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 results it had throughout the season and focus on the final few matches of the campaign that define a team.

When Marcelino García Toral left sixth-place Racing de Santander in 2008 to resurrect Real Zaragoza from the Segunda División, López Muñiz jumped at the chance to train a team at the top half of the table, a sensation he had never felt in both his playing and managing stints.  An added perk with the high-flying Asturian side included their first UEFA Cup berth in the club’s history due to their sixth place position from a season ago.

Entrance into the knockout stage of the UEFA Cup went to the final group matchday, and while López Muñiz’s men took care of business at El Sardinero with a 3-1 victory over a Manchester City side that already secured qualification, Péguy Luyindula’s 86th minute goal for Paris Saint-Germain against FC Twente gave the Parisians a 4-0 lead and the one goal they needed to edge Santander in goal difference.

Racing Santander never fully recovered from that European night when they came within a few minutes of reaching the next phase of the UEFA Cup, and they strolled through the rest of the La Liga campaign comfortably in mid-table, never threatening to qualify for Europe for the second consecutive year.  Racing chairman Francisco Pernía released López Muñiz from his contract at the end of the season, fairly or unfairly, but either way, López Muñiz failed in his first tour with a team in the top division.

Just as Marcelino García Toral abandoned Racing to revive Real Zaragoza, a perennial La Liga team who had fallen to the division below, Antonio Tapia, the man who replaced López Muñiz at Málaga in the summer of 2008, deserted Málaga after the 2008-09 season to rejuvenate Real Betis, another big club that suffered relegation.  Tapia left a team that hovered around the European places for a vast majority of the season, and when Málaga chairman Fernando Sanz asked López Muñiz to return to the helm as Málaga manager, López Muñiz welcomed the second opportunity.

Sanz was a loyal servant to Málaga as a player for eight years after he could not break into the Real Madrid starting eleven, the club that, at the time, was directed by his father Lorenzo Sanz.  Immediately after retiring in 2006, Fernando Sanz was established as the club president after father Lorenzo bought nearly all of the shares associated with the club.  Sanz’s first action involved the signing of Juan Ramón López Muñiz, a former assistant of Juande Ramos when he coached Málaga in the 2003-04 season.  Experiencing what López Muñiz accomplished in his two years in Málaga, lifting the club back into La Liga, Sanz was not hesitant in rehiring the man that left him the previous season.

López Muñiz’s squad, however, was not nearly as talented as the one Antonio Tapia’s squad worked with in the previous season.  Lolo returned to Sevilla after his year-long loan, Nacho moved to Real Betis, Javier Calleja signed with Osasuna, and Eliseu Pereira, now with Real Zaragoza, transferred to Lazio for €1 million.

Málaga started this current campaign with the surprise of Jornada 1 when they comprehensively dismissed Atlético Madrid 3-0 at La Rosaleda.  Hindsight says that Atlético’s inconsistent form in La Liga has diminished Málaga’s win, but after that first weekend, López Muñiz’s could not fly any higher.  Then reality punched them in the mouth, and the Andalucians would not collect their second win until Jornada 15, a span of fourteen matches and nearly four months.

With nine different sackings in La Liga so far this season, López Muñiz would have been expected to be one of those firings, but Fernando Sanz kept faith in his man, although Sanz’s normally placid demeanor became increasingly frustrated every time the cameras would focus on the presidential boxes at various stadiums around Spain.

Málaga would improve, but their tenuous margin above the relegation zone continued to dwindle, and at the start of Jornada 34, Málaga was only one point ahead of 18th place Tenerife, and the bottom three clubs were ascending at the perfect time, whereas Málaga’s dip came at the worst time possible.

Málaga’s recent form did not suggest any positive result as they traveled to the Balearic Islands and encountered Mallorca in the ONO Estadi.  Mallorca had won fourteen of their sixteen home matches, their only losses coming at the hands of Barcelona and Sevilla.  With Mallorca fighting for the final Champions League berth with Sevilla, Villarreal, and Athletic Bilbao, they could not afford to slip up against a desperate Málaga side.

López Muñiz’s strategy in the first half was to muck up the play in the midfield and prevent Borja Valero and Gonzalo Castro from providing pinpoint service to Aritz Aduriz, and Málaga employed this tactic perfectly.  Víctor Casadesús and Castro could not fly down the wings, and Apoño and Juanito snuffed out Valero’s creativity in the midfield.

When Felipe Mattioni floated a long cross from the right wing in the 44th minute, it seemed a harmless ball, but Málaga goalkeeper Gustavo Munúa failed to get any contact on it.  The ball bounced in front of the six-yard box and struck the left far post.  Aduriz headed the rebound off the post for a sure goal, but Málaga central defender Milan Stepanov, the only Málaga player that could have prevented Aduriz’s header from crossing the line, stuck out his arm to stop the ball, and referee Manuel Mejuto González immediately sent him off with a straight red card.

Stepanov’s handball was a killer blow for Málaga because they worked their boots off to limit Mallorca’s goal-scoring chances, and to concede a penalty as well as go a man down so late in the first half could have understandably crushed Málaga’s shrinking spirit.  Munúa, however, saved Chori Castro’s mediocre penalty, and that momentum carried them through the second half, when after defending for the whole half and ceding nearly 70% possession, Victor Obinna scored in the 86th minute to give Málaga a stunning 0-1 advantage.

From a hopeful Jesús Gámez cross, José Luís Martí half-heartedly cleared it with the back of his foot but only into the direction of Obinna in the box, and he smashed his first-time effort into the bottom corner of the right near post.  The exasperated fans could not believe their eyes, and they immediately started to file out in silence.

The Mallorca players kept with the fight, and equally stunning was their equalizer in the first minute of stoppage time.  From Julio Álvarez’s free kick, Nunes headed it off Rubén’s head and into the direction of Aduriz who scored on a header of his own from a few yards away.  Gustavo Munúa protested to referee Manuel Mejuto González that Mallorca striker Alhassane Keita took him down in the box and prevented him from challenging Aduriz’s header, but Munúa’s objections would only lead to a yellow card for dissent.

The incident could have gone either way.  Iván González pushed Keita down, and while he was sprawled on the floor, Munúa stumbled over him as he tried to contest Aduriz for the ball.  Mejuto González ruled that Keita did not purposefully attempt to trip Munúa, and it was unfortunate that he was in Munúa’s path towards Aduriz.

1-1 fulltime, and Apoño and Gustavo Munúa could not contain their anger, both spewing abusive profanity and needing their fellow players and staff to hold them back from reaching Manuel Mejuto González.

While Mallorca manager Gregorio Manzano will consider this result as two points lost, Juan Ramón López Muñiz will also believe that his team left two crucial points on the pitch.  Fortunately for Málaga, Tenerife lost to Atlético Madrid 3-1, so Málaga’s point at the ONO Estadi moved them two points above the relegation zone, but Real Valladolid notched a vital win at El Molinón and defeated Sporting Gijón 0-2 to join Tenerife on thirty-two points, two points behind Málaga and Real Zaragoza from safety.

Málaga’s run-in includes two home games against Sporting and Real Madrid and two away games at Athletic Bilbao and Getafe, so Málaga will likely need other results to favor them because of their tough schedule.  Whether or not Málaga stays in the top flight, Juan Ramón López Muñiz’s status as manager is in serious doubt at this moment.  Fernando Sanz might look kindly on López Muñiz due to his history with the club, but these last four matches will be the true test of whether or not the players will truly fight for their boss and their La Liga lives.  If they lay limp, Málaga will fall to Liga Adelante, and Juan Ramón López Muñiz’s second chance will end prematurely.

Fueras de Juego

- Xerez’s last call came at the Camp Nou, where they succumbed to FC Barcelona 3-1 on Saturday evening.  Xerez stands seven points from safety with only twelve points for which to play.  In the opening minutes of the second half, Xerez had three golden opportunities to equalize at 2-2 but could not capitalize, and when Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored Barça’s third in the 56th minute, Xerez began to realize that their foray in La Liga would only last one year.  Xerez took out their frustrations on Barcelona, earning six yellow cards and two red cards over the final 23+ minutes, when the match devolved into a cheap shot affair.

- The late Sunday kickoff between Getafe and Sevilla provided all of the ingredients needed for a thrilling match: great individual play, crucial defensive mistakes, end-to-end play, and controversy.  Dani Parejo scored the penalty in stoppage time to give Getafe the 4-3 lead and the three points, but referee Carlos Clos Gómez stood at the penalty spot and waited for Getafe’s celebrations to cease because he called for the penalty to be taken again.  Two Getafe players encroached in the penalty area before Parejo took the penalty, and Clos Gómez made the correct call.  Parejo, with the calm of a lazy day at the beach, took the ball from the referee a second time and coolly slotted it past Andrés Palop a second time to assure Getafe’s intentions for a European spot.

- The golazo of the week has to go to future Real Madrid and current Racing Santander talent Sergio Canales.  Channeling his inner Maicon, he played keepy-uppy a few times inside the D before pirouetting and striking his volley so cleanly past Villarreal goalkeeper Diego López that Canales was in his celebrations before López realized what had just happened.  Villarreal would come back to defeat Racing 1-2, but the brilliance showcased by Canales whenever he runs on the pitch is exactly why Real Madrid snapped him up at such a young age.

- Osasuna 0 – 0 Athletic Bilbao.  This was not why the Monday night football match was reinstituted.

La Plaza del Toros de Las Ventas in Madrid is the largest bullring in Spain, and it is considered the most prestigious bullring in the world.

The thrilling race at the top of La Liga came to a head last weekend, when Barcelona dropped two points at surging Almería, and Real Madrid fought back from a 0-2 deficit to win against Sevilla in the second minute of stoppage time 3-2.  Now the two exemplars of Spanish football are tied for the lead on sixty-two points, fifteen points of third-place Valencia, who could only manage a 0-0 draw at home against struggling Racing Santander on Monday night.

Barcelona will play with two minds, as they play in the glamor match of the weekend against Valencia on Sunday while worrying about their second leg in the Champions League against Stuttgart three days later.  With Real Madrid only focusing on La Liga at this point, Barça cannot afford to drop points at this juncture of the season, even against a Valencia team that outplayed them in the 0-0 reverse fixture in October.

As for Real Madrid, the postmortem of their dismissal from the Champions League continues, as everyone has chimed in about Madrid’s performance against Olympique Lyonnais, from the players involved to the manager, the owner, and former players.  The Madrid press labeled their loss as an embarrassment, while the Barcelona press echoed the same sentiments in a more gleeful manner.

Although Real has a right to blush about being knocked out in the first elimination round of the Champions League for the sixth consecutive year, the media and the team has completely belittled the stellar performance by Lyon and the second half adjustments by Claude Puel to seize the result in the Santiago Bernabéu.  Of course no one will deny that Real should have scored twice more in the first half, especially Gonzalo Higuaín’s open-netter that hit the post, but a team that is worthy of winning Europe’s most prestigious competition converts those chances, and Real Madrid did not.

Los Blancos visit Real Valladolid in the late Sunday kickoff, and if Madrid is not careful, their Champions League hangover could filter into this match against a team fighting for top-flight survival.

The other two intriguing matches of the weekend include the late Saturday kickoff between Sevilla and Deportivo La Coruña, where they are two of the four teams fighting a battle royale for the fourth Champions League spot, and the traditional 5:00 PM Sunday kickoff between Almería and Málaga, two teams that have turned their seasons around from certain relegation to relative mid-table security.

The times listed are Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) and include the pregame pleasantries, although sometimes the matches on the DirecTV La Liga specific channels may not go to match coverage until right before kickoff.

Extra note: the main ESPN channels will carry their first La Liga match in over a month with Barcelona against Valencia, so catch this important clash on ESPN2 in high definiton.

Extra extra note: the United States will go into daylight savings time on Sunday, but Europe will not go into daylight savings time until March 28, so for the next couple of weeks, the US times for these matches will be one hour later than normal.

Mar. 13

Getafe vs. Mallorca – 11:45 AM on DirecTV channel 456

Sporting Gijón vs. Athletic Bilbao – 1:55 PM on ESPN Deportes/ESPN 360

Sevilla vs. Deportivo La Coruña – 3:55 PM on Gol TV

Mar. 14

Almería vs. Málaga – 11:45 AM on DirecTV channel 456

Racing Santander vs. Real Zaragoza – 11:45 AM on DirecTV channel 457

Villarreal vs. Xerez – 11:55 AM on Gol TV

FC Barcelona vs. Valencia – 1:55 PM on ESPN2 HD/ESPN Deportes/ESPN 360

Real Valladolid vs. Real Madrid – 3:55 PM on Gol TV

Mar. 15

Atlético Madrid vs. Osasuna – 3:55 PM on ESPN Deportes/ESPN 360

Unfortunately, the Tenerife – Espanyol match at the Heliodoro Rodríguez López will not be shown on US TV.

UEFA Champions League

The ramifications from Real Madrid’s elimination are still being felt throughout Spain, but there are still two La Liga teams in the tournament that have a chance to carry the flag for Spain.  Stuttgart bested Barcelona through many parts of the first leg, but despite that, Stuttgart conceded the away goal and face avoiding a negative result at the Camp Nou on Wednesday evening.  Barcelona hopes this will be déjà vu all over again because last season in the first knockout round, they scrapped their way to a 1-1 draw at the Stade de Gerland against Lyon before convincingly ousting them in the second leg at home 5-2.  Knowing that they have a legitimate shot to defend the trophy at the Bernabéu, the blaugrana will have all the motivation they need to succeed on Wednesday.

Sevilla will encounter a similar situation to Barcelona, as they play a crucial domestic league match against Deportivo La Coruña before battling CSKA Moskva on Tuesday.  Los Nervionenses are the betting favorites to proceed to the quarterfinals, and the fitness of CSKA will be tested on Tuesday because they sent out their best eleven against FK Amkar Perm on Friday in their first Russian Premier League match of the season.  CSKA midfielder Mark Gonzalez will be sure to get the rudest of ovations in the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán since he scored the equalizer in Moscow, but more pertinent to the Sevilla fans, he was a Real Betis player.

Mar. 16

Sevilla vs. CSKA Moskva – 3:30 PM on Fox Soccer Channel (Sevilla 1-1 CSKA Moskva after the first leg)

Mar. 17

FC Barcelona vs. Stuttgart – 3:30 PM on Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Sports en Español (FC Barcelona 1-1 Stuttgart after the first leg)

UEFA Europa League

Atlético Madrid and Sporting Clube de Portugal played to a drab 0-0 draw at the Vicente Calderón on Thursday, but there were a couple of flash points, as two Sporting defenders, Leandro Grimi and Tonel, received red cards and will not be available for Sporting in Lisbon next Thursday.

Los Colchoneros had a man-advantage for more than an hour and a two-man advantage for the final few minutes, but as they are wont to do this season, they do not perform well when circumstances fall their way.  Now they face the cauldron that is the Estádio José Alvalade in Lisbon in the second leg, but Atleti can take comfort knowing that they were able to win at Galatasaray to advance to this round, one of the most fearsome teams to play at home in all of Europe.

Valencia’s match at the Mestalla vs. Werder Bremen had every ingredient of an enthralling match; beautiful, flowing football, offensive aggressiveness from both teams, controversial calls, multiple yellow cards, a red card, wonderful saves, and golden chances spurned.  All of this equaled a 1-1 draw that gives the advantage to Werder Bremen as they return to the Weserstadion on Thursday.  Juan Mata and David Villa uncharacteristically flubbed on significant opportunities, and just like Real Madrid did in the first half of their second leg against Lyon, those missed chances could come back to haunt Los Che by the end of this tie.

Mar. 18

Werder Bremen vs. Valencia – 1:45 PM on DirecTV channel 463 (463-1 for HD) (Werder Bremen 1-1 Valencia after the first leg)

Sporting CP vs. Atletico Madrid – 4:00 PM on Gol TV (Sporting CP 0-0 Atlético Madrid after the first leg)

A ridiculous question with what should be a simple answer.  First, a cursory investigation.  Is Barcelona on top of the standings in La Liga?  Yes.  Has Barcelona obtained sixty-one points from twenty-four matches, one more point than it had at the same point last season?  Check.  Does Barcelona have the edge in its UEFA Champions League matchup against Stuttgart because of the away goal?  True.  Does Barcelona have some of the greatest players in the world of football?  Absolutely.  Has Barcelona been figured out?  From all the previous affirmations, the headline answer should be a definitive NO, but peering underneath the surface reveals a few cracks in their perfect facade.

As Chelsea and Rubin Kazan proved last year, one strategy to eke out a positive result against the Blaugrana includes conceding 70%+ possession to the Catalans and hope to capitalize on one or two chances when Carles Puyol’s defensive four play their extremely high line.  Many teams have unsuccessfully tried this tactic, but on Saturday evening, Málaga decided to employ this type of football, believing that they can be akin to Chelsea and Rubin Kazan.  It almost worked.

After a frustrating sixty-eight minutes, where nearly every Dani Alves cross was cleared and Lionel Messi’s wondrous runs were eventually snuffed by the Málaga defense, it took a special strike from Barcelona’s clutch performer of the season, Pedro Rodríguez, to break the deadlock.

Fernando and Manolo did not close Pedro’s space down, and with only Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the penalty area, Pedro decided tto take the shot himself from just outside the box.  He powered it to the point where goalkeeper Gustavo Munúa could only get a hand to it at his left near post despite him covering that side of the goal.

The unthinkable occurred twelve minutes later, when a one-two between Valdo and Victor Obinna at the halfway line sent Valdo free for nearly half of the pitch, and he converted the opportunity with aplomb, as he slotted the ball past a determined Victor Valdés.

Now for 99.7% of teams with a slim one-goal advantage with ten minutes to spare, playing deeper in their own half is not only prudent but the correct tactic.  Not for Barcelona.  What some might consider naïveté, Barcelona sees as the only way.  For the most part, Barcelona executes with total clarity, but on rare occasions, as with Valdo and Obinna, they pay a steep price for their loyalty to the club philosophy.

As with true champions, however, they managed to discover the game-winner in the late stages to make one point into three.  Xavi Hernández had an unusually quiet game, but his field vision is incomparable, and he played a cutting, diagonal ball to a streaking Dani Alves on the right wing.  A straightforward, first-time squared ball across the six-yard box to an unmarked Messi, and the tap-in gave Barça a 2-1 lead in the 84th minute, a lead they would not relinquish.

For the defending La Liga champions, stringing twenty to thirty passes to find an opening in the defense is normal business for them, but after they took the lead, their passing took more of a defensive nature.  They passed it around the field almost in an attempt to wind the clock down rather than initiate another attack.  With Málaga producing a dogged and earnest effort throughout the match, this mode was the right move, but it was quite peculiar to witness Barcelona passing it around with no ambition.

The other stratagem falls only for the brave (some might say for the suicidal).  It involves taking the game to Barcelona.  This inevitably means that there will be plenty of space for the Barcelona dynamos if they retrieve possession.  Tenerife was successful for the first thirty-five minutes against Barcelona in their match in January by putting the Barça players on their back heels.  A recurring problem for the Chicharreros all season, however, has been their lack of finishing, and when they could not score on some promising opportunities, Barcelona smelled blood, and a 0-5 thumping ensued.

When Barcelona visited the Mercedes-Benz Arena to face Stuttgart, no one would have blamed Die Schwaben if they used the Chelsea/Rubin Kazan strategy.  Although their form improved dramatically since Christian Gross took over the manager position from Markus Babbel, they still lied ninth in the Bundesliga and needed to defeat Unirea Urziceni on the final group stage match to advance to the Round of 16.

Cautious in the beginning, Stuttgart ventured forward when Barça could not organize an effective attack.  Cacau scored once and could have had another two, and by halftime, the 1-0 score line in favor of Stuttgart flattered Barcelona.  According to Gerard Piqué in the Spanish sports newspaper Sport, “If we play as we did in the first half, we are not going to last long in this competition.”

Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s crucial equalizer in the second half gave Barça the precious away goal and the 1-1 result away from home, but that does not take away from Stuttgart outplaying the Catalans for long stretches of the game.

Lionel Messi admitted that his side is not performing up to their celestial expectations.  On the club website following the Stuttgart match, he said, “I don’t know what went wrong.  It’s true that recently we’ve not been playing the same football we are used to, but now is the key moment and we have to get back to that level.”

Injuries clearly have hindered their play as of late.  Xavi and Ibrahimovic have recently returned from injury spells, and Seydou Keita, Éric Abidal, and Dmytro Chygrynskiy remain in the trainer’s room.

Around this same time last season, Barcelona lulled in relative mediocrity.  In a span of five matches from February 14 to March 4, they drew three and lost two, including a loss to a then relegation-bound Espanyol and a 2-2 draw with Real Betis, who would be relegated to the Segunda División at the end of the season.  What happened from that point forward is now immortalized in Barcelona’s six-trophy 2009, so why would this current momentary slip be any different from last year?

The final three months of the season should provide the final answer to the opening rhetorical question, but for any team to win against Barcelona, they have to believe that they have the solution to the Barça question.  Managers now have a large sampling in which to study Pep Guardiola’s coaching tendencies.

The doubt creeping from both the Barça fans and the press corps may be sounding the alarm bell a little early, but now this team cannot evade the comparisons to last year’s Barcelona squad that won every competition they entered.  They have only lost three times in the 2009-10 campaign: once in La Liga, once in the Champions League, and once in the Copa del Rey.  With Real Madrid breathing down their neck in Spain and other European teams wanting to dethrone the European champions, Barça cannot afford to “struggle” much longer if they want to defend these two crowns.

Has Barcelona been figured out?  Hardly, but that air of indomitability that they imposed last season has lessened to a degree.

Fueras de Juego

- Another natural disaster rocked the globe early Saturday morning.  This time, an 8.8 earthquake off the coast of Chile crumbled buildings and roads, leaving at least seven hundred dead with the toll rising at this moment.  One of the stars of the Chilean national football team, Humberto “Chupete” Suazo, paid homage to his homeland by scoring two goals in Real Zaragoza’s 0-2 victory over Getafe.  After scoring each of his two goals, he lifted his jersey to reveal his message, “Fuerza Chile.”  We all echo the same sentiment.

- The most surprisingly entertaining match of the weekend was the back and forth affair between Sporting Gijón and Osasuna.  A meeting of two mid-table teams that have a lack of scoring, a 3-2 result for the Asturians included a couple of penalties, a lightning pace, and an intense atmosphere rare for a match between teams that do not have much for which to play.

- Apparently, Carlos Marchena wants goalkeeper César Sánchez’s job because Marchena did a wonderful job in slapping away Sergio Agüero’s attempt to dribble away from him inside the box.  Neither referee Alfonso Pérez Burrull nor his linesman called the obvious penalty, but after harassment from the Atlético Madrid players and a chat with the fourth official, Pérez Burrull awarded Atlético the penalty kick, and Marchena rightly received a red card.  Atlético routed Valencia 4-1, and consistency might actually be arriving at the Vicente Calderón (but if they limply fall to Real Zaragoza next Sunday, no one will be surprised).

All tihngs come to an end and for Barcelona Their ten-match winning streak came to an end.  It was early December since Barcelona last played and not get the three points.    Still based on their result at the Manuel Ruiz de Lopera and the likeliness of Madrid winning at El Molinón… Barcelona will remain with a two-digit lead over Real Madrid.

Even though they lined up a team that was far from the “A side” that the majority of fans of La Liga can now recite in their sleep, the rhythm of the game was pretty much the same.  There was one caveat that the Blaugrana had in this match and it was Betis putting pressure on man with the ball.   That seemed to be working a little, but they were able to block off the openings of the goal and Barcelona’s shots would have the effectiveness they usually did.

Betis goalkeeper Ricardo was the man of the match without a doubt.  His eleven saves, including a penalty stop on Samuel Eto’o  were part of the reason why the Verdiblancos were even in the game to start with.   Not even the second half entry of Lionel Messi would help the visitors get the three points this time around.   From an overall perspective it was a positive to get a point in a venue that has treated them pretty bad in recent years.

Betis were also able to do some damage the 25% of the time they had the ball.  More importantly, they were able to attack Barca’s back post on set pieces and crosses.  Early on the pace was set, but it would take two plays to rock Barca and put them on the ropes.  In the 17th minute, a corner from the left went into the 18 and Melli would beat out Sergio Busquets in the second post.  The header would leave Victor Valdés defeated and the Ruiz de Lopera in a frenzy.

While Barca continued to maintain possession of the ball in the Betis half, there was no significant change.  Betis would once again traverse midfield and a Sergio García cross found Mark González in the left and the Chilean international had time to bring the ball down, dribble, and beat Valdés on his back post to double their advantage.  The replay showed that Alexandre Hleb was not even in coverage and his performance in the match could have virtually ended his stay at the Nou Camp.

But Barca continued to posess and try to find openings in the Betis backline.  That was easier said than done as there were instances where the Verdiblancos had up to eight people in the back and Ricardo Oliveira on the attack all by his lonesome.   Oliveira was a warrior up front and had the opportunity to ice the game when he had a one-on-one with Valdés, and the Barcelona keeper came up with the biggest save of the game.

A few minutes later Samuel Eto’o would equalize and being an inspired Ricardo.  That would not be the end as Xavi, Messi, Henry, Eto’o, and a host of others were denied by the Portuguese goalkeeper.

These upcoming five weeks will be among the toughest to overcome if the Catalans pretend to win their 19th league title… and more importantly, their first-ever Spanish treble ever.

Next Five League Games

2/22        vs. Espanyol       vs. Betis

3/1           @ Atlético           @ Espanyol

3/8            vs. Athletic         vs. Atlético

3/15          @ Almería           @ Athletic

3/22         vs. Málaga            vs. Almería

Week 22 saw Barca and Real Madrid slip away even more from the other 18 teams with contrasting styles of play.  Barcelona played with total style and Madrid played a bit more aggressively and had the game mucked up in the middle.  Samuel Eto’o scored his 21st goal of the season and Dani Alves stated his case as one of the early front runners that will have to be next to Herculean in order to catch up to Lionel Messi.  The Barca right back could be in that pack right now that might be looked at as the second best player in the world right now.

Meanwhile the latest edition of Andalucian derby saw Manuel Chaparro save his job after the Verdes beat Sevilla at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuan.  Ricardo Oliveira paid dividends in his debut with the club as he equalized in the 83rd minute en route their 2-1 victory.

Saved is also Osasuna who emerged out of the relegation zone after beating Valencia at the Reyno de Navarra in one of the tighter games you would have seen this weekend.  With their win and Mallorca and Espanyol’s draw as well as Numancia’s defeat; they leapfrogged out of relegation on goal difference.

Saturday

Real Madrid               1

Higuaín (48′)

Racing                      0

——

Sevilla                      1

Kanouté (90′+2′)

Betis                      2

Sergio García (70′), Oliveira (83′)

——

Sunday
Villarreal            2

Rossi (15′, 67′)

Numancia               1

Aranda (39′)

——

Getafe                 1

Soldado (7′)

Espanyol           1

Iván Alonso (25′)

——

Mallorca             1

Aduriz (56′)

Deportivo           1

Verdú (77′)

——

Valladolid           2

Victor (38′, 58′)

Athletic             1

Orbaiz (65′)

——

Recreativo          0

Atlético              3

Agüero (2′), Forlán (27′, 34′)

——

Málaga             3

Luque (48′), Salva (64′, 72′)

Almería     2

Uche (25′), Negredo (44′)

——

Barcelona            3

Eto’o (22′, 39′) , Dani Alves (65′)

Sporting              1

Kike Mateo (68′)

——

Osasuna               1

Flaño (57′)

Valencia              0

Betis and Zaragoza finalized the terms on the return of Ricardo Oliveira to the Andalucian verdiblancos.  Zaragoza agreed to the terms placed on the table by Manuel Ruiz de Lopera and Betis board.  The only thing that Betis are waiting on is the final signature.

Oliveira said, “I plan to retire (at Betis)”.   This was the club where the Brazilian international saw the most success in his career becoming one of the top goalscorers in Spain and winning the Copa del Rey in 2005-06 as well as playing in the Champions League a few years back prior to his move to AC Milan.

Oliveira’s return to Heliópolis made it viable for disgruntled Argentine forward Mariano Pavone to return to Argentina and play for Independiente, but the delay in which the deal was handed on the Zaragoza made his move virtually impossible with only hours left prior to the transfer window closing.

 The Copa del Rey got its draw for the quarterfinals and there are some intriguing matchups.  Four of the last Copa del Rey winners are still in the race as well as the winningest club in this tournament.

Barcelona-Espanyol 

The big matchup right now is is the Catalan derby being played out.  Espanyol is motivated to obtain some revenge after the fiasco at the Olimpic Montjuic that saw Lionel Messi run off the pitch and the game become tarnished yet once again.

Valencia- Sevilla

Another matchup that will draw a great deal of interest is the one that sees the last two Copa winners face off.  Valencia looks to take another step towards defending their title.

Other Matchups…

Betis- Mallorca

Sporting- Athletic

What a way to celebrate Raúl’s 500th appearance in Spanish first division.  In addition to achieving such a milestone, Raúl also scored his 212th career goal in the 16th minute courtesy of a Gonzalo Higuaín pass into the box and the Madrid starlet took advantage of the jewel.  Juande Ramos’ system of simplification seems to have worked and Real Madrid are on a tear.   The reigning champs have not lost a game since their game at the Nou Camp and seem to be regaining the swagger they had last year.  Although Mallorca should not have been a litmus test of any sort.  They instead showed every reason why they are in second place if futility Madrid did what they had to do-pummel.  Their performance was quite important, it was the best team performance so far this year and all of a sudden the Merengue fans are believing.  Their 3-0 win on the island put Madrid was their first on the road in close to two months and it put them in second place; only by one goal in the goal difference category over a ten-man Sevilla side that won 3-1 against upstarts Deportivo at The Riazor.  Enzo Maresca’s sending off in the first half seemed to have energized the Nervionenes.  Add to that Frederic Kanouté’s entrance in the second half and he seemed to give Sevilla the edge that they needed.  The Mali international was the make of the match as he assisted on all three second-half goals that helped them stay in the fight for the league title.

Even though they might have their spirits high, the reality is that they are still 12 points behind Barca.  For a while it was thought that the lead would be cut to nine, but history trumped necessity this time around.  Xavi made his 300th appearance for the blaugrana and scored the equalizer against complicated Osasuna side.  Although the game started out in what was going to be a clinic on style and a graceful football.  Lionel Messi gave people reason as to why he should be the FIFA Player of the Year with a brilliant performance.  The Argentine international scored the game-winner in the 85th minute after being denied by both the Osasuna goalkeeper Roberto and the right post early in the match.  They also made history by becoming the team with the most points in the league ever since they changed to the 20-team format.  They surpassed the point total that was established by the Barcelona side that earned 46 points back in 2005-06.

Málaga continued to make their surprising run towards European Cup spots as they went into the Manuel Ruíz de Lopera and beat a relegation-compromised Betis side. Their 2-1 win put them two points away from the final UEFA Cup/Intertoto places.  They further compromised Atletico Madrid who do not seem to find their way this season.  After being one of the hottest teams in Spain, they have all of a sudden fallen on a funk both in league and Cup play.   They are falling behind the pace as far as Champions League positions are concerned. After the day is done.  They in hand helped Athletic Bilbao who are suddenly one of the hotter teams in La Liga right now.  Their 3-2 win at the Vicente Calderón put them in 11th place with 23 points- 17 away from the “magic number” that teams strive for in order to stave off relegation.

Two other teams that are going through tough times are Villarreal and Valencia and they gave football fans one of the most exciting games so far this season.  The Submarine emerged from a 2-0 deficit during injury time with a goal by Fuentes, then equalized in the second half with a goal by Llorente.  This was the beginning of a scoring blitz that would continue with Edu who gave Valencia the lead six minutes later.  But Medina Cantalejo has a way of becoming a protagonist in every game he referees.  A non-existent penalty was easily cashed in by Italian international Giuseppe Rossi from 12 steps away as Villarreal would steal a point on the road in the Valencian derby.

Status Quo Down Below- Yeah, Right!

With the exception of Almería, the bottom looks pretty much the same.  Hugo Sánchez’  side seems to be the that is currently getting out of the clear on this one right now.  Their performance at the Olimpic Montjuic is just another nail in the Espanyol coffin, for about 94 minutes. If there was a game that could have been put in the fantanstic finish category it was the Espanyol-Almería match.  Almería jumped out to a 2-0 lead thank to an Kalu Uche brace, but Román Martínez opened the scoring for the Pericos, but a dramatic free kick by Nicolás Pareja that broke the heart of Almería.  Although Espanyol is still in the relegation zone, they get a point closer to Recreativo who are currently with 17 points.

Saturday 

Deportivo 1-3 Sevilla

DEP: Bodipo(33´)

SEV: Luis Fabiano (50′), Renato (78′), Diego Capel (90′+3′)

Valencia 3-3 Villarreal

VAL: Baraja (1′), David Villa (10′), Edu (78′)

VIL: Fuentes (45′+1′), Llorente (76′), Rossi (83′pk)

Sunday

Numancia 2-0 Getafe

NUM: Barkero (7′), Díaz (80′ og)

Mallorca 0-3 Real Madrid

MAD: Robben (2´), Raúl (16´), Sergio Ramos (67′)

  Atlético 2-3 Athletic

ATM: Antonio López (15´), Forlán (90′+2′)

ATB: Koikili (45´+1′), Domínguez (50′og), Llorente (66′)

Betis 1-2 Málaga

BET: Apoño (37´)

MAL:  Emana(18´), Eliseu (90′+2′)

Sporting 2-1 Valladolid

SPO: Carmelo (18´), David Barral (35´)

VLL: García Calvo (88′)

Racing 1-1 Recreativo

RAC: Johnathan Pereira (32´)

REC:  Camuñas (42´)

Espanyol 1-2 Almería

ESP: Martínez (62′)

ALM: Kalu Uche (3′, 54′)

Osasuna 2-3 Barcelona

OSA: Flaño (63´), Pandiani (73´)

BAR: Eto´o (45´), Xavi (80´), Messi (85´)

Standings

As if their lead was not wide enough, Barcelona could really seem uncatchable with only two weeks left in the first half of the season.   It’s not going to be easy for the blaugrana as they will face current cellar dwellers in Osasuna.   These are the kinds of matches that can be very tricky for a team like Barca.  Remember the old adage… hunger and necessity always trump history.  Right now Osasuna are in danger of relegation and justa  point against the league leaders will be more than enough at the Reyno de Navarra.  There is a chance that they could get all three as El Rojillo are one of those teams that have given Barcelona fits in recent years.

The win will keep pressure on the peloton that are behind them; but there are certain results that must emerge. Valencia know that only a win will help as they have Real Madrid and Sevilla breathing down their necks.   Los Ches will host a Yellow Submarine that have quickly deep-sixed in the past two months.  Villarreal are winless in their last four league matches and have struggled since their last road win at Recreativo on November 30th.

La Liga history will be made on Sunday.  Real Madrid head to Mallorca to face another relegation-compromised side; and there is no pleasure in this trip.  For Madrid, the Mallorcans are a tricky on the road.  Raúl will make history in Spanish football this weekend as he will become the sixth player in league history to play in 500 games.  He will also become the youngest to reach that number.  The last player to reach this milestone was a former teammate of the Madrid demigod, Nano Soler.  The veteran journeyman achieved this in the 1995-96 season when he was in the final stage of his career defending the colors of Mallorca. If all goes well for the Madrid striker he could surpass his former teammate in the when they travel to Gijón in February.

All-Time Appearances

1. Andoni Zubizarreta (622)

2. Eusebio (543)

3. Paco Buyo (542)

4. Manolo Sanchís (523)

5. Nano Soler (504)

6. Raúl González Blanco (500)

9.  Xavi Hernández (300)

Sevilla seem like they are going through déja vu as they play Deportivo again.   Baby Depor could end up in third place by the end of the weekend if they win and Madrid and Aleti loses to Athletic Bilbao.  In La Coruña, this team is starting to reminisce about its teams from back in the 90′s and earlier in the decade.

Saturday 

Deportivo- Sevilla

Valencia – Villarreal

Sunday

Numancia-Getafe

Mallorca-Real Madrid

Atlético-Athletic

Betis-Málaga

Sporting-Valladolid

Racing-Recreativo

Espanyol-Almería

Osasuna-Barcelona

This round of the Copa del Rey has some intriguing storyline.  The biggest game of the stage is undoubtedly Barcelona and Atlético Madrid.  The biggest player on the field on Tuesday will be Lio Messi.   Players like Samuel Eto’o, Sergio Agüero, Xavi, and Carles Puyol missing from the pitch will mean that there will be lots of opportunities for the youth players.  At the same time, players like Eidur Godjohnsen and Thierry Henry will take up the load there.

In the meantime, the surprise team of the league tournament- Deportivo- will prove their luck in cup play, and this could be an upset for SuperDepor 2.0.

The most intriguing storyline of the week will be Nikola Zigic hosting his old team at El Sardinero.  Just last week, Zigic was loaned out to Racing after Valencia saw it would be ideal for him to get playing time back at his old team.

Real Unión is the Cinderella team of the tournament and they look to continue their magic carpet ride against an erratic Betis side.

Round of 16

Tuesday

(First team will host return leg)

Barcelona 3-1 Atlético

ATM: Ujfalusi (69′)

BAR: Messi (11′, 58′-pk, 81′)

Wednesday

Sevilla 2-1 Deportivo

SEV: Luis Fabiano (30′), Kanouté (39′)

DEP: Bravo (81′)

Real Unión 0-1 Betis

BET:  Damiá (11′)

Sporting 3-1 Valladolid

SPO: David Barral (9′,13′) , Carmelo (36′)

VLL: Canobbio (90′+1)

Racing 1-1 Valencia

RAC: Colsa (36′)

VAL: Lacen (55′)

Pol. Ejido 3-2 Espanyol

PEJ: Molina (52′), Juli (59′), Chico (76′)

ESP: Moisés Hurtado (15′), Román Martínez (72′)

Thursday

Mallorca 3 – 1 Almería

MAL: Keita (7′), Santana (43′), Varela (53′)

ALM: José Ortíz (9′)

Osasuna 1- 1 Athletic

OSA: Pandiani (82′)

ATH: Llorente (92′)