Monday's Good Day, Bad Day - Round 12
Monday 24 November 2008 10:00
GOOD DAY
Valladolid
Whilst some clubs have battened down the hatches and adopted the foetal position during the Sevilla-Barça-Madrid-Villarreal death race, Valladolid decided to seize the day, dangle their footballing tackle in the air and having a pop at their supposedly superior Primera rivals.
And this bravery has brought about nine points from a possible 12, with the out-of-character thrashing by Barcelona blotting their copybook of pluck.
José Antonio Camacho
Perhaps the highlight of Osasuna’s first win of the season was the sight of José Antonio Camacho’s head shooting from side to side in the press conference like Maniche being forced to chose between a pasty and a hot-cross-bun.
Not only had the club’s second coach of the season lifted Osasuna off the bottom of the table, but the red-faced, veiny old veteran had seen his side double their number of goals scored with the 3-1 win over Almería.
"Yoo-hooooo! Manii-iiiche!"
Getafe
It would need to be a particularly brave, insightful, witty, cultured and good looking pundit to have predicted Getafe to take a point out of Barcelona at the Camp Nou on Sunday. But that’s what La Liga Loca did. The fact that the blog probably got every other prediction wrong is by-the-by.
Pep Guardiola said that his spidey-sense was tingling ahead of this match, and he was right as his Dream Boys met their midfield match in the mighty Getafe. Perhaps the stand-out star for the visitors was the thuggishly brilliant Eugen Polanski, who certainly let Xavi’s ankles and knees know he was there by following him around the pitch for 90 minutes. Booooo to Marca for giving the Polish midfielder just one point for his performance on Sunday night. But hooraaaaay for AS for awarding him three.
May those Getafe fans who jeered their side last weekend hang their heads in shame.
Emana
It is still far too early to brand Betis as ‘good.’ It simply isn’t in La Liga Loca’s DNA to go so far, so early. But it is willing to admit that they are ‘half-decent’ after five wins in the last six. And the blog is very much enjoying the midfield stylings of Emana, who joined over the summer from Toulouse and looks like being another fine addition to the squad.
Real Madrid
When Ramón Calderón sacked Fabio Capello he promised thrilling, sexy football. To borrow the words of the late great Leo McGarry from The West Wing, “Where’s my jet-pack?”
There is only one word that can truly describe Saturday night’s display against Recreativo: crap. But it was still a good day for Bernd Schuster's side.
Tomás Roncero writes in Monday’s AS that Madrid picked up 12 points this weekend. And for once, the loveable loon wasn’t wrong. The three won against Recre, added to the nine dropped by Sevilla, Valencia, Villarreal and Barcelona has lifted Real into second, just three points behind the league leaders.
How that happened, La Liga Loca is at a complete loss to explain.
Jonathan Pereira
Apparently, the Racing Santander striker scored a brilliant, mazy run of an effort in the 3-0 win over Espanyol. But as the match cameras only appear to have picked up the final three seconds of it, the blog is looking for one of La Liga Loca’s eagle-eyed readers who may have seen the whole affair to write in with a full account of the glorious goal.
Pereira: Have you seen this man score?
BAD DAY
Atlético Madrid
Oh dear. Just seconds away from an apparently undeserved win away at Numancia and the referee gives an injury-time penalty against the rojiblancos – in a repeat of the games against Real Madrid and Liverpool. The ever-honest Javier Aguirre claims the draw was the fair result but La Liga Loca feels that his side were a little hard done by with the penalty decision, which came from two players both going for a high ball in the area – an apparently illegal act in the Spanish game these days.
In fact, it was a similar situation to the one awarded to Athletic in the clash against Deportivo – but justice was done when the subsequent penalty was missed. Atlético, as ever, were not so fortunate in their clash.
Barcelona
La Liga Loca was more than a little surprised to see the headline “a team of heroes” splashed across the front cover of Sport on Monday morning. As it turned out, it was referring to Spain’s Davis Cup victory in the game for ladies known as tennis. However, the blog suspects the banner was to be used for Barcelona, but the bone-idle editors simply swapped the photos around when the referee blew the final whistle on the Camp Nou encounter against Getafe.
Whilst everyone from Mundo Deportivo to Marca are reeling out the ‘Messi dependency' line, the more simplistic La Liga Loca opines that Barça had more than enough chances to win the game, but it simply wasn’t their day. As Brian Clough once sang, “You can’t win ‘em all.”
"Pass the mic, young man"
Villarreal
Facing off against a bunch of short-sighted schoolgirls would be hard enough for any side with Guille Franco leading the line and Pascal Cygan in the back four.
But taking on a confidence-oozing Valladolid is simply too much for anyone to handle. And this lead to Villarreal’s first defeat of the season.
Espanyol
At a loss for words as you try to work out how a team that can more than give Madrid and Barcelona a game, be so rubbish for every other game? So is Paul from Barcelona.
“God, we were awful. Nothing positive at all.” -- Paul, Barcelona
Recreativo
Osasuna’s win sees poor old Recre at the bottom of the table, with just one win all season.
However, they have more than held their own against Sevilla, Barcelona and Real Madrid meaning that there may be a glimmer of hope of them surviving under Lucas Alcaraz.
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About Tim Stannard and Simon Talbot
When he isn't fighting the evil forces of flamenco or attracting libel actions for La Liga Loca,
Tim Stannard is building his media empire in Madrid. As well as contributing to Football365 and doing odd jobs elsewhere, Tim also works in the glamorous world of television as a producer, script writer, news editor, coffee boy and stand-in fluffer.
Simon Talbot? Well, he's a man of mystery.