4-1 win over England as well as Maradona’s Argentina proceeding to the quarter-final after defeating Mexico by a score of 3-1 http://www.podbean.com/podcast-audio-video-blog-player/mp3playerlightsmallv3.swf?audioPath=http://ogn.podbean.com/mf/play/8z26xp/ognworldcuppod05.mp3&autoStart=noPowered by OwnGoalNetwork.comStandard Podcasts: Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player

Spain beat Chile on the last day of the group round and were able to advance. In beating the Chileans, both teams advance and leave the Swiss and Hondurans behind as expected. Spain win the group and will play Portugal, avoiding the Brazilians who will match rivals Chile instead. It’s a mutually beneficial result it seems, advancing is the desired outcome, but the match was far more taxing than expected. The match was even right from the start. Spain looked [...]

Saturday saw the final day of the 42 week Spanish Segunda Division season come to a close with drama at both the top and the bottom at the table. In the end, Hercules got the job done in Irun taking down Real Union 0-2 giving Esteban Vigo the distinction of leading two different clubs in two straight season to promotion. Last year he accomplished that feat with Xerez. The loss for the Basque side dropped them down to the Segunda [...]

If I could have gotten away with it, I would have used the Spanish term despellejar, which literally means to peel away the skin from an object, and frankly that’s what’s happening to a once proud club like Valencia. It’s not just selling David Villa to Barcelona either. You sell players when they are on their last big contract, at an age when Arsene Wenger himself would have sold Villa if they had bought his contract 3 years ago as [...]

Spain “must take advantage of our chances”, says David Villa, in their make-or-break World Cup clash with Chile in Pretoria. The Spaniards will play against their colonial rivals at 20:30 local time later today to decide the winner of Group H.  Opponents Chile are group leaders with six points and require only the draw to advance. For Villa and teammates it’s a different story, being a must win encounter for La Roja. Spain are currently tied on three points with [...]

Marca.comSpain: Del Bosque: confesses to Marca 24 hours before his ‘finale’. “I am better than ever”, he says. Luis Aragonés’s criticisms don’t bother him. “There are doubters who feel that I am annoyed and have fallen out with half the world. But the reality is that I find myself tranquil, serene and relaxed.” I’m still not impressed with Del Bosque. I think Aragonés has a point, that Spain don’t have “enough conviction to go and seize the game from the [...]