La Liga Weekly

So the Segunda season is off and running which is great to see… That is, if you actually have the ability to see it. Unfortunately the suits at MediaPro like to make life incredibly difficult for us Segunda nuts who don’t live in Spain and not make video highlights accessible. Yeah, why would you ever want to market one of your products like that. Anyways, if you are resourceful enough there are methods to find video clips of most of [...]

Ten days ago I had written up an intro to the Segunda season bemoaning the fact that it was starting up so early and wondering if anyone was going to give up a slice of their August vacation to take in the games. That was all before the players’ strike that resulted in week one of both the Primera and Segunda seasons getting postponed. Alas, Spanish futbol will start the final weekend in August… just like it always does so [...]

This past weekend’s strike in the Primera and Segunda was a downer for many. I would lump myself in that category as well because it meant missing several juicy encounters like Malaga-Barcelona, Betis-Sevilla and all the Segunda week one fixtures. Fortunately, our friends in the Segunda B (and lower) were ‘exempted’ from the strike and carried on business as usual. All four Segunda B groups kicked off their seasons so let’s have a look at some more of the notable [...]

When Spaniard Luis Enrique was announced as AS Roma coach, in attempt to bring a different style more in tune with what the Asturian had been operating under as Barcelona B manager, my first reaction was skepticism. I couldn´t believe the rumor that the club would change that much philosophically from what Claudio Ranieri had imposed on them after Luciano Spaletti left for Russia. I certainly couldn’t believe that the club would entrust the job of rebuilding the giallorossi to [...]

The magical, the majestic, the down right and dirty ending, what can it be? Well a grand-daddy of the them all, El Clasico supreme with Spanish Supercopa and a Mourinho boxing finale. Mark and Isaiah return for our latest panel discussion on pre-season fun with Barcelona-Real Madrid second leg action in the thunderdome of Camp Nou. People of Interest, Lionel Messi, Jose Mourinho, Mesut Ozil, Cesc Fàbregas and Marcelo the hip bender. give us a listen and leave your comments [...]

In the biggest match in world football you expect many things to happen, some good, some great and some unwanted. However the racist abuse that rained down on Wednesday night at the Nou Camp was something far beyond simple accusations of bent refs and diving footballers. No it wasn’t all 90,000 people within the stadium directing vile racist hate towards the black players on the pitch, but there was a large enough element of the support doing it that it [...]

Before reading this, I´d just like you to march on over to The Guardian´s Blog here and read Jonathan Wilson´s analysis on the question of whether or not Spain´s dominance of world football is sustainable. On the surface it´s a moot point. Despite losing to Brasil´s U-20 squad in Colombia this week, Spain has offered up unparallelled success on all levels. The U-19´s and U-21´s are European Champions and the adult side is well-known for the achievements. The question isn´t [...]

Don´t get too comfortable. We don´t do dry Game recaps here. For that try and follow my tweets if you can find me or, I don´t know, maybe watch the match, there are plenty of illegal feeds for you  to find speaking Arabic or Romanian and screaming Messssssiiii every three minutes. Barcelona beat Real Madrid 3-2 in what could only be described as 88 minutes or so of the most entertaining and suspenseful football imaginable, and yet at the death [...]

Barcelona will win the league table, Real Madrid will cry about it and Malaga will finish in the top four. This is just one of the possible outcomes at the end of the 2011/12 season and would seem one that is very plausible and even likely considering the current state of Spanish football. Certainly how far Malaga can go with their new team and Qatari owners will be one of the most interesting stories in European football this season. As [...]

We continue our series of Segunda interviews with another veteran of the Liga Adelante, Gimnastic de Tarragona defender Mingo. Largely known for the exceptionally long braided ponytail that he waers down the backside of his jersey, Mingo has spent many a season playing in Spain. He joined the Catalan side the last time it was in the Primera, back in 2006-2007. Mingo is a native of Catalunya himself having played his youth futbol at Barcelona along side the likes of Albert Celades [...]

Reader James Gallagher brought up a really good point the other day on Twitter (ahem, @ArchBell) about how the teams in the English Championship who qualify for playoffs, yet don’t win promotion, then experience a letdown the following season. In the wake of last year’s Spanish Segunda playoffs, I thought it warranted the research as to whether not not this was entirely true. As it turns out, Senor Celta Mr. Gallagher was spot on if we go back and study the last five years [...]

League winners Real Madrid face FC Barcelona tomorrow in the first real action of the 2011-2012 season. It´s the equivalent of the Community Shield match that they play in England except without as much fanfare, but because this is Barça versus Real Madrid or more importantly José Mourinho versus the whole of Catalunya, then there´s more than that extra bit of morbo flying around. It´s a two-legged affair, first at the Santiago Bernabéu and then at the Camp Nou, and [...]