With only minutes left Real Sociedad and Celta Vigo are heading down. Real Betis leads Racing Santander 1-0 courtesy of an 80th minute Edu goal. Athletic Bilbao is leading Levante 2-0. If both these scores hold up then Celta Vigo (leading Getafe 2-1) and Real Sociedad (down 3-2 to Valencia) cannot avoid relegation.
Matt Scott says that the Stevens’ Inquiry has produced evidence of financial irregularities in a number of player transfers.
After Jurgen Klinsmann opted to move on some expected the German rival to wither. Not so according to Raphael Honigstein.
We have a weekend menu of La Liga, MLS and Gold Cup. Real Madrid can win La Liga for the first time since 2003 this weekend but if you are a bettor then the odds apparently are not too good that it will come to pass. The Spanish paper Marca has had someone calculate the odds of Real securing their 30th Spanish title with one week to go and it is apparently less than 10%.
Real Madrid travels to play fifth place Real Zaragoza who are trying to make sure that they hold on to a UEFA Cup spot. Zaragoza has only lost twice at home this season although Real Madrid has already won 11 times away this season. That is three games more than the next best – Atletico Madrid – while league challengers Barcelona has four fewer wins and nine less points.
What is surprising is that Real Madrid and Barcelona share the same goals for and against when away from home. Both teams have scored 32 and conceded 20 but the Madrid side has obviously rung more points out of their efforts.
Barcelona is still unbeaten at home this season – the only Spanish side that can boast of such a record – and plays Espanyol at the Nou Camp in a derby match-up. Despite efforts to have Ronaldinho’s red card against Getafe rescinded it is unlikely to succeed. Espanyol’s 3-1 win over Barca earlier in the season was their first in ten matches and only their second in the last 15 derby clashes. With Espanyol sitting comfortably in mid-table they have little incentive to bring their best game – except that is, to screw up their bitter local rivals!
With talk of a Real Madrid league championship in the offing it easy to forget that Sevilla’s treble dream is still on alive. However, should Real Madrid and/or Barcelona win this weekend it will have to move to life support. Sevilla plays Mallorca who will finish the season at the Bernabeu next weekend. A run of four straight wins in April and May banished any relegations fears for Mallorca but the last two games have brought to 1-0 losses.
Fears that manager Juande Ramos might be seduced by big money offers from foreign clubs has meant that Sevilla has stepped up attempts to sweeten the pot and to tie Ramos down with a longer-term contract.
At the butt-end of the table Celta Vigo (away to Atletico Madrid) and Real Sociedad (home to Racing Santander) are both in need of divine intervention in order to stay in the top flight. Both sit on 33 points and trail Athletic Bilbao (away to Villarreal) and Real Betis (home to Osasuna) by four points. Celta Vigo and Sociedad both need nothing less than a win and even then they could still be demoted this weekend.
The Chicago Fire broke a horrible five-goal winless stretch when they beat Columbus by the odd goal in five the last time out. They hope to build a winning streak when Chivas comes calling. Former Lazio, River Plate and Juventus striker Marcelo Salas has been training with the Fire this week but no word yet of a contract offer let alone acceptance. Chivas arrives in Chicago with a poor away record of a single point in four games. A couple of weeks ago Chivas coach Preki was bemoaning the lack of scoring from the midfield. With the strike pairing of Razov and Galindo contributing three quarters of Chivas’ goals to date it is an imbalance that has not yet been rectified.
New York Red Bulls snuck out of Toronto on Wednesday with three points after a smash-and-grab win over the FC. Any debate of about which big signing will make the biggest impact seems pointless at the present given that Colombian Juan Pablo Angel has now scored six goals in his first five games for the Bulls – including both markers against Toronto FC.
The Red Bulls are in the middle of a stretch of game that has them playing six of seven on the road and on Saturday they visit Washington to play DC United. It will be a homecoming of sorts for the Red Bulls coach Bruce Arena who spent the formative years of MLS building DC United into its most successful team. His team will face a side that appears to have recovered from a tentative start to the season and are now unbeaten in five games.
Both Canada and the USA came through their opening games with wins while Mexico plays Cuba on Friday evening in their opening match. Mexico will have European based players such as Pavel Pardo, Ricardo Osorio and Carlos Salcido. However, Barcelona has been able to hold on to Rafa Márquez until the end of the Spanish season. Mexico plays Honduras on Sunday and with Cagliari’s David Suazo and Genoa’s Julio César León in the line-up Honduras could have worried Mexico. But neither player is in the Honduran squad.
On Wednesday evening Canada started the Gold Cup with one of their finest performances in some time. A second half double from Deportivo La Coruna’s Julian de Guzman (his first goals for Canada) helped to overcome Costa Rica 2-1.
On Saturday they play Guadeloupe, a French protectorate that is not a full FIFA member and therefore ineligible for the World Cup. Jocelyn Angloma, who played 37 times for France, may now be 41-years-old but he is still has some magic left. Angloma was a fantastic right back and played for the likes of PSG, Marseilles, Inter Milan and Valencia during his time in Europe. He played in three Champions League finals as well as the 1992 and 1996 European Championships. Now he has slotted into a midfield role for Guadeloupe who surprisingly drew 1-1 with Caribbean Champions Haiti in their opening match.
The USA with three points in the pocket after a 1-0 win over Guatemala hope to make it six points when they face Trinidad and Tobago. However, anyone expecting to see the ####mp;T side from last summer’s World Cup will be largely disappointed. Only Densil Theobold from the World Cup squad remains as the others are locked in a bonus dispute with the ####mp;T Football Association and have been suspended.
It is the sort of situation that CONCACAF or FIFA should step into mediate but when Jack Warner’s hands are all over another messy situation we are more likely to get a straight answer at a Steve McClaren press conference.
For every cloud there is a silver lining and in the case of the Italian scandal you have to conclude that La Liga has been the greatest beneficiary. The strong have become even stronger.
If you believe the UEFA co-efficient rankings clubs from Spain lead Europe by a significant margin and if you don’t, then just look at their record in European competition in the last seven seasons. Spanish clubs have won three Champions League titles during that time, as well as being runners-up twice. In the UEFA Cup Valencia and Sevilla have won the competition while Alaves finished as runners-up.
Now with the arrival of Gianluca Zambrotta and Lilian Thuram at Barcelona, and Fabio Cannavaro and Emerson at Real Madrid, Spain’s big two look set to dominate the domestic league once more and again challenge for the Champions League.
Zambrotta and Thuram will strengthen a back four that looked to be Barcelona’s weakest link last year. Meanwhile the arrival of Eidur Gudjohnsen to replace Henrik Larsson might turn out to be an inspirational move. Gudjohnsen may not score 20 goals this season but his intelligent running and ability to play just behind the main striker will be invaluable coming off the bench. Given that we are likely to see a full season of Lionel Messi - if he stays injury free - Barcelona has the look of a side that is significantly stronger than last year.
If Fabio Capello - more collateral damage from the Moggi affair – had not arrived at the Bernabeu then I would be predicting a cakewalk for Barcelona. However, his record of success over the years is so impressive that Real Madrid may have to budget for a celebration this season. Real fans need no reminding that the club has not undergone a barren spell of three years without a major trophy since before the arrival of Alfredo di Stefano in 1953.
Mahamadou Diarra signed from Lyon earlier this week, and with the addition of Emerson and Cannavaro, the spine of the side will be much stronger. It will show in a reduction in the goals conceded statistic. In the midfield and attacking areas the question is who plays and who will be left to sulk on the bench?
With two wide positions in midfield and two up front available Capello has to choose between the likes of David Beckham, Guti, Van Nistelrooy, Ronaldo, Raúl, Robinho, Antonio Cassano and Julio Baptista. Milan seems poised to take Ronaldo to the San Siro and Spurs have renewed their interest in Julio Baptista, so that might be a problem or two less for the boss.
Valencia and Villarreal appear to be in the best position to challenge Spain’s version of the Old Firm. Long serving defender Amedeo Carboni is now the Valencia technical director and he has been a busy man. Pablo Aimar was sold to Real Zaragoza while full back Fabio Aurelio joined former Valencia boss Rafa Benitez at Anfield. Fernando Morientes has moved in the opposite direction, Asier Del Horno has returned to Spain from a one year sojurn at “Chez Money is No Object” and midfielder David Silva recalled after a loan spell at Celta Vigo. Both players scored in Champions League qualifying during this week as Valencia moved into the group stage.
The crown jewel, however, is the securing of winger Joaquin Sanchez from Real Betis. If the oft-injured left winger Vicente can remain injury free then Valencia could be an exciting side to watch this season. The acquisition of Francesco Tavano from Empoli is another interesting move given the failure of Italians Fiore, Corradi and Di Vaio just a couple of seasons ago. Few Italians have made the move to Spain over the years and even fewer have proven successful. At 27 Tavano has been a late bloomer and it has only been in the last two years that he has rattled in goals on a regular basis.
Villarreal looked to be in a position to turn an early exit from European competition into a positive by focusing totally on domestic competitions. However this summer, there has been - and still is - a transfer cloud hanging over the Madrigal. South Americans Marcos Senna and Juan Pablo Sorin have been on the trading block but have still to move. Former Arsenal midfield man Robert Pires went down with torn cruciate knee ligaments in the pre-season and might miss the whole season. However, if Nihat Kahveci can regain the form of 2002/03 when he almost led Real Sociedad to surprise La Liga title, Villarreal may yet prosper this year.
Other sides have strengthened their squads over the summer with Sevilla (Christian Poulsen, Andreas Hinkel and Javier Chevanton), and Atletico Madrid (Sergi Aguero, George Seitaridis, Costinha, Mariano Pernia) the most prominent. Atletico, a side that has promised so much, but delivered so little over the last decade, also changed manager – although Atletico not changing manager would be more newsworthy – and former Mexican boss Javier Aguirre is now the occupier of the manager’s office that doubles as a revolving door.
For what it’s worth here's how I see La Liga come the end of the season. The 2005/06 position is in the brackets.
I am the soccer analyst for the Fox Soccer Report and appear twice a week - every Monday and Friday at 10:00 EST. I have also been a regular contributor to the Fox Soccer Channel website since the summer of 2004. Over the last twenty years I have contributed to various radio and television programs throughout North America as well writing about the game for newspapers, magazines and websites.
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