La Liga Thread

[Guest justin_3d]

If you can't beat them, marvel at them

By: Andy Mitten

The Catalan and Madrid media need to invent some fresh superlatives. So used are they to seeing their main sides win each week, the headlines focus on what they perceive as the unquestionable brilliance of Barca or Real Madrid.

Jose Mourinho will occasionally disrupt the self-aggrandising glorification with a paranoid rant or madcap antic, but normal order will soon be restored with Madrid's media bleating about the genius of Ronaldo et al and the Catalans paying homage to the best ever team in the world/solar system/universe.

Emphatic wins such as the 5-0 victory Barca enjoyed over Villarreal in the delayed first week of the Primera Liga on Monday, and Madrid's 6-0 win at Zaragoza, confirm the headlines and bolster the hubris of their biased readers.

Madrid fans are assured that they can finally challenge Barca, and Barca fans that no matter how well Madrid play - and they're playing very well - they're still not as good.

The only difference between the perennial top two is that Barca are the team winning more trophies - and they've already added two so far this season with the epic Spanish Super Cup victory and Friday's European Super Cup triumph over Porto in Monaco.

Barca are dominating matches to such a degree that, whisper it quietly, it's becoming tediously predictable. Villarreal saw just 23% of the possession in Monday's defeat. Barca tweaked their famous 4-3-3 to an even more attacking 3-4-3 to accommodate new signings Cesc Fabregas and Alexis Sanchez. Both scored on their debuts.

Statistics are often employed to back up arguments. Xavi makes more passes than Casanova, while Ronaldo and Messi are scoring so many goals that they're breaking all records.

Ronaldo's scoring is freakish. He netted 54 in 54 last season and started this term with a hat-trick in Aragon on Saturday.

The Barca-Madrid duopoly is so good that it's bad for Spanish football. The big two are like giant candles which are getting bigger each year, but are they sucking the oxygen from the rest of the league?

Eleven years ago, Deportivo La Coruna were crowned Spanish champions with 69 points. Barca's point total was 96 last season and 99 this year before - and that after they eased off at the end of the season.

Eleven years ago, just eight points separated the top six teams. In 2004, when Valencia last won the league, just two points separated the three teams below them.

Barca and Real Madrid have finished first or second in all bar one season since and the gaps between them and the rest have become gulfs - 25 points in 2010 and 21 last year.

Athletic Bilbao fans may disagree, but Spain's two giants have always been the biggest clubs in Spain, yet four different teams won the Primera Liga in the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 80s and 00's, three in the 90s and 70s. Can anyone see any other team coming close in the 2010s?

This weekend's results were hugely satisfying for fans of the two - and most of Spain is a fan of one or the other - as they steamrollered their opponents. Barca's result surprised as Villarreal are one of the best teams in Spain. Only last season they gave the Catalans a real fright. Now they can't come close to competing.

This is a Villarreal who finished 10 points clear of Barca as recently as 2008, a club who may have the benefit of a wealthy benefactor, but who do just about everything right from the football they play to their youth development.

Along with Barca, Villarreal are the only club in Spain with a reserve side of largely homegrown talents in the second division. Villarreal's have lost 12 times to Barca in their history, but have racked up 8 wins. It's a solid record. Given Barca's current strength, the next victory looks a long way off.

Maybe it's wrong to question a club for their virtuosity and a peerless technical level. Maybe this Barca team are on their way to being the best ever and rather than doubt the dominance, neutrals should share in the appreciation like Villarreal's manager Juan Carlos Garrido who called them "history in the making every week".

If you can't beat them, marvel at them.

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Totally agree!

[termninja 5,290]

It's not fair We have to battle our asses here with Manu, Manc, Arse, Tott, Livp along with clubs like Sunderland, Bolton, Everton and few other who are also very good.

With Real and Barca raging like this, Spanish Primera should have an 18+ warning before those 2 play XD

To be honest I find it boring. Barcelona the best ever! Guardiola the best ever! Messi the best ever! Ronaldo the best ever! Mourinho the best ever! Barca will win CL! Real will win CL! Messi will score more then CR! CR will score more then Messi!

All this hype is really annoying...

[Madmax 9,219]

Sadly even with great sides like Villareal, Valencia, Sevilla, Leti, Zaragoza etc the La Liga is more or less a year long exercise in finding out who out of Real and Barca can inflict maximum damage on the others.

[zolayes 14,489]

SPL ...Scottish or Spanish ,,,,Two team leagues ,,the rest also rans ,,,predictable and boring ,,only watchable for the genius that is Messi

[Guest justin_3d]

A very important reason why also it's a two man league:

[Guest justin_3d]

Barcelona just tied against Sociedad!

This shows that no team is unbeatable!

They can be the best ever, but they can still loose.

Now the funny thing, last season they lost to Hercules in the second game and won the league and CL.

This year they tied to Sociedad in the second game.....

[zolayes 14,489]

Barcelona just tied against Sociedad!

This shows that no team is unbeatable!

They can be the best ever, but they can still loose.

Now the funny thing, last season they lost to Hercules in the second game and won the league and CL.

This year they tied to Sociedad in the second game.....

they drew thanks to quite an extraordinary gift from the referee

[Guest justin_3d]

they drew thanks to quite an extraordinary gift from the referee

I did not saw it. I only watched the last 10 mins or so.

You got the video?

Or highlights for the whole game?

[Guest justin_3d]

Made up penalty by the ref for Real Madrid....

As you see Refs make mistake. Like they did in favor of Barcelona, now they done the same in favor of Real Madrid.

[Randall 315]

Soldado is going to be a big problem for us.

[termninja 5,290]

Mourinho says no to €50 million deal from Russia

http://www.thenation...eal-from-russia

Hahah crazy Russians XD

[zolayes 14,489]

we should have asked much more for Yuri

[Sheva. 5,373]

Soldado just can't stop scoring.

[Peace. 4,352]

Messi scored.

[Peace. 4,352]

Barça 85% - 15% Osassuna