The rumors, for once, came to fruition, as FC Barcelona will pay a transfer fee of €40 million to Valencia for Spanish international striker David Villa.  This tango (or the sardana for a more local, Catalunyan flair) danced by the two clubs since the previous offseason will finally end as outgoing Barça president Joan Laporta landed the player he coveted for two years.

Surely, Barcelona signed Villa to be a starting forward, and his most effective position in that front line would be as the center forward of the three-pronged attack.  With Lionel Messi and Pedro Rodríguez on either side of Villa, the Barcelona attacking machine will continue to operate as efficiently and dangerously as ever.

What does this mean for Zlatan Ibrahimovic?

Zlatan Ibrahimovic was supposed to be the answer in the center of Barcelona’s attack.  In order to lure the Swedish hitman from Inter Milan, the Catalunyans spent a net total of €69 million (€46 million in cash, the transfer of Samuel Eto’o from Barça to Inter, valued at €20 million, and another €3 million to compensate for Alyaksandr Hleb refusing the transfer to Inter).

Ibrahimovic had the qualities that Eto’o supposedly lacked: the ability to hold the ball up for his teammates, the acumen to visualize the perfect pass before the action occurs, and the size to better compete for headers and ward off physical challenges.  Even though Eto’o scored thirty goals and led the Pichichi race for top goalscorer most of the 2008-09 La Liga season until Diego Forlán surpassed him late in the season, the Barcelona staff felt they needed more from the center forward role than a pure poacher in the box, at which Eto’o was one of the best in the world.

Through the first few months of the season, Ibrahimovic made an immediate impact with the team, scoring in the first match of the season against Sporting Gijón, providing the only goal in El Clásico against Real Madrid in November after coming back from a hamstring injury, and netting twelve goals in his first nineteen matches in all competitions.

As the season wore on, however, his efficacy in front of goal dwindled considerably.  The match against Real Zaragoza in March clearly showed how his confidence had dropped, when he fluffed three chances that Ibrahimovic would score on his worst days.  He did score in that match but only because of a late penalty that Messi gave to him so that he could regain his confidence.

Aside from the first leg in the quarterfinals of the Champions League against Arsenal where he scored twice at the Emirates Stadium, he was noticeably absent both on and off the pitch in Barcelona’s most important matches.  Pep Guardiola lost so much faith in Ibrahimovic at the climax of the campaign that in both legs of the Champions League semifinal against his former team Inter Milan, Guardiola substituted him in both matches at the hour mark because of his ineffectiveness.  In La Liga, where Real Madrid kept the title race within three points until the final matchday, Guardiola favored Bojan Krkic over Ibrahimovic as the center forward.

Cumulatively, Ibrahimovic had twenty-one goals and ten assists in forty-one matches in all competitions, and while these are solid numbers for a player making his debut season in a new league and country, solid was not the expectation that the Blaugrana set for him.  Replacing a Barça legend in Samuel Eto’o would always become an arduous task, and the Barça boardroom sent a message to Ibrahimovic that he did not fulfill what they envisaged for him with the signing of David Villa.

As any good agent should do, Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s agent, Mino Raiola, tried to quell any sort of talk that the arrival of David Villa spelled the end for Ibrahimovic at the Camp Nou.  In an interview with Calciomercato.it, Raiola reiterated his client’s standing with FC Barcelona:

“The club already said they were happy with Zlatan.  Villa’s arrival has nothing to do with Ibra, and it does not put his stay in danger seeing that Villa can play well on the wings.  He has a contract until 2014, and he is happy at Barcelona.”

As optimistic as that sounds, it could mean trouble for Pedro, Bojan, Jeffrén Suárez, and others in La Masia if Barcelona plans to keep both Ibrahimovic and Villa, but with Pedro breaking through with an outstanding season and Bojan filling Ibrahimovic’s shoes at the end of the season, it is highly doubtful that Barcelona, and specifically Pep Guardiola, would stunt the development of their own academy products in favor of Ibrahimovic.

One year for any player should not become the absolute barometer for what that player will do in the future.  There is an endless amount of cases where players struggled in their first season only to recover and perform to their highest capabilities.  In this day of immediate gratification and astronomical transfer fees, however, instantaneous results matter, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic has not given Barcelona what they wanted.  If Barcelona did not make a move for Villa and Ibrahimovic was given a clean slate to go into his second season with Barcelona, a betting man would put his money on a highly successful season.

Barcelona is not a betting man and wanted reassurances with the signing of David Villa.  When Barcelona sells Ibrahimovic, they will not nearly receive the value that they paid for Ibra, but they will listen to any offers that come their way.

The last opinion that Barcelona would want of themselves is that they are acting like Real Madrid in buying top talent for exorbitant prices, so a rotation that would bench Villa and Ibrahimovic for certain matches would only further this growing perception that Barcelona is turning into their eternal rivals.

Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, and now Barcelona.  Four of the preeminent teams in European football, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic could not establish a permanent home in any of those clubs.  If a club can solve the enigma that is Zlatan Ibrahimovic, he would become the most feared striker in the world.  If.

Once Lionel Messi scored his club record-tying 34th goal of the season in the 76th minute to increase the lead to 4-0, the 98,772 Culés at the Camp Nou, save for a few hundred Real Valladolid die-hards, began to chant the song that every team wants to hear at the end of the season, “Campeones, campeones, ¡Olé, olé, olé!”  For the final fifteen minutes, the procession commenced on the pitch.

Bojan Krkic came out for Thierry Henry, likely Henry’s final appearance for Barcelona because of his increasingly diminished role with Pedro Rodríguez and Bojan ahead of him in the pecking order.

Dani Alves departed in the 80th minute for Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a player who epitomizes the cliché that there are two halves of a season.  Despite Ibrahimovic’s struggles in the last three months, the supporters gave Ibrahimovic a nice round of applause.

The heartiest plaudits, however, rained down on Pedro when Pep Guardiola took him out in the 86th minute for Andrés Iniesta.  An infrequent contributor last season, Pedro rose to the occasion nearly every time Guardiola called his name this season, and after fifty-one appearances and twenty-three goals in all competitions, Pedro made himself a fixture as one of the starting three forwards for FC Barcelona.

Referee Miguel Ángel Pérez Lasa whistled for fulltime at the ninety-minute mark, and Barcelona won its fourth La Liga crown in six years and their twentieth overall.

Despite the 4-0 scoreline, Valladolid accounted well for themselves and displayed the aggression on both ends of the pitch early that Javier Clemente-led teams always show.  Ever the entertaining yet obstinate manager during press conferences, Clemente verbalized the fighting spirit that Valladolid would have against Barcelona with colorful imagery:

“We will not go like lambs to the slaughter.  I would rather be a bull, which gives its all and dies angrily.  Let us see whether we will die or not, but if we do, we will do it with our boots on.  We have nothing left to fear.  We must go there bravely.”

Nearly invoking the spirit of Franklin Delano Roosevelt with his impassioned plea, Clemente sought the desire, will, and all of those wonderful intangibles from his players that would be necessary to achieve any sort of positive result against Barcelona.

In a bizarre twist of fate, Mr. Clemente, one of the most hated enemies of Real Madrid, could have aided Madrid’s faint hopes of winning La Liga if Valladolid could prevent Barcelona from earning the three points.  Real Madrid had to beat Málaga and pray for Barça not to win in order to secure their 32nd championship.

Besides winning two La Liga crowns in 1983 and 1984 with Athletic Bilbao on the last day of both seasons with Real finishing second both seasons, he had a reputation of excluding Real Madrid players in favor of Basque players during his tenure as Spanish national team manager in the 1990s.  No one player felt this cold shoulder more than Real Madrid legend and current Getafe manager Míchel.

Míchel was part of the illustrious Quinta del Buitre quintet of homegrown players for Real Madrid in the 1980s and early 1990s that won two UEFA Cups and five consecutive domestic titles, and Míchel made himself a fixture on the Spanish national team.  He earned sixty-six caps to his name when Clemente became Spain’s manager in 1992, and despite his continued excellent play with Los Blancos in the prime of his career, Clemente never called him up for Spain.  At a young twenty-nine years, his international career ended prematurely.

Clemente favored Barcelona right wing Ion Andoni Goikoetxea over Míchel, and while Goikoetxea featured the hard-working and industrious characteristics that Clemente loved and coveted, he did not have nearly the skill or creativity that Míchel brought to the table.  In defense of Goikoetxea, he did win the Don Balón award for Spanish player of the year in 1991 and was a significant member of Johan Cruijff’s Dream Team that won four consecutive La Liga crowns and the 1992 European Cup over Sampdoria, but for Clemente to leave Míchel completely off Spain’s squad and not even grant him a seat on the substitute’s bench stung Míchel and continues to sting him to this day.

Despite the history, the Madridistas would instantly forgive Javier Clemente Lázaro if he prevented the Barcelona machine from rolling to one last victory.

The “thank you” letters from Real Madrid, however, nearly needed to be written for Víctor Valdés, as his penchant to show his footballing skills virtually handed Valladolid the opening goal in the fourth minute.

Receiving a simple back pass from Gerard Piqué, Valdés’ first touch on the ball got away from him, and eying this unexpected opportunity, Valladolid left back Antonio Barragán pounced on the ball.  Valdés tried to recover from his error by clearing it to safety, but Barragán deflected his clearance as he slid in to tackle the ball away from Valdés, and the ball fell right into the path of Manucho just inside the top of the penalty box.  Whether Manucho felt he needed merely to guide it toward the empty net or the bounce prevented him from striking the ball cleanly, he hit the ball with his shin, but it was heading to the back of the net.

Because Manucho’s did not crack his shot with the greatest conviction, there was a slight chance that a Barcelona defender could knock his shot away from goal, and who other than the captain and defensive stalwart, Carles Puyol, to race into the box and commit to a diving clearance that sent the ball to the touchline.

When Luís Prieto deviated an innocuous Pedro cross into his own net in the 27th minute to gift Barça the 1-0 lead, the title was destined to be retained by the Catalunyans for another season.  Valladolid could not get into the game as Barcelona played their possession style, and the “plan” that Clemente championed and rightly refused to reveal prior to the match failed miserably.

Lionel Messi scored twice and assisted Pedro in the backbreaking second goal, but the man of the match award must go to Touré Yaya, who took on the responsibility of playmaker because of Xavi Hernández’s suspension.  After the first fifteen to twenty minutes, where they could not penetrate the Valladolid and resorted to long-distance efforts, Yaya controlled the match from the midfield on both offense and defense.

Nothing encapsulated Touré Yaya’s impact as the conductor more than Barça’s third goal that prevented any thought of a miracle comeback by Valladolid.  After receiving a pass from Sergio Busquets, Yaya nutmegged Raúl Rodríguez Navas and then hurdled Henrique Sereno’s sliding challenge as he charged into the box, where his cutback pass from the endline found Messi, and with a wide-open goal, he rolled it in for the 3-0 advantage.  Touré Yaya will likely leave in the summer because Busquets has succeeded him as Barça’s holding midfielder, and if this eventually becomes the final appearance for Yaya in a Barcelona uniform, he went out with one of his best performances as a Barça player.

Even though Real Madrid only managed a 1-1 draw with Málaga, the spirit and gusto of the Real players dropped considerably when they found out what was happening at the Camp Nou, so one cannot assume that this result would have occurred if the Barcelona – Valladolid match were much closer.  FC Barcelona, however, did not want to have the championship decided on Real Madrid’s result against Málaga, and they merited the La Liga trophy in typical Barça flair in their 4-0 drubbing of Real Valladolid.

Ninety-six points in a season is a ridiculous amount, the most points accumulated in the history of La Liga prior to this season.  Unfortunately for Real Madrid, one other team eclipsed that point total in the same season.  While the 2009-10 FC Barcelona club did not defend their Champions League trophy, ninety-nine points in the league and a +74 goal difference (98 for and 24 against) are accomplishments that will be on par with any that Barcelona has ever achieved.  With all of their young talent under contract for the next several years along with the economic firepower that the club possesses, László Kubala’s five cup season of 1952, Cruijff’s “Total Football” of the 1970s, and Cruijff’s Dream Team of the 1990s could take a backseat to this current Barcelona incarnation.

It also helps that Lionel Messi declared that he could never see himself playing for Real Madrid or at any other club.

Fueras de Juego

- Another upheaval in the Bernabéu seems likely as they failed to win any silverware this season.  Manuel Pellegrini deserves another season to mold this team, but with José Mourinho possibly available in the summer (although he would employ a more pragmatic style that the Madridistas and the Real boardroom hated when Fabio Capello WON the league in 2006), Real’s failure to advance past the Round of 16 in the Champions League (although the previous seven Real managers did not pass this stage), their debacle against Alcorcón in the Copa del Rey (although Real does not really care about this competition and had not won this since 1993), and second-place in the league to Barcelona (although they amassed an obscene ninety-six points and scored 102 goals), Pellegrini may not get the chance to improve on what any other team would consider a great season.  Fabio Capello was right when he compared managing Real Madrid to living in a goldfish bowl.

- Getafe cruised to sixth place and a Europa League berth when they defeated Atlético Madrid’s B-side 0-3 at the Vicente Calderón on Saturday evening.  The players and the colchoneros in the stands celebrated their Europa League triumph and looked forward to the Copa del Rey final against Sevilla on Wednesday rather than worry about a league match that did not matter to them, and Getafe could not have been happier to take advantage.

- RCD Mallorca felt the ecstasy and agony of football in a span of a couple of minutes.  After dismissing Espanyol 2-0 at the ONO Estadi, they watched the final minutes of the Almería – Sevilla match on the big screen at the stadium.  At the time, it was 2-2, and if that result held, Mallorca would be in the Champions League for finishing fourth in the league.  In the third minute of stoppage time, however, Sevilla youngster Rodri twisted himself around to score past Esteban Suárez and send Sevilla into the Champions League.  The juxtaposition of Mallorca captain Nunes’ despair with the champagne bottle standing right behind him showed how close they were to the bright lights of the top European club competition.

- Racing Santander saved themselves from relegation with a 2-0 victory over a more-than-willing Sporting Gijón, and Barça blasted Valladolid 4-0, but the other three teams in the relegation battle (Xerez, Tenerife, and Málaga) were involved in intense matches where one goal in any of those matches would have ramifications for the others.  Xerez needed to beat Osasuna and hope that two other teams involved in the relegation fight would not earn a point.  Xerez could only muster a 1-1 draw against Osasuna, so Néstor Gorosito’s reclamation project fell just short of an all-time great escape.

That left two teams for one spot in La Liga.  Málaga had the head-to-head tiebreaker over Tenerife, so Tenerife needed to better Málaga’s result for salvation, except for one caveat: if Valladolid, Málaga, and Tenerife were tied on points for 17th place and another season in the top flight, Tenerife would stay in La Liga because they scored more goals than the other two teams amongst matches against them, the fourth tiebreaker.  As complicated as that sounds, a Tenerife loss would not necessarily doom them.

Tenerife played as though they were doomed.  Tenerife keeper Sergio Aragoneses must have felt like those body-shaped silhouettes at a shooting range because Valencia pelted his goal with shot after shot after shot.  Luckily for Aragoneses, David Villa, David Silva, and Juan Mata did not start for Valencia because their clinical finishing would have converted some of the fourteen chances at goal.  Miraculously, it was 0-0 late into the match, and Nino flew down the right flank unmarked, heading toward Miguel Ángel Moyà’s goal.  Hedwiges Maduro’s incredible speed, however, caught up to Nino in the box, and the opportunity was gone.

Alexis scored in the second minute of stoppage time for Valencia to give Valencia the 1-0 win, but with the other matches falling Tenerife’s way, only a Málaga result against Real Madrid would drop them to the second division.  Málaga did the seemingly impossible and got the draw at home to revive their stay in the first division for another season.

- This final weekend of the season became swan songs for three that have served their respective professions to the highest degree: Joseba Etxeberria, Rubén Baraja, and referee Manuel Mejuto González.  Mejuto González’s last match will be on Wednesday as the referees the Copa del Rey final, but his La Liga career ended on Saturday in the Athletic Bilbao – Deportivo La Coruña match.  Etxeberria and Baraja both won, and both could not contain their emotions, as they were both given heroes’ exits by their clubs.

Will Spain's fortunes in the World Cup be similar to Euro 2008 or the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup?

On Tuesday, the goalkeepers and defenders were discussed, and Wednesday, the midfielders were discussed.  With all of the creative talent in the midfield, that will bring the pressure on the forwards to convert the multitudes of chances that Xavi, Xabi Alonso, etc. will create for them.  Obviously, the two starting men up front would be David Villa and Fernando Torres, but Torres currently faces an uphill battle to be fit enough for their first World Cup game on June 16 against Switzerland because he is still recovering from knee surgery in April that cost him the rest of the Premier League season.

Thus, the reserve forwards will have a significant role to play, and while those two spots are not secure, Fernando Llorente of Athletic Bilbao has the third-choice forward in his hands.  Included in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup squad, he epitomizes the target-man center forward with his height and strength.  His technical skill should not be overlooked either, and with fourteen goals in La Liga and eight goals in the Europa League this season, only injury or a disastrous training camp will prevent him from making the squad.

Álvaro Negredo endured an inconsistent season with Sevilla, failing to impress enough to dislodge either Luís Fabiano or Frédéric Kanouté up front.  Because both could not continually stay fit, Manolo Jiménez and Antonio Álvarez gave Negredo numerous chances to prove himself.  His occasional run-ins with the Sevilla technical staff did nothing to paint himself in a more positive light, but when he played for the national team in his four appearances, he belonged.

His two goals against Bosnia and Herzegovina certainly showed his potential, but if Vicente del Bosque will finalize the last few spots based on current form, Negredo will have plenty of work to do in the last week of the La Liga season, the Copa del Rey final against Atlético Madrid, and the training camp to convince del Bosque that he deserves a seat on the plane to South Africa.

Dani Güiza has been the third forward since late 2007 for the Spanish national team, and his two goals in Euro 2008, including the match-winner against previous European champions Greece, showed that he could shine in the limelight of international football.  He made a newsworthy transfer in the summer of 2008 when he moved to Fenerbahçe for €17.4 million after winning the Pichichi with Mallorca in the previous season, and while he has had moderate success with the Istanbul club, he has not lived up to that transfer fee.

This season, he scored eleven goals in the Turkish Süper Lig but did not score in any of Fenerbahçe’s Europa League matches once they qualified for the group stage.  Llorente, Negredo, and Güiza are similar strikers in style, so Vicente del Bosque will have to decide among the proven international Güiza, the in-form Llorente, and the mercurial but talented Negredo.

That leaves the wild card in this discussion, Pedro Rodríguez.  A talented player from the La Masia youth academy of FC Barcelona, his original role on this year’s Barcelona squad was to be a backup to Lionel Messi and Thierry Henry, but as Henry slogged through a dip in form, Pedro unexpectedly rose in prominence, and he became the first player to score in six different competitions in one calendar.

Firmly entrenched in the three-pronged attack for Barcelona, he does not just score the meaningless goals when Barcelona is up two or three goals.  In the Champions League, Copa del Rey, and important La Liga matches, he scored numerous times that either tied the match, gave Barça the lead, or provided that two-goal cushion to ease the nerves.  Uncapped at the international level, that might be a knock to most players, but with his revelation of a season combined with a skill set that is completely different from the other strikers contending for the reserve forward spots, Pedro has a better than a fifty percent chance to join some of his Barcelona teammates in South Africa.

Whatever decisions Vicente del Bosque makes for his final 23-man squad, the wealth of talent from which he has an honor to choose is unparalleled in international football.  As detailed in Spanish national team history, they have always had supreme skill yet folded in the biggest moments.  With their Euro 2008 success, this team might have exorcised those demons, but now they are co-favorites with Brazil to win World Cup 2010, and anything less than a finals appearance will be a bitter disappointment.

Vicente del Bosque’s Provisional 30-Man Squad

Goalkeepers: Iker Casillas, Pepe Reina, Víctor Valdés, Diego López, and David de Gea

Defenders: Sergio Ramos, Álvaro Arbeloa, Raúl Albiol, Gerard Piqué, Carles Puyol, Carlos Marchena, Joan Capdevila, and César Azpilicueta

Midfielders: Xavi Hernández, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets, Xabi Alonso, Juan Mata, David Silva, Marcos Senna, Santi Cazorla, Jesús Navas, Javi Martínez, and Cesc Fàbregas

Forwards: David Villa, Fernando Torres, Fernando Llorente, Pedro Rodríguez, Dani Güiza, Álvaro Negredo

Even the dog felt low after Athletic Bilbao's performance against Valencia.

Sevilla failed to show up against a desperate Real Valladolid side.  Mallorca could only muster a draw against Real Zaragoza at La Romareda.  Athletic Bilbao knew that a win against Valencia on Thursday would ascend them to within one point of Mallorca for the final Champions League spot.

Sure, Athletic has not won away from the San Mamés since the middle of December, so they were not expected to win at the Mestalla against a Valencia team looking to lock up the final automatic Champions League place.  Coming off an impressive 4-1 dismantling of an in-form Almería on Sunday, however, Joaquín Caparrós and his men seemed to have the confidence necessary to defeat Valencia.

As for Valencia, they went back to the future because of their sheer amount of injuries.  Vicente Rodríguez, David Albelda, Joaquín, and Rubén Baraja all started for Los Che, hearkening back to the days when Valencia regularly competed in the later stages of the Champions League.

The apparent rift between Éver Banega and Unai Emery seemed to be repaired after Banega’s choleric behavior in being substituted against Mallorca on Sunday, but again, Banega’s inclusion in the starting eleven had more to do with the lack of midfield players at Emery’s disposal than any other factor.

With any match against Athletic Bilbao, the opposition should expect a physical affair and have a muted emphasis on quelling Bilbao’s direct style of play.  Fortunately for Valencia, Athletic played with a languid style that did not suit their personnel.

Joaquín Caparrós lamented his team’s lack of energy and intensity in his press conference after the match:

“Today we have not been at the competitive level we can show at home.  We knew it was a very good chance, but things do not go as one wants.  In the locker room, it feels like the season is already over.  We had hopes, but we knew that Valencia does really well in their home matches.  We still feel anger that we did not come out with greater aggression.”

With Athletic ceding most of the possession to Valencia, David Villa, David Silva, and the Valencia attack needed to figure out how to break through the obstinate Athletic defense.  Valencia plays it best football on the counter-attack, and it is no surprise that after Barcelona and Real Madrid, Valencia has the best away record in La Liga.  Through the first half-hour, there was no constant threat on goal from either team.  Joaquín and Rubén Baraja had headers that endangered Gorka Iraizoz’s goal, but Iraizoz handled them with relative ease.

When David Silva scored from a goal-line scramble in the 35th minute, Athletic neither stepped up their game nor fought back with anger, in line with Caparrós’ assessment of his team after the match.

Athletic’s lack of confidence away from home was clearly evident against Valencia, but they missed two key players that would have been vital in raising the spirits of their teammates: Gaizka Toquero and Pablo Orbaiz.

Gaizka Toquero has been the loyal sidekick to Fernando Llorente as the right-sided forward this season, but his contributions have gone well beyond his seven goals scored this season.  A journeyman throughout most of his career in the lower divisions of Spain, the twenty-five year old would appreciate his opportunity to play with a top-level club more than most players, and his never-ending engine only helps to endear himself to his teammates and the Basque faithful.

Toquero wears the number two jersey, a number usually designated for a fullback, but many times, he helps Andoni Iraola on the right side of defense.  Whereas Wayne Rooney sometimes receives criticism for running all over the pitch instead of focusing on his duties up front, fans laud Toquero for his abundance of energy and his willingness to help his defense when necessary.

With Pablo Orbaiz, he provides the steel in front of the defensive live that breaks up the opposition’s play as well as providing that extra slice of intimidation that comes with the Athletic Club brand.  Orbaiz has gone over the line in a couple of instances this season, including receiving a two-match ban for his part in the ugly fracas at the end of the Villarreal match in February and receiving another two-match ban in March for kicking the cajones of David Cortés.

Athletic needed that extra bite in the midfield (the legal bite) against Valencia because of their skill players up front, and Carlos Gurpegui, Javi Martínez, and David López did not supply the girth necessary to bother Valencia.

After the halftime break, the insertion of Fran Yeste and Ander Iturraspe for the lagging David López and Igor Gabilondo brought a sense of vitality into the squad, but when David Silva scored his second goal in the 62nd minute, the fight and tenacity intertwined with Athletic Club players dissipated slowly into oblivion as Valencia cruised to a facile 2-0 victory to fortify their third-place position in La Liga.

This column has covered Athletic Club’s struggles when they have had a chance to threaten fourth-place, but to come up so small with the season reaching its climax is inexcusable for a team so close to qualifying for the Champions League.  A common theme in La Liga this season has been the failure of the second tier teams below Real Madrid and Barcelona to fulfill their potential.  Sevilla, Villarreal, and Atlético Madrid have seen significant dips in form, and while Athletic Club may not have been in that tier to begin the season, they have been consistent in the top ten.

To Bilbao’s advantage, four of their final six matches are at the San Mamés, and with their Dr. Jekyll – Mr. Hyde act, they should consider themselves favorites to garner at least ten out of twelve points from those matches.  A Europa League berth based on league standing would be a good achievement for Athletic Club, but if they can finish in fourth and negotiate the playoff round in the Champions League, any European team would dread traveling to the San Mamés on a European night.

Fueras de Juego

- The golazo of the week must go to Pedro Rodríguez of Barcelona in their 3-0 win over Deportivo La Coruña.  With Barça holding a slim 1-0 lead, Víctor Valdés went long with his goal kick, a rare occurrence for Valdés, because he saw Dani Alves streaking down the middle of the pitch with only one defender back.  Depor goalkeeper Daniel Aranzubia came out of his area to clear the ball away from Alves.  It was not the greatest clearance, but it went as far as the halfway line.  From that point, Pedro kicked a soaring, curling ball first-time nearly from the halfway line into the back of the unguarded net.  In a season full of awe-inspiring moments for Barça, that Pedro goal ranks near the top of the list in terms of pure difficulty and technique.

- Whenever a club from the bottom half of the table needs a signature victory over a top-five team, Sevilla is the most charitable team to give those lower clubs that sense of belonging.  In Round 32, Real Valladolid took advantage of a below-par Sevilla side, and with their 2-0 victory on Wednesday evening, La Pucela climbed to within four points of Málaga and relegation safety.  As much as Quique Sánchez Flores pulls his hair out for Atlético Madrid’s inconsistency, Manolo Jiménez and now Antonio Álvarez cannot understand how their collection of talented players have shut it down for the most part at the end of the season.  Injuries took its toll on Los Nervionenses, but that is no excuse for the dearth of passion late in the season as they try to qualify for the Champions League for the third year running.

- Tenerife and Xerez, the other teams besides Valladolid in the drop zone, also won on Wednesday to increase their chances of staying in the top flight next season.  With Málaga and Real Zaragoza just above them but hardly running away from the relegation fight, a surge to end the campaign is not out of the question for the bottom three teams.

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.

Ibrahimovic scores in his first La Liga game

Writer’s Note: Unfortunately, WordPress does not recognize the “c” with an accent mark, so Bojan Krkic and Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s names will not include an accent mark above the ” c.”

It is easy to overreact and overanalyze after one match and assume that whatever happens in that match will become a trend throughout the season; therefore, in evaluating Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s performance in the Barcelona – Sporting Gijón match on Monday night, hyperbole will not be the overall sentiment of this piece.

As for the match itself, Barcelona never let Sporting Gijón play, and Sporting did not really seem interested in retrieving the ball back from Barcelona.  Barça had 74% of the possession in each half, but uncharacteristically, Barça constructed their three goals from corner kicks rather than from open play.  Bojan Krkic, deputizing for Thierry Henry, who Pep Guardiola decided to rest after playing in the UEFA Super Cup on Friday, performed at a high level with a goal and numerous individual runs that menaced the Sporting defense all night long.  While Bojan brought the Camp Nou to its feet, Seydou Keita was the man of the match with his tireless work rate in the midfield and his ability to get his head onto free kicks and crosses.  His near post flick on from a corner kick in the 18th minute directly led to Bojan’s headed goal on the back post, his header from a corner kick in the 42nd minute scored the second goal for Barcelona, and another header in the 67th minute hit the post.  While Barcelona did not produce the sparkling display of football like most expect them to do on every occasion, they took the belief out of Sporting and thus could play around with the ball for ninety minutes.

With Thierry Henry resting and Lionel Messi in Argentina preparing for World Cup qualifying against Brazil, the limelight was squarely focused on Zlatan Ibrahimovic and how he would fare in his first match in the blaugrana shirt.  With Pedro Rodríguez on his right and Bojan Krkic on his left, Ibrahimovic had more than capable forwards on the wings, but they were not Henry or Messi.  His first significant touch came in the fourth minute when Pedro sent him a through ball into the box, which got him behind the Sporting defense; however, he was positioned at an acute angle and he scuffed his shot trying to blast it past Sporting goalkeeper Juan Pablo.  In the 30th minute, he made a run into the box and faked a shot, causing two defenders to go to ground in anticipation.  Open for the shot, he tried a cute, swerved shot towards the near post, and Juan Pablo saved it easily.  A diagonal run in the 40th minute set up a shot for Ibrahimovic, but Juan Pablo made a routine save.  In the first half, Ibrahimovic seemed a bit sluggish and lax in attack, but that could be directly attributed to his lack of match fitness.  He injured his hand while on a US tour with Inter Milan and did not play a competitive match until the Joan Gamper Trophy against Manchester City on August 19.

Ibrahimovic raised his energy level and involved himself more into the attack in the second half.  In the 66th minute, Eric Abidal sent a long ball to the edge of the penalty area, and Alberto Botía, a central defender on loan to Sporting from Barcelona, harassed Ibrahimovic, but he was able to fight him off and restart the attack.  His willingness to scrap and clash with the defense gave a rise to the Barça faithful.  In the 74th minute, on an average cross by Pedro, Ibrahimovic was able to rise over Botía and deliver a solid header, but it headed toward Juan Pablo’s grateful hands.  Pedro’s cross hung in the air, so Ibrahimovic had to supply most of the power for the header, and he accomplished that feat quite well.  His aerial ability is one of the attributes that differentiated Ibrahimovic from his predecessor Samuel Eto’o.

Then in the 82nd minute, Ibrahimovic scored his first goal for Barça.  On another corner kick, Xavi took it short to Dani Alves, and after he crossed the ball into the box, it took a slight deflection off Sporting defender Grégory’s head, and Ibrahimovic executed the diving header at the back post to perfection.  It was almost a carbon copy of the first Barcelona goal where Seydou Keita’s near-post flick sent the ball to the back post, and Bojan headed home the opening score.  It was not the most attractive goal he has ever scored, but at that moment, it must have been sweet for him to score in his first match for Barça.

There were a few flashes of brilliance by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, including the goal late in the contest, but he will not be putting this performance in his scrapbook of the best ninety minutes in his career.  The chemistry among his fellow forwards lacked that something extra, but anyone expecting the gears to shift seamlessly in the first match hold unrealistic expectations.  While he did not play his best, scoring in his first match was important because now he does not have to face the pressure of a goal drought to start his season.  Ibrahimovic would admit that he still needs time to adapt to life in Spain and the Barça system.  When the international break concludes and Henry and Messi join Ibrahimovic in attack for a string of games, Pep Guardiola will see if the infinite attacking potential of this trio will culminate into consecutive La Liga titles.  A straightforward win and an Ibrahimovic goal is just the start that Barcelona needed to launch a successful La Liga campaign.

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