As for your last question, timing is everything. Any Saturday matches that ESPN shows will not be on ESPN or ESPN2 at least through the beginning of January because of college football. After college football, college basketball takes the stage, and that may or may not interfere with the La Liga matches on ESPN through mid-March. The Sunday matches to which ESPN has rights are a different story. They do show these on ESPN/ESPN2 a vast majority of the time, but sometimes, other programming takes precedence. ESPN2 will show the Valencia – Real Zaragoza match at 12:55 PM EST on Sunday, so there are efforts by ESPN to show these games on their two main channels.

A final point. GOL TV and ESPN are at the mercy of the schedule set by the LFP, the governing body of La Liga. If Real Madrid and Barcelona play on the same day, GOL TV and ESPN splits the two teams, and if this day is a Saturday, the ESPN game will be on ESPN Deportes/ESPN 360 and not on ESPN/ESPN2 because of college football now or college basketball later in the season. Such is the case today where Barcelona plays at 2:00 PM EST and Real Madrid plays at 4:00 EST. It’s GOL TV’s week to have Barcelona and ESPN to have Real Madrid, so for those who don’t have ESPN Deportes or ESPN 360, all I can say is to watch the highlights on La Liga 360 at 9:00 on GOL TV. It is unfortunate and obviously not ideal, but it’s better than nothing. Sorry about your situation, but I hope this helps in answering your questions.