La Liga Talk: Que Mal Que Marca El Madrid

Okay, new post format here. I just started writing for La Liga Talk and posted this over there about Real Madrid’s 3-0 win against Espanyol this weekend. Go read. Now.

Que Mal Que Marca El Madrid

And here are the match highlights:

Hala Madrid!

Lots of busy-ness going on in my world, revolving around the potential purchase of a house, so I’m falling behind on my game watching and blog writing. I am aware of all the goings on, from the Lakers’ second consecutive loss to Real Madrid’s closing in on Barcelona, but I haven’t been able to watch all the happenings or write them up yet. GolTV isn’t helping either, as they keep screwing up their scheduled broadcasts of the Real Madrid-Espanyol game so I can’t watch it. During the live broadcast, it randomly switched to a different show just before halftime. Then at the next replay I could find, they showed the Sevilla game instead. So now I’m waiting another 24 hours to catch the NEXT replay which I’m praying they actually play in its entirety. Is it too much to hope?

So bear with me as I get back around to my regularly scheduled writing program and keep your fingers crossed for my housing situation. If GolTV cooperates, I’ll get up the Primera Liga and NBA stuff by tonight, tomorrow at the latest.

Madrid Gains More Ground

Barcelona 1-2 Espanyol

• 0-1 De La Peña, 50′
• 0-2 De La Peña, 54′
• 1-2 Toure, 62′

Real Madrid 6-1 Real Betis

• 1-0 Higuain, 7′
• 2-0 Huntelaar, 15′
• 3-0 Huntelaar, 24′
• 3-1 Oliveira, 30′
• 4-1 Raul, 36′
• 5-1 Raul, 42′
• 6-1 Sergio Ramos, 45′

In a seemingly improbable turn of events, Barcelona suffered just their second loss of the season to bottom-of-the-table Espanyol in the Catalan derby, while Madrid rolled to a 6-1 victory by halftime against Betis at the Bernabeu. The result was a three-point swing and a reduction of the point gap at the top to just seven. It seems like just yesterday the lead was double digits and comfortably in Barcelona’s palms. Oh wait, that was yesterday…

Derby games are always going to have plenty of intensity, but Barça had a particularly tough time of it against Espanyol, even at the Camp Nou. Things started promisingly enough for the blaugrana, with Barcelona controlling possession and creating a number of good chances, a couple of which were just begging to be finished off. But Espanyol were able to hang on and make to halftime with the score level.

The first half started all wrong for Barça and continued that way, as Keita picked up a straight red card on an iffy decision by the referee. It was clearly a reckless challenge, most likely a yellow, but the red seemed a little harsh. It wasn’t two-footed and he didn’t come in exceptionally late, either. From that moment on – and well before it, really – it was a slugfest. “Chippy” doesn’t even hint at the back-and-forth that went on. For the most part it was calmly managed by the ref, but you could argue that he failed to get it fully under control fast enough. And I’m sure the Barcelona fans would say he made a number of questionable calls that went against the home side. Whatever the case, going down a man was a real blow to Barça, who had mostly controlled the game up to that point. With the man advantage, Betis finally got their act together and started counterattacking with conviction. On 50 minutes, Nene secured the ball, kept it away from two defenders, and found De La Peña with a cross, and the little Buddha headed it home past a scurrying Valdes. Valdes was personally responsible for the second goal, which happened when he horribly flubbed a pass to Pique, sending it directly to De La Peña instead. As expected, DLP immediately put it away, chipping it over Valdes who was caught (or rather, caught himself) in no-man’s land. 

Yaya pulled one back for Barça on a gorgeous one-touch strike in the 62nd, and they looked likely to level the match multiple times after that. But that second goal just never materialized, and they lost their first match since the season opener against Numancia, leaving the door open for Real Madrid to storm through in their match.

That game was just an old-fashioned romp over an inferior opponent. It definitely helped that Betis were spent after putting everything into their draw with Barcelona the previous week, but Real was always going to win this one. Once again the defense was solid – if not as iron-clad as in games past, conceding a goal – and the offense roamed freely. When you put in six goals in the first half, you know you have it working, and the rest of the match was just about saving face for Betis. Higuain opened the scoring after Raul won a tough header and sent it in Gonzalo’s direction. All that was left was for Higuain to slyly round the keeper and slot it home. Raul got the brace for a second straight game, and Huntelaar scored two as well, finally getting his first since signing with the club. Ramos closed out the half with a diving header off Heinze’s free kick to make it 6-1. At one point, Oliveira closed the gap to 3-1 when the Madrid defense left him in way too much space just outside the box and he burned them on a rocket from distance. He had a chance to make it 3-2 a while later when Casillas went all Valdes on us and sent a perfectly weighted pass in the Brazilian’s direction. Oliveiras wasn’t able to put his shot on target, though, and he ended up hitting the post for Betis’ last real goal-scoring opportunity. 

For as divergent as their destinies seemed during the first half of the season, Real Madrid and Barcelona’s fates seem inextricably linked once again. It’s no surprise that Real have the only team capable of competing in the long-term with Barcelona. What is surprising is how quickly they have transformed themselves into real contenders, with plenty of help from a Barcelona team that looks, dare I say it, human. As a Lakers fan, I know how inevitable it is that great teams will go through slumps at some point during a long season, and one draw and one loss hardly qualify as panic-worthy results, but it was entirely predictable that they would have to come back down to earth at some point. The key will be how well and how quickly they can rebound from their mini-slide, and how long Madrid can continue their blazing run of form. Because when all is said and done, the title is Barça’s to lose, and even if Real play perfectly the rest of the way, they need Barcelona to drop points to have a chance. I have a hard time believing that Pep Guardiola’s team, as well coached and disciplined as they have been this season, will stumble enough to gift the title to its main rival. It at least makes for interesting viewing, since the leaders must think about the reigning champions nipping at their heels. Unlike Serie A and the Premier League, both of which look as good as decided (although good luck to Liverpool, just in case), La Liga could have a feisty finish on its hands. I sure hope so.

Real Madrid-Real Betis highlights, to some lovely musical accompaniment:

Barcelona-Espanyol highlights:

Real Madrid 2 – 2 Espanyol

It’s been a mildly disappointing start to the season for Los Merengues, at least from where I sit. Sure, they’re fifth in the table and trailing the leaders by just three points, but the five points lost were all within grasp. The roster has been thinner than expected thanks to injuries – and now with a new knock to Arjen Robben – so maybe this bodes well for the rest of the season when they can get back to full strength, but for now things look sort of bleh. Then again, the soccer season is as long as any other out there, with the exception of the tantric routine that the MLB puts on, so no red flags just yet. They could still do to shore up the defense, though.

As for this game, it was a strange match of defensive blunders and agonizing misses, and in the end the draw was probably deserved. Espanyol struck first when Raul Tamudo was brought down in the box by the ever dependable (please note the sarcasm here) Gabriel Heinze, whose foul was an attempt to make up for some poor marking. Tamudo put it away cleverly and Espanyol were up 0-1. Raul wasted no time in bring Real back, though, and a couple minutes later he sent a brilliant header into the back of the net off a cross from Sergio Ramos in the 25th minute. Not much later and Espanyol had regained the lead when Roman Martinez drilled a low ball into the area and Luis Garcia slid it home. Real finished off the goal scoring at the end of the first half after another Sergio Ramos cross and some back-and-forth between the captain and Van der Vaart. This was another good strike by Raul, and it was the end of the scoring for the night. The second half saw a couple nice saves by Kameni to keep the game on level terms, and Wesley Sneijder made his first appearance since the preseason knee injury that has kept him out of action for weeks. I suppose that was at least a good sign for Madrid.

Here are the goals and highlights:

Espanyol 1 – 2 Barcelona

This was another one with this scoreline that went down to the wire. Espanyol grabbed an early lead when Coro scored in the 20th minute off a spilled ball from Valdes, who had a pretty good case for being impeded despite the no-call. Barca absolutely dominated possession the whole way through (especially after Espanyol’s Nene was sent off in the 45th minute) but were unable to come up with an equalizer until the 84th minute, when Thierry Henry initially lost then retrieved a great long ball by Xavi. The rest of the game was played fast and furious by Barcelona, who had seemingly interminable opportunities go wayward. Finally, well into stoppage time (which was screwy after some fan disturbances temporarily postponed the match in the second half), Eto’o went down in the area and was awarded a penalty against Pareja. Messi casually put it away, and Barca went away with all three points, somewhat surprisingly. It was a controversial call, to be sure, especially in this Catalan derby, the last such match to be played in Espanyol’s Estadio Montjuic.

Saturday La Liga Results

Atletico Madrid 4 – 0 Recreativo Huelva

• Atletico continue to look blazing, and Aguero is becoming everything they could have hoped for. He put in the first goal off a corner kick. I’m still not sure how you can lose him in the box (even though he’s not the tallest guy out there, come on), but he got a free header and scored handily. El Kun had a goal mysteriously disallowed a short while later, but there was a phantom call that ruled out his lofted header from a long throw by Sinama-Pongolle. Maniche netted the second goal in the 53rd minute, squeezing one through the penalty area and past Riesgo, and Sinama-Pongolle got the final two in the 78th and 88th minutes.

Espanyol 1 – 1 Getafe

• Pretty uneventful match. Getafe scored first off a Manu penalty kick, and Espanyol’s Sergio Sanchez scored the equalizer in the 57th minute. Espanyol still sit atop the table with seven points awaiting tomorrow’s results.