La Liga’s Good Day, Bad Day - Round 4
Thursday 24 September 2009 12:35
(...with apologies to Sporting and Zaragoza who play on Thursday night)
New! Spanish results (and fixtures, and table)
GOOD DAY
Sevilla
A third win in a row for Sevilla means it’s Manolo Jiménez’s side who are perched at the top of la Primera B (the competitive one) after their 2-0 win over visiting Mallorca.
However, the Sevilla coach has taken with the latest managerial fashion in Spain, started by Pep Guardiola, by claiming his side were a bit pants despite the win.
“After 30 minutes it all looked really good, but then we played terribly,” complained Jiménez.
In any other season aside from this sham of a campaign, then Sevilla could have been real contenders. Instead, they are current front runners in the handicap chase for third.
Barcelona, Real Madrid
Two away games, two wins.
Cristiano Ronaldo
This really isn’t looking good at all for the blog’s already fragile mental ‘wellness’ - and the punishments the blog has invented in its dark, sick mind for the person who invented that word.
Just four rounds into the new season and La Liga Loca simply canna take Cristiano Ronaldo no more. Not the footballer himself - the blog is a bit of fan of the Portuguese ponce - but of the daily adulation towards Madrid’s new mega-god in the local press.
Every frackin’ morning, it’s his stupid face staring out from the covers of Marca and AS with a story that the forward has scored, is scoring or is about to score. And that’s not to mention the billboards, metro ads, magazine photos....
Or indeed the gibberish spouted by the likes of Tomás Roncero, who has responded to “Cristiano Superstar’s” five league goals in four games by calling on France Football to give him the Ballon d’Or because “Messi has made it clear with his recent matches for Argentina that he is fallible.” And things have gone oh so swimmingly for the Real Madrid man with Portugal.
Mark the blog’s words, if Ronaldo doesn’t suffer from a knee-knacking, season-ending injury in the course of the next month then La Liga Loca is going to have to pour acid into its eyes, Let The Right One In-style. Tough times call for tough measures.
Deportivo
All last year, La Liga Loca was groaning and moaning that all Deportivo seemed to do was to get results to ensure they stayed in seventh. And how bad this was for the state of the Spanish game.
Wednesday night’s 0-3 over Xerez has left the Galician side in... seventh. Oh dear.
Espanyol
A first victory for Espanyol in their new stadium, but more importantly their winning goal by Iván Alonso came on the same evening that Dani Jarque’s daughter, Martina, was born.
Here’s Paul from Barcelona to tell us about the match.
“A welcome three points against a limited team. A few things I learned last night.
1) Málaga had away support. In the midweek. About 100-150 of them. Who knew? My cap is doffed.
2) The standard of refereeing hit a new low last night. This bloke was the Messi/Kaká of bad refs. I don't expect eyes in the back of the head but some at the front might be useful. And one linesman didn't know the rules of football.
3) Espanyol are getting stronger week by week, played quite well last night, and the fitness looked good. The new pitch held up well. No bobbles and it didn't cut up.
4) Málaga were poor. No point playing two wide men if there's no-one in the middle to cross to. They commit an awful lot of fouls, too, and the right-back should expect a nomination come Oscars time.
Xerez at home on Sunday and in previous years I'd have said welcome to your first goal/point(s) Xerez. But this new-look team has something about them.”
–– Paul, Barcelona
Jorge Galán
The debut-making Osasuna youngster had only been on the pitch 29 seconds before scoring his side’s winner against Valladolid in the 72nd minute to give the Navarran club their first victory of the season.
But even more curiously, there were two red cards in the game, neither of them for Osasuna.
Tenerife
Beware the 10,000-mile, eight-day trip faced by anyone travelling to or leaving from Tenerife. The Canaries side beat Athletic Bilbao to make it two home wins from two in la Primera this season. Pity Tenerife have failed to manage a point or even a goal on their travels.
Getafe
La Liga Loca was more than a little concerned to see that striker Roberto Soldado had been left on the Coliseum bench against Valencia, feeling “molested” as the Spanish would say.
But good old Manu del Moral popped up with two, along with a free-kick stunner from Pedro León to give the mighty Getafe all three points against Valencia.
BAD DAY
Atlético Madrid
Oh, this just keeps getting better. The Almería match, like APOEL in the Champions League the previous week, should have been the perfect opportunity for the Rojiblancos to pick up a rousing home victory to kick start their campaign, get the season underway, etc.
Instead Atleti missed a penalty, went 1-0 down, equalised, took the lead, blew it in the last minute and very nearly lost the match in injury time.
“It could have been a lot worse,” noted Marca of the single point picked up against Almería, doubling the side’s tally for the season.
From watching the Calderón club’s matches in this sorriest of starts to the season, it appears as if every member of the back four is as high as a kite and consistently the second to react to any danger heading towards their box.
Combined with an out-of-sorts Diego Forlán, a waste-of-space Maxi and an injured Kun Agüero, this means that the team is in terrible shape and facing a torturous Saturday night at the Mestalla.
Racing Santander
It was a no-win situation for Racing Santander manager Juan Carlos Mandía. A full-on assault on Barcelona on Tuesday night would have lead to an inevitable crushing defeat and critics from a picky press.
So the coach went for a more conservative and defensive option against Pep’s Dream Boys - which lead to an inevitable, crushing defeat and critics from a picky press.
“When you play Barcelona they make you feel smaller than you are in reality,” sighed Mandía, ducking his head to avoid the local press accusations of being a big old yellow-belly.
Valencia
When Valencia get going, as they did for 20 minutes on Wednesday night against Getafe, they are a ferocious force of nature and as good as anyone else in la Liga. Their brilliant, fancy-pants effort against the Coliseum club is proof-positive.
The trouble is that 20 minutes is all you get these days from the lazy-arsed Mestalla men. In the space of a week, Valencia have taken leads in their three games against Lille, Sporting and Getafe, gone “meeehhh” and blown them all.
“Where is the pride and sport of these millionaires?” complained AS columnist Pedro Morata after watching Valencia take the lead, lose it seconds later, give up and go down 3-1.
Villarreal
A painful sight indeed, to see Villarreal third from bottom with just two points...
Xerez
...but a wholly expected one to see Xerez two places below them, still without a point and still without a win in la Liga after a 3-0 home thrashing by Deportivo.
---------------------------------------------
FourFourTwo.com: More to read...
La Liga Loca home
Blogs home
Latest Spain news
News home
Interviews home
Forums home
FourFourTwo.com home
or
to add your comments
About Tim Stannard
La Liga Loca is the playground for the evil, more childish half of Tim Stannard’s psyche to be let loose. The other 50% is a contributor to FourFourTwo magazine, Football365, Sabotage Times as well as other publications such as UEFA Champions Magazine and When Saturday Comes. He is also a regular guest on Real Madrid TV’s Extra Time show and works as a TV producer extraordinaire for hire. To contact Tim directly email laligaloca@yahoo.co.uk