La Liga’s Good Day, Bad Day - Round 11
Monday 23 November 2009 11:00
Good Day
La Liga Loca
There was no hot date with Sara Carbonero this week. Well, there was, but that’s a story for our grandkids.
Instead, it’s a very, very, very good - nay, exquisite - day for La Liga Loca after it correctly predicted NINE out of 10 of this weekend’s Primera matches. That’s NINE out of 10.
Not only does that trigger the €1,000 bonus promised by the FourFourTwo bigwigs in the blog’s signed-in-blood contract (Eh?! - paperwork-ruffling Ed.), but it also means that all comments under the blog this week MUST be of a suitably deferential, overawed, we’re not worthy, toadying tone.
Xerez
If you told a Xerez fan before the start of the season that after 11 games, their club would be equal on points with Atlético Madrid having conceded eight fewer goals, they’d have been as happy as Maniche munching through a mountain of muffins.
As long as you’d missed out the part about being second from bottom of the table and having only managed three goals.
Málaga, Zaragoza
The point gained in the 1-1 draw from Sunday evening didn’t really do either side any good, to be fair.
But you know that any half of football that had seven minutes of stoppage time without there being a serious injury had to have been top-class adult entertainment.
And that’s precisely what happened in the second part of what turned into a fantastic feisty duel between these two teams with red cards, face-clutching histrionics, outrageous diving and a stack of pushing and shoving thrown in for good measure.
Real Madrid
“More of the same at the Bernabeu,” complained Sunday’s Marca in a theme continued the next day with Roberto Palomar sighing that “being the leaders doesn’t bring happiness.”
Sunday’s front page of AS lambasted Madrid’s 1-0 win over Racing for being boring, while Juanma Trueba complained that “if there is a plan, then it’s not making itself clear. No player is playing to their talent.”
La Liga Loca’s message is for all these Madridista men to get over it and enjoy the fact that Real Madrid continue to play like dogs but are now top of the table.
Imagine what it will be like for the Castle Greyskull club when things start to click into place.
Javi Casquero
Stupid Getafe ruined La Liga Loca’s chance for a perfect prediction sweep with a win at Espanyol, but it meant that their previously benched midfielder got to spend Sunday in a happier mood than normal.
Casquero had been left out in the cold for much of the season by Michel, but returned to the starting line-up and opened the scoring for the Coliseum club in the 2-0 win.
Andrés Guardado
With his Slash-style poodle perm flapping in the Galician wind, Depor’s Mexican midfielder had the responsibility of putting away his side’s penalty in the sixth minute of injury time in Saturday’s clash against Atlético.
And he did not fail, keeping Deportivo in a remarkable fifth place.
Mallorca
Technically, La Liga Loca could throw Mallorca into the 'Bad Day' section for clumsily conceding ANOTHER goal at home this season - their second, in fact.
But the 3-1 win over Almería and two cracking strikes from right midfielder Gonzalo Castro sees the Balearic champs with six from six in the Ono Estadi and, suitably enough, in sixth place.
“Those were three vital points for our survival,” droned Gregorio Manzano, failing to get as excited as La Liga Loca over Mallorca’s Primera prowess so far this season.
Sevilla
Both Marca and AS spent much of their Saturday previews being all with the Harry Redknapp and banging on about Sevilla’s "stretched to breaking point", "down to the bare bones" squad.
La Liga’s third-placed side still started with Freddie Kanouté and Luis Fabiano backed up by Jesus Navas and Perotti, so it was hardly doom and gloom for the Andalusian side.
And so it proved with a handy 2-1 away win in Tenerife.
Valencia’s old fogies
David Albeda and Carlos Marchena popped up out of semi-retirement on Sunday with two cracking goals in Valencia’s 3-1 win over Osasuna.
The Mestalla men have now racked up five away wins in six, meaning that they like Sevilla are in a fine position to lap up the entrails and gulp down the placenta from next Sunday's clash between Barça and Madrid.
Nilmar
A slow start in Spain from the Brazilian striker, but Villarreal’s most expensive signing is now beginning to come good with two goals in his team’s 3-1 win over Almería.
Bad Day
Atlético Madrid
During some of Atlético’s recent defeats, the side really hasn’t been trying hard enough in the ridicule stakes.
The late rally against Real Madrid never really undid the damage of waiting until the sixth minute to concede, rather than the normal first in their capital clashes.
Round nine’s 1-0 loss to Athletic was desperately eventful and in stark comparison to the last-minute own goal that threw away two points against Mallorca the previous week.
But Atlético were back with a bang on Saturday, the Rojiblancos clinging on to a point against Deportivo - before Pablo needlessly clattered into Lopo in injury time.
“It was unnecessary, it was mad, it was painful, but it was a penalty,” shrugged a beyond-caring Iñako Díaz-Guerra in AS.
Atlético are now tied on points with Xerez in the relegation zone, on their worst run for 56 years and suffering their worst start since that truly terrible side of 1673.
Diego Forlán, Kun Aguero
The former arrived in Madrid at 3pm on Friday after returning from Montevideo, was packed off to La Coruña by Quique just hours after, had to warm up for 45 minutes and was never used.
The latter had his manager’s hand clamped to his gob after the agitated Argentinian completely lost the plot when the last-gasp penalty was given against his side.
Espanyol
Not even the return of Raúl Tamudo could prevent Espanyol losing in Cornella el Prat for the second time in la Liga, this season.
Here’s a rather glum Paul from Barcelona to tell us what happened in the 2-0 defeat to Getafe.
“During the week I watched Stevenage Borough vs Port Vale in a FA Cup First Round replay. It had more skill and excitement than this rubbish.
Bobby Davro's Rock With Laughter was more entertaining.
"Wigan played better today than both teams. Nothing of note to report except that Getafe's second goal in the 93 minute was well-worked.
1) 40 away fans. Hats off to the bloke who stood up and applauded during the 21st-minute tribute to Dani Jarque. A class act, sir.
2) Soldado played here twice in 10 days and how he didn't get sent off twice is beyond me.
3) All those Burger King puns I had don't deserve an airing, although not due to the lack of quality on my part.
4) Did I mention that this match was cr*p ?”
Paul, Barcelona
Pep Guardiola
Saturday night in Bilbao saw Pep in a silver shiny suit paired with a full Brian Blessed beard.
Did La Liga Loca miss the “Pep joining the Bee Gees” press release?
For those expecting to see Barcelona join their manager on this side of the blog, the point in San Mamés was neither good nor bad.
La Liga Loca has a sneaky feeling that the Catalan club is about to pull off an Inter-Madrid double spanking.
Tenerife
There were boos galore when Sevilla’s second flew in on Saturday night.
But José Luis Oltra, the under-pressure manager of 16th-placed Tenerife, was doing everything he could to keep both his fans and footballers on side with his post-match declaration that “I give my players 10 points and the fans 11.”
*You can catch an impossibly smug La Liga Loca bragging about his prediction prowess on RMTV Gabfest, Extra Time, Sky Digital 446, at 19.05 UK time and repeated throughout the week.
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About Tim Stannard
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.