I know I’m focusing a lot on La Liga lately, but I’m finding the EPL harder and harder to pay attention to as there are now 9 points between the leaders and the 2nd placed team (Chelsea do have a game in hand), Aston Villa haven’t played for what feels like 6 months, and the Carling Cup final is dominating the headlines. It’s the Carling Cup, for Pele’s sake! It’s the Intertoto of England! Who cares!? Arsenal started what amounts to a junior varsity team and Chelsea, well, they won and Chelsea winning always sucks, but they had to field a starting 11 to do it. Great job, guys, you beat up on the little kids. Enjoy your only trophy of the year! And I hope John Terry is fine, which he appears to be.
Drogba, for his part, scored both of Chelsea’s goals and won the African Footballer of the Year award. I’m not sure they’re directly related, but whatever, Drogba deserves it, even if he is quite a bit of a jerkoff on the field. He has talent, I can’t deny it. 116th Street has a good discussion of what it’s like to realize that.
InterMilan finally didn’t win (gasp!) in Serie A and it was really about time. F-ing Inter. Serie A is usually entertaining in that you’re not sure if Juventus or Milan are going to win it, but this season…sheesh, boring. (I hope my sarcasm doesn’t drip onto the next paragraph…)
And now to La Liga where things remain tight while the press is trying to hand the league trophy to someone else every 15 seconds. First it was Barcelona that were floundering, falling asunder, in a crisis, and now out of it, flying high, watching as the pedestrian teams like Sevilla and Madrid flounder 2 and 6 points beneath them. But woe is Madrid as they’ve slipped to 4th on goal differential, falling behind basement-dwellers Valencia, who themselves were considered the greatest team of all time after their 2-1 beating of Barcelona. (Sorry, there’s the sarcasm again).
The scores from last weekend were somewhat surprising, of course, but I don’t read that much into it. Saturday was witness to the first “surprise,” the Madrid derby, which ended 1-1 after goals by Torres and Higuain. It was Torres’ first goal against his cross-town rivals after something like 3 decades of trying and Higuain’s first goal in a Real Madrid jersey. Cannavaro picked up a red card during the game (two yellow cards), which probably endeared him to the Real supporters, but of course, he’ll still have to serve a suspension, though I don’t think it’ll keep him from playing in El Clasico, a game whose hype has already begun.
On Sunday, Valencia drew 1-1 away to last-placed Nastic and Getafe and Sevilla fired blanks at each other, causing the press to go apeshit immediately following the final whistle of Barcelona’s 3-0 pasting of 18th placed Bilbao. Barcelona are set to be champions! Who can stop them now? Oh me oh my! And after Barcelona held off Zaragoza in the Copa del Rey 1-2 (2-2 on aggregate, advancing on away goals), the press refused to say anything as their were too busy gorging themselves on Frank Rijkaard’s…well you get the point.
So the absurdly uninteresting Primera División sits with the top 2 basically on top of each other, 3 and 4 tied on points 4 behind number 2, all while Atletico and Zaragoza sit within striking distance of Champions League spots, assuming of course that they don’t fall into a deep dark abyss of crisis by drawing with another team. Oops, Zaragoza drew and lost this week!
Disturbing trends from La Liga as violence seems to be rising. I don’t want to be a sensationalist, of course, but Sevilla coach Juande Ramos was knocked unconscious by a bottle hurled from the stands during the Copa del Rey game between Betis and Sevilla. Sure, they’re city rivals, but Barcelona keeper Jorquera was also hit by a bottle in Zaragoza as the final whistle blew. And there was crowd trouble at the Madrid derby, which is basically like saying the sun rose. Anyway, I hope Juande gets better quickly and that people stop being such retards when it comes to sports. Obviously I’m a big fan, obviously I love the competition, I hate certain teams with a passion, but when they are beating me 0-1 in league cup game, I don’t smash their heads in. I don’t even try to hurt them at all, in fact, because sports are about community, art, beauty, passion, sharing; not killing. I hope UEFA/FIFA stuffs a whole shovel full of stadium ban down their throats.
A closer look at Sevilla-Barça tomorrow on The Barcelona Offside and Fulham – Aston Villa on For Club and Country. Next week right here, a look at the Champions League as a whole as well as a look at some of the other leagues around Europe.
