La Liga Jornada 11

Has Hleb been tried as a left forward in Henry's position. I'm certain he would play better there than Henry does and if Iniesta can play there effectively, i'm sure Hleb can.

Hlebagone wrote:Has Hleb been tried as a left forward in Henry's position. I'm certain he would play better there than Henry does and if Iniesta can play there effectively, i'm sure Hleb can.

He was tried and looked as average as Henry. But in fairness, got much less chances than Henry, with a few week injury absence being one of the reasons.

he played there in the basel game

Henry shitting on Messi's work.

fucking idiot henry

Messiah wrote:he played there in the basel game

How'd he do?

Wow, Henry sucks. He shoots like a pussy.

Barca tried to execute play off the corner kick, which worked against Numancia I think - ball going into Yaya and he should cross it back, to the player attacking from the 2nd line. But this time he lost it

The set play works magic, all hail pep

cheeky cheeky cheeky.

Goal for Messi from a set piece worked out on the training ground.

Well played.

Hlebagone wrote:

Messiah wrote:he played there in the basel game

How'd he do?

did well actually, fitted in well with our passing game

Dumb ref, shouldn't have given Eto'o a yellow. They are too easily intimidated by all the overacting.

Messi is just unbelievable - shame on you Pierre.

Effenberg wrote:Dumb ref, shouldn't have given Eto'o a yellow. They are too easily intimidated by all the overacting.

joke yellow card

it was offside but i can't believe henry missed that

The Professor wrote:Messi is just unbelievable against Recreativo Huelva - shame on you Pierreabout his performances v United and Liverpool.

Messiah wrote:it was offside but i can't believe henry missed that

I can.

Wenger Out !!! wrote:

The Professor wrote:Messi is just unbelievable against Recreativo Huelva - shame on you Pierreabout his performances v United and Liverpool.

and against madrid and valencia and villareal and milan and villarreal and chelsea

Messiah wrote:

Wenger Out !!! wrote:

The Professor wrote:Messi is just unbelievable against Recreativo Huelva - shame on you Pierreabout his performances v United and Liverpool.

and against madrid and valencia and villareal and milan and villarreal.

2-0

keita

Keita with his 1st goal

Professional performance by Barca. Recrea are a very frustrating team to play against, I saw them frustrate Valencia not long ago.

Barca missed quite a few opportunities. It should have a 4-0 or even more...in the end, if it's not a tennis score like we are used to then it's not good enough for this barcelona...

smart move on the first goal...and to think that with Franck set plays had no place at all on training...

Hlebagone wrote:Henry shitting on Messi's work.

Good Day

Sporting

La Liga Loca spent Saturday night injecting bleach into its eyeballs in a desperate attempt to banish the images of the Valladolid vs Real Madrid match from its brain, so missed out on this corker at the Mestalla.

Sporting’s swashbuckling football stylings have now seen the side win five of the six games played since being put through the football wringer at the start of the season.

Whilst Preciado’s players may find it hard to keep up their momentum, they look good for another season in the top flight. And as the club possesses one of the few sets of support that actually travels to games, that would be a very good thing.

On a similar note, there were only 100 odd Sevilla fans in Getafe on Sunday. A city with five million or so people can surely offer up more exiled supporters than that rather paltry, but noisy, number?

Valladolid

With the 19-year old goalkeeper, Sergio Asenjo in the starting line up, the average age of the Valladolid 11 was just under 30. Without him, it would have been 67. Still young enough to beat Real Madrid though.

Barcelona

A double day of delight for the Dream Boys. Not only did they slip past a Recreativo side that Guardiola feared would be hard to break down, but all of Pep’s rivals dropped points too.

Fernando LLorente

When La Liga Loca heard that Llorente had been called up to the Spain squad, the blog nodded in approval. Del Bosque had picked a striker that had been superb for Valladolid last season and was performing pluckily for Villarreal both in Spain and Europe, this time round.

But - and not for the first time - the simple-minded La Liga Loca had confused Joseba with Fernando. But maybe the Spain manager had too?

Vicente del Bosque has chosen the gangly ‘new Arizmendi’ striker busy entertaining all in San Mamés. Still, the floppy-haired forward popped up with a peach on Sunday to lead Athletic to their first win in seven.

Numancia

Maybe La Liga Loca was a little hasty in writing off Numancia’s survival chances after coming back from 3-2 down to win 4-3 on Sunday. So let’s check who they were playing... Oh. Still going down!

Alvaro Negredo

Surely a better choice at the Bernabeu than Crespo? Or would that mean admitting another wrong move by Madrid by letting the Almería striker go in the first place?

Atlético Madrid

No matter what poor old Javier Aguirre does, the Mexican manager is derided and damned in the Spanish press.

First he was criticised for overplaying Kun Agüero, and then for resting him. And it has been a similar situation with Diego Forlán - another player who simply doesn’t have a 50-match season in his legs.

So, it is with a tremendous but inevitable air of ‘told-you-so’ self satisfaction that Monday’s papers are full of praise for the 4-1 win over a dreadful Deportivo which saw Kun and Diego starting together.

Sevilla

After seeing them in full Technicolor for the second time this season, La Liga Loca still isn’t enjoying Sevilla v2.

The side swapped flair for physical power over the summer, something that Javier Casquero agreed with in a wee chat with the blog after the game.

“They lost important players in midfield along with Dani Alves. These are players who made a big difference. Now, they play very high up the field and are very competitive,” said the Getafe midfielder.

Sergio Garcia

It was the only other day that La Liga Loca remembered that the Euro 2008 winner had moved to Betis from Zaragoza over the summer.

And that may be the same situation for the fans, after the midfielder/striker thingy woke up and scored a brace in a match where both teams wore green for some reason.

Bad Day

Bernd Schuster

Monday’s events at the Bernabeu may overtake the current ramblings of the blog, but it seems that Schuster’s goose is gandered.

Both Marca and AS are citing the German’s failure to lead Sunday’s voluntary training session as evidence of his lack of concern at the his side’s current sickly state.

The fact that he was attending his baby daughter’s baptism has been overlooked somewhat.

Raúl

Another fine performance for Madrid’s sporting director. Bugger all for 90-minutes aside from a feeble late miss in a one-on-one against Asenjo.

La Liga Loca

The blog travelled all the way to Getafe and not one sniff - in the metaphorical sense - of the mythical Granero’s Bird.

Maybe Esteban’s angel went into hiding after watching her fella’s dreadful attempt at a penalty?

Espanyol

Judging by the weekend’s comments controversy on the blog, Paul from Barcelona’s crankiness was not helped one little bit by watching Espanyol go down 3-4 to Numancia. Brace! Brace! Brace!

“A big welcome today to over 200 vocal Numancia fans who had made the journey. And some journey it is too.

Steve Finnan started at right back for Espanyol. We hoped he wouldn't get confused as he was playing against a team in all red and that contained 11 Spanish players.

Numancia took the lead when a long shot from the number 6 (it's Numancia, you tell me their names then?) went in after good work on the left wing.

Espanyol equalised from a corner that found Moises, back to goal, who then in a kind of overhead kick, shot into the goal. An excellent finish.

1-1 at half time, about right and no warning of what was to come.

1-2: a break down the left and a stooping glancing header put Numancia ahead

2-2: Jarque's header hit the ground, the bar and defender before going in.

3-2: Tamudo brought down in the area. Penalty. Which he took himself despite his recent record and buried it bottom corner.

3-3: A great curling shot into the top right-hand corner.

3-4: With Espanyol pushing forward. Numancia raced away down the left and the guy hammered it from the edge of the area into the far corner. A worthy match winner.

So three points for an effective Numancia team who took their chances well and got a round of applause from the home fans. Well, we all secretly like Numancia don't we ?

For Espanyol it was pretty poor. Finnan looked off the pace, but then he's been injured. Some of our players are just not good enough. Simple as that.

Stray cat count... 0 ( I'm getting worried)"

Paul, Barcelona

Valencia

Two home defeats in a row in the league! Emery out!

“Something isn’t working,” mused Unai after the 3-2 defeat to Sporting.

Osasuna

Without a league goal in four matches. And only one scored in nine. Now La Liga Loca is no expert, but that doesn’t sound very good.

Villarreal

Still the only unbeaten side in the Primera but will be smarting after a losing the lead in injury time against Málaga - on a pitch that Manuel Pellegrini was not at all happy about.

“In my opinion you shouldn’t have to play on pitches in this state,” complained the Villarreal bigwig.

“And Rubinos (the referee) was under pressure. He gave a lot of fouls against us and in one of them they scored,” continued Pellegrini using the trusted ‘Fergie defence.’

Sergio Garcia

It was the only other day that La Liga Loca remembered that the Euro 2008 winner had moved to Betis from Zaragoza over the summer.

And that may be the same situation for the fans, after the midfielder/striker thingy woke up and scored a brace in a match where both teams wore green for some reason.

The kit clash mixup is so typically Spain

Raúl
Another fine performance for Madrid’s sporting director. Bugger all for 90-minutes aside from a feeble late miss in a one-on-one against Asenjo.

Espanyol

Judging by the weekend’s comments controversy on the blog, Paul from Barcelona’s crankiness was not helped one little bit by watching Espanyol go down 3-4 to Numancia. Brace! Brace! Brace!

“A big welcome today to over 200 vocal Numancia fans who had made the journey. And some journey it is too.

Steve Finnan started at right back for Espanyol. We hoped he wouldn't get confused as he was playing against a team in all red and that contained 11 Spanish players.

Numancia took the lead when a long shot from the number 6 (it's Numancia, you tell me their names then?) went in after good work on the left wing.

Paul, Barcelona

This Paul guy is pretty funny too

"Spanish Thing" column on F365:

The Pursuit Of Happiness...In Getafe
Posted 17/11/08 12:46

When, halfway through the second half, a less-than-genteel gentleman stood up to launch into a chant of 'Víctor out!', the Spanish Thing shot across its finest Paddington Bear-style death stare.

Unfortunately, it made the column look like it was suffering from trapped wind.

Your increasingly cranky correspondent had taken the 50-minute tunnel-based trip to Getafe with the aim of spending a splendid Sunday with some happy-clappy, quietly content, sunny supporters.

Instead, it had found a stadium full of festering football fans who had become engorged and greedy after two years of sensational success.

Fans who had forgotten the footballing philosophy that - like Peter Crouch and Rio Ferdinand in a Wembley walkout - the thin must always follow the thick in football.



The gloom of a worsening economic climate and the price of Jamón Serrano soaring on the futures markets seems to have rubbed off on the game in Spain.

Despite enjoying one of the finest starts to the season in the club's history, Barcelona fans are staying away from the Camp Nou in their droves, with attendances dropping faster than Paris Hilton's drawers.

The two main Madrid clubs have footballing frowns that definitely need turning upside down.

This is especially true with Bernd Schuster, a manager under so much pressure he resembles a fish dragged up from the depths by the Discovery Channel. A fish sporting a porno moustache, mind.

Successive home defeats for Valencia have restarted murmurings of malcontent in Mestalla, whilst Osasuna supporters have witnessed their team scoring just three goals all season.

But surely Getafe fans must be happy with their sporting lot?

Going into the eleventh round of action, the club's plucky players were trundling along nicely in eighth, although they had been embarrassingly booted out of the Copa del Rey by Osasuna, preventing a third final in a row.

Even the short walk from the metro stop to Getafe's heart-warming home is enough to tickle the cockles of even the most hard-headed of visitors.

Located in one of Madrid's sprawling 'bedroom' suburbs and resembling a scaled-down version of Huddersfield's stadium, the Coliseum is the home of a club that is well-run, well-liked and until this season, it seems, well-supported.

Whilst Real Madrid has Plácido Domingo blasting out its hateful 'Hala Madrid!' anthem over a billion-watt speaker system at the start of each game, Getafe's players run out to a what sounds like a bunch of boozed-up blokes shouting into a Karaoke machine over an early 90s eurodisco beat.

And for much of the game, it looked as if Getafe's manager was dancing along too as he waved and raved at his players from the pitch-side.

Having been courted, then subsequently dumped by both Bernd Schuster and Michael Laudrup and their sexy managerial stylings in recent years, Getafe's president Angel Torres has chosen Víctor 'nice personality' Muñoz to sit on the Coliseum bench this season.

The idea being that the former St. Mirren player may be less easy on the footballing eye than his predecessors, but is less likely to walk out on the club come May.

The problem is that Muñoz has the reputation for playing dour, defensive football.

And this, combined with the fact that Getafe fans believe that they have made Barcelona look like Bolton over the past few years means the coach was on a hiding to nothing as soon as he parked his posterior on the Getafe bench.

Against Sevilla on a stunning Sunday afternoon, his Getafe team played - to borrow a horrible cliché - neat, tidy football.

The kind of football that should see them comfortably past the Racings or Real Madrids of this year's la Liga.

Unfortunately, as the home crowd discovered last weekend in a 3-0 defeat against Valencia and in the eventual loss to Sevilla, they are not good enough to beat the top teams.

But this seems to be a problem for Getafe supporters who still have last season's UEFA Cup run motoring around in their memories.

To this end, these feeble excuses for fans have spend the past few weeks booing their players off the pitch.

On Sunday, a first-half missed penalty by Esteban Granero could have made all the difference to the home side.

Had the midfielder decided to slot the ball past Andrés Palop rather than passing it to him, a victory would have been easily achievable.

The front three of Jaime Gavilán, Juan Albín and Ikechukwu Uche were industrious throughout the game, although struggled against the increasingly physical nature of Sevilla's rearguard.

Instead, it was a first-half effort from Luis Fabiano and an injury-time breakaway from Dutch defender Tom del Mul which gave the Andalusian title-chasers a 2-0 win and the three points.

"The result was unfair because of the work Getafe did," admitted Sevilla manager Manolo Jiménez, supporting his coaching counterpart who walked from the dugout to whistles and jeers from the rapidly-emptying stadium.

Getafe, a club with an annual budget of 18 million euros - almost four times smaller than Sunday's visitors - are paying a high price for the success of recent seasons which saw two Copa del Rey finals and a remarkable European odyssey.

And that's a theory that The Spanish Thing put to cornered Getafe midfielder Javier Casquero after the game.

"Yes, this is what's happened. We're a modest team which had never done anything like this, before. Fans have got used to it," said Casquero - the owner of one of the sweetest shots in Spanish football.

"They want European competition and finals. But the most important thing for Getafe is to stay in the Primera division and that we keep being supported, to help us move forward."

It took just four years in Spain's top flight for Getafe fans to forget their roots - roots which saw them in the game's third tier just seven years ago.

On the pitch, the players were hardworking and honest. The simple fact is that they as are not as good as the likes of Vicente and Villa or Kanouté and Fabiano.

But, it is a simple fact that appears to be lost on an increasingly ignorant and impatient set of supporters.

Round 11 Results

Athletic 2-0 Osasuna
Recreativo 0-2 Barcelona
Getafe 0-2 Sevilla
Málaga 2-2 Villarreal
Almería 2-1 Mallorca
Atlético 4-1 Deportivo
Espanyol 3-4 Numancia
Betis 3-1 Racing
Valencia 2-3 Sporting
Valladolid 1-0 Real Madrid


Tim Stannard

kas wrote:Luis Fabiano gives Sevilla the lead...he's continue his form from last season. Surely only a matter of time now before some UEFA-Cup chasing English club finally goes in for him?

Aston Villa looks like a right fit for me. Agbonlahor as the target man won't work everyday liked it worked on saturday, Carew probably will be worse every month and it's too high level for Harewood. Fabiano would be a great addition for them.

I just can't see O'Neill signing someone like Luis Fabiano. Absolutely worlds apart to the type of player O'Neill seems to like.

kas wrote:I just can't see O'Neill signing someone like Luis Fabiano. Absolutely worlds apart to the type of player O'Neill seems to like.

Sounds like a one more reason for this to happen . O'Neill signed enough young and expensive english players, could see him doing something different for once...