Forza Futbol 133: Spanish Football Headlines

Five years putting together a weekly podcast about Spanish football and we are still going strong. On this week's episode, it's just Elisa and Mando talking about Spanish football, it's blessing and failures and about the stories that are gripping the headlines both there and around the world.

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Half way there, the Journey so far and looking to the end.

Were do I start? It's been a very interesting season so far, in England the normal challengers seem shocked by the season, yeah yeah, they have had injuries here and there, but tell me who hasn't? In Deutschland, boy ol boy, Drama Unlimited, the teams predicted to be fighting for the title are having a season to forget so far. In Italia some teams that were buried in the ashes are finally back and ready to make a statement. In La Liga it is between her favorite two teams and one looks completly unstoppable right now.

I shall begin in the Bundesliga: Amazing season, book maker´s predictions have been torn to shreds. Mainz first led the race blasting all before them for their first 7 matches, then Borussia Dortmund rose like a phoenix stopping all before them and falling only twice. Currently with an 11 point lead heading into the winter break, they will maintain such a gap till March and I see them crowned Bundesliga champions. Bayern Munich look dazed from the World Cup and achievements of last season, Wolfsburg look like England under McClaren, Schalke only realized that the league even started by end of November, while Bremen and Stuggart haven't decided to partake in the season as of yet. Key deciders for Dortmund will be the Ruhr Derby vs Schalke-04, Weder Bremen, Mainz-05, Bayer Leverkusen and, while not forgetting Bayern Munich, maybe Hamburg. Should Dortmund survive all these games they´ve got the Bundesliga.

Standout player so far: (it's a tie): Shinji Kagawa and Nuri Sahin. Dortmund´s scouts deserve an extra bonus. Shingawa is the reason football is the world´s sport. Honestly, what more can you say about someone who was playing in the Japanese second division and is now dominating the Bundesliga?

In Italy it's been a disappointing season for the all conquering Internazionale Milano of last season. After replacing Mourinho (who moved to Madrid) with Benitez (wrong move I must say), failing to make any noticeable signings and depending on a very old squad lacking any motivation, they seemed to be telling their rivals, ¨Hey we don't want the title do you? And their rivals said YES!!¨ The rossoneri lead the pack. They have a fearsome attack (with the addition of Cassano it just got better), but the same problems as of last season (their defense) still exists. With a resurgent Roma, Juventus, Lazio, Napoli and Inter which woke up late, it should make for a most exciting second half of the season. Can Milan march straight on to their first Serie A title in almost 7 years? I think whoever wins it will be the coach willing to go beyond the safety zone. I have never been a fan of Juventus but something tells me that they are going to play a huge role in deciding Serie A.

Standout player so far: I am tempted to name Samuel Etoó or Javier Pastore as standout performers, but I think I'll give it to Zlatan Ibrahimovic. On his return to Serie A he showed that it was just Pep Guardiola that didn't like him (quite frankly he didn't fit into Barcelona style like David Villa has this season), but he has helped lead Milan to a position many were not sure they'll be able to attain and he is looking at his best once again.

In England it's quite interesting to see the money bags of Man City having the opportunity to be on top and saying, "Well, we would rather just finish in the top four." Chelsea started very strongly, and like I said earlier on, they are their own biggest weakness. The excuse that they trying to cut costs and bring in their youngsters is crap. They have a squad at their peak and you let players like Ballack, Belleti, Deco go (with no cover), throwing in Kakuta, MacEachran into the heat of battle and if they don't deliver, what do you get? Six weeks with no wins. I think Mother Nature did Chelsea a huge favor and they'll be back to battle for the crown. At the beginning I had Chelsea and Man Utd. as the main title contenders, and I still say it's between both teams. No disrespect intended at Arsenal, Spurs, Man City but you guys do not have the consistency to land the title. Right now Man Utd is my number one favorite to win the EPL. Why, because while they haven't hit the sort of form or a good patch like the Man Utd. of old, they are still unbeaten. Since their rivals have decided not to up their games, it's now up to Manchester United to lose the race. Will they? I don't know, but what I do know is that if by end of March, Man Utd. is still topping the table, then they'll be on their way to another league trophy. Man City and Spurs will play kingmakers and may both finish in the top four. One good thing for Man Utd. is that they are undefeated against both teams. Maybe that's a sign?

Standout player so far: It would have gone to Florent Malouda, but considering Chelsea's loss of form, I won't give it to him. Samir Nasri is also having his best season with Arsenal but does not show up in the biggest games (or does for one half, isn't that typical Arsenal?) so he can't get it. Andy Carroll gets it. In his first season in the Premiership he has announced himself on the big stage and looks a better version of Crouch. Berbatov also deserves some praise.

Finally we come to the Land of the World Champions and of the next Champions League winners ( ha ha ha, don't hate). One Name says it all FC Barcelona. They have dominated everyone, except for the likes of Hercules, Mallorca, Copenhagen (in the UCL), but their performance against Real Madrid and Espanyol would have made other teams give up and say the league is over right? No. This is La Liga. It's only two points that separate second from first and just ten that separate second from third. (Yes, I said just ten because I believe that will be reduced, too). The league is nowhere near it's end.

The Special One has brought a tremendous improvement to Real Madrid this season and apart from the thrashing at Nou Camp, the Magnificent Whites have continued to grown in strength. The likes of Ozil, Di Maria and Carvalho have all turned out to be impressive signings, and with the return of Kaka and Higuain, adding to the rebirth of Benzema and the already magnificent Cristiano Ronaldo, los blancos can only push FC Barcelona to the end. I believe the title decider may not just be the El Classico at the Santiago Bernabau, but games against Villareal, Atletico Madrid, Valencia and Mallorca will be the games that will decide who lifts the La Liga crown come May. Valencia scored the same amount of goals as Real Madrid did in Europe, and despite losing their major stars, have proved they have what it takes to go far. Villarreal has the wonderful combination of Nilmar and Rossi who can't stop banging in goals, and while Atletico Madrid´s Diego Forlan has had a very bad hangover from the World Cup, hopefully he should be back for the second half of La Liga. Also watch out for Getafe and Malaga. They might earn huge results against some of the power houses.

All said and done, FC Barcelona are the number one favorites for the title. They have been unstoppable in last few rounds of games and with Xavi playing his best football, Messi, Villa, Pedro still scoring and Iniesta on the prowl, you can hardly find any weakness in this team, but that's were the weakness lie. They simply are their own weakness. Will they get complacent?

Standout player so far: In a league where newcomers such as Ozil and Di Maria are delivering consistently, David Villa is doing great for Barca, Xavi is the number one central midfielder in the world, and every attacking player is under the shadows of Lionel Messi and CR7 (isn't everyone in the World?), I'll instead name Fernando Llorente of Athletic Bilbao as that star performer. There is no striker like him in La Liga. He is big, but he has good feet, and has taken his goal scoring to the national team. He won't be with Bilbao for too long but while he is, he deserves that standing Ovation.

So there you have it, a lot of you may not be happy with where I put your teams, but well someone had too, besides my team wasn't named number one to win the League by me right? Wish you all the best of the Holiday Season, stay safe and thank you for your support.

by Raphael Harry, for Forzafutbol.com

For a Fair and Competitive League

You may have seen this button on our page recently, Todos por una Liga Competitiva/Liga Justa, or All of us United for a Fair and Competitive League. We put it there because it means something to us. We´d like a competitive and balanced league. It´s not right that both Real Madrid and Barcelona dominate the way they have and if you have any sense of history at all, even recent history, you know that hasn´t been the case.

You can go back to the early part of the last century. Athletic Bilbao was an early powerhouse and even to this day they have more Copa del Rey titles than any other club outside of FC Barcelona. Atlético de Madrid once enjoyed the favor of the Franco government, before even Real Madrid did, and were once real inter-city rivals in the Madrid derbies. More recently, Deportivo La Coruna came from nowhere and went toe-to-toe with giants, winning leagues and cups with an exciting brand of football that challenged domestic and regional football. Super Depor is still a phrase that brings smiles to people who remember great football. And it wasn´t that long ago either. Rafa Benitez once took his Valencia side to that same place. Villarreal and Sevilla both could have followed as real challengers as well, but something changed. The big boys got smart. They realized the threat that a competitive league brings and they tightened the noose. They negotiated contracts that excluded other clubs. They refused to share the wealth. Why should Real Madrid or Barcelona have to? They have the lion´s share of support, the country is divided in half they say between white or blaugrana, so why shouldn´t they take an exorbitant amount of the profit? They are the league.

Well, they´re not. When you televise a match, let´s say Real Madrid versus Sporting de Gijón, you need both teams to play and one club shouldn´t be getting 9/10ths of the proceeds from that match no matter how much support they have domestically or internationally, but that´s exactly how much los blancos are getting from that match. The vitality of the league is more important.

There is a reason why the majority of clubs in Spain are in deep financial trouble and has nothing to do with mismanagement as you´ve been led to believe. Clubs didn´t just overstep their boundaries and overspend beyond their means. Their means were taken away. This isn´t just teams in the Liga Adelante or below either. Real Mallorca almost went under. Valencia have just started breathing easier. The majority of clubs in Spain are in trouble. Look at this graph. The important color to fixate on is the red one.

This is a graph showing the new collective television proposal that Real Madrid and Barcelona are supporting; the red bars if you´re having problems reading it. Close to 160 million euros to the big two. About 17% of the pie. Atletico de Madrid and Valencia have been cowed by the proposal, that means they support it if you´re confused even further, even though their share is one-third of what the big two would be raking in and at maybe 6% of the entire pie. You´re telling me that´s what Atléti´s fan-base is worth? Is Valencia that much worse off than the big two as well? Do the rest deserve around 3% of the television profits each? Maybe if you´re a madridista or a culé you´d agree, but I´d be careful about placing that sort of pronouncement on the table without checking who else is sitting near you.

There are some of us, and I´m one of them, that believe that your clubs would not be as big as they are if all things had been equal all along. Don´t get me wrong though. We´re not asking for a redistribution of wealth on the order of what the National Football League creates in the United States. We recognize that the status quo, the big two lording over us all is not only expected but necessary to a certain extent. No one wants to see a league where the traditional powers struggle. Look at Boca Juniors and River Plate in Argentina. But 3% of the pie if you are Villarreal or Sevilla who have been in the Champions League? They have won consistently over the last five years despite the constraints. They deserve to be rewarded for their consistency. Athletic should be rewarded for the manner in which they do business: a club that recruits its players from a geographic area around twice the size of Los Angeles County and about a third the population density? Astounding. Clubs like Depor or Real Sociedad, Mallorca or Real Betis, or even Espanyol for that matter, should not be penalized for having the temerity to stand up to giants and represent the country honorably in Europe.

More importantly, if you are a fan of Real Madrid or FC Barcelona, you should especially want the league to be fairer. Without a competition, there is no incentive for either club to do well other than to upstage each other. If you are only measuring yourself up to two games per season, then what sort of club are you really seeing? What sort of excellence are you measuring yourself by? It´s no wonder that Real Madrid and Barcelona have wasted so much money over the last decade and dumped so many expensive players and contracts on the scrap-heap. With any level of competition from a third or possibly even a third team in Spain, we may never have seen the mismanagement of Ramon Calderon or Joan Laporta. Sandro Rosell might have played his hand closer to the vest and Florentino Perez might have trusted his coaches a little better before doing so with Mourinho.

So spread the word if you´re a fan of the league like we are here at Forza Futbol. Make the competition fairer for everybody. Think about the blue lines in the graph above. Make La Liga a more competitive and just competition for all clubs.

Around Primera 09.18

Valencia:
Valencia: (superdeport.es) Man of glass Vicente Rodriguez had to take himself out after 5 minutes of training before the trip to Alicante for the derby match against high-flying Hercules. He is expected to miss the trip with pulled hamstrings considering he suffered from a similar injury last match.
Villareal: (elperiodicomediterraneo.com):  coach Garrido changed 6 players from last Saturday’s destruction of Espanyol including the three most important: Giuseppe Rossi, Santi Cazorla and Borja Valero. In their stead amongst others, Garrido played Mario, Gonzalo Rodriguez, Jefferson Montero, Cani, Marco Ruben and Jozy Altidore. They finished on 10 men as Senna saw red, but this club apparently does not have the depth it once thought.
Levante: (levante-emv.com): coach Luis Garcia is confident that newly promoted Levante can take advantage of a Villarreal squad smarting from a midweek loss in Europe.
Hercules: (laverdad.es): Hercules faces Valencia in a much anticipated derby with a confidence that they have rarely shown in their brief appearances in Primera. Asked about facing Valencia, coach Esteban Vigo noted, ¨Valencia is a very good club, but they´ll have to occupy themselves with whom they´ll be playing and I´m am convinced weĺl be that (on match-day), and not because of beating Barca but because this is Hércules."

Andalusia:
Sevilla: (orgullodenervion.com) coach Antonio Alvarez has analyzed the match against Malaga CF and decided that he ¨doesn´t think that he´s playing for his job or not.¨ After dropping out of the Champions League and starting off slow in the league, speculation is ripe that the club are actively looking for a replacement for the ex-Sevilla player. (diariodesevilla.es): Sevilla has opened a case against PSG in front of UEFA considering the fact that the goalkeeper with the name of Edel Apoula is not actually in fact Ambroise Beyama. The club is looking to get their three points dropped restored to them considering the irregularity.
Malaga: (laopiniondemalaga.es): new coach, Jesualdo Ferreira, is sure that his Malaga squad will find their best form, but that they are ¨still far away from the equilibrium that I want.¨ (malagahoy.es/deportes): In other news, over 3,000 fans attended their last open practice before their derby match against Sevilla.
Almeria: (elalmeria.es/deportes): this match today constitutes a very significant transition historically for the club and it´s manager Juanma Lillo. It is after last year´s corresponding 2-0 loss at Cornellá that the club replaced former coach Hugo Sanchez. Forget the fact that his first match as a coach was played at the old Sarriá stadium when he directed Slamanca´s sideline, but two of their key players, Carlos Garcia and Albert Crusat, were formed in Espanyol´s cantera.

Madrid:
Atletico de Madrid(www.abc.es/deportes-futbol): Kun Aguero is doubtful until right before the match this weekend. ¨If I am not 100%¨, he says, ¨I would rather wait.¨
Real Madrid: (as.com/futbol/): Florentino Perez has decided to not allow coach Jose Mourinho to take over for two matches as the Portuguese National Team coach while the federation searched for a more permanent replacement for the departed Carlos Queiroz.
Getafe: (marca.com/futbol/equipos/getafe): With Sevilla, Villarreal and Atletico all losing in the Europa League, Getafe have ¨upheld the honor of Spanish Football¨ with their 2-1 win against Odense Boldklub of Denmark.

Galicia:
Deportivo La Coruna: (lavozdegalicia.es/deportes): the club has admitted that it allowed over 3,000 spectators to enter the Riazor without permission or compensation. The law is clear. In the Royal Decree of Sport is clearly states (amongst other things) that ¨the organizers of the event should establish an informative system of control and sale of tickets.¨ Is a penalty coming?

Asturias:
Sporting de Gijon: (elcomerciodigital.com/deportes/): Manuel Preciado, who has never hidden the fact that he would one day like to train Athletic Bilbao, faces a run of games in the next week (Athletic, Bilbao and Valencia) that will force him to utilize his rotational policy. ¨There will be few changes¨, he says.

Cantabria:
Racing Santander: (racing.eldiariomontanes.es): striker Markus Rosenberg returns to the squad after a knee strain, but coach Miguel Angel Portugal doubts the Swede will play this weekend.

Pais Vasco:
Athletic Bilbao: (deia.com/athletic): Sporting de Gijon President Manuel Vega-Arango has come doen solidly in the Athletic Bilbao camp. ¨I envy Athletic. I think (they) plan their football from their base and that is very important.¨
Real Sociedad: (diariovasco.com): Real Madrid midfielder Xavi Alonso has said, ¨I have always been and always will be a Real Sociedad player, but tonight...¨

Navarra:
CA Osasuna:(diariodenavarra.es/deportes):  Osasuna have lost all their matches away from home (10) consecutively since the 31st of January when they beat Villarreal.

Aragon:
Real Zaragoza: (elperiodicodearagon.com): Marco Pérez would like to be referenced as the leading option to lead the attack, but Florent Sinama-Pongolle and Braulio are also in the mix to start in attack against Racing.

Catalunya:
Barcelona: (elmundodeportivo.es): ex-President Joan Laporta has floated the idea of Iberian League where ¨teams from Portugal, Spain and Catalunya would play.¨ While interesting for Portuguese clubs, Barcelona already plays in said league. It´s called La Liga.
Espanyol: (sport.es): Espanyol strikers Dani Osvaldo and now Ivan Alonso will miss games this month. Osvaldo has been ruled out for over a month. Alonso will definitely miss the midweek game against Real Madrid.

Las Islas:  
Mallorca: (diariodemallorca.es): Mallorca will be without Dudu Aouate, NUnes, Ayoze and even Corrales is doubtful in their match against Osasuna today.

THE COACHING CAROUSEL IN SERIE A

Walter Zenga moves across the island of Sicily from under Mt. Etna in Catania to the Orange groves of Palermo. President Maurizio Zamparini of Palermo has secured the services of Former Catania coach Walter Zenga to coach the Rosaneri in 2009-10.
Zenga who had been courted by Lazio to replace Delio Rossi could not resist Zamparini's advances and replaces Davide Ballardini.
Zamparini fired Ballardini because he belived that Ballardini had spoken to Lazio President Claudio Lotito about the coaching job in Rome behind his back.
This infuriated the Palermo president, so to spite Lotito, Zamparini offered a better contact to Zenga than Lazio were willing to offer.
Zamparini said " I robbed Zenga From Lazio".

On the Giallorosso side of Rome, Luciano Spaletti, decided to stay with Roma and turned down the Juventus bench, which in turn put the Bianconeri in the hands of my fellow Neapolitan Ciro Ferrara. Auguri a te Ciro, Buona fortuna, (Ma contro il Napoli No ) (Best wishes and good luck Ciro, (but not against Napoli).

Forza Futbol Interviews - Subhankar Mondal

Today we are joined by a special guest, Subhankar Mondal from Goal.com and SportsPundit.com. He writes mainly on European and Indian football and is very knowledgeable specifically about Serie A and La Liga, which puts him right on our side of the street. He is a contributing editor and writer for Goal.com, Soccerlens, The Bleacher Report and other websites. He joins us to talk Champions League, Real Madrid and Barcelona, the whole of La Liga and Serie A. It would be a pleasure to have him as a contributer to Forza Futbol from here on out.

Listen Here:

Powered by Podbean.com

Forza Futbol Interviews - Subhankar Mondal

Today we are joined by a special guest, Subhankar Mondal from Goal.com and SportsPundit.com. He writes mainly on European and Indian football and is very knowledgeable specifically about Serie A and La Liga, which puts him right on our side of the street. He is a contributing editor and writer for Goal.com, Soccerlens, The Bleacher Report and other websites. He joins us to talk Champions League, Real Madrid and Barcelona, the whole of La Liga and Serie A. It would be a pleasure to have him as a contributer to Forza Futbol from here on out.

Listen Here:

Powered by Podbean.com