http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=568485&sec=europe&root=europe&cc=5739&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1
First day fumblesBy Phil Ball
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Robinho: Overvalued by Real, despite them now knowing he is not Schuster's son.
Even before the Sunday games got under way for this, the opening
weekend of the new Spanish season, Real Madrid's out-of-favour
Brazilian Robinho, left behind in Madrid as the team travelled to
Coruaña to play Deportivo, announced that he would tell the press 'the
scandal of the century', or words to that effect. In
the end, he told the mass of flashing light-bulbs that 'Schuster isn't
my father' - which the German probably already knew. So instead of a
paternity suit to start the new season with, last year's champions lost
again to Deportivo, making it eighteen years in the Riazor without a
win. Van Nistlerooy (who else?) scored Madrid's 4,999th goal in
professional competition since 1929, but it is almost certain that
Robinho will not be the scorer of the 5,000th. This should
hardly matter to Real Madrid anyway, who secretly have little
confidence in him, but who nevertheless have tried to extract the
maximum amount from Abramovich's pocket before the deadline. Chelsea
would be mad to pay any more than £10m for him, but logic has long
since departed the European football scene. Arjen Robben is a far
better player, and Madrid know it. Chelsea don't seem to, but that's
their problem. You just feel that they might try to go about things in
a slightly less absurd manner to begin the season - accusing Chelsea of
exactly the same conduct of which they were guilty throughout the
summer in 'Ronaldogate'. Whatever, when was the last time that
the season got under way with the big two both losing? Aw gawd, that's
a tricky one at midnight on a Sunday, so I'll shirk the question by
simply suggesting that it's a long time. Barcelona, as you may have
gathered, also came a cropper up in the wilds of Soria at Numancia
(1-0), to get Pep Guardiola off to a less than auspicious start. Then again, other teams will also struggle at
Los Pajaritosthis season, where Sergio Kresic has taken over a solid if
unspectacular squad for a renewed attempt to stay in the top flight,
their last attempt having been in the 2004-05 season when they were
relegated back straight away. Not too much should be read into their
beating of Barça, since it was always going to be a tough call for the
Catalans on the opening day at a stadium in every aspect a million
miles removed from their own - but it won't do Numancia's confidence
any harm and it does confirm what many commentators have been saying -
that they are much more likely to stay the course than the other two
promoted clubs, Sporting and Málaga. Next week they visit Real
Madrid, which should prove more than interesting. But talk about a
baptism of fire. From the third week onwards, it's all downhill for
them.The inevitable question for the opening column of the
season concerns, as ever, whether any team is capable of sustaining a
real challenge to the big two. Villarreal were magnificent last season,
and looking at their squad for the present one you have to say that the
midfield they have put together is probably the best in the league, at
least on paper.
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Deportivo's second goal goes in at the Riazor.
It remains a mystery how a side on their relatively limited resources
have managed to pull off this feat, but pull it off they have. Spain's
victory in the Euro 2008 would have been unlikely without the backbone
that this team provided, and the further miracle in the wake of that
fantastic competition is that Marcos Senna and Santi Cazorla are still
there. Senna was tempted to join Dani Güiza at Fenerbahce but decided
against it in the end, and Cazorla was briefly tempted by Real Madrid
before also concluding that it might be better to stay put. Ariel
Ibagaza has joined them from Mallorca, and whilst he has been an
inconsistent performer over the years, he is nevertheless a fine
player. The deceptive and tricky Joseba Llorente has been added to the
strikeforce from Valladolid, and Llorente has always scored goals. What
he lacks in pace he makes up for in guile, and it will be interesting
to see how he fares with Nihat, once the Turk recovers. Meanwhile
the interesting signing from the USA, Josmer Altidore, may well get
some games in if Rossi also fails to recover. Perhaps the distractions
of the Champions League will prove their undoing, but at their last
time of asking they made the semi-finals. A draw up at Osasuna seemed a
decent enough start, but they'll want the three points against
Deportivo next week to really get back last season's feel-good factor. Atlético
Madrid? Sevilla? Valencia? Atlético got off to a great start, beating
Málaga 4-0, but Málaga are the least likely of the promoted clubs to
stay the course. Atlético are also in the Champions League this season
but have made no real significant additions to their squad - Sinama
Pongolle being the only real signing of note - but in Kun Agüero they
have a potential great, as we now know. The only problem for the club
is that if he really does have the great season that he is promising,
he'll sign for Chelsea at the end of the campaign and Atlético will
revert back to being their usual messy selves. Sevilla seem
intent on a long and agonising period of deconstruction, whose aim is
anyone's guess. Dani Alves has gone to Barça, but that was always on
the cards. Keita has also gone to the Camp Nou and Poulsen, so often
the anchor man of the side, has gone to Juventus. Luis Fabiano has not
gone to Tottenham after all, but if he stays the entire season it will
be a surprise. Aldo Duscher, Beckham's old friend, has been signed to
fill Poulsen's place in midfield, but he's hardly the stuff that a
title challenge is made of. Capel, Duda, Navas and Fabiano are still
there, as is Kanouté, but it's difficult to see them having a better
season than the last one, despite their late showing. Valencia
hammered Mallorca 3-0 to dispel some of the gloom that was still around
in the summer, but at the time of writing Real Madrid were still
insisting that they would attempt to sign David Villa before the Monday
close of business. It makes you wonder why they didn't simply begin the
process post-Euro 2008, instead of flirting so ridiculously with
Cristiano Ronaldo, but there you go. Villa and Silva are still at the
Mestalla, Albelda is back, as is Angulo, and their young manager Unai
Emery is clearly a bit of a star, but there are still boardroom
disputes to settle, an unclear new stadium project and the weight of
last season's traumatic events still hovering in the air. This season
should be less disastrous (it would be difficult to surpass last
season's collective farce) but a serious challenge in the league looks
unlikely.
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Samuel Eto'o was not one of Barcelona's departures. He shows the pain of loss at Numancia.
Racing and Almería, last season's surprise packages, should be fine
again this season, but Mallorca, who also had a more than decent
campaign, have been weakened over the summer and may struggle. In
general, the happy events of Euro 2008 have cast a golden sheen once
again on La Liga, after England's Premier League threatened to
overshadow it with its dominance of last season's Champions League. The
mass export of players has not happened, and Deco remains the only real
loss of genuine talent for this campaign - but he's Brazilian/Portugese
anyway. Real Madrid have only signed Van de Vaart, and if
no-one else is forthcoming, they will have to hope that their ageing
strikeforce stays the course. Another failure in Europe this
season may spell the end for Calderón and Mijatovic. Barça have lost
some significant names (Ronaldinho, Deco, Oleguer, Edmilson, Thuram,
Zambrotta) but have signed two wonderful players in Hleb and Alves. The
only question is whether Hleb, particularly, will fit in - given that
Iniesta is a very similar player. Hleb is the type of player
Real Madrid should have bought, but they were far too busy on a wild
goose-chase. If they stutter this season, people will look back on the
summer of 2008 and begin to point the finger.
Home
. But still it was a must-win game for Barcelona.
Happy days are here again.
