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Spanish Inquisition: Is La Liga's Title Race Over?
Goal.com's Cyrus C. Malek asks what may not be as outlandish of a question as it initially seems...
| Bet: | Returns: | Real Madrid £10.62 | Draw £105.00 | Levante £290.00 |
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| Bet: | Returns: | Real Madrid £10.80 | Draw £100.00 | Levante £260.00 |
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| Bet: | Returns: | Real Madrid £10.80 | Draw £100.00 | Levante £260.00 |
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| Bet: | Returns: | Real Madrid £10.80 | Draw £87.00 | Levante £170.00 |
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Feb 2, 2010 11:50:00 AM
By Cyrus C. Malek
For all practical purposes, La Liga is now a two-horse race. With Valencia’s loss to Sevilla on Sunday, an eight point gap now separates second place from third and the title hopes for the pre-season hopefuls, namely Sevilla and Valencia, seem all but dashed.
That is not to say that there is a huge talent gap in Spain with respect to the rest of Europe’s big leagues. Any one of La Liga’s top two to ten teams would provide stiff competition for their respective counterparts in England’s top half of the table and Valencia and Sevilla are certainly on par with the Premier League’s third and fourth place teams. One needs to turn no further than the Spanish national team for evidence that football in Spain (despite the Premiership exports of Fernando Torres and Cesc Fabregas) is alive, well, and kicking.
The talent gap within Spain is not all too great either as, outside the top four, each and every one of La Liga’s teams provide fierce competition and exhibit technically superb football. During a given week, the outcome of matches featuring teams outside the top four - and sometimes counting the top four - become more and more difficult to predict as a healthy competitive balance makes each and every point extraordinarily valuable.
But comparing the rest of La Liga with the top two, the talent gap becomes a gulf. Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid more often than not lord over the rest of the Spanish top flight and this season is no different. This past weekend, Barca simply dominated a Sporting Gijon side that had, up to Saturday’s match, taken 18 of the 24 points available at El Molinon while in Galicia, Real Madrid dispatched their bogey team of nearly two decades by recording their first win at Deportivo La Coruna in 19 seasons. Further, Los Blancos controlled the match for all but five minutes and, even then, had the upper hand.
Now, the greatest rivals in football face off against one another for what remains of the season. But as in all chess matches, one tries to gain every advantage one can and in such contests, the psychological edge can be decisive, which is why the Barca-Real Madrid saga has spilled well beyond the green of the football pitch and into the explosive talking points put forth by the Spanish media.
As if Cristiano Ronaldo's two-match ban after Real Madrid's Malaga match did not cause enough controversy last week, Saturday's match between Barca and Sporting has uncorked another slew of contentious comments from the media as outlets from both sides make very high accusations of fraud.
The main issue in question remains to be Barca's solitary goal against the Asturians, where the Blaugrana's Pedro received a through ball from Andres Iniesta on a quickly taken free kick. That goal proved to be the margin of Barca's victory and helped the Catalan giants retain a five-point lead over their bitter rivals.
But (conveniently ignoring the penalty on Zlatan Ibrahimovic which was not called) the press in Madrid have cried foul on Pedro's goal, with a number of images and videos coming out of Madrid-based dailies Marca and AS that seem to indicate that the Barca youth player received the ball in an offside position. While Marca tends to be more to the centre than other media sources in the Spanish capital, in the White-as-snow-leaning AS, accusations of a 'Villarato' conspiracy have earned even more headlines than last week during the Cristiano Ronaldo suspension debacle (again, Villarato, while not a real Spanish word, is a term coined by Spaniards to describe the close relationship between Barca president Joan Laporta and Spanish Football Federation president Jose Maria Villar - also the vice-president of FIFA and the third vice-president of UEFA - implicating favouritism by Liga referees).
In response, Barcelona’s Cule-or-die daily Sport has rubbished the accusations of 'Villarato' as jealousy of Barca's superiority over Madrid and have gone so far as to accuse the Madrid-based media of doctoring the photo of the offside play, presenting their own photo (albeit depicting a slightly different angle) showing correct positioning of the Barca forward.
AS has responded by comparing Barca’s match against Sporting with Real Madrid’s goalless draw at El Molinon earlier in the season, arguing that Barca got the offside call for the goal whereas in the Madrid match, a legal goal that would have given Madrid the three points was nullified as Raul’s strike was called back for an erroneously judged hand-ball on Kaka’s assist.
A further story meant to rile the Blaugrana nerves is the foul Lionel Messi committed on Sporting’s Diego Castro - a slide tackle from behind for which the Argentine was rightfully shown a yellow card. AS ran a piece along with a video that argued the player should have been shown a red. If only Cristiano Ronaldo had committed a similar transgression so a real comparison could be made…
The dynamic between the Barca-based media and the Madrid-based dailies has always been contentious, even hostile, with each side taking pokes at the other, depending upon which team is residing at the top. They employ tactics that are intended to destabilise the other team’s hegemony so that their team can make a push for the Liga throne (this tends to account for why the Barca/Madrid power play tends to move like a pendulum, with both teams rarely at their best in the same period of time).
But coming off of Barcelona’s record year of six titles, each passing week of this season has transformed the rhetoric (on both sides, but mostly coming out of the Spanish capital) into what borders upon speculative and sometimes even libellous propaganda.
The media clash has become so rabid and frenzied that the usually quiet Xavi has come out with comments saying “Madrid need to sell papers”, attributing the controversy to the fact that “Madrid are five points behind Barca and that is not going down well in the capital”. Barcelona president Joan Laporta has issued similar comments, calling it “a smear campaign to put pressure on Barca”. Laporta described his team as “the reference for football in the world”, a simple fact the Barca supremo says the “Spanish capital just can’t take”.
The Madrid press already tried putting pressure on the Blaugrana earlier in the season, printing reports of Manchester United’s interest in Pep Guardiola that, while true, were intended to cast doubt and uncertainty - or at least a distraction - into the Barca dressing room. The reports prompted Laporta to quickly put the issue at rest by announcing a verbal agreement with Guardiola for another season.
But as the media wars in an effort to mount the pressure and while members of both Barca and Real Madrid will argue that the Liga race is not yet over, one must ask with a sense of realism that, while there are two horses left competing for La Liga glory, is it a race at all? With nearly an entire half of the season left, are we truly in for a legitimate title race? Or are these desperate squabbles through the headlines simply dramatising an already-deterministic outcome?
During the first half of the season, Barcelona faced a schedule of Champions League group stage fixtures, the Spanish/European Supercups, the Copa del Rey, La Liga matches, and the Club World Cup. While progressing in the Champions league did turn out to be a difficult task, Barca managed not to lose one match and draw only four Liga fixtures in the entire first half of the season, all the while winning both Supercups and the Club World Cup.
Now, after being cast out of the Copa del Rey in 2010, with only the Champions League and the domestic championship to worry about and with a full squad (as Seydou Keita and Toure Yaya are back from the African Cup of Nations), it seems unlikely that Barca will cede enough points - and that Madrid will take advantage of the slip-ups with their own Champions League worries - for a legitimate title race to unfold. While it is true that Barca have the more difficult schedule in terms of away matches, the way the Blaugrana are playing coupled with Guardiola’s meticulously persistent coaching make a stronger case for Barca not only matching, but even improving on their record-setting first half of the season than for them to surrender points.
From the Madrid side, the race to catch Barca could become tiresome and with the Champions League final to be played at the Santiago Bernabeu, should the Merengues fall any further back in the Liga table, Florentino Perez and company may be forced to re-evaluate their priorities, as a Champions League final ending with Barca hoisting the trophy in the Spanish capital would be unspeakably embarrassing for the ambitious Madrid hierarchy.
So while on paper just five points separate Los Blancos and the Blaugrana and both clubs are playing attractive football against the rest of the already-strong Primera Division, perhaps there is less of a Liga title race than there appears to be.
Or perhaps like the Spanish media, I am blowing nothing more than hot air. After all, one can never predict the future without a healthy margin of error. And as we have come to learn in La Liga, sometimes that margin can become a chasm.
Do you think the Liga title is already sealed? Or can Real Madrid wear Barca down and catch them like the season under Capello? Goal.com wants to hear your thoughts on the matter…
That is not to say that there is a huge talent gap in Spain with respect to the rest of Europe’s big leagues. Any one of La Liga’s top two to ten teams would provide stiff competition for their respective counterparts in England’s top half of the table and Valencia and Sevilla are certainly on par with the Premier League’s third and fourth place teams. One needs to turn no further than the Spanish national team for evidence that football in Spain (despite the Premiership exports of Fernando Torres and Cesc Fabregas) is alive, well, and kicking.
The talent gap within Spain is not all too great either as, outside the top four, each and every one of La Liga’s teams provide fierce competition and exhibit technically superb football. During a given week, the outcome of matches featuring teams outside the top four - and sometimes counting the top four - become more and more difficult to predict as a healthy competitive balance makes each and every point extraordinarily valuable.
But comparing the rest of La Liga with the top two, the talent gap becomes a gulf. Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid more often than not lord over the rest of the Spanish top flight and this season is no different. This past weekend, Barca simply dominated a Sporting Gijon side that had, up to Saturday’s match, taken 18 of the 24 points available at El Molinon while in Galicia, Real Madrid dispatched their bogey team of nearly two decades by recording their first win at Deportivo La Coruna in 19 seasons. Further, Los Blancos controlled the match for all but five minutes and, even then, had the upper hand.
Now, the greatest rivals in football face off against one another for what remains of the season. But as in all chess matches, one tries to gain every advantage one can and in such contests, the psychological edge can be decisive, which is why the Barca-Real Madrid saga has spilled well beyond the green of the football pitch and into the explosive talking points put forth by the Spanish media.
As if Cristiano Ronaldo's two-match ban after Real Madrid's Malaga match did not cause enough controversy last week, Saturday's match between Barca and Sporting has uncorked another slew of contentious comments from the media as outlets from both sides make very high accusations of fraud.
The main issue in question remains to be Barca's solitary goal against the Asturians, where the Blaugrana's Pedro received a through ball from Andres Iniesta on a quickly taken free kick. That goal proved to be the margin of Barca's victory and helped the Catalan giants retain a five-point lead over their bitter rivals.
But (conveniently ignoring the penalty on Zlatan Ibrahimovic which was not called) the press in Madrid have cried foul on Pedro's goal, with a number of images and videos coming out of Madrid-based dailies Marca and AS that seem to indicate that the Barca youth player received the ball in an offside position. While Marca tends to be more to the centre than other media sources in the Spanish capital, in the White-as-snow-leaning AS, accusations of a 'Villarato' conspiracy have earned even more headlines than last week during the Cristiano Ronaldo suspension debacle (again, Villarato, while not a real Spanish word, is a term coined by Spaniards to describe the close relationship between Barca president Joan Laporta and Spanish Football Federation president Jose Maria Villar - also the vice-president of FIFA and the third vice-president of UEFA - implicating favouritism by Liga referees).
In response, Barcelona’s Cule-or-die daily Sport has rubbished the accusations of 'Villarato' as jealousy of Barca's superiority over Madrid and have gone so far as to accuse the Madrid-based media of doctoring the photo of the offside play, presenting their own photo (albeit depicting a slightly different angle) showing correct positioning of the Barca forward.
AS has responded by comparing Barca’s match against Sporting with Real Madrid’s goalless draw at El Molinon earlier in the season, arguing that Barca got the offside call for the goal whereas in the Madrid match, a legal goal that would have given Madrid the three points was nullified as Raul’s strike was called back for an erroneously judged hand-ball on Kaka’s assist.
Madrid's stalemate battle against Sporting
A further story meant to rile the Blaugrana nerves is the foul Lionel Messi committed on Sporting’s Diego Castro - a slide tackle from behind for which the Argentine was rightfully shown a yellow card. AS ran a piece along with a video that argued the player should have been shown a red. If only Cristiano Ronaldo had committed a similar transgression so a real comparison could be made…
The dynamic between the Barca-based media and the Madrid-based dailies has always been contentious, even hostile, with each side taking pokes at the other, depending upon which team is residing at the top. They employ tactics that are intended to destabilise the other team’s hegemony so that their team can make a push for the Liga throne (this tends to account for why the Barca/Madrid power play tends to move like a pendulum, with both teams rarely at their best in the same period of time).
But coming off of Barcelona’s record year of six titles, each passing week of this season has transformed the rhetoric (on both sides, but mostly coming out of the Spanish capital) into what borders upon speculative and sometimes even libellous propaganda.
The media clash has become so rabid and frenzied that the usually quiet Xavi has come out with comments saying “Madrid need to sell papers”, attributing the controversy to the fact that “Madrid are five points behind Barca and that is not going down well in the capital”. Barcelona president Joan Laporta has issued similar comments, calling it “a smear campaign to put pressure on Barca”. Laporta described his team as “the reference for football in the world”, a simple fact the Barca supremo says the “Spanish capital just can’t take”.
Xavi growing tired of the Madrid press attacks
The Madrid press already tried putting pressure on the Blaugrana earlier in the season, printing reports of Manchester United’s interest in Pep Guardiola that, while true, were intended to cast doubt and uncertainty - or at least a distraction - into the Barca dressing room. The reports prompted Laporta to quickly put the issue at rest by announcing a verbal agreement with Guardiola for another season.
But as the media wars in an effort to mount the pressure and while members of both Barca and Real Madrid will argue that the Liga race is not yet over, one must ask with a sense of realism that, while there are two horses left competing for La Liga glory, is it a race at all? With nearly an entire half of the season left, are we truly in for a legitimate title race? Or are these desperate squabbles through the headlines simply dramatising an already-deterministic outcome?
During the first half of the season, Barcelona faced a schedule of Champions League group stage fixtures, the Spanish/European Supercups, the Copa del Rey, La Liga matches, and the Club World Cup. While progressing in the Champions league did turn out to be a difficult task, Barca managed not to lose one match and draw only four Liga fixtures in the entire first half of the season, all the while winning both Supercups and the Club World Cup.
Now, after being cast out of the Copa del Rey in 2010, with only the Champions League and the domestic championship to worry about and with a full squad (as Seydou Keita and Toure Yaya are back from the African Cup of Nations), it seems unlikely that Barca will cede enough points - and that Madrid will take advantage of the slip-ups with their own Champions League worries - for a legitimate title race to unfold. While it is true that Barca have the more difficult schedule in terms of away matches, the way the Blaugrana are playing coupled with Guardiola’s meticulously persistent coaching make a stronger case for Barca not only matching, but even improving on their record-setting first half of the season than for them to surrender points.
From the Madrid side, the race to catch Barca could become tiresome and with the Champions League final to be played at the Santiago Bernabeu, should the Merengues fall any further back in the Liga table, Florentino Perez and company may be forced to re-evaluate their priorities, as a Champions League final ending with Barca hoisting the trophy in the Spanish capital would be unspeakably embarrassing for the ambitious Madrid hierarchy.
So while on paper just five points separate Los Blancos and the Blaugrana and both clubs are playing attractive football against the rest of the already-strong Primera Division, perhaps there is less of a Liga title race than there appears to be.
Or perhaps like the Spanish media, I am blowing nothing more than hot air. After all, one can never predict the future without a healthy margin of error. And as we have come to learn in La Liga, sometimes that margin can become a chasm.
Do you think the Liga title is already sealed? Or can Real Madrid wear Barca down and catch them like the season under Capello? Goal.com wants to hear your thoughts on the matter…
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