Hay Liga! La Liga Season opening schedule

A week late, after a lot of handwringing, the players union AFE and LFP burning a lot of midnight oil, we have an agreement to play football. Week#2 is the new Week#1.
Here is the game slate for this weekend

Game	Day	Spain	Eastern	Pacific
Sporting x Real Sociedad	27-Aug Saturday	1800 CET	1200	0900
Valencia x Racing	27-Aug Saturday	2000 CET	1400	1100
Granada x Betis	27-Aug Saturday	2200 CET	1600	1300
Atlético x Osasuna	28-Aug Sunday	1200 CET	0600	0300
Athletic x Rayo	28-Aug Sunday	1600 CET	1000	0700
Mallorca x Espanyol	28-Aug Sunday	1800 CET	1200	0900
Getafe x Levante	28-Aug Sunday	1800 CET	1200	0900
Zaragoza x Real Madrid	28-Aug Sunday	2000 CET	1400	1100
Sevilla x Málaga	28-Aug Sunday	2200 CET	1600	1300
Barcelona x Villarreal	29-Aug Monday	2100 CET	1500	1200

The best games are back-loaded.

Sevilla - Málaga promises to be a cracker. Málaga might have lost out on the 5-star start of opening with champions Barcelona at home but an Andalucian derby at the Sanchez Pizjúan isnt a bad compromise

Barcelona - Villarreal has catapulted into one of the best fixtures of La Liga in the recent times. This fixture almost always guarantees delightful football with the level skill on display in both these sides. Barcelona will be on short rest after playing the European Super Cup against FC Porto on Friday.

Among others, Granada x Betis is another Andalucian derby. This was a Liga Adelante (2nda division) derby last year but both teams got promoted into Primera this year. Should be a good game.

Happy that La Liga is back! Now lets relax and enjoy. Forzafutbol will bring a lot of great content every day of the season, as usual.

Viva La Liga!!!

Eduardo Alvarez from ESPN Soccernet: Podcast#160

In this pod we have a special guest, Eduardo Alvarez of ESPN Soccernet from Brazil. Eduardo discusses all the current topics of La Liga and as usual, gives his insightful view points. You may read Eduardo's weekly columns on ESPN Soccernet.

Listen, enjoy and let us know what do you think about it.

Download this episode (right click and save)

Segment#1 16min

1. The impact of the 'Big Two' stockpiling talent and turning into factories of loans.
2. Why do they prefer to have a Hamit Altintop in the squad rather than a canterano.
3. The cases of Sergio Canales and Oriol Romeu.
4. Can Barcelona survive without any new signings on the defence and solely depending on the cantera?

Segment#2 24min

1. The madness of the new kick-off times of La Liga and if this will be a successful move for LFP.
2. Ley Concursal: The financial mess in La Liga.
3. Why the financial fair-play code of UEFA wont have the desired effect on the Spanish clubs.
4. The nefarious business of powerful agents like Jorge Mendes and how they are making matters worse for running football business.
5. The uncanny similarities between the the causes for the economic meltdown of 08/09 and football in general and spanish football in particular.

Segment #3 24 min

1. Eduardo covered the recently concluded Copa America extensively. He talks about the performance of Diego Forlán and the rest of La Liga players
2. The summer of discontent between Forlán and Atlético
3. He also touched upon some promising youngsters like Adrián Luna (Espanyol) and James Rodriguez (Porto)
4. We round off the show with some La Liga small talk: The Basque teams, Bielsa, Málaga, Super Cup
5. Eduardo gives us his Top 5 and the relegation candidates for the upcoming season

La Liga Week #1 Kick-off times

And finally they are here.

The self-proclaimed "best league of the world" has announced the kick-offs for Week#1 of the season 11 days ahead of the games. Incredible. Irony aside, let us look at the kick-offs

Game	Date	East coast	West coast	local (CET)
Espanyol x Granada	20-Aug	Noon	0900	1800
Levante x Zaragoza	20-Aug	Noon	0900	1800
Villarreal x Sporting	20-Aug	1400	1100	2000
Osasuna x Valencia	20-Aug	1600	1300	2200
Rayo Vallecano x Mallorca	21-Aug	0600	0300	Noon
Racing x Getafe	21-Aug	1000	0700	1600
Real Madrid x Athletic	21-Aug	Noon	0900	1800
Málaga x Barcelona	21-Aug	1400	1100	2000
Betis x Sevilla	21-Aug	1600	1300	2200
Real Sociedad x Atlético	22-Aug	1500	Noon	2100

Major changes from last year.

1. No 5pm (local) kick-offs on sunday.
2. 9 different kick-off times
3. The noon kick-off is geared at the Asian markets, they tried a game last season at this hour, Mallorca x Villarreal. Probably the wrong game in the wrong town at the wrong time. Fans and players alike seemed to have played through that game, hung over.
4. The Andalucian derby is scheduled for the 10pm kick-off on Sunday. Sensible because the temperatures in Andalucia are close to 40s in the early evenings in August
5. The other two big games, Madrid x Athletic and Málaga x Barça are also on Sunday.
6. Villarreal play on the Saturday as they have the return leg of the CL playoff on Tuesday Aug 23rd.

It will be interesting to see how this spread-out kick-offs work. It will definitely screw up schecule of the radio programs like Carrusel, Marcador, Tiempo de juego etc.. because now they have to spend more hours and with less games going on simultaneously.
All in all, glad that the schedule is out, now let us see if they do kick-off with the players union threatening a strike.

¡¡¡Viva La Liga! Viva España!!!