Andalucia

Juan Ramón López Muñiz brought Málaga into La Liga in 2008 after a two-year hia­tus in the sec­ond divi­sion.  Through­out his play­ing career, he played on teams con­stantly scram­bling either to stay in La Liga or to be pro­moted to the first divi­sion.  He knows the men­tal­ity that a team needs to eschew what­ever poor […]

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With El Clásico in the rear-view mir­ror, La Liga con­tin­ues for­ward with a mid-week round that will help shape the Euro­pean and rel­e­ga­tion bat­tles. For Real Madrid, a mid-week match should be good for them so that they can move on quickly from a men­tally and phys­i­cally drain­ing edi­tion of El Clásico.  With Barcelona holding […]

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Through­out Barcelona’s two-year run of ground­break­ing excel­lence, Josep Guardi­ola i Sala role as a tac­ti­cian tended to be under­val­ued.  He rein­sti­tuted the “Total Foot­ball” con­cept that Johan Cruyff, Guardiola’s for­mer man­ager at FC Barcelona, instilled when he was a player and a man­ager at the club, and he changed the cul­ture inside the dress­ing room. He […]

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When Sevilla hosted cellar-dweller Xerez on Tues­day evening, an aura of uneasi­ness sur­rounded the Esta­dio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán.  In the front of the Sevil­lis­tas’ minds was the poor form of their team.  An extended run of indo­lent per­for­mances cul­mi­nated on Sat­ur­day evening with a 2–0 deba­cle against Espanyol, where Sevilla would lose Jesús Navas for a […]

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The Almería — Barcelona match had not con­cluded when Real Madrid took to the pitch, but a few min­utes into their match with Sevilla, they knew that Barça slipped at the Esta­dio de los Jue­gos Mediter­rá­neos and dropped two points with a 2–2 draw against Almería.  Expec­ta­tions were that Real Madrid would not have the […]

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The mar­quee matchup of the week­end is the late Sat­ur­day kick­off between top four teams Real Madrid and Sevilla.  The reverse fix­ture in early Octo­ber was one of the matches of the sea­son, and while Sevilla’s title chances faded away dur­ing the dregs of mid-season, they still lie fourth in the league, they have the […]

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Two clubs pulled the plug on their man­agers after a string of poor results that came to a head in the last round.  Ernesto Valverde’s Vil­lar­real suf­fered a 0–2 defeat at the hands of Osasuna, and Jose Luis Mendilibar’s Real Val­ladolid could only man­age a 1–1 draw at home against fel­low rel­e­ga­tion strug­glers Almería.  Villarreal […]

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