“NINO, NINO, NINO!” chanted Los Chicharreros in the Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez López.  When shouted aloud, the chant sounded like an onrushing ambulance through a traffic-jammed street, and for Getafe, who fell victim to the brilliance of Nino, they needed the assistance of EMT workers.

After a 0-0 draw at home to Real Valladolid last Saturday, a result most favored by new Valladolid entrenador and former Tenerife head man Javier Clemente, Tenerife stood seven points behind Málaga for the final place of safety in La Liga.  The criticisms laid upon this team fell squarely on José Luis Oltra’s naïve tactics.  In the same way that Tony Mowbray’s West Bromwich Albion team in last year’s Premier League was deemed too naïve as they were relegated to the Coca-Cola Championship, Oltra’s Tenerife incorporated an open style that needed clinical finishers in the front line to be successful because there would be several chances for their opponents to capitalize on the counter-attack.

Nino and Alejandro Alfaro scored forty-nine goals between them in the Segunda División last season, and Nino’s twenty-nine goals earned him the Pichichi trophy as the highest goal scorer in the second division.  Seventeen goals for the pair in the top flight this season is not a bad return, but when their team has conceded the most goals in La Liga, seventeen is simply not enough.

No single match illustrates Tenerife’s frustration more than their 0-5 humbling by Barcelona at home at the dawn of the new year.  Through the first thirty-five minutes, the islanders completely outplayed the Blaugrana in every facet of the game, but Alfaro failed to exploit three wonderful opportunities, two of them created by Nino.

Tenerife’s high defensive line initially surprised Barça and put them off their game, but this gamble would soon prove to be suicidal, as Bojan Krkic’s blistering pace left the Tenerife defense in shambles, and Lionel Messi finished Bojan’s cutback pass with aplomb.

Sucker punched in the gut, the prudent play would have been to drop deeper and work more on the counter-attack.  Call him brave or declare him stubborn, Oltra kept to his strategy, and at fulltime, Tenerife conceded five goals, including an Ezequiel Luna own goal and a Messi hat-trick.

While José Luis Oltra has somewhat toned down his offensively aggressive tactics since that match, the flair associated with this team has not left them.  Consequently, Tenerife still had not won away from home all season, an unwanted feat only shared by a few teams in all of the European leagues.

Tenerife righted this wrong on Tuesday evening when they went to Asturias and defeated Sporting Gijón 0-2 with that same end-to-end mentality instilled by Oltra.  Unfortunately for Tenerife, their compatriots in the bottom three, Xerez and Real Valladolid, also won in the mid-week.  Racing de Santander, one of the teams teetering just above the relegation zone, scored a 3-1 victory over Espanyol with the help of two deserved penalties, both of whom were scored by Mohammed Tchité, to further complicate the situation for Tenerife.

Málaga, however, heeded the bottom three’s protestations of slowing down their point accumulation.  Two points in their last five contests left the Andalucians only three points above Tenerife and the drop zone.

Tenerife had to keep their focus on Getafe and away from the other matches affecting their standing. No one understood this more than Juan Francisco Martínez, otherwise known as Nino.

Nino has played every minute in every match for Tenerife this season, an astonishing accomplishment in this modern age, where squad rotation and injuries beset even the fittest of players.  Standing at a relatively minuscule 5′ 7″, a center forward like Nino would not strike fear into the hearts of central defenders.  Tossed around often due to his slight frame, Nino fought through these nicks and knocks to lead the line every single minute he plays on the pitch.  With the season on the line, his hard work came to fruition with a hat-trick that will be remembered by Los Chicharreros for many years.

After Pedro León scored early for Getafe, Nino’s equalizer on the half-hour mark was the result, from all the different ways he can score, of a header!  A seriously demented betting man would have gone away with bucketful of cash for predicting a Nino header, but Román Martínez’s perfectly weighted cross from deep in the right flank found a completely unmarked Nino in middle of the penalty area.  David Belenguer and David Cortés stood frozen as Nino rose in the air between them.  Of course, it would have to be unchallenged for Nino to score a header, but the box score will not indicate that he had enough room to build a house with all the space that the Getafe central defenders gave him.

His second goal to give Tenerife the 2-1 lead showed his technical ability to control a ball in the air.  Marc Bertrán headed a hopeful, looping ball into the penalty box, and nothing seemed to come of it; however, Nino kept himself onside while the Getafe defenders were heading forward, and Nino found himself all alone in the box.  He had to take down the lofted header softly, and his first touch was nothing short of immaculate.  It took a bounce, and he whacked it to the left far post, where Jordi Codina could only watch as it passed by him into the back of the net.

Getafe would score to even the game at 2-2 several minutes later, and it could have been a crushing blow to this club that continues to fight for its La Liga life.  Nino would have none of that negative behavior, and in the 76th minute, exactly a minute after Javier Casquero headed the tying goal for Getafe, Nino completed his hat-trick to whisk Tenerife back into a lead they would not relinquish.

Alejandro Alfaro and Nino combined yet another time, with Alfaro perfecting a through ball that sliced through the Getafe defensive line.  Nino still had work to do, as Jordi Codina rushed off his line to attempt to clear the ball away from Nino outside of his area.  His third goal exhibited his calm composure, dribbling to his left to avoid a sliding, lunging Codina and slotting the ball into the unguarded goal.

Three goals.  Three different goals.  One outcome: three points for a thankful Tenerife.

Tenerife would find out later that Málaga and Real Valladolid would draw 0-0, and Xerez could only draw 2-2 at home against Racing de Santander, so the Nino hat-trick meant more than an isolated three points.  Tenerife is now only one point behind Málaga for the magic 17th position, and 16th is not too far away with Real Zaragoza only two points ahead of El Tete with five games remaining.

In a place where two well-known British names, Gill Hornby and a certain Barcelona striker from the 1980s, were forced to stay in Tenerife a little longer due to the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud, they both could have enjoyed a beautiful afternoon at the Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez López to witness two desperate teams in one of the premier matches of the second half of the season.

“Riki-raca, zumba-raca, sim-bomba; ra-ra-ra, Tenerife, Tenerife, y nadie mas!” the fans sung throughout the match and after their team came out victorious.  The first part is merely a set of rhyming words, but the latter half translates as, “Tenerife, Tenerife, and no one else.”  If Tenerife rises above the relegation zone and extends their stay in La Liga, Los Chicharrones may alter this chant in honor of Nino, “Nino, Nino, y nadie mas!”

Fueras de Juego

- Sevilla goalkeeper Andrés Palop might be better with his head than his hands, and his hands are quite superb.  His best individual moment in his career occurred in the Round of 16 of the 2006-07 UEFA Cup when his last-gasp header sent the tie against Shakhtar Donetsk into extra time, which Sevilla would win 3-2.  Sevilla would go on and lift the UEFA Cup trophy for the second consecutive year by defeating Espanyol on penalties in the final.

In the early Saturday kickoff, Sevilla led Sporting Gijón 2-0 when Sporting central defender Grégory Arnolin headed the ball on target from a corner.  The header came so quickly from a short distance that Palop could not get his hands up in time to parry it away.  Instead, he decided on the next best option: counter Grégory’s header with a header of his own.  It was just as effective as if he used his hands to slap it away, and Sevilla would eventually add a third to win 3-0.  In dire situations, Sevilla should use Andrés Palop as a center forward.

- If one would want to introduce people to the flair and skill of Spanish football, do not show them a tape of the drab 0-0 draw between Deportivo La Coruña and Almería from this Sunday afternoon.  Two teams going nowhere, and the match fit their paths.  When there were decent opportunities to score, both teams scorned them with such poor technique that it was literally laughable.  The fans at El Riazor did not share the same mirth.

- The champagne for Barcelona’s La Liga title can be put back on ice for the time being, as their 0-0 draw at derby neighbors Espanyol, combined with Real Madrid’s 2-0 win over Valencia, means that Real has shaved Barça’s lead to a mere point.  Pep Guardiola’s 4-4-2 did not work against Espanyol, and Inter Milan boss José Mourinho surely took some notes on how Espanyol flooded the midfield to prevent Xavi’s distribution across the final third of the pitch.  The absence of Andrés Iniesta may loom large for the Blaugrana as they continue their drive for a domestic and European cup double for the second straight year.

A forlorn Manolo Jiménez rues his side's inability to capture the moment against CSKA Moskva.

With the advantage of the away goal, Sevilla looked in prime position to advance to the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League.  Unfortunately, Manolo Jiménez’s team played as though they were already in the next round.  A 0-0 score line would have sent Sevilla through, and even though Diego Perotti declared that they could not be confident in their advantage or rely on the fact that they were playing at home, there was little impetus from Los Nervionenses in their attack.

CSKA Moskva also played this cat-and-mouse game, knowing that they did not need to push forward and leave themselves open to a swift counter-attack.  When Tomáš Necid scored in the 39th minute from a seemingly harmless throw-in deep in the Sevilla half, Sevilla woke up from their slumber and immediately responded with a goal of their own two minutes later.

The CSKA defense allowed a long ball from an Andrés Palop free kick to bounce near the penalty area, and Jesús Navas capitalized on this good fortune by gathering the ball and squaring the ball to Diego Perotti, who coolly finished with aplomb from seven yards to equalize at 1-1.

Jiménez substituted Diego Capel to start the second half in favor of Frédéric Kanouté to have another out-and-out striker with Luís Fabiano, but play reverted to the opening thirty-eight minutes of the match.  Sevilla went into hibernation again, and it cost them in the 55th minute, when Palop palmed Keisuke Honda’s free kick into his own net.  Although Honda fiercely struck the ball, Palop got himself into perfect position to catch it or deflect it away.  Palop rightly decided to push the ball away instead of attempting to snatch it in the air, but he somehow managed to deflect it into his own goal in one of the worst blunders in this year’s Champions League.

Galvanization did not repeat itself after Sevilla fell behind a second time, and they timidly fell out of the competition 1-2 in the match and 2-3 on aggregate.  The ineffective performances ran rampant across the Sevilla squad.  Renato failed to muster any extended possession in midfield, Luís Fabiano became a ghost as he could not be seen through most of the match, and Andrés Palop made the mistake that forced Sevilla to score twice without conceding in the final thirty-five minutes.

It would be easy to say that without Palop’s error, the match would have gone into extra time, but with all of these “what if” scenarios, any single event in a football match is not mutually exclusive.  Assuming that the rest of the match would have gone as it ended up without CSKA’s second goal would be fallacious.  CSKA had the slight upper hand throughout the match, and they were the more likely team to score anyway, whether it occurred with a goalkeeping error or by CSKA’s own brilliant play.

Sevilla deserved to be knocked out of the Champions League, and they face a fight from multiple angles to qualify for the Champions League next year.  Deportivo La Coruña, Mallorca, and Athletic Bilbao are all within three points of Sevilla for the fourth Champions League spot, and while these teams do not possess the talent and the European experience like Sevilla, the Andalucians cannot take for granted that they will finish in the top four.  If they finish the La Liga season in the same nonchalant fashion and attitude as they played against CSKA, the Europa League beckons.

The "Best Player in the World" debate should be tabled for the time being.

Someone forgot to tell Stuttgart that there was a crucial Champions League match this evening.  As confident and daring as they were at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in the first leg, Die Roten were timid and meek at the Camp Nou.  Obviously needing at least one goal in order to have any legitimate chance of brushing the defending champions away, they only had two shots all night, and neither of those shots were on target.

The match, however, told more about Barcelona’s dominance than Stuttgart’s quiescence.  Pep Guardiola made the bold move of leaving Zlatan Ibrahimovic on the bench in favor of Thierry Henry, a man who has only scored three goals in La Liga and has found it difficult to break into the starting eleven.  His revealing performance in the second half against Valencia on Sunday gave Guardiola the confidence to employ him as the central striker against Stuttgart.

A thigh injury ruled Xavi Hernández out of the Stuttgart match, and with Seydou Keita not fully fit to start, Touré Yaya became the choice for Guardiola, although there was little alternative.  Mainly used as a defensive midfielder, he patrolled the left side of midfield as though he were a tricky winger.  Numerous counter-attacks saw him bomb down the left flank with astonishing ease, and he directly contributed to Pedro Rodríguez’s opening goal with an unselfish squared ball across the penalty area that he could have easily shot himself.  Another player that has been stuck on the substitutes’ bench for most of the year, Guardiola shows the ability to inspire even the most disgruntled of players.

Then there is that man again.  Without waxing poetic to the point of veneration, Lionel Messi continues to befuddle the opposition while involving his teammates in many of the attacks in which he is involved.  Lately, due to the inconsistencies of Ibrahimovic, Pedro, and Henry, Messi had to shoulder more of the scoring load, and he looks to take a crack at goal more often than at any other time in his career.

Messi always possessed the skill and the guile to be one of the best players in the world, but in the last couple of seasons and especially in the last few months, his clinical finishing ascended to world-class level.  When Messi scored the first goal in the 14th minute, the Stuttgart defense decided to back off him instead of closing down his space in fear that he would make one move and slice them in half.  With this clearing, Messi popped a top left corner laser that Jens Lehmann had no chance of saving, and the rout commenced.

On Barça’s second goal, Messi played the provider, as he floated a ball over the top of the Stuttgart defense to Touré Yaya, and he squared the ball to Pedro, who delivered it into the back of the net.  Messi would score another goal in tandem with Dani Alves later in the match, but the damage was done, and Barcelona marched on into the quarterfinals, where no one would want to draw them on Friday afternoon, when the matchups for the rest of the competition will be sorted out.

Bordeaux’s talisman Yoann Gourcuff already declared that his team would like to face anyone but Barcelona in the quarterfinals, and every other team left might have this same request.  Now that Olympique Lyonnais eliminated Real Madrid and CSKA Moskva bounced Sevilla from the Champions League, Barcelona represents the only Spanish team remaining in the competition, and they are peaking at the right time of the season.  They wrote this script last campaign, and they won the treble.  Why deviate now?

My nieces, in blue, combining to nullify the opposition attack.

Apologies to those who expected the usual Monday column that recaps the latest round in La Liga.  I did not watch a single La Liga match this past weekend because I attended my twin nieces’ soccer tournament.  Although classified as U-9, their team played in the U-10 group, and they won the championship, proudly accepting the winners’ medals with an everlasting gleam in their wondrous eyes.

The older U-10 team that my nieces’ team faced held a 2-1 lead with seconds remaining, but a late equalizer forced extra time.  After two scoreless periods in extra time, both of these teams would encounter the cruel ending that is penalty kicks for the first time in their lives.

My precocious nieces feel the nervousness when they perform penalties on FIFA 09, and now, they were selected to be two of the penalty takers in the shootout.  They invoked the power of prayer as a vehicle for their jangling nerves while they watched their teammates take their penalties and awaited their own.  They both made their penalties, but after each team took their five penalties, both teams were still tied.  The sixth penalty proved pivotal as my nieces’ team converted their penalty and the opposition missed theirs.  Even at such a young age, the famous Jim McKay line “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” felt appropriate because while my nieces’ team celebrated, their opposition could not hold back their tears.

The most telling difference between watching professionals in various European leagues and watching children in this U-10 tournament was the willingness of the children to adapt to their surroundings versus the paid football players.  A torrent of rain surged through the city hosting this tournament the night before the competition started, and when my nieces’ first match kicked off at 12:30 PM the next day, they trudged through a mushy pitch that bore little grass with which to begin because the last vestiges of winter still reigned even though spring temperatures had sprung up sporadically.

Bad bounces, balls halting to a complete stop while dribbling, and frequent slips that these children endured would discourage many professionals.  The chronic carping and lamenting of the surface would have been endless from the professionals, but the children continued to play their football as though the pitch compared to the old Wembley Stadium.

Covering professionals for a living can jade the most optimistic of journalists, but if they need a break from the constant petulance and complaining of grown men who earn millions of Euros, attend a match or competition involving young children.  They just want to play.  Although you get the occasional parent who goes overboard, the purity of the sport lies here in these children.

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 chance to grab at least a share of the lead away from the Blaugrana until the second Clásico meeting on April 11, but this unforeseen gift, wrapped in a bow by their archrivals to the northeast, laid at the doorstep of the Bernabéu for the Madridistas to open gleefully.

Unfortunately, Xabi Alonso put it into his own net in the 10th minute, and Ivica Dragutinovic scored an unlikely free kick that was meant to be crossed into a flood of players.  Iker Casillas and Xabi Alonso looked at each other with contempt as both expected one another to handle the harmless ball.  Xabi Alonso let the ball sail over his head, assuming that Casillas would catch it on the bounce.  Casillas anticipated Xabi Alonso to head the ball away to safety and therefore did not cover the left post.  The ball furtively sneaked into the bottom left corner of the net, and Sevilla held a 0-2 lead at the Santiago Bernabéu with 38+ minutes remaining.

A loss for Real Madrid against Sevilla, even in the capital city, would not have been a shocking revelation, and a defeat to the Andalusians would still have Los Blancos a mere three points behind Barcelona with thirteen matches left to overturn the deficit. Real Madrid manager Manuel Pellegrini entertained zero options of settling, as he removed Álvaro Arbeloa and Lassana Diarra from the action in the 55th minute and sent in two creative midfielders, Rafael van der Vaart and Guti, to revitalize the incessant but stagnant attack.

Observing that Sevilla had only one shot on target in fifty-five minutes, the unlikely Dragutinovic goal, Pellegrini concluded that there was little need for a second defensive midfielder and a stay-at-home left back.  Real Madrid played intricate football in the middle of the pitch, used both flanks effectively, and dabbled in a more direct, long-ball approach up to that point, but Sevilla goalkeeper Andrés Palop and his defensive line held firm without a breach of goal.  Los Nervionenses cared little that their two goals came courtesy of a Xabi Alonso own goal and miscommunication between Iker Casillas and Xabi Alonso on a Dragutinovic free kick.

Rafael van der Vaart and Guti certainly have the fecundity to create and exploit any gaps within the Sevilla defense, and each had differing problems with Pellegrini this season.  Van der Vaart was supposed to be gone in the previous summer transfer window.  He was not in Pellegrini’s blueprints to the point where Esteban Granero was given van der Vaart’s number 23 in the preseason.  Wesley Sneijder, exiled by Real Madrid and eventually sold to Inter Milan, more than suggested to van der Vaart that he should leave to join a club that wanted him.

Van der Vaart stubbornly stayed with Madrid, feeling as though he was good enough for the team and wanted to prove his Madrid doubters wrong.  While he has fought injuries throughout the season, van der Vaart showed himself to be the third attacking midfielder with Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaká.

As for José María Gutiérrez Hernández, that man known as Guti, Guti is and will always be Guti.  Perpetually and chronically incorrigible, he has gotten under the skin of every Real Madrid manager since he first made it to the senior squad.  If anyone tugs on his gossamer robe, he lashes out and leaves no one in his wake.

For a character like that, he should have been booted out years ago, but he still roams the pitch at the Santiago Bernabéu because of his truly world-class vision and passing distribution.  The term “world-class” is bandied around quite frequently, but for Guti, the label fits.  If he did not possess this type of talent, there is no way manager after manager would have kept this turbulent truculent on their squads.

Manuel Pellegrini could have easily phased out both van der Vaart and Guti if he let his ego get the best of him, but when the bell rung, he employed the players best suited for the situation rather than use others just because they did not vex him.  What Madrid needed in the final half-hour against Sevilla were players that forced Sevilla’s defensive and midfield lines to lose their shape.

Sergio Ramos getting R-rated after heading in the equalizer.

Whereas the field tilted toward Andrés Palop’s goal in the first half, this Madrid torrent in the second half completely inundated everyone with a red tinge.  A 60th minute Cristiano Ronaldo strike that benefited from a wicked Marius Stankevicius deflection and a 64th minute Sergio Ramos header from a van der Vaart corner turned the match completely around in the ten minutes since the substitutes entered the match.  Guti struck the crossbar, and Gonzalo Higuaín hit the post and the crossbar on two separate shots in the ensuing ten minutes after the Ramos equalizer, but Pellegrini was not done with his tinkering.

In the 75th minute, he made the bold move of withdrawing the €65 million Kaká in favor of Real Madrid’s all-time leading scorer Raúl, who has made very few appearances since losing his starting spot early in the season.  Kaká had a decent game, but van der Vaart and Guti accomplished more in twenty minutes than Kaká did in seventy-five.  Pellegrini, soft-spoken but strong in his convictions, knew the gravity of the situation and wanted no less than three points.

An ultra-offensive 4-1-3-2 formation proved to be too much for Sevilla, as Rafael van der Vaart outmuscled Stankevicius for a rebound from three yards out and converted his scoring chance after Palop understandably gave up a rebound from Higuaín’s header in the second minute of stoppage time.

The euphoria felt and created by the players sent the Madridistas into a higher state of consciousness as they witnessed the most electric thirty minutes of the La Liga season.  Pellegrini, always the levelheaded statesman, put this match into its proper perspective when he spoke with Spanish sports daily Marca:

“There are still 39 points to play for.  These are three important points.  We will only be happy when our final objectives are obtained.  Now we depend on ourselves.”

With all the emotion spent on conquering this two-goal deficit against Sevilla, Real Madrid will have little time to recover because they host Lyon on Wednesday in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League tie down a single goal.  Whether they maintain this surging momentum into that match remains to be seen, and for all the plaudits and accolades they received on Saturday, a deluge of harsh criticism will be levied upon them if they fail to defeat Lyon and advance to the quarterfinals of the Champions League.

That discussion, however, is for another day.  Real Madrid and Barcelona are tied at the top of La Liga with thirteen matches remaining.  Barcelona has the edge because they defeated Real 1-0 in November, and as the famous Liverpool manager Bill Shankly once quipped:

If you are first, you are first.  If you are second, you are nothing.

Real Madrid would not want it any other way.

Fueras de Juego

- Athletic Bilbao’s resurgence this season is due to many factors, including a stellar home record and Fernando Llorente leading the line, but some credit has to go to Gaizka Toquero, the perfect wingman to Llorente’s hold-up play.  Once a lower division vagabond with such illustrious clubs as SD Lemona, Sestao River Club, and SD Eibar, he caught the eye of Bilbao, although he was not in manager Joaquín Caparrós’ plans when Toquero first arrived in Bilbao.  He scored both of Athletic’s goals in their routine 2-0 win over Real Valladolid on Sunday, including a clinical finish off the short-hop to give his team an insurmountable two-goal advantage.

- Felicitaciones to Xerez as they won their first match away from home in the top flight after defeating an in-form Málaga 2-4 in a match that featured two red cards, nine yellow cards and a penalty miss and a penalty make by Xerez winger Momo.  Xerez manager Néstor Gorosito had an impossible task of keeping Xerez afloat after he replaced José Ángel Ziganda in January, and while Xerez is still ten points adrift of safety, Gorosito has instilled confidence in a team that had none before he arrived.

- The weekly drama that is Atlético Madrid came up with another plot twist, as Ibrahima Baldé scored in stoppage time to give Los Colchoneros an undeserved 1-1 draw.  A poor match in terms of quality, Diego Forlán was livid when he was substituted with thirty minutes left, and Atleti seemed to release the guillotine on itself after José Antonio Reyes received a straight red card for flailing his arm at Eliseu Pereira, although what little contact Reyes made on Eliseu sent him into “unfathomable” pain.  Clearly frustrated by Zaragoza’s bounty on him, he decided to take the law into his own hands in a half-hearted attempt to send a message.  If Atlético manager Quique Sánchez Flores has not already been prescribed Thorazine, Zyprexa, or any other antipsychotic drug because he has to deal with this club on a daily basis, he needs them now.

A half-empty stadium.  A running track surrounding the pitch that places the fans further away from the action.  Supporters that create less noise and din than those at the Vancouver Olympic Centre, where the Olympic Curling competition is contested.  The ONO Estadi hardly constitutes as an intimidating atmosphere, but RCD Mallorca has managed to maintain a perfect ten-for-ten home record in La Liga.

Twenty-seven goals scored and three conceded show their dominance on the Balearic island, but whom they beat in this incredible home record somewhat sullies their sparkling home form.  Valencia and none of the Champions League teams have visited the ONO Estadi.  Defeating Athletic Bilbao, Deportivo La Coruña, and Villarreal created a few notches on Mallorca’s belt, but their horrific standing away from home means that they need to secure positive results against the top teams in La Liga in order to remain in the final Champions League spot.

The late 10:00 PM Saturday kickoff saw Mallorca play Sevilla, one of their direct rivals competing for fourth place.  They knew that Deportivo La Coruña came through victoriously over Xerez 2-1 at El Riazor earlier in the evening and climbed one point over them.

Squad rotation in anticipation of Sevilla’s Champions League first leg against CSKA Moskva on Wednesday and injuries meant that they did not present their strongest eleven against Los Barralets.  Sevilla manager Manolo Jiménez omitted Diego Perotti, Luís Fabiano, Adriano Correia, and Julien Escudé, whereas Frédéric Kanouté could not pass a late fitness test.

Mallorca, however, fielded their optimal eleven, although their bench was thin due to injuries for Víctor Casadesús, Tuni, and Alhassane Keita.  Eager to quiet the skeptics about their weak home strength of schedule to this point, they wanted to regain their leads over Sevilla and Deportivo La Coruña.

Mallorca’s fans did not receive the memo, as the team’s most important match of the season was not enough to tempt them to fill the ONO Estadi.  The status quo prevailed for the islanders as the stadium featured many empty seats and unexceptional support from their fans.  Unfazed by this, Mallorca did what they have done all season at home: score first.

Ayoze sent a through ball down the left flank for Gonzalo Castro to run onto, and Castro’s cross into the box avoided the head of Sevilla defender Ivica Dragutinović and bounced straight to the unmarked Borja Valero.  He could not take the shot first-time, so he controlled it with one touch, but Andrés Palop rushed quickly toward him to take it off his foot.  Valero dribbled past Palop, but his touch took him to the brink of the end line, where he cut back a squared pass to Mario Suárez.  Suárez tapped it home for the 1-0, 5th minute lead.  Replays only showed inconclusiveness about whether the whole of the ball went out before Valero crossed it, but nevertheless, the goal stood.

Dudu Aouate has been a solid goalkeeper all season and directly contributed to Mallorca’s fifth-place defense, twenty-four goals allowed in twenty-two matches.  He plays with an aggressive flair, but this cost him in the 23rd minute, when he inexplicably scurried out of his box to clear a long ball from Fernando Navarro.  Aouate had no chance of getting to the ball because the breathless speed of Jesús Navas would always arrive first.  Navas took a touch around Aouate and guided a left-footed effort into the open net from just inside of the penalty box.

When Álvaro Negredo received a straight red card in the 24th minute for a deliberate kick on José Luís Martí, another Mallorca home triumph seemed imminent.  The red card was a little harsh, but Negredo’s petulancy and skulduggery cost his side a man for the final 66+ minutes.  Mallorca controlled the rest of the first half, which included a perfect opportunity for an anonymous Aritz Aduriz to boot in a beautiful Borja Valero early cross, but he could not steer it towards goal.  Aduriz and Negredo are currently in a battle for the final spot for forwards in the Spanish national team with Dani Güiza, Fernando Llorente, and Roberto Soldado, and neither Aduriz nor Negredo would give national team coach Vicente del Bosque anything to add to their résumés.

Heading toward a 1-1 halftime score, Mallorca defender Iván Ramis tried to retrieve possession away from Didier Zokora and scissor-tackled him from behind in the second minute of stoppage time.  Referee Fernando Teixeira Vitienes was not hesitant in flashing the red card, and Mallorca’s advantage withered away.  1-1 halftime.  Although the two teams combined for twenty-six fouls, three yellow cards, and two red cards, the play, as a whole, was neither dirty nor overly physical.  Spanish referees tend to call the match a little tighter than most referees, but Teixeira Vitienes’ fastidious nature led to many of these calls when they were not necessarily as bad as he saw them.

When Sevilla scored in the 57th minute to take the one-goal advantage, the invincibility that shielded this Mallorca club at home disappeared for the first time all season.  Ivica Dragutinović made Aouate look like a fool as his free kick from near the right touchline curled over Aouate’s outstretched hand and into the top left corner of the net.  Aouate cheated and took a couple of steps forward and off his line in anticipation of a cross, and he could not recover once he saw that the free kick was heading toward goal.  Two goalkeeping mistakes from the Israeli international, and Mallorca could not recoup.

Sevilla would score a third goal six minutes later, but the defeated attitude that Mallorca displayed for most of the second half meant that 1-2 would have been enough for the Andalusians.  Mallorca substitute Pierre Webó became one of the few Mallorca players to display the gusto needed to achieve a positive result against Sevilla, but his efforts were in vain as he did not receive the help needed to overturn the two-goal deficit.  Paradoxically, Mallorca played with the spirit and desire required of them to defeat top opposition when they fell two goals behind, but as the full time whistle blew, Mallorca suffered its first defeat at the ONO Estadi in the league.

It was not the final whistle, however, as someone in the crowd ridiculously decided to bring his own whistle and declared the match over before Teixeira Vitienes blew his whistle for fulltime.  Less than a minute later, the match was officially over, but the whistle in the crowd meant much more than a fan frustrated with his home team’s effort.

Unless Mallorca can ameliorate their enigmatic road form, they will need to secure points against Barcelona, Real Madrid, Valencia, and Atlético Madrid at home in order to maintain a top six spot and be invited into European competition next season.  Sevilla righted their ship and are now four points ahead of Deportivo La Coruña and five points ahead of Mallorca for the final Champions League place.  Athletic Bilbao crept to within one point of Mallorca with their 4-1 mauling of Tenerife at the San Mamés for the final Europa League spot, so Mallorca cannot afford to be mediocre the rest of the way.

It would be fatuous to declare that Mallorca’s season would be a disappointment if they do not finish in a European place because at this point last season, they were mired in the relegation zone.  Their perfect home record was never going to last, but the way in which they conceded the loss to Sevilla unveiled their growing fatigue.  Unless they receive a surge of vitality, do not be surprised to see this engaging club fall into mid-table before the season concludes.

Fueras de Juego

- Look at Barcelona’s second goal against Racing Santander to see how not to perform the responsibilities of a player in the wall on a free kick.  Thierry Henry’s free kick would have bounced off the middle of the wall if the Racing players were brave enough to take the hit.  Instead, the wall broke in the middle as they parted like the Red Sea, and Barcelona was on their way to another easy victory.

- Almería 1-0 Atlético Madrid.  Every adjective and description should be and has been used for Los Colchoneros this season.  It was almost expected for Atleti to struggle against low-lying Almería after they handed Barcelona its first defeat in La Liga.

- A couple of tributes at the Santiago Bernabéu brought some perspective to the weekly “importance” of football matches.  Before kickoff, there was a minute of silence for the death of Real Madrid legend Luis Molowny.  Then there was Cristiano Ronaldo’s tribute to his home island Madeira after he scored the opening goal for Real Madrid against Villarreal.  He lifted his jersey to reveal the written “Madeira” on his undershirt.  A simple and understated message for his homeland, who has endured floods and mudslides that have killed at least forty-three and injured many others with many still missing to this point.  He will play in a charity match for the flood victims between FC Porto and an amalgamation of players from the two Madeira-based Portuguese Liga sides, C.S. Marítimo and CD Nacional at a date later to be determined.

In terms of the football played on the pitch, the Sevilla – Real Madrid clash qualified as the best match of the young La Liga season.  Honorable mentions to Athletic Bilbao’s 3-2 victory over Villarreal CF in Round 3 and the pulsating 2-2 draw between Valencia and Atlético Madrid last Saturday night, but this fixture contained everything that a writer and a supporter wanted: back stories prior to the game, vigorous and attacking football, tensions boiling over the players at hand, and incredible stops by both goalkeepers.  All of these elements amalgamated into an ebullient effervescence of magical football.

The story that dominated this game prior to kick-off was the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo due to an ankle injury sustained in Real’s 3-0 victory over Olympique de Marseille in the Champions League on Wednesday.  In Real’s Round 2 match-up with Espanyol, Ronaldo started on the bench and only held a 0-1 lead at Estadi Cornellà-El Prat when he came into the game in the 66th minute and immediately changed the game.  Now that Madrid could not rely on Ronaldo versus a quality side like Sevilla, would Madrid respond positively to their first significant injury crisis of the season?

The first half hour of the match saw Sevilla control the tempo and possession, as they kept Real Madrid on their heels.  Real changed their system slightly with a 4-2-2-2 with Karim Benzema and Raúl up front with Guti and Kaká just behind and Xabi Alonso and Mahmadou Diarra protecting the defensive four, but this change did nothing to prevent Sevilla’s waves of attacks.  Man of the match Jesús Navas ran rampant down the right flank as Marcelo continually abandoned his defensive responsibilities at left back; even when Marcelo stayed disciplined, Navas went through and around him with relative ease.  One of Marcelo’s forays into the offensive third, however, did result in one of Madrid’s best scoring chances in the half when his shot from just outside the penalty box went a couple of feet wide of Andrés Palop’s near post.  The only negatives for Sevilla were that they did not capitalize on their numerous chances and Sébastien Squillaci had to be taken out of the game due to injury.  Fernando Navarro came in for Squillaci, reshaped the defense with Abdoulay Konko moving into the center of defense from right back, Adriano switched flanks and went to right back, and Navarro filled in at left back.

Sevilla broke the deadlock in the 33rd minute, when Jesús Navas headed home the opening goal.  The opportunity started with Diego Perotti cutting into the penalty area from the left flank.  Taking defenders with him, he flicked a back heel into open space down the left wing, where Fernando Navarro ran onto the pass and perfected a pinpoint cross to Navas in the box.  Not known for his heading ability, Navas would not win many standing aerial battles, but the teasing cross by Navarro gave Navas the ability to get a running start and beat a ball-watching Marcelo to give Sevilla the 1-0 lead.

The underlying tension and visible frustrations of Real Madrid came to a head in the 35th minute.  After a foul on Guti, Didier Zokora shouted some nasty words into Guti’s ear, presumably for Guti going down easily.  Guti retaliated by getting into Zokora’s face, and in response, Zokora put his hands onto Guti’s mouth and shoved him away.  Guti and Zokora nearly came to blows, while Diego Perotti involved himself in the mêlée by shoving Guti in the back to stand up for his teammate.  By this time, most of the players tried to sort out exactly what happened and kept each other from worsening the situation.  Zokora, Perotti, and Guti all got yellow cards, but symbolically, Sevilla showed they were not afraid of Real and further buoyed them to attack the Real goal.

Until the third minute of the second half, Sevilla continued to boss the game, but a Pepe equalizing header from a Guti free kick tied the score at 1-1.  In less than thirty seconds, Sevilla went from a potential 2-0 lead and certain victory to a 1-1 dogfight.  In the events immediately preceding the Pepe header, Álvaro Negredo showed his speed for a big man and ran down the right wing near the by-line.  He squared the cross across the six-yard box and Perotti had the simple finish, but somehow, Iker Casillas got across the goal line and stopped a certain goal at the far post.  Casillas was in position at the right goal post to stifle any attempt by Negredo to shoot at the near post, but when Negredo passed the ball across the six-yard box, there was a 99.9% chance that a goalkeeper could not recover and get to the other post in that short of a span.  Casillas got there and stunned Perotti, the team, and the fans; that is why Iker Casillas is in that 0.1% of goalkeepers.

That goal temporarily took the wind out of Sevilla’s sails, and Real Madrid began to take the game to Sevilla for the first time in the match.  Gonzalo Higuaín replaced an ineffective and virtually non-existent Karim Benzema in the 53rd minute and contributed almost immediately with some trenchant runs and a couple of shots at goal.  Sevilla halted the momentum train in the 66th minute when Renato scored to regain the lead at 2-1.  From a short corner, Adriano’s cross picked out an unmarked Renato who headed it towards the left far post for the goal; even the sublime Iker Casillas had no shot this time.

For the rest of the match, they went tit for tat, climaxing on the last movement of play in the fourth minute of stoppage time.  After Casillas saved another shot by Luís Fabiano, he quickly punted the ball, and the ball cushioned on the chest of Higuaín.  He settled it, made a mad dash toward goal, and laid the ball off for Kaká.  Kaká then gave Sergio Ramos a lovely through ball at the right side of the penalty area.  Ramos controlled the pass with one touch and then gave a last second, desperate lash at the ball, but it sailed wide of Palop’s near post.  End-to-end action from kick-off to the final whistle, literally.  A conclusion any less compelling would have taken away from a truly scintillating affair.

There are still thirty-two matches left in the season, and this result could have less importance by the end of the campaign, but that is for the future to tell.  Many will say that Cristiano Ronaldo could have legitimately made the difference in the result for Real Madrid.  That very well may be true, but placing that aside for a moment, for this night, in this context, the match of the season shook the players and the observers to their respective cores and witnessed gripping football at its very essence.

Sevilla’s 2-1 victory over Real Madrid on Sunday night signaled a change in many people’s minds about La Liga only being a two-horse race this season.  With Real Madrid and FC Barcelona maintaining 100% records through the first five rounds, this talk looked justified, but lurking behind with only one loss was Sevilla.  Disrespected would not be the appropriate description that defined Sevilla’s chances to claim the domestic title, but they were certainly overlooked.  Until they engineered a convincing victory over Barça or Real, they would continue to be the outsiders looking into the palace.  They are outsiders no more.

Photo courtesy of izalldos

Tuesday and Wednesday brought about Match Day 2 in the UEFA Champions League, and the four representatives from Spain had interesting ties that helped shape their respective groups.  On Tuesday, Sevilla FC visited Rangers FC at the Ibrox Stadium, where the European night atmosphere is second to none, buoying their beloved Gers, and FC Barcelona hosted FK Dynamo Kyiv at the Camp Nou, where both teams headed into this clash with undefeated records in both league and in Europe.  On Wednesday, Real Madrid faced Olympique de Marseille at the Santiago Bernabéu, where Gabriel Heinze and Fernando Morientes played against their former employers in white, and Atlético Madrid tried to forget their domestic troubles at the Estádio do Dragão against FC Porto.

Rangers knocked Sevilla on their heels in the first half, keeping up with Sevilla’s passing football as well as using their robust style to wear down the opposition.  The height of the half culminated in the 36th minute, when Abdoulay Konko tackled Steven Naismith inside the penalty area, and referee Jonas Eriksson continued play.  There was little doubt about the legitimacy of Naismith’s claim for a penalty, as Konko made no contact with the ball and clearly took out the ankle of Naismith.

Up to that point, Rangers was even with Sevilla, but a pivotal call, or non-call in this case, changes the momentum of a match, and instead of a likely 1-0 to the home side and an extra boost to an already rapturous Ibrox crowd, Sevilla rode its bit of luck and scored four goals in a span of twenty-four minutes in the second half to secure the three points and seize control of Group G.  Rangers would ruin Andrés Palop’s clean sheet in the 88th minute by a Nacho Novo strike, a goal fully deserved for their valiant performance, but Sevilla is the class of this group and should cruise to first place at the end of the group stage.

Even though Barcelona was at home and dominated their five games in La Liga, they were wary of Dynamo Kyiv and their attacking threats of Oleh Husyev, Andriy Shevchenko and Artem Milevskiy.  Dynamo remained competitive for the opening fifteen minutes, but eventually the Barcelona Way overshadowed any attempt of Kyiv to produce any significant buildup play.  When Dynamo had possession, either Barcelona took it away quickly, or they resorted to long balls.  Barcelona forced them out of character, as they do with most teams, and their possession strategy created a plethora of chances, two of which they converted for a simple 2-0 win.  The blaugrana will not be amused with their abnormal amount of giveaways or the lack of finishing that could have spelled another two to three goals, but a solid team effort and a comfortable 2-0 win sends Barcelona to the top of the group.

Real Madrid and Manuel Pellegrini tweaked the formation and lineup for Wednesday evening’s fixture with Marseille by forming a three-man front line with the three big signings of the offseason: Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Kaká.  With Guti behind the three as the roaming creative force, there was no room for Raúl in the starting XI.  At the moment, Pellegrini’s rotational policy has not created any problems in the dressing room, and if they continue to win, the players will continue to buy into him.  It is clear that Pellegrini does not quite have the grasp of how to shape this Madrid team in the best way possible as of yet, and the first forty-five minutes showed a work in progress despite its blistering start domestically.  A combination of Marseille’s work rate and discipline and Real Madrid’s tentativeness and lack of understanding within the attacking trio led to a dull first half.  In spite of a 57/43 possession ratio in favor of Los Blancos, Marseille was on equal footing, canceled out Madrid for the most part, and generated chances of their own.

Similar to the Sevilla-Rangers match, where Sevilla changed the momentum in a short time gap, Real Madrid tallied three times in a span of six minutes, including a penalty resulting from a second yellow card for Marseille central defender Souleymane Diawara that sealed any chance for Marseille to play their way back into the match.  Replays showed that Diawara made contact with the ball first, but the apparent severity of the challenge on Ronaldo forced referee Martin Hansson to flash the yellow card and send Diawara off.  With AC Milan suffering a shock 0-1 defeat at the San Siro by the hands of FC Zürich, Real Madrid has complete control of Group C.   This season, Madrid has had a tendency to let the opposition hang around and not step on their throats when they have the chance, but as the chemistry continues to develop and the familiarity increases, expect Real to salt these types of games away sooner and with more verve.

Poor Atlético Madrid.  They need some alone time to figure out their problems and deficiencies.  In the limelight of the Champions League and La Liga, however, all their frailties are shown for everyone to see, and they cannot hide.  Their Champions League matchup with FC Porto could not come at a better time.  Already struggling in the league, Atlético saw this match as an opportunity to leave their past troubles behind and start anew.  Even though Porto was a quality side who advanced to the quarterfinals of the Champions League last season by defeating Atlético on the away goals rule, a positive result could spark a much-needed boost within the team.

An ominous sign came in the 26th minute when an apparent groin injury to backup goalkeeper Roberto forced manager Abel Resino to substitute in eighteen-year-old Atlético Madrid product David de Gea for his first senior appearance.  Through the first 70+ minutes, the match was lively yet scrappy with much congestion in the midfield.  Porto had the slight edge, but there was hardly anything between them.  Then a slice a magic engineered by Porto swung the match in their favor.

In the 75^th minute, Falcao scored an incredible goal to take the 1-0 lead.  Raul Meireles started the move with a pinged cross-field ball to Hulk in the box.  Hulk then blasted his shot at the right near post but de Gea brushed it aside.  The rebound came straight back to Hulk, however, but he completely mishit it.  He was able to recover, settle the ball, and square a pass to Falcao, who attempted a daring back heel and converted the shot to take a late 1-0 lead.  Los Colchoneros did not convalesce and eventually conceded a second goal to suffer another defeat.  Now they have to travel to Stamford Bridge to confront an in-form Chelsea team who will look to secure a likely spot into the knockout stages with a win over Atlético on Match Day 3.  Abel Resino did get a public vote of confidence from the Atlético brass, but that kind of endorsement usually means very little, and more results like this will lead to his sacking sooner rather than later.