Maybe Florentino Pérez might start to appreciate Gonzalo Higuaín now.

The man that Pérez wanted to offload since he returned for his second stint as Real president sits in the stands because he is recovering from surgery that repaired a herniated lumbar disc in his back, and José Mourinho has not developed a successful system to cope with this loss.  The natural deputy for Higuaín is Karim Benzema, the talented and young French international who came with his own expectations when Real splashed a cool €35 million in the summer of 2009, but he has failed to impress since arriving at the Bernabéu.

This injury was so severe for Higuaín that he was an unused substitute in Real’s most important match of the season to this point against FC Barcelona, and Barça drubbed los blancos 5-0.  Benzema, thrown unexpectedly into the Camp Nou cauldron because of Higuaín’s absence, predictably let the moment get to him and became largely ineffective against the Catalans.  To be fair, the whole squad had run out of any plausible ideas against Barça, but setting aside El Clásico, Benzema, in essence, was on trial for his future in Madrid from that match forward because Higuaín’s layoff from action extended from a week to a couple weeks to four months when the doctors recommended surgery.

Without looking deeply into the statistics, since Benzema became the starting striker against Barcelona prior to the Mallorca match on Sunday, he had scored six goals in eleven matches in all competitions.  Any top-notch striker strives for a goal ratio of one every two games, and Benzema surpassed that, but those six goals came in two matches: a hat-trick against Auxerre in the final match of the UEFA Champions League group stage, when Real already secured the top spot in the group; and a hat-trick against lowly Levante in the first leg of the Copa del Rey Round of 16, when Real ran rampant on the Valencians with an 8-0 thrashing.

Seven appearances in La Liga accrued zero goals, and in five of those matches, Mourinho substituted him.  The real indication, however, that Mourinho did not trust in Benzema came last round against Almería, when he was not named in the starting eleven, and Cristiano Ronaldo, an attacking midfielder, played as the lone striker up front with Ángel di María, Mesut Özil, and Kaká supporting Ronaldo.  In their next match in midweek against Atlético Madrid, with the tie still alive in the Copa del Rey, Mourinho opted again to place Ronaldo up front and leave Benzema on the bench.

Since Mourinho settled on his optimal starting eleven after the first few weeks of the season to gauge the situation himself with his new club, he hardly made any changes from week to week, so for Mourinho to experiment wildly with his lineup this far into the campaign showed signs of confusion and desperation within the technical staff about the current state of affairs.

Regardless of whatever happens with Real Madrid, calm or stormy, the rumors always fly around them during any January transfer window about whom they are going to sign, and with the Higuaín injury and the Benzema ineffectiveness, the names floated around.  Hugo Almeida, Emmanuel Adebayor, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Miroslav Klose, Didier Drogba, and now Roman Pavlyuchenko.  The players would never admit to this, but the dissent apparent among Mourinho, Pérez, and technical director Jorge Valdano concerning the striker question is indirectly affecting their play on the pitch, and with Barcelona routinely cruising to three, four, and five goal victories, any slip-up is magnified hundred-fold.

Despite the drama enveloping events at the Santiago Bernabéu, they have won every single match at home in all competitions this season, and after their 1-1 debacle at the Estadio Juegos Mediterráneos against Almería, Real needed the comfort of the Bernabéu to assuage their growing concerns.

Unfortunately, they hosted a Mallorca team that earned a share of the points at the Iberostar Stadium against Real in the opening round of the season, and Michael Laudrup’s team had no intention of bowing for their illustrious opponents.  In three matches as manager against the club with whom he used to play, two with Getafe and one with Mallorca, Real had only scored one goal in those three games, and in a famous 0-1 win for Getafe in February 2008, Ikechukwu Uche fired the lone goal immediately after the Real players were celebrating an Arjen Robben goal that was nullified by referee Arturo Daudén Ibáñez because he correctly ruled Raúl offside.  The win for Getafe spoiled Real Madrid perfect home record that season, and Laudrup’s Mallorca wanted to repeat the same feat on Sunday.

Laudrup has a different type of squad with Mallorca than he had with Getafe, and he cannot play the free-flowing, open type of football for long stretches like he did with Getafe.  Pablo Hernández, Ikechukwu Uche, and Manu worked and created seamlessly at Getafe to play as Laudrup wanted, and while Pierre Webó, Gonzalo Castro, Emilio Nsue, etc. are decent attacking players, they are not the type of players that will scare opposing defenses for more than a few occasions in a match.  What he does have at Mallorca is a pair of central defenders that will rival any duo in Spain, Iván Ramis and José Nunes, and a goalkeeper that continues to be underrated and under-appreciated among the Spanish scribes, Dudu Aouate.

Mallorca limited Real to a few scoring chances in their 0-0 draw in August, and when Real bossed the match in the second half and pinned all ten Mallorca players in their own half, Aouate made a multitude of outstanding saves, and Ramis and Nunes closed down and blocked several shots that would have menaced Aouate’s goal.

With Webó’s strike partner Víctor Casadesús out for eight to ten weeks with a thigh injury, both Jonathan de Guzman and Pep Lluís Martí on the sidelines with minor knee injuries, and right back Pau Cendrós suspended, Laudrup could have expected to defend for most of Sunday’s match, similar to the second half of the reverse fixture earlier in the season.

Mourinho tinkered with his lineup again, benching Xabi Alonso, Sami Khedira, and Mesut Özil in favor of Fernando Gago, Esteban Granero, and Karim Benzema respectively.  With a Copa del Rey semifinal on Wednesday against Sevilla, Mourinho might have looked to rest a few players against Mallorca, but with Real blundering and bumbling through their last few matches, Mourinho could have easily been sending a message to his squad that no spot is guaranteed.  Without Benzema in the starting eleven for the past two matches, Real struggled to score, so with little choice, Mourinho stuck Benzema back up front.

While los merengues huffed and puffed in the first half, Mallorca’s Emilio Nsue had the best scoring chance of the half in the 13th minute when he shot from the right side of the penalty area across the face of goal toward the left far post and past Iker Casillas, but the post was unkind for Mallorca, pinging the ball away from goal.  Nsue entered into acres of space down the right wing because Marcelo was out of position inside Mallorca’s final third, and Casillas made sure that Marcelo knew that when he confronted Marcelo immediately after Nsue banged the post, displaying the increasingly frayed nerves and tensions among the Real players.

Mourinho admitted to his mistakes when he made two halftime changes, sending in Xabi Alonso and Mesut Özil and taking out Fernando Gago and Kaká.  In his press conference after the match, he stated how the Copa del Rey was a priority and because of that, he made a few changes because, in his words, “We [the coaching staff] have noted the physical and emotional wear and tear of the team at the moment.”

When Webó’s left-footed, pirouette first-time volley forced a stellar save by Casillas early in the second half, and referee Eduardo Iturralde González correctly did not call a handball in the box on Nunes in the 58th minute, it would not have been a stretch to imagine that Michael Laudrup would have done it again to his old team.  In all of this uncertainty, the opening goal went to Real just after the hour mark, and Karim Benzema, of all people, gave Madrid the 1-0 lead.

The build-up play set up Benzema in the box, with Ronaldo setting up Granero, who then played a through ball for Benzema.  Benzema still had plenty of work to do, and after a stepover and a dribble to create a crucial yard of room and to get the ball on his left foot, he rifled it to the left far post and past Aouate for a vital goal not only for this match but for Real’s hope of stealing the La Liga title away from Barcelona.

For the final half-hour, Real pounded Aouate’s box.  Ronaldo had a header that struck the crossbar, he also had a free kick that whizzed by the right far post by the width of a ball, and Benzema had three different chances to seal the victory, none of which he capitalized, reverting back to the Benzema that the Real fans knew.  Mallorca almost had the last laugh in the third minute of stoppage time when Nsue and Webó perfected a two-man game down the right side of the penalty area, leading to a Webó shot that needed the outstretched legs of Casillas to prevent from Mallorca equalizing at the death.

1-0 fulltime, and Real somehow pulled three points out of the Bermellón fire.

Real Madrid cannot stay in this form for too much longer if they want to reclaim La Liga from Barcelona, and while their next eight matches in the league would not worry them too much, save for Espanyol at the Cornellà – El Prat and maybe their match at home against Real Sociedad, it only takes one really poor performance as they had against Almería to squander their chance in La Liga.  They cannot ride the suggestion that Barcelona will drop points even though their world-beating ways must end at some point, and despite Cristiano Ronaldo’s Pichichi-leading twenty-two goals, he is not the answer as the lone striker up top.

There is one full week left in the transfer window, and Real Madrid may well provide the extra striker that Mourinho always wanted since he arrived in Madrid in the summer, but if Jorge Valdano wins Florentino Pérez’s influence over Mourinho, Benzema will be the man to shoulder the responsibility up front.  Speaking about Benzema after the match on the club website, Valdano continued to reiterate his support for Benzema:

“Goals are essential to strikers.  A striker needs confidence and it comes with goals.  He [Benzema] had a good game and scored a goal that allowed us to take three points.  In the past, it was players like Higuaín who had to resolve similar situations as they were heavily scrutinized, and Higuaín has turned out to be a great striker for Real Madrid. We hope the same happens to Benzema.”

While Valdano would definitely back Benzema since he was instrumental in bringing him to the Bernabéu in the summer of 2009, Benzema’s situation is strikingly similar to Higuaín when the Argentinean made his €13 million move from River Plate to Real Madrid in January 2007.  After a hit-and-miss year and a half at the Bernabéu, he banged in the goals at the end of the 2007-08 season to give Real their 31st league title, and Higuaín has never looked back.

Benzema’s goal against Mallorca on Sunday, his first in La Liga since September against Espanyol, could be the watershed moment that he needs to raise his confidence and become the striker that Valdano and Pérez saw with Lyon and the French national team.  Unfortunately, this was also said about his hat-trick against Auxerre and his hat-trick against Levante.

Fueras de Juego

- Valencia and nine-man Málaga’s 4-3 thriller at the Mestalla further ingrained the opinions about each team.  For Valencia, their attack is much more effective when both Roberto Soldado and Aritz Aduriz pair up together, and Valencia’s shaky second-half defense will cost them important points that could determine if they earn a Champions League berth at the end of the season.  For Málaga, their numerous signings this January should keep them from the relegation fight because their attacking talent should carry them through, but their defense continues to leak goals, conceding forty-five, eleven more than the next worst defenses, Almería and Levante.

- Cani did not score another goal from the halfway line, but Villarreal worked hard for their 2-1 victory over Real Sociedad to regain third place from Valencia and maintain a two-point lead over their provincial rivals.  Marco Rubén has been more than a capable deputy for Nilmar, and the jack-of-all-trades midfield work of Borja Valero and Bruno Soriano have returned the Yellow Submarine back to its lofty perch of a top-three Spanish side.

- If Atlético Madrid’s limp performance in the second leg of the Copa del Rey quarterfinal against Real Madrid signaled trouble at the Vicente Calderón, their 1-0 defeat at El Molinón against relegation-fighting Sporting Gijón was outright impotent.  The absence of Sergio “Kun” Agüero and Atlético’s corresponding poor showings without him proves the point that he is more valuable to the Atleti at this moment than Diego Forlán, and whereas Marco Rubén has filled in admirably for Nilmar, Diego Costa has not provided that same spark deputizing for Agüero.  Atlético is starting to fall away from the top-five, seven points behind fifth-place Espanyol and ten points away from Valencia for the final Champions League spot, and Quique Sánchez Flores’ may face a sacking sooner than later.  Is that not the situation with every Atlético manager however?

Josep Guardiola, known for his cool demeanor inside and outside of the technical area, channeled his feelings for all things Madrid when he refused to give Cristiano Ronaldo the ball for a throw-in on the half-hour mark.  Unlike his outspoken and demonstrative counterpart José Mourinho, Guardiola usually keeps to himself, shouting and dictating to his players on the pitch on rare occasions.  Monday night’s match was El Clásico, however, and normal circumstances and situations have little bearing.  The ball had gone out of play, and Ronaldo wanted to take a throw-in quickly to continue what little momentum Real Madrid had going forward.  The ball fortuitously came to Guardiola, and in one of his less sporting moments, he held the ball away from Ronaldo and then eventually rolled it away from him.  Ronaldo took exception to such behavior and shoved him in the chest, starting a little fracas as the Barça players came to defend Guardiola while the Real players took Ronaldo’s side.

Mentioning how normal circumstances fly out of the window during El Clásico, Víctor Valdés, Gerard Piqué, and Carles Puyol would be the ones who would immediately soar into the affray because of their combative personalities, and on cue, Valdés received a yellow card for coming out of his penalty area to confront Ronaldo.  Who was the first one, however, to challenge Ronaldo for his behavior?  The mild-mannered and unassuming Andrés Iniesta.  Iniesta was the nearest Barça player to the situation, but Dani Alves, Lionel Messi, and Sergio Busquets were also around, saw exactly what Ronaldo did to Guardiola, and did not immediately react as Iniesta did.

By the time the Guardiola – Ronaldo showdown occurred, it was already 2-0 in favor of the Catalans, and that situation was the only fight that Real Madrid could muster throughout the whole of the match.

Before the match, Mourinho had to make one forced change to his settled starting eleven, as Gonzalo Higuaín failed to pass a late fitness test due to a back muscle injury, and the much-maligned Karim Benzema deputized for Higuaín as the lone center-forward.  Benzema had become 75th – 80th minute replacement for Higuaín in most of the matches this season, and he had provided some decent performances in those short stints.  He needed to fill Higuaín’s boots from the start of the match against their toughest and most important opponent, however, and Benzema’s few starts for Real Madrid this season were nothing about which to write.

Guardiola sent out his optimum eleven, which meant that the slightly more defensive Éric Abidal started at left back over the Brazilian Maxwell.  With Ángel di María and Cristiano Ronaldo on the flanks and willing to switch at any moment, Guardiola wanted the defensive assurances of Abidal to cover the Barça left wing.

From the opening minutes, this version of El Clásico did not resemble the tight, cagey matches from the previous season where both teams found it hard to penetrate the opposition’s defensive lines.  At least for FC Barcelona.

Lionel Messi, who had never scored against a José Mourinho-trained club, provided the ominous, early salvo in the sixth minute.  From the right edge of the penalty area, Messi audaciously chipped a ball to the left far post over Iker Casillas and pinged off the post for a momentary let-off for Real Madrid.  Gerard Piqué was making a late run to that left back post, but Messi’s universal skills could only mean that he intentionally went for the shot over Casillas rather than crossing for Piqué that happened to beat Casillas and clang the post.

Four minutes later, Barcelona would breakthrough with the opening goal by a combination between the two best midfielders in football, Andrés Iniesta and Xavi Hernández.  After another twenty to thirty pass move, Iniesta cut in from the left and drove a pass through the Real defense, and Marcelo, desperately sliding to intercept the pass, could only deflect it to Xavi, who had made a relatively rare darting run into the box, and with his feathery touch, volleyed it over Casillas with the side of his right boot to open the floodgates.

Barcelona would score again eight minutes later when Xavi returned to his maestro role in the midfield and gave David Villa a perfectly flighted forty-yard diagonal ball to the left wing.  Villa was the only debutant in Barcelona’s starting eleven to El Clásico, and he showed no signs of nerves as he cut into the box against Sergio Ramos and got the best of both Ramos and Casillas as his squared ball across the six-yard box avoided Ramos’ lunging tackle and crept under Casillas’ gloves to an open Pedro “Don’t call me Pedrito anymore” Rodríguez, and with an empty net in front of him, Pedro knocked it in from two yards out to extend the lead to two goal before twenty minutes had ticked off the clock.

The only legitimate shout for a potential goal for Real Madrid came in the 39th minute when Ronaldo and Valdés came together in the penalty area, and referee Eduardo Iturralde González ruled that Valdés just got a finger on the ball before Ronaldo got to it and thus it was a fair challenge.  The replay proved inconclusive as it looked as though both arrived at the ball at the exact same time.

MARCA, of course, disputed Iturralde González’s decision, and for MARCA‘s more “detailed” analysis of Iturralde González’s performance, click here.  If you cannot read Spanish or do not have a website translator, MARCA did do a decent job of somewhat maintaining neutrality, but they did mark the penalty shout as a “clear penalty” as well as emphasizing Messi’s yellow card just before the break for simulation following Ricardo Carvalho’s supposedly accidental shoulder to Messi’s face.

José Mourinho did make a halftime change in the hope of turning the match around, but curiously, he took off an admittedly ineffective Mesut Özil for the midfield destroyer Lassana Diarra.  Real’s defense did not improve, and within the first fifteen minutes of the second half, Barcelona doubled their lead to an astonishing 4-0.

Lionel Messi took the role from Xavi as the midfield general as he provided two assists for David Villa that both Iniesta and Xavi would gush over.  Villa’s first goal, Barcelona’s third goal, came about through a “simple” through ball in between two Real defenders, but the foresight Messi needed to visualize the pass was impeccable, and although Villa looked to be a quarter of a body length offside, the linesman did not raise his flag, and the rout ensued.

Villa’s second goal, Barcelona’s fourth goal, was all about Messi, as he delivered the best pass of the 600/700 that Barcelona executed in the match.  Xavi started the move by causing the turnover on Lassana Diarra in midfield, and Diarra cynically pulled Xavi back to prevent the counter-attack, but Barça maintained possession, and Iturralde González correctly played the advantage when most referees would have blown the whistle.  Messi then dribbled for a few yards when he saw Villa make a run down the left wing.  He executed a pinpoint thirty to forty yard diagonal pass on the ground through four Real players for Villa in stride, and Villa took the shot first-time with his right foot, in between the legs of an onrushing Casillas, into the back of the net for an improbably 4-0 lead.

Jeffrén Suárez would add a fifth at the end of the match to complete the humiliation, but the action did not end there.

Sergio Ramos was ready to take no prisoners.

Sergio Ramos decided upon himself to avenge his fallen teammates by scything through Lionel Messi’s left leg, then pushing Carles Puyol down by his face once referee Eduardo Iturralde González had flashed the red card at him, then tweaking Xavi’s chin as he left the pitch and into the tunnel.  In a match sprinkled with bouts of unsportsmanlike conduct, Ramos took that conduct to the highest (or lowest, depending on perspective) level with his one-man Rambo-like rampage in an act of petulance that should land him at least a three-match ban if not more.

Despite this 5-0 romp and the added satisfaction of embarrassing their eternal rivals, this match only counts for three points, and in the cold light of statistics, Barcelona only has a two-point lead over Real Madrid and a seven-point lead over Villarreal.  Guardiola and his players all spoke about how this result did not mean anything if they end up losing the championship, and they somewhat quelled the euphoria of the win with their levelheaded statements in the post-match press conferences.

A humbled José Mourinho gave all the credit to Barcelona and stated that it would be easy to move on from this match because they were outplayed in all aspects of the match, and no outside influences (refereeing decisions, close calls, etc.) would have made the difference in this edition of El Clásico.  He also mentioned that because they were blown out, the loss was easier to swallow rather than a close loss.  Of course, Mourinho would try to add a positive spin to an otherwise dire performance, but the gulf in class on this particular night should alarm Mourinho.  Even if a one-goal loss would have been harder to take, at least they would know that a small adjustment here or there could have made the difference among a loss, draw, or even a win, but a five-goal blowout only indicates that Mourinho still has plenty of work to compete with FC Barcelona if they are to capture La Liga for the first time since the 2007-08 season, a barren spell for los blancos.

Josep Guardiola and FC Barcelona vividly showed how the game of football could be so simple yet equally spectacular at the same time.  While it only meant three more points in their coffer, the confidence they can take from this stellar performance can carry them into the dregs of midseason and the long, winter months.

Xavi, Jorge Valdano, and others felt that this match should not have been played on Monday because it would lose its soul, but it gave everyone in Spain as well as around the world the chance to focus solely on these two teams, and the only conclusion that the viewers of the match can make is that FC Barcelona is truly the best team in world football.

Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo has been playing some of his best football since joining Real Madrid last season. Ronaldo has already scored 14 goals in just 12 matches in La Liga. Overall, the former Manchester United star has found the back of the net 18 times in just 19 games in all competitions.

Ronaldo had a very productive first season in Madrid but unfortunately the club failed to win any titles due to injuries which affected both Kaka and Ronaldo throughout the season. Now with Jose Mourinho in charge and Cristiano healthy and playing at a high level, Los Blancos will attempt to end their run of league defeats against rivals Barca. The absence of Kaka has not been felt this season due to Ronaldo’s form, Mourinho’s ability to motivate his squad and get the best out of his players as well as the addition of quality players such as Mesut Özil.

Mourinho will be looking to defeat Barcelona again after succeeding in doing so while in charge of Inter last season on the road to a Champions League triumph. Ronaldo’s performance will be key and it will be interesting to see whether Ronaldo can continue his scoring run and find the back of the net against the Catalan club.

Eduardo Iturralde González (!) will officiate El Clásico on Monday night.

The José Mourinho – Pep Guardiola headline and the Lionel Messi – Cristiano Ronaldo headline have been covered and written many times over, so this preview of El Clásico will try to avoid these subjects and focus on the other, less talked about aspects of the biggest game in Spanish football this season.

The man in the middle of the fray will be Eduardo Iturralde González, the dentist from Bilbao, who will referee his third Clásico and his second at the Camp Nou.  Those who watch Spanish football on a regular basis know Iturralde’s penchant for handing out multiple cards not necessarily because they were warranted but because of his overt need to control the match.  For visual proof, watch Iturralde González give Nikola Zigic a yellow card here in one of the longest booking sessions in the history of football.

Normally, the referees that are given this match are the most highly rated in Spain, as indicated by the last the ten Clásicos being overseen by only three referees: Manuel Mejuto González, Alberto Undiano Mallenco, and Luís Medina Cantalejo.  Mejuto González retired in the summer and Medina Cantalejo the summer before, so while Undiano Mallenco will most likely take charge of the Clásico in the Santiago Bernabéu in April, someone else had to take charge of the other Clásico.

If there were any refereeing new blood to throw into the Clásico fire, it would have been Carlos Velasco Carballo, who refereed his first matches in the UEFA Champions League group stage this season and has been praised by UEFA and the RFEF for his refereeing competency, but Eduardo Iturralde González got the call because of his experience refereeing this match.

Madridistas have long cried that Iturralde González harbored pro-Barça sympathies, and while these claims have little to no substance, they show the still-fractious regionalism that continues to exist in this somewhat more unified Spain as well as the almost life-or-death meaning of El Clásico with both the Merengues and the Culés.

Now to the players.  While Barcelona will have to devise more than a couple of strategies to limit Cristiano Ronaldo and Gonzalo Higuaín’s contributions, Sergio Busquets and the central defensive pairing of Carles Puyol and Gerard Piqué will deal with the two new additions to the attacking midfield, Ángel di María and Mesut Özil, and their abilities to create for Real’s scoring duo and to outpace the relatively slow defensive four, save for Dani Alves.  Kaká, Rafael van der Vaart, Marcelo and Guti roamed the same areas last season that di María and Özil currently occupy, and they could not force or guile their way through Barça’s underrated defensive shield.

While Ángel di María and Cristiano Ronaldo switch wings from time to time, di María usually bombs down the left wing, which means he will come against Dani Alves for most of the match.  This battle will be vital for their respective clubs because if di María can continually threaten Barcelona’s final third, that means that Alves has to be more of a stay-at-home fullback, and his important contributions to Barça’s attack will be limited.  If di María is ineffective, Alves will have the freedom to act as the right wingback that suits his abilities best, and he will create space for Messi, David Villa, Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta, etc. to retain possession and pry Spain’s best defense more often.

Mesut Özil has made the normally demanding Madridistas almost forget about the second most expensive transfer in football history, €65 million and currently injured Kaká.  Kaká was the central focus of the imperious attack at AC Milan, and when he brought his talents to the Santiago Bernabéu, little did he know that Florentino Pérez would sign Cristiano Ronaldo two days later to the largest transfer fee ever at €94 million.  Kaká never really fit in to Manuel Pellegrini’s system, and injuries hampered Kaká from ever fully integrating into the Real starting eleven.

With successful surgery on his left knee this past summer, Real faced four to six months without him, so new trainer José Mourinho was instrumental in signing Mesut Özil from Werder Bremen for a bargain price of €15 million, and after a couple of matches to get himself situated to his new surroundings and responsibilities, Özil has been just as important as Ronaldo and Higuaín for Real’s offensive output.

Özil is tied for the league lead with five assists as well as chipping in with three goals, but the statistics do not really tell all that Özil does for Real Madrid.  In hockey, assists are awarded not only to the player that passed to the person that scored but also to the player that passed to the principal assist man.  If football kept such statistics, Özil would likely lead the league with a double-digit assist count because he provides the link from Xabi Alonso deep in the midfield to di María, Ronaldo, and Higuaín up front, and Kaká will find it difficult to supplant the German international when he is fully fit from his knee surgery.

Sergio Busquets will have the responsibility to break up and disrupt Özil in the middle of the pitch, especially during counter-attacks.  Limiting Özil and di María to the periphery of the action should become Barcelona’s number one priority because accomplishing this task will isolate Ronaldo and Higuaín, and when they get frustrated, they both try to carry the whole team on their backs and will take ill-advised and speculative shots from all over the final third, which would suit Barcelona perfectly.

Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Villa, and Pedro Rodríguez will do what they do in Real’s final third.  Ronaldo, Higuaín, and Xabi Alonso will do what they do in Barça’s final third.  The wild cards are the two new participants in Los Blanco’s attacking midfield, Mesut Özil and Ángel di María, and their performances on Monday night will tilt the scales in one team’s favor.  Perform well, and Real Madrid might just stop Barcelona’s four-match winning streak against Real.  Perform mediocre or poorly, and Real Madrid will suffer the ignominy of Barça’s first ever five-match winning streak against Real.

Note: The times listed below are in Eastern Standard Time (EST).

Nov. 29

Fuera de Juego: Especial El Clásico - 2:00 PM on ESPN Deportes

Gol TV Live Preview Show – 2:30 PM on Gol TV HD

FC Barcelona vs. Real Madrid – 2:50 PM on Gol TV HD (Play-by-play Phil Schoen and Analyst Ray Hudson in English with Play-by-play Diego Pessolano and Analyst Eduardo Biscayart in Spanish)

ESPN Deportes (Play-by-play Fernando Palomo and Analyst Mario Kempes)

ESPN3 (Play-by-play Adrian Healey and Analyst Robbie Mustoe in English with Play-by-play Fernando Palomo and Analyst Mario Kempes in Spanish)

FC Barcelona vs. Real Madrid Replays – 5:00 PM on Gol TV HD and 6:00 PM on ESPN Deportes

Sportscenter Especial El Clásico – 5:00 PM on ESPN Deportes

Gol TV News: El Clásico Special – 7:00 PM on Gol TV HD

La Liga 360: El Clásico – 7:30 PM on Gol TV HD

Lionel Messi is without doubt one of the best players in the world if not the most talented at the moment. Messi has been in scintillating form the last couple of years having scored 38 goals in 51 appearances in all competitions in the 2008/09 season. He also had 18 assists in those 51 matches while he managed 23 goals in 31 La Liga matches.

Messi did even better in 2009/10 season scoring 47 goals and assisting on 14 others in 53 matches in all competitions. The Argentina star had a remarkably tally of 34 goals in 35 La Liga matches. In the current campaign, Messi has already scored 13 goals in just 10 matches and his stunning tally is only inferior to Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo who scored 14 goals so far in the Spanish league. However, Ronaldo played in two more games in the league and his total number of goals in all contests is inferior to that of Messi. The Argentina forward scored 23 goals in just 18 games this season compared to Ronaldo’s 18 goals in 19 matches.

There is not doubt all eyes will be on the dangerous duo and some have gone as far as billing the clash as a ‘Messi versus Ronaldo’ contest but this is quite inaccurate as the two stars will not be facing each other on the field due to their attacking nature. This means Messi will not be responsible for marking Ronaldo and vice versa. Both teams have other key players who can influence the match such as Xavi in case of Barca and Gonzalo Higuain for Real Madrid.

Prior to this highly anticipated match against Los Blancos, Messi scored a hat-trick against Almeria last weekend and followed up his heroics with a goal in the Champions League in mid-week in Athens against Panathinaikos. There is no doubt Messi has been an absolute magician for Barcelona in the last few season and his club record backs up the fact he is perhaps the best club player on the planet. Messi scored a hat-trick against Real Madrid in El Clasico in the 2006-07 season to prove he can shine on the big occasion as well.

Some have questioned his form for Argentina but he managed to score in the 4-1 win over the World Cup champions Spain in September. However, he went one better by scoring a late winner against Brazil on November 18 in a friendly in Qatar. This is Messi’s first win over the Selecao and for him to secure the win with a sublime finish can only do wonders to his confidence. This winner for Argentina could be the goal Messi has been missing not just to take his international career to the next level but also to continue his stunning and torrid scoring record with Barca.

The main question will be whether Messi will be able to score against Los Blancos in El Clasico to add to his impressive resume. (Please check http://www.laligatalk.com/messi-versus-ronaldo/1881 for a previous piece written on Messi & Ronaldo)

José Mourinho was not impressed either with Atlético Madrid.

As with most local derbies (national derbies such as El Clásico between Real Madrid and Barcelona, Le Classique between Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain, De Klassieker between Ajax and Feyenoord, etc. excluded), the derby means a little more to one club than the other.  While Arsenal always wants to defeat their north London neighbor Tottenham Hotspur, Tottenham usually focuses their year on the north London derby whereas Arsenal usually has higher aspirations.  FC Barcelona and Espanyol share the city of Barcelona, but Barcelona sees Espanyol as their little brother they always pick on, whereas Espanyol continually fights for respect from their much bigger neighbors.

Atlético Madrid shares these same sentiments with Espanyol, Tottenham, and the other lesser teams in derbies.  While Atlético has won the third-most amount of league championships with nine and the fourth-most Copa del Rey titles with nine in Spanish history, Real looks at los colchoneros as little more than annoying mosquitoes on its alabaster skin.

To Real Madrid’s credit, their record against Atlético Madrid in the last nineteen years has made El Derbi Madrileño into a rivalry in locality only.  Since the commencement of the 1992-93 La Liga season, Atlético Madrid has won a total of two matches against Real in the league in thirty-two attempts, one at home and one away in 1999.  Even in their triumphant, double-winning year of 1996 when they won both La Liga (their first league crown since 1977) and the Copa del Rey, the Atlético fans still rue the fact that they lost both meetings against Real in that season, who finished a distant seventeen points behind Atlético in a horrid sixth place and missed the UEFA Cup with such unfancied clubs as Tenerife and Espanyol taking those berths.

Even when Atlético suffered the ignominy of relegation in the 1999-00 season for the first time since 1936 (history note: even though Athletic Club de Madrid, as Atlético Madrid was called back then, was relegated, the Spanish Civil War intervened for the next three years, and Real Oviedo, who finished third in La Liga in 1936, was the one who was forcibly relegated to the Segunda División when the league resumed in 1939 because their pitch was unplayable due to General Francisco Franco’s use of Oviedo’s stadium as an ammunition dump), los colchoneros tend to look at that season as the campaign where they did not lose to Real Madrid in a season since the 1978-79 season, winning at the Santiago Bernabéu and drawing at the Vicente Calderón.

While Atlético Madrid’s form has fallen off since the beginning of this season, when they deservedly defeated Inter Milan in the European Super Cup and won their first two La Liga matches to briefly top the table, their confidence heading into the derby certainly did was not lacking.  Atlético goalkeeper David de Gea gave Cristiano Ronaldo a backhanded compliment within his comments about the derby:

“Ronaldo is doing great and he is having good fortune in front of goal, whereas we have had bad luck, especially at the back.  Real Madrid are doing so well, but then we are doing well too.”

Atlético trainer Quique Sánchez Flores instilled his confidence in his team with his comments to the press in his media session prior to the match:

“We are Atlético Madrid, and we go to the Bernabéu to win.  This year, we have self-esteem in place, and our goal is to enter the Champions League.  For this, we need things to work and to go our way.”

José Mourinho, with the delightful arrogance he carries himself, downplayed the significance of the derby with his comments in his Saturday press conference:

“It’s not an exam for us.  It’s just another game.  My teams don’t play to win derbies; they play to win leagues and titles. and to win the championship, you need to win games and points.  I want to win tomorrow because we want the points, not because we are playing Atlético or because it is the derby.

Within the first twenty minutes, Real Madrid played the match as if it were just another match, and Atlético Madrid played as if this were a very important match.  Advantage Real Madrid.

If Atlético wanted to slow down Real’s rampant attack, circumstances prevented Quique Sánchez Flores from presenting his best defensive line.  Luís Perea picked up his fifth yellow card of the season last round against Almería, which meant a one-match ban, and Tomáš Ujfaluši moved from right back into central defense to cover Perea.  Juan Valera replaced Ujfaluši at right back, and while Valera can play well when he goes forward, he is more like a right winger, and many times, Valera suffers an allergy for defending.  Talented but still green central defender Álvaro Domínguez came in for Diego Godín after Godín underwent an emergency appendectomy a week ago.

In a span of six minutes, Real exposed this makeshift defense and scored twice to relieve any tension that they might have held prior to the match.  Ricardo Carvalho joined in the attack from central defense in the 13th minute, and after Ángel di María’s attempted through ball to Carvalho came off Ujfaluši’s arm and diverted perfectly to Carvalho’s feet, he made no mistake as he slotted it past de Gea to the left near post.

Six minutes later, Domínguez clearly pulled Cristiano Ronaldo down to set up a dangerous free kick, although referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz initially hesitated to blow his whistle.  Ronaldo’s “performance” against AC Milan when he clutched his face in agony after Milan fullback Ignazio Abate raised his arm at his upper chest certainly came into Mateu Lahoz’s mind for a split second before acknowledging the foul.  From the free kick just outside the right border of the penalty area, Mesut Özil curled his low free kick to the left far post, hoping to find a runner at that far post, and de Gea was frozen solid as he watched Özil’s effort nestle into the side netting without any touch.

Although Atlético would come close on a few occasions, with Diego Forlán pelting the post on a first-time volley attempt and José Antonio Reyes testing Iker Casillas with a couple of powerful curlers with his sweet left foot, Atlético simply was not good enough in any facet of the game to match Real Madrid, and the 2-0 fulltime score flattered los rojiblancos to a certain extent.

With the Monday night football match between Sevilla and Valencia yet to be played, a Sevilla win or draw could drop Atlético to eighth in the table, and they cannot complain about their position.  In defense of this mediocre record, Atlético has already played all the top tier teams in Spanish football: Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Villarreal, Valencia, and Sevilla, and only against Barcelona were they in the friendly confines of the Vicente Calderón.  In addtion, their next ten La Liga fixtures features only two teams that are currently in the top half of the ladder: -4 goal difference Espanyol at home and surprising and plucky Mallorca at home.

They could easily gain many points in this stretch and play themselves back into consideration for a Champions League spot, but against the toughest teams in La Liga, there is something missing that many can see in plain sight.  Quique Sánchez Flores does not see too many problems as he stated in his post-match comments:

“We have been good, and the result has not done us justice.  Two isolated moments have changed the game, but I have nothing to say to my players.  All we needed was a goal, and we would have been in the game.  I have not seen a lack of intensity from my players.  We leave the Bernabéu after a very serious game after two early goals and know that we rebuilt after that moment.  We have forcefully demonstrated that we can compete with Real Madrid, even with two goals against.”

Whether he made these statements in denial or to raise his players’ spirits, what Atlético lacks in abundance is a sense of belief in themselves and what they do on the pitch.  They did raise their game after conceding two early goals, but this was more a function of Real Madrid easing the pressure off Atlético and going into cruise mode.

As much as Atlético made clear of their frustration of a lack of a penalty call on Xabi Alonso’s handball after Sergio Agüero smashed his shot that came of Alonso’s arm from less than a yard away, that moment in the match clouds the real issue of belief, and they will likely cling on to that moment as one that would have turned the match in their favor and forget the massive gaps that the midfield and the defense left for Real Madrid to exploit throughout the match.  Diego Forlán’s stellar European and World Cup form from last season and summer has not translated into this season, and the paucity of rest has caught up with Forlán.  Without the telepathic and lethal combination of Agüero and Forlán combining at their best, Atlético Madrid cannot make up for their chronic defensive woes.

Before the match, a banner that spanned one side of the Santiago Bernabéu displayed the Grim Reaper with the message “Esto es Madrid” (This is Madrid).  Real has ripped the soul out of Atlético Madrid for so long that Atlético cannot rebut that statement.  The Fountain of Neptune was empty last night, and until Atlético tightens up in the back, the Fountain of Neptune will remain scarce of colchoneros after Real Madrid matches for years to come.

Fueras de Juego

- Aythami Artiles must have invoked the spirit of Franz Beckenbauer preceding Deportivo de La Coruña’s match at Levante, as the sweeper in Miguel Ángel Lotina’s newly formed five-man defense scored Depor’s second goal with a curling aplomb that Beckenbauer would stand and applaud.  With this five across the back strategy, the Galicians have won two consecutive matches against Espanyol and Levante to pull themselves out of the relegation zone, and while they will likely be bogged down in the relegation fight throughout the season, Lotina’s last stand to save his job has worked in the short-term, and no one would be happier with Lotina’s success than Depor chairman Augusto Lendoiro, whose relationship with Lotina is almost father-son like.

- Real Zaragoza notched their first win of the season with a stirring fightback against Mallorca with ten minutes remaining.  A goal from Nicolás Bertolo in the 84th minute and a Gabi penalty in the sixth minute of stoppage time gave los maños a win the fans at La Romareda will remember for years to come.  Referee José Paradas Romero correctly whistled for the penalty in the fifth minute of stoppage time after Gabi’s shot struck José Luís Martí’s arm inside the box, but the controversy stems from Paradas Romero’s decision not to blow the whistle after Mallorca sent it out of play after the four minutes of scheduled stoppage time had passed.  Paradas Romero felt there was still time for Zaragoza to take the throw-in and let the buildup transpire, and Zaragoza took advantage and got the penalty call.  Zaragoza is still a top candidate to fall to the Segunda División, but the fashion in which they won their first match of the season could be a buoy to save themselves.

- After Athletic Bilbao took the early lead against Villarreal with a Fernando Llorente header, Villarreal stormed back with the heart of a champion with four goals and a display of football that would rival Barcelona or Real Madrid on any day.  While Athletic has plenty of young talents and lion-hearted men such as Gaizka Toquero, Carlos Gurpegui, and Pablo Orbaiz, they would be near the bottom of the table without the presence of Llorente up front to create and score.  With the big European clubs setting up to pounce with a €30 million plus offer for Llorente, the Athletic scouts are already searching for the next Llorente as the club figures out who will take the load off Llorente from match to match.

The first year of the post-Manuel Pellegrini era commenced with a startling thud, as through seven rounds last season, Villarreal propped every other Primera División team up at the bottom of the table.  This smooth, plucky team from the Valencian Community had not felt such futility since they made their maiden voyage to La Liga in the 1998/99 season.  In that campaign, Villarreal was relegated to the Segunda División after losing a relegation playoff to Sevilla, the last year that La Liga had a relegation playoff.

Staving off relegation never entered the mind Ernesto Valverde’s team, and they steadily improved through the next several months.  The upward curve plateaued, however, and in January 2010, the board sacked Valverde and promoted Villarreal “B” coach Juan Carlos Garrido to manage the senior team.

The unassuming yet intense Garrido knew that his time from January to the end of the season would become a de facto audition to keep the job.  He settled the squad, and Villarreal finished a respectable seventh place despite their torrid beginning.  Chairman Fernando Roig Alfonso rewarded Garrido for his work and extended his contract to June 2011 so that Garrido could have a full season to show his worth.

Garrido took that vote of confidence from the board into this season and returned Villarreal to their normal perch in the highest percentiles of Spanish football.

Even though Villarreal has been known for maintaining shrewd financial stances when it comes to signings and transfers, Fernando Roig Alfonso gave Garrido a decent transfer kitty with which to work this summer, but Garrido felt that the players he currently had were more than enough to threaten for a top-four position.  Garrido and Sporting Director Fernando Roig Negueroles believed that they only needed a couple of reinforcements from the summer transfer window.  They did not even need to use that budget because they earned enough from the transfers of Diego Godín, Damián Escudero, and Joseba Llorente to achieve for what they set out in the market.

Both of Villarreal’s summer signings, €2.2 million Carlos Marchena and €6 million Borja Valero, have made instant impacts with the team.  Specifically, Borja Valero’s sparkling play on both flanks has given both Joan Capdevila and Ángel López extra potency from their fullback positions because Borja’s combinations with them have created openings deep inside the opposition half that only enhances Nilmar and Giuseppe Rossi’s chances of finishing these moves.

Because Villarreal only signed two players for this season, Garrido felt that the players currently in the squad would raise their games and expectations from the last campaign, and they have not disappointed.

After a year of fighting major and minor injuries, Santi Cazorla has restored his place in the Spanish national team with sprightly, ebullient play for Villarreal.  Whereas Ernesto Valverde marginalized Cazorla to an extent by forcing him more into the central midfield, Garrido reinstituted Cazorla back onto the wings with the freedom to cut inside when necessary, and Cazorla has thrived under Garrido’s system with two goals, three assists, one behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Mesut Özil for the league lead, and countless numbers of pinpoint passes and unselfish runs that keep Villarreal flowing fluently.

Giuseppe Rossi and Nilmar have made themselves into the second most prolific tandem statistically with a combined ten goals through eight matches, only behind Ronaldo and Gonzalo Higuaín’s fourteen goals.  The previous season’s trio of Rossi, Nilmar, and Joseba Llorente looked formidable on paper because of Llorente’s height and strength as the center forward with the smaller, faster Rossi and Nilmar supporting on either side of Llorente.  With Nilmar adapting to Spain after his record €11 million transfer from Internacional, Rossi dealing with constant transfer rumors, and Llorente failing to feature in half of Villarreal’s fixtures due to injury and managerial decisions, they could not score consistently, even though Villarreal scored a respectable fifty-eight goals.

The most improved part of Villarreal’s team runs down the spine, as Villarreal “B” graduate and central defender Mateo Musacchio has admirably stepped into the void left by Diego Godín after his transfer to Atlético Madrid and central midfielder Bruno Soriano has controlled the center of his park by supporting the defense with his ball-winning as well as instigating counter-attacks with his array of passes.  Spanish national team coach Vicente del Bosque has been so impressed with Bruno that he called him up to the squad for their friendly against Mexico as well as their two Euro 2012 qualifiers against Lithuania and Scotland.

With all these ameliorative properties syncing together, Villarreal has won five of its first seven matches in La Liga, with only one loss to Real Sociedad in the opening round of fixtures, and currently lead their Europa League group with six points from three matches.

Villarreal, like their provincial neighbors Valencia, played through a fairly soft schedule and racked up a point tally that could compete with Real Madrid and FC Barcelona through the first seven rounds in La Liga.  Valencia has fallen back after sitting on top to their more familiar territory below Madrid and Barça due to consecutive losses to Barcelona last week and Mallorca this weekend.

After failing to claim the first position when they could only draw 2-2 against local rivals Hércules on Monday, the late Sunday kickoff against Atlético Madrid would start a stretch of five matches in the league that would truly delineate Villarreal’s odds of staying within striking distance of not only a UEFA Champions League berth but the alien concept of ripping the champion’s trophy away from Barcelona.

Villarreal could not count on the services of Mateo Musacchio and Borja Valero because of their suspensions stemming from their red cards against Hércules, but Gonzalo Rodríguez and vice-captain Cani were more than capable replacements for the pair.

For Atlético Madrid, they sent out their normal starting eleven with one exception: Diego Forlán sat on the bench for the second straight La Liga match in favor of Diego Costa.  Whether Quique Sánchez Flores kept Forlán on the sidelines because he had just played in the Europa League against Rosenborg on Thursday or because of generally poor form, the increasingly agitated striker has now become transfer speculation with links to Liverpool, Juventus, and other top European clubs.

Fortunately for Villarreal, Atlético Madrid played with a strange disinterest after the first twenty minutes that made work for the Yellow Submarine minimal to come out with a victory at home.  Cani was involved in both Villarreal goals, providing the end product after Nilmar terrorized Atlético with pure speed and composure on the ball to slot in Cani inside the box, and creating the second goal for Giuseppe Rossi after cutting in from the left wing to slice the Atlético defense yet again with a telling through ball into the penalty area.

Unfortunately for Villarreal’s perception throughout the country, Atlético Madrid did not provide the stern test that they forced Barcelona and Valencia through when they played those teams.  This match against Atlético was supposed to supply evidence whether or not Villarreal was for real.  Villarreal will have to wait to show their merits for the championship until November when they face Athletic Bilbao at home, Barcelona at the Camp Nou, and Valencia at home in consecutive weeks.  What transpired on Sunday night did not sway opinion one way or the other about Villarreal, but it did point out one glaring detail: Atlético Madrid’s schizophrenic personality has not been cured after a summer of therapy.

Fueras de Juego

- Luís Fabiano awoke from his slumber to score his first two goals of the season in Sevilla’s topsy-turvy 4-3 victory over Athletic Bilbao.  After all the summer haranguing about wanting to leave Sevilla, Fabiano stayed with the Andalucian club, and in his prior appearances before Sunday’s match against Athletic, he played and acted like a pouting schoolboy.  He actually looked interested throughout the match today, and when Fabiano cares, to no surprise, he produces with devastating aplomb

- Speaking of occasionally moody players, Cristiano Ronaldo poured in four goals in Real Madrid’s 6-1 drubbing of pathetic Racing de Santander.  While Ronaldo will receive the deserved plaudits for his outstanding performance, the man of the match was €25 million summer signing Ángel di María.  Besides assisting in two goals, he created Ronaldo’s fourth goal when Domingo Cisma felled di María in the penalty area and played an excellent left back, a position foreign to di María, when Pedro León replaced Marcelo with twenty minutes remaining.

Di María’s early struggles (he had only played in three matches for Real, mind you) had the Madridistas worried that he would become another flop.  His “Welcome to Madrid” moment came against Real Sociedad, when he gave his team the lead with a spectacular curler to the top right corner with his “weaker” right foot.  Ever since that point, he suddenly became indispensable to the starting eleven, and when a player receives the full confidence of José Mourinho, it will only help spur on his game.

- César Santin, the Brazilian forward for FC København, made himself an object of ridicule against FC Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday night when he stopped playing with a two-on-two breakaway with teammate Dame N’Doye, thinking he was called offside.  The assistant referee did not raise his flag, and referee Stéphane Lannoy did not blow his whistle.  That opportunity ended up as one of only two or three chances that København had of threatening José Manuel Pinto’s goal that entire night.

The situation took a turn to the weird when København lodged a formal complaint to UEFA on Friday, stating that Pinto simulated the referee’s whistle in order to dupe Santin.  Pinto could face a two-match European ban for this alleged “violation of decent conduct.”  With all the whistles that rain down from the crowd every match, Santin should not get his signals crossed with the real whistle, but if Pinto has the ability to whistle just like a referee’s whistle, full credit to Pinto for such a ruse.  Unsportsmanlike behavior, absolutely, but would not pride prevent Santin from admitting that Pinto fooled him into grinding to a halt?  Pinto could not even make the halfway line with his goal kicks, so apparently, he allegedly needed to use the last item in his bag of tricks to keep FC København at bay.  More column space about this delicious “Whistle-Gate” side story to come.

Can Unai Emery lead Valencia to their first title since 2004 when Rafael Benítez steered the ship at the Mestalla to their second title in three years?

Through the first six rounds in La Liga, Valencia CF led the way at the top of the ladder with sixteen points, one point ahead of Villarreal, two points ahead of Real Madrid, and three points ahead of FC Barcelona.  Along with Real Madrid, Valencia remained only one of two teams still undefeated in the league, and the early murmurs among the Spanish press signaled that Barcelona and Real Madrid would not run away from the others as they did last season.

Valencia’s surprising start has less with whom they lost in the summer and rather with what they gained in those absences.  The club earned a total of €84.2 million in transfer fees, with headliners David Villa garnering €40 million and David Silva €30 million.  €22.7 million of the €84.2 million went into buying players to replace those sold, including a new strike force in Aritz Aduriz and Roberto Soldado and reinforcements in the midfield Mehmet Topal and Tino Costa.  The rest of the money went toward scaling down the massive debt that the club continually increased over the past decade.

How did Valencia maneuver itself to owing €550 million to various creditors?

Click here to see a significant chunk of that debt. Without securing the sale of the current Mestalla, then-President Juan Bautista Soler gave approval to the construction of the Nou Mestalla, a 75,000 seat, state-of-the-art stadium that would compete with the Camp Nou and the Santiago Bernabéu for revenues and the hosting of European finals.  Building of the stadium halted in February 2009 when the funds went dry, and the Nou Mestalla currently sits as the white elephant in Valencia as a symbol of financial irresponsibility.

As with most of the high-profile European clubs, player and manager wages accounted for a substantial part of the budget.  As late as the 2008-09 season, Valencia’s player wages outweighed their total revenue earned throughout that campaign.

The ghost of Ronald Koeman still haunts the Mestalla, even though he was sacked in April of 2008 after a disastrous campaign that saw the two-time champions mired in a relegation battle when Valencia made the change.  Even though his previous stints as manager with Ajax, Benfica, and PSV Eindhoven brought little compared to expectations, Valencia felt Koeman would fare better than Quique Sánchez Flores, who was a mere four points off the top spot when Flores received his pink slip in October 2008.  As part of the deal to bring in Koeman from PSV, one of the clauses stated that if Valencia qualified for the UEFA Champions League in the three seasons following Koeman’s move, Valencia would pay PSV €1 million.

Despite earning a Champions League berth by finishing third last season long after Valencia fired Koeman, the clause still applied, so the total expenditure on the transfer, appointment, and discharge of the former Barcelona great stood at €2.8 million.

(On a side note, AZ Alkmaar did not learn from prior history because they took a chance on Koeman after Louis van Gaal left following their first Eredivisie crown since 1981 to become the manager of Bayern Munich.  Koeman was gone in December after floundering in mid-table.)

All these financial transgressions transpired throughout the course of the past few years, and yet they had a chance to legitimize their credentials as a top-table team on Saturday against an FC Barcelona that has looked less than their absolute best in La Liga.

Valencia’s early season schedule has not been the most strenuous, and against Atlético Madrid, their toughest opponent in their first six matches, they squeaked out a 1-1 draw late, even though Valencia virtually controlled the entire match.

Against Manchester United in the Champions League, Sir Alex Ferguson looked happy to settle for a 0-0 draw at the Mestalla and sat back while Valencia kept a large majority of the possession.  Valencia could not capitalize on the chances they created, and the one decent opportunity that Manchester United had, Javier “Chicharito” Hernández buried the ball into the back of the net in the final quarter of the match to hand the Red Devils the three points and temporary control of the group.

If Valencia were to further Barça’s shocking woes at the Camp Nou, Los Che would need the courage to press Barcelona, close the margin of possession that Barcelona typically has against their opponents, and convert on their scoring opportunities.  In the first half, Valencia accomplished the first two objectives, but while they did score a goal to lead at halftime, they missed a promising opening at the end of the half to double their advantage and further plant seeds of doubt and panic into a Barcelona team that has hardly had to deal with such emotions since Pep Guardiola took over the club in the summer of 2008.

The opening forty-five minutes played out as though both team switched uniforms because Valencia scoured the pitch with a penchant for suffocating defensive pressure, an ability to recover possession quickly once it was lost, and an assuredness with the ball when they had possession, whereas Barcelona almost planned to sit back in their own half of the pitch and break on the counter-attack.  A strange combination of nervous murmuring and breathless hush enveloped the Culés in the Camp Nou, as Valencia seemed to have all the answers.

After Pablo Hernández opened the scoring in the 38th minute, they fashioned an even better opportunity to add a second three minutes later.  Éver Banega, the influential playmaker who made his first appearance in a month because of an ankle injury, fought down the right wing with two Barça players to slide the ball to Roberto Soldado at the right edge of the penalty area.  Soldado slid it across to Pablo in the middle of the penalty area, and with the whole left side of the goal open, Pablo tried to fool Víctor Valdés and go behind him to the right near post, but Valdés was up to the task and parried it out for a corner kick.

From that moment forward, Barcelona took over the match with a gusto and innovative flair that had been absent in the early days of this season.  Andrés Iniesta and Xavi Hernández’s one-two that mesmerized four Valencia players accounted for the equalizer two minutes into the second half.

David Villa, wanting to shine badly against his former team although he played that down during the week, provided a pinpoint squared ball across the six-yard box that would have been a tap-in for Iniesta on the left back post if Jordi Alba had not somehow cleared it over his own crossbar from three yards out.  Another Iniesta through ball scythed the Valencia back line and sent Villa free for a one-on-one with César Sánchez, which César won by taking the ball away from Villa’s foot as Villa made his final move to try to get around César in the penalty area.

Carles Puyol, of all people, scored what turned out to be the game-winner after Xavi sent in another accurate cross from the right wing, and Valencia never really looked as though they could re-gather themselves enough to mount a serious challenge at squaring the match.

2-1 fulltime, and Barcelona found the invigoration and elixir that should propel them to boost their season.

Should this loss discourage Valencia?  Absolutely not.  Barcelona outplayed them in the second half and deserved to win the match, and when the superior team plays at its best, all Valencia can do is shake their hands and say, “Good match.”  Despite the talent they had to sell before this campaign, Valencia is a solid bet to finish in the top four.  Their title credentials, however, took a big hit with this loss to Barcelona on Saturday.

One match out of thirty-eight this might have been, and teams have won championships when they have not fared well against the established top two or three teams, but in their three most stringent tests in all competitions, Los Che have come out with one point out of nine.  As Valencia president Manuel Llorente stated:

“Now we are going to Barcelona at a good time, with a high rank and a different team from previous years.  We have a squad with a high capacity to work and it gives us enormous options.”

With Valencia at the top of the table and Barcelona under par in comparison to their normal high standards, Valencia played Barcelona at the perfect time, and through forty-four minutes, the confidence from within the organization was justified.  Championship contenders, however, put away teams when they have a foot on the throat, and Valencia enabled Barcelona to slither away from that foot and counter that threat with an attack of their own.  Valencia could not respond to Barcelona’s challenge.

Manuel Llorente announced that Valencia cut their overflowing debt from €550 million to €400 million, and manager Unai Emery and he are leading this historic team in the right direction.  In a couple of years, with more of this fiscal responsibility and outstanding play on the pitch, Valencia will contend for titles as they did in the first half of the 2000s decade, but for now, their goals should center on maintaining a top four finish and steady progression in the Champions League.

Fueras de Juego

- Cristiano Ronaldo scored two and assisted in two goals as Real Madrid rolled over a potentially dangerous Málaga side 1-4.  José Mourinho is known for building up players to stratospheric heights.  At Chelsea, he declared Frank Lampard the best player in the world.  At Inter Milan, Mourinho trumpeted that Zlatan Ibrahimovic was the most indispensable striker in world football.  At Real Madrid, Mourinho has done the same for Ronaldo, saying that it was clear to him that he is number one in the world with Lionel Messi number two.  The confidence shown by Mourinho to Ronaldo, even when Ronaldo found it hard to score in the opening matches of the season, now has come to fruition in the last few games, and expect more destruction from Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid as they look poised to dethrone Barcelona in La Liga.

- Espanyol defeated Mallorca 0-1 at the Iberostar Stadium despite the ejection of Pablo Osvaldo late in the first half to rise to sixth in the table.  The “other” team from Barcelona might be the most anonymous team in Spain, and in the eye of no one’s radar, their six goals scored in seven matches with an overall goal difference of -3 has los periquitos as the surprise team so far this season.

- In each of the ten stadia that held La Liga matches this weekend, they had a minute of silence prior to their matches in honor of Atlético Madrid legend Juan Carlos Arteche, who died from cancer on Wednesday night.  The Atlético hard man in central defense terrorized strikers in the 1980s with his physical style and “questionable” tackling, but he might best be known as a man that took a serious disliking to former Atleti president Jesús Gil, so much so that he retired at a relatively young age of 32 due to his conflicts with Gil.  Any man who stood up to the controversial, authoritarian, and misanthropic Gil was a brave man, and courage was never lacking with Arteche.  Rest in peace, Juan Carlos Arteche.

When Spain fell to the hands of Switzerland in the opening match of World Cup 2010, the vultures suddenly appeared from the sky and circled around their “dying” carcass.  No team has ever won the World Cup after losing its first match.  The ghosts from yesteryear are rising from the dead and haunting this current team about their ancestors’ past failures.  Previous entrenador Luis Aragonés ranted about Vicente del Bosque and indirectly undermined most of what Vicente del Bosque has done with this team.  Although Spain has only made it to the quarterfinals after defeating 1-0 over Portugal in Cape Town yesterday, La Furia Roja’s form suggests that rising to the occasion will not be the same problem as it has in previous international competitions.

Spain’s only injury concern before their match against Portugal was Xabi Alonso’s sprained ankle he suffered against Chile, but del Bosque slotted him in the center of midfield after passing a late fitness test.  Del Bosque saw no reason to change his starting eleven, but if he had any reservations about one of his players, it would have been Fernando Torres because of his erratic play in the group stage.

99% of the time, Torres would be an automatic starter, but still recovering from knee surgery in April, his lack of match sharpness became painfully obvious in his starts against Honduras and Chile when his first touch disappeared on him on numerous occasions, and his finishing would have the usual Nike T90 ball well off target, much less the unpredictable Adidas Jabulani ball.

After a strong first few minutes where he made threatening runs into the penalty area and curled a shot from the left side of the penalty box that forced a diving save from Eduardo at his far right post, Torres’ contributions were minimal.  Fernando Llorente came in for Torres in the 58th minute, and after Llorente lit a second spark for the Spaniards after the hour mark, del Bosque might need to reconsider who plays alongside David Villa in the quarterfinals against Paraguay.

As for the other twenty-one players on the pitch, the eleven from Spain exhibited no sliver of the tentative attitude they displayed in the first twenty minutes against Chile, as they pinned Portugal’s eleven into their own half and peppered Eduardo’s goal with shot after shot, especially working the left wing.  Portugal has used three different right backs in their four games (Paulo Ferreira, Miguel, and new Valencia signing Ricardo Costa), so the scouting report must have emphasized attacking this vulnerability.

Portugal manager Carlos Queiroz would not have worried about Spain’s possession or his team’s ability to organize themselves defensively because of their strong defensive record, one goal allowed in their last eleven competitive international matches to be more specific.  Whether he tried to build his players’ confidence or he was delusional, he described the match against Brazil and his ultra-conservative gameplan as a “football feast” where Portugal attacked and Brazil defended.  Using that same blueprint against Spain, Queiroz would have felt that Spain was falling right into his strategy.

And fall they did as Spain’s possession became ponderous, and Portugal felt more assured to throw some men forward in the counter-attack.  Tiago popped an effort from twenty-five yards that Iker Casillas needed a second handle to slap away from an on-charging Hugo Almeida, Cristiano Ronaldo struck a dipping free kick from over forty yards that Casillas somewhat fumbled, and Almeida botched a header from a precise Raul Meireles cross that could have easily given Portugal that precious first goal.  Spain did what they wanted, but Portugal did what they wanted better than Spain.

After the halftime break, the status quo reigned for the first fifteen minutes of the second half as Spain could not penetrate the defense, and Portugal remained dangerous on the counter.  The match changed when Torres came out in the 58th minute and in stepped Fernando Llorente, the Athletic Bilbao target man making his first appearance in this World Cup.  He immediately made an instant impact with his first touch when his diving header from de facto right winger Sergio Ramos’ cross forced a brilliant point-blank save from Eduardo.

Then the combination of FC Barcelona midfielders Andrés Iniesta and Xavi Hernández with future Barcelona forward David Villa occurred with such Catalunyan flair that a picture diagram is necessary to complement the authorial description.

A one-two with Fernando Llorente gave Iniesta the space to dribble around the “D” to find Xavi coming back into an onside location.  In no position to go towards goal, the indomitable Xavi used all the resources of his spatial-temporal reasoning to visualize David Villa’s diagonal run from the left corner of the penalty area and back flick Iniesta’s pass first-time into space, where Villa shot with his left foot to the left near post.  Eduardo did extremely well to cover that area of goal and saved it with his feet; however, the rebound tracked directly back to Villa, and with his feathery touch, he lifted the ball over the sprawled Eduardo, kissing the underside of the crossbar and into goal.

When Spain forced Portugal to chase the game after Villa’s goal, A Selecção looked incapable of forming a cohesive attacking move.  Carles Puyol and Joan Capdevila blocked their only two truly legitimate chances, and the double substitution of Pedro Mendes and Liédson for Simão Sabrosa and Pepe proved to do little for Portugal as Spain controlled the rest of the match.  The only footnotes worth noting after Villa’s goal were Xabi Alonso’s yellow card, the first booking for Spain in the World Cup, David Villa’s stellar play, and Ricardo Costa’s red card after he supposedly elbowed Joan Capdevila, although replays showed little contact and Capdevila’s “writhing of pain” as he covered his face in apparent anguish.

Spain deserved to reach the quarterfinals, and with a gritty Paraguay side that will likely employ similar tactics as Portugal, the Spaniards should feel self-assured about performing well against Paraguay.  David Villa looks to be the favorite in both the Golden Boot and Golden Ball awards, Xavi Hernández and Andrés Iniesta control the midfield and keep possession for this Spain team, and the underrated back four closes down the ball very quickly when their opponents reach their own third.

For those who believe in numerology, Spain’s quarterfinal appearance marks the fourth time in the last seven World Cups where they have reached this stage of the tournament (every other World Cup since 1986), and each time, they failed to progress to the semifinals.  So what is different about this team compared to those other Spanish teams that have flattered to deceive?

Silverware.

Capturing the 2008 European Championships cannot be overstated as a confidence building measure for a country that always produced talent but never fused them into a unified national team.  The regionalism manifested in Spain has hindered the team in the past, as the chemistry never fit a team with such potential.  Some tend to overrate unity and chemistry and propose that talent overcomes whatever problems occur in-house, but numerous examples such as Greece in Euro 2004, South Korea in World Cup 2002, and New Zealand in this year’s World Cup show that twenty-three players playing for one cause can be as powerful as a team littered with world-class players.

Vicente del Bosque will mull over the Fernando Torres question during these two rest days while the players train to see if he finds any slice of form to suggest that Torres is improving enough to warrant a start against Paraguay on Saturday.  It takes a brave man to replace Torres with Fernando Llorente in the starting eleven, but for the betterment of the team, del Bosque must make this move to ensure Spain’s optimal lineup against Paraguay.

While Spain will likely defeat Paraguay whether Torres or Llorente starts, del Bosque should incorporate Llorente from the start to develop a rhythm with the other outfield players as a potential semifinal between either Argentina or Germany looms.  Spain is peaking at the perfect time, and flying under the radar with Brazil and Argentina garnering most of the headlines, this is exactly the position that Spain wants and desires at this stage of the tournament.

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

He sent bad influences Deco and Ronaldinho away, and he brought a sense of discipline and accountability that the club lacked at the end of the Frank Rijkaard era.  When it came to the X and O’s of a match, however, most defined the team in his reign as a beautiful machine that only possessed a “Plan A” of ball possession and incessant attack.

If anyone still doubted Pep Guardiola as a tactical grandmaster, the last two matches against Arsenal and Real Madrid should validate his place as one of the top managers in world football.

Debuted against Arsenal during the second half of the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinal, Guardiola insisted on the 4-4-2 formation to handle Real Madrid’s abundance of offensive talent.  Partly forced by injuries but mostly a tactical decision, the Barça starting eleven was a departure from the norm.  Guardiola brought Dani Alves forward as a right midfielder/winger and positioned Seydou Keita as a left midfielder.  Carles Puyol went to right back, and Gabriel Milito filled in alongside Gerard Piqué in central defense.

With Éric Abidal reinjuring his thigh against Arsenal, the question surrounding the left back position was if Maxwell would receive the nod against Real Madrid.  Maxwell is the natural replacement, but in some instances this season, the opposition caught him out of position when he would make his forward runs.  With Marcelo and Cristiano Ronaldo racing down the left flank, there would be a decent possibility of a defensive breakdown with Maxwell absent from the action.  Rather than putting Carles Puyol in a left back role that he rarely ever plays, Guardiola kept faith with Maxwell in their most important match of the La Liga season.

The first few minutes of the match suggested that this pivotal game would be more akin to the tightly contested edition in November than the open affair at the Bernabéu last May.  The suffocating Barça press swarmed even harder, and the Real Madrid tackling came with more regularity and venom.

Guardiola positioned his team to quell Real Madrid’s lightning counter-attack, and apart from a couple of instances when Cristiano Ronaldo’s pure talent and speed would defy any defense, Barcelona’s defensive organization and discipline kept firm.  A clean sheet through forty-five minutes and zero shots on goal allowed testified to the Blaugrana’s security in the midfield and in front of Víctor Valdés.

With a one-goal lead to start the second half, Guardiola readjusted his formation, bringing Dani Alves back to his usual right back role and moving Carles Puyol into central defense, creating a five-man back line to consolidate an already strong defense.  Guardiola knew that his counterpart Manuel Pellegrini would send wave after wave of attacks in the second half to score the equalizing goal, and he felt a reinforcement to stem this oncoming tide would be prudent.  Hardly characterizing this change as protectionist with Dani Alves and Maxwell still marauding both flanks, Real Madrid found Puyol, Piqué, and Milito to be uncompromising and intelligent in their tackling and positioning.

Two clean sheets against Real Madrid this season substantiated Barcelona’s claim as more than a club who only worries about scoring goals.

Manuel Pellegrini is no fledgling manager either, and with Real Madrid’s midfield and defensive organization at its season best, it would take more invention and guile than individual splendor to break down their white wall.  Who better than Xavi Hernández to solve the problem.

For a player that has and continues to receive numerous accolades throughout his illustrious career, Xavi does not get the full credit for his contributions to Futbol Club Barcelona.  He always had a transcendent talent on his team that would garner the headlines: first, it was Rivaldo; then it was Ronaldinho; and now it is Lionel Messi.  Others would scoff at their teammates for stealing the limelight, but Xavi would want nothing more than to provide assists for his fellow colleagues as well as deflecting praise to them and his manager.

For Xavi’s first masterpiece, he executed a cheeky lofted ball over the Madrid defense to perfection.  Constantly scanning the field for any potential passes to befuddle the opposition, he saw Messi make a run from the corner of his eye.  He had two options: an incisive through ball in between the defenders or a ball over the defense.  He chose the latter (the much more difficult option), and Raúl Albiol watched in horror as the ball floated over his head onto the chest of Messi, who chested it to his right to create space and smack it past Iker Casillas for the vital first goal.

Xavi’s second offering early in the second half sealed the match.  Again, he spotted a run of his teammate in his peripheral vision.  Pedro made a diagonal run, and Xavi obliged his effort by slotting a perfect through ball that hit the moving target as well as directing it into a position where Álvaro Arbeloa could not come around Pedro to tackle the ball away.  Pedro curled his shot past Casillas, and the 0-2 lead proved insurmountable.

Besides his inventive and sagacious ball distribution, his ability off the ball remains underrated.  Sergio Busquets and Touré Yaya are known to be the pivots of the Barça midfield as well as the protectors of the back four, but Xavi is the epitome of a box-to-box midfielder.  His harassment of any Madrid player on the ball forced them to rush their movements, causing a few turnovers in compromising areas of the pitch.  On several occasions, he fully committed to decisive tackles that broke up feasible goal-scoring opportunities for Real Madrid.

It is no coincidence that Xavi Hernández and Josep Guardiola would mastermind a crucial victory in Barcelona’s attempt to repeat as Spanish champions.  When Barcelona won their first European Cup in 1992, Guardiola led the midfield as that deep-lying playmaker that controlled the game without having to score.  As Guardiola started to age, Xavi became the natural successor to Guardiola in his position, and Xavi’s teams have won two UEFA Champions League titles, the second with his former teammate Guardiola as manager.

Lionel Messi and Pedro Rodríguez scored yet again in an important match, and the plaudits showered on these two for their brilliant individual moments are richly deserved.  Behind all great forwards, however, are the midfielders that provide them with the potent ball to pierce the defense.  While Messi creates opportunities for himself due to his amazing ability, he would be the first to say that without Xavi governing the midfield as a maestro and conductor and Pep Guardiola continually instructing in training and in the heat of a match, he would not have matured into the historic figure he has already become.

Fueras de Juego

- Cristiano Ronaldo played his part, consistently flying down both flanks in search of any opening that Barcelona allowed, but his anxiety to prove he is better than Lionel Messi and worth the €94 million transfer fee left his teammates out of the loop as he single-handedly tried to beat Barça on his own.  Gonzalo Higuaín supplied the most disappointing performance for Real Madrid, as he could not carve out a decent chance against Puyol and the gang.  Although it was not entirely his fault, the papers will again spout out how he flatters to deceive in the grandest occasions despite scoring a tremendous amount of goals.

In case of El Clásico blinkers, there were other matches in La Liga this weekend.

- Sevilla defeated Málaga 1-2 in an Andalusian derby, but both Andrés Palop and Gustavo Munúa provided classic moments for those blooper highlight reels.  For Palop, he failed to secure a routine shot from Duda, and the ensuing spill gave Felipe Caicedo a simple tap-in for Málaga to take the lead.

Sevilla’s equalizer from Juan Cala came about from an embarrassing error by Munúa.  Ivica Dragutinovic’s free kick floated straight into Munúa’s chest, but he somehow fumbled and mishandled it as if he caught a burning rock, and Cala could not believe his luck as he tapped in his goal.

Málaga was disgraceful with their constant play-acting and time-wasting tactics, and cosmic justice reigned supreme as Lolo headed the winning goal late in the contest.

- Athletic Bilbao notched the most comprehensive victory of the weekend with their 4-1 drubbing of Almería at the San Mamés, and the score flattered Almería.  Javi Martínez exhibited why Rafa Benítez and Liverpool are following his every move closely.  Two goals and industry in the midfield further cemented him as one of Liverpool’s summer transfer targets as the Reds try to find the replacement for Xabi Alonso that Alberto Aquilani has failed to achieve to this point.

Bilbao pelted Almería goalkeeper Diego Alves with twenty-six total shots, thirteen on target, but the most impressive stat of the match for Athletic Club was that they committed only nine fouls for the whole ninety minutes.  Nine fouls in ninety minutes for Athletic Bilbao would be analogous to Barcelona only having 50% of the possession.  It hardly ever happens.

- Valencia’s Manuel Fernandes might want to hide under a rock tonight after a torrid game against Mallorca.  Admittedly a midfielder forced into central defense due to a host of injuries, Fernandes committed elementary errors in defense, including getting continually beat over the top and stranding his own keeper César Sánchez a couple of times with short back passes.

The coup de grâce came when he netted into his own goal from a Gonzalo Castro cross to hinder any chance for Valencia to salvage a point.  To cap off a miserable performance, Fernandes was sent off late in the match for a clumsy tackle on Aritz Aduriz.

Pablo Hernández scored late for Los Che to intensify the last few minutes, but Mallorca dominated Valencia despite the 3-2 final scoreline, and Valencia’s miserable week ended with a thud at the ONO Estadi.