Record night as Real win La Liga

Wasn't this the golden age of FC Barcelona?

Barely a week ago the blaugrana were going for a clean sweep of trophies as their legend as the greatest football team of all time continued to be told.

Now Barça are out of the Champions League and have handed their Spanish title to Real Madrid with a loss to their arch-rivals at the Camp Nou.

This evening Real clinched La Liga in style by beating Europa League finalists Athletic Bilbao 3-0 away to open up an unassailable seven-point lead with two games remaining. Lionel Messi did what he could, bagging  his ninth hat-trick of the campaign  as Barcelona beat fourth-placed Malaga 4-1.

On an evening of records, Messi scored his 68th goal (46 in the league) to prise away Gerd Muller's 39-year record for strikes in one season, while Real coach Jose Mourinho won a title in his fourth different country, following league championships in Portugal (Porto), England (Chelsea) and Italy (Inter).

How does that achievement measure up?

Little-known Croat Tomislav Ivic won titles in Belgium, France, Greece, the Netherlands, Portugal and Yugoslavia, six different nations. Ernst Happel won in his native Austria, Germany, Italy and Portugal, as has current Republic of Ireland coach Giovanni Trapattoni.

Louis Van Gaal (wins in Holland, Spain & Germany) comes closest in terms of big-league wins, followed by a number who have won titles major nations: Carlo Ancelotti has won titles in Italy & England and is chasing a third in France this year, Arsene Wenger has clinched the title in France and England, while a trio have bagged Serie A and La Liga crowns - Vujadin Boskov, Fabio Capello and Helenio Herrera.

Valencia, a distant 29 points behind Barcelona in third place, qualified for next season's Champions League by beating Osasuna 4-0.

*Newcastle United continued their march towards the Champions League with a 2-0 win at rivals Chelsea.The Toon sit fifth in the Premier League, four points clear of the Blues and a point behind third-place Arsenal. Newcastle play Manchester City at home and Everton away in their final games.

*Also in England, the Football Association has criticised The Sun for its mocking of new England manager Roy Hodgson's speech impediment. "We are delighted at the media response to Roy's appointment," FA chief David Bernstein said, "but are disappointed with the headline in The Sun, which we consider is in poor taste and disrespectful." The Press Complaints Commission confirmed it had received over 100 complaints about the front page of Rupert Murdoch's tabloid.

* Fiorentina have sacked manager Delio Rossi after a touchline altercation with one of his players. Rossi becomes the 19th coaching casualty in Serie A this season, smashing the previous record of 15 in the 1951-'52 season. Serie A has 20 teams.



* Ajax retained the Dutch title with a 2-0 win over Venlo.With one match to play they are six points clear of Feyenoord and seven above PSV. UEFA rank the Eredivisie as the eighth-best league in Europe.

*The title race in Italy is going down to the wire as Milan closed to within one point of leaders Juventus. The Rossoneri beat Atalanta at San Siro 2-0 but Juve could only draw 1-1 at home to Lecce. Juve play Atalanta at home in their final game, but must first travel to Cagliari. Milan are at home to lowly Novara on the last day of the season, but face a Milan derby with Inter before that.

The final day of the season in Italy is traditional for deals to be struck and friendship credits to be stored up, American writer Joe McGinnis was surprised to discover in his memorable book ' 'The Miracle of Castel di Sangro'.

* Ukraine is having a dreadful PR week ahead of its hosting of Euro 2012 in June. After a catalogue of delays and warnings about its poor infrastructure and UEFA boss Michel Platini labeling its hoteliers "crooks and bandits" for jacking up their room rates, four bombs exploded in Dnipropetrovsk at the weekend, injuring 27 people. Now high-level political disapproval is starting to appear.

European President Jose Manuel Barroso has said he will not attend Euro 2012 in protest at the politically-motivated imprisonment and apparent beating of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. The Austrian and Croatian governments have also confirmed they will not be attending the tournament in any form and German Chancellor Angela Merkel is said to be considering whether to pull out or not. Tymoshenko has been on hunger strike for two weeks now.

Euro 2012 was supposed to be Ukraine's advert to the world, although with a pro-Russian President, one cannot but help wonder how much they want to impress the E.U. to the west anyway. Platini, after many a headache, will just be glad when it is all over.


- Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile


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Barça back to earth as Real-ity bites

LA LIGA
Barcelona 1:2 Real Madrid

Real Madrid took a decisive lead in the Spanish title race this evening and silenced the 99,000 of the Camp Nou with a 2-1 victory over Barcelona.

Cristiano Ronaldo eclipsed Lionel Messi by scoring the winner in the 72nd minute, which leaves Barça seven points adrift with only four matches to play. Messi, author of 63 goals in all competitions this season, could not add to his tally, while Ronaldo has now edged ahead of him in league goals, 42 to 41.

Real deserved their win for a more spirited and energetic approach than their hosts, who looked a little jaded after 58 games and a midweek defeat to Chelsea in the Champions League. The F.C. Barcelona who have dazzled the world with their mesmeric short-passing and high-intensity pressing looked a little low on petrol at home tonight against their perennially-closest rivals, serving up the same subdued performance as they did at Stamford Bridge. 

Rumours that Pep Guardiola has now prioritized Europe after the midweek reverse were bolstered by a starting line-up missing Cesc Fabregas and Alexis Sanchez. Mentally, Jose Mourinho and Madrid now have the upper hand at this crucial stage of the season.

The writing was on the wall when Real took the lead in the 17th minute, Sami Khedira bundling in the loose ball after Carlos Puyol dithered clearing an Angel di Maria corner. The home side enjoyed a whopping 78% of the ball in the first half but found Real dogged and determined at the back and willing to reply fast on the counter.

With just over twenty minutes to go, Alexis Sanchez replaced an out-of-sorts Xavi and the Chilean wasted little time in equalising in almost a photocopy of Real's scrappy opener. But two minutes was all it took for Real to regain the advantage and muffle the rejuvenated Catalan crowd.

Mesut Ozil played an inviting diagonal ball and Cristiano Ronaldo hurtled down the middle leaving Javier Mascherano in his wake before touching the ball wide of Valdes with his first touch before whipping the ball into the net from a tight angle.


Chasing the game at home with the minutes ticking away placed the blaugrana in unfamiliar territory. Hurried balls into the channels were mopped up by a Real defence who were clearly hungrier for the win and growing in confidence, while leaving two at the back almost led to a third goal for the white shirts, from Karim Benzema.


So the Spanish title looks like it is heading to the capital, with a seven-point chasm now having opened up with so few games remaining. But the two could meet again in the final of the Champions League. Barça also have the smaller consolation of the Copa del Rey (Spanish Cup) final against Athletic Bilbao on the 25th of May.

Form favours Mourinho's men and in their last meeting in a cup final, Real beat Barça in the Copa del Rey last season, courtesy of a winner from Cristiano Ronaldo again.

Tonight was Guardiola's second defeat against Real since taking the helm at the Camp Nou in 2008 and with back to back losses,  for the first time in ages the invincible blaugrana look beatable and must recover their confidence fast.

Barcelona: Valdés, Alves, Mascherano, Puyol, Adriano (Pedro 74'), Busquets, Xavi (Sanchez 69'), Thiago, Iniesta, Messi, Tello (Fabregas 81').

Real Madrid: Casillas, Pepe, Ramos, Khedira, Ronaldo, Benzema (Higuain 93') , Özil (Callejon 89'), Xabi Alonso, Coentrão, Arbeloa, Di María (Granero 74')

(c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile
by footyroom


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Spanish titans pause for thought

The expected UEFA Champions League final between the two giants of La Liga looks a little less than a racing certainty after both Barcelona and Real Madrid lost their semi-final first legs.

Barça as usual marinated possession away at Chelsea and hit the Londoners' woodwork twice, yet succumbed to a breakaway goal on the stroke of half-time, finished by Didier Drogba.

Real also suffered a sucker punch, conceding a last-minute Mario Gomez goal to lose 2-1 to Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena, venue for this year's final. Franck Ribery gave Bayern the lead in the 17th minute before German international Mesut Ozil equalised for Real in the 53rd.

So both Spanish clubs have deficits to make up in their home legs in order to ensure the 'Superclasico final' in Munich, although Real have the slight advantage of an away goal.

The two are well acquainted of course, and meet on Saturday at the Camp Nou in the domestic showdown of the season. Jose Mourinho's Real lead Pep Guardiola's Barça by four points at the top of La Primera with five games to go.

UEFA Champions League Semi-Final second legs
Barcelona (0) : (1) Chelsea Tue 24 Apr
Real Madrid (1) : (2) Bayern Munich Wed 25 Apr

Final Sat 19th May, Munich 20:45 local time


(c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile

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Daftar Pencetak Gol Terbanyak Barcelona

Lionel Messi berhasil mencatatkan namanya sebagai pencetak gol terbanyak Barcelona, setelah tiga gol yang dia cetak ke gawang Granada pada pertandingan dini hari tadi. Dia berhasil mencetak 234 gol sampai saat ini (21/03/12), mengungguli Cesar Rodriguez yang mengumpulkan 232 gol.


Jumlah gol Messi masih akan terus bertambah, dan ini akan menjadikannya sebagai pencetak gol terbanyak Barcelona yang sangat sulit dikejar. Bila saja Messi masih bermain dalam jangka waktu yang lama di Barcelona, tidak menutup kemungkinan perolehan gol-nya akan sulit  dikejar.


Berikut ini daftar 10 pencetak gol terbanyak Barcelona sampai saat ini (21/03/12):

No   Nama                                           Tahun       Gol
1.    Lionel Messi (Argentina)           2005-        234
2.    Cesar Rodriguez (Spanyol)       1942-55    232 
3.    Ladislao Kubala (Hungaria)      1951-61    194
4.    Josep Samitier (Spanyol)          1919-32    178
5.    Josep Escola (Spanyol)             1934-49    167
6.    Paulino Alcantara (Filipina)     1912-27    137*
7.    Angel Arocha (Spanyol)           1926-33    134
8.    Samuel Eto'o (Kamerun)           2004-09    130
9.    Rivaldo (Brasil)                          1997-02    130
10.    Mariano Martin (Spanyol)     1940-48    124
* Alcantara sebenarnya mencetak 357 gol untuk Barcelona, ​​tapi lebih dari 200 gol dari pertandingan persahabatan

Barca Win 2011 Club World Cup

Barca duly wrapped up the 2011 Club World Cup in Yokohama on Sunday with a one-sided 4-0 win over South American champions Santos in front of a full house of 68,166 fans.

The team from Sao Paulo in Brazil had looked likely to provide stiffer opposition than they eventually offered after their impressive 3-1 win over J-League champions Kashiwa Reysol in the semi-final on Wednesday at Toyota Stadium.

In the final Barcelona quickly imposed their possession and hard-pressing game on their beleaguered opponents and racked up possession statistics of around 75% which is the team's average in La Liga.

The match was basically over by half time as Messi, Xavi and Fabregas all scored in a dominant first 45 minutes. Santos came more into the match in the second period but the individual talents of Neymar, Ganso and Elano were left chasing elusive shadows as the Catalans took the sting out of the game and Messi added a fourth late on to seal Barcelona's second Club World Cup in three years.

In the 3rd/4th place play off Al Sadd made history by beating Kashiwa 5-3 on penalties after the teams had played out a goalless draw.

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Is the Spanish league "third-world"?

*We might be marveling at the brilliance of Barcelona every time the blaugrana grace the field, and shake our heads at the bottomless bank account of Real Madrid, but the Spanish league is as absurdly top-heavy and devalued as the Scottish league.



The two giants won 5-0 and 6-0 respectively on the opening day of the Spanish season, leaving Villareal president Fernando Roig to exclaim in anguish, "It's a third-world league in which two clubs are sapping the TV money...I give it three to four years. Either it changes or we kill Spanish football." In third place in La Liga last season were Valencia, a full 21 points behind Real and this season the gripes are getting louder. Seville's president has blasted Spanish football as "not the biggest mess in Europe but in the world".



Euro 2008 winner Marcos Senna concurred: "The superiority of Real and Barca is brutal."



Three clubs other than Barça or Real have won La Liga in the past 15 years: Deportivo La Coruna in 2000 and Valencia in 2002 and 2004.



The problem is historic, with Real Madrid built up by the Franco regime into a mega-club and Catalonia focusing its cultural and political frustrations onto its soccer team. Two weeks ago I was in the Castile province of northern Spain and watched the Barcelona v Real Madrid Super Cup second leg, which kicked off at 11pm local time.



It was almost like watching Spain in the World Cup with the whole town glued to multiple TV screens in the main square. TV is the problem, as the clubs negotiate individual deals which inevitably favours the two giants. The locals in Ponferrada were largely pro-Real, as is the majority of Spain, but there were plenty of youngsters in Barça shirts too, presumably having grown up on Ronaldinho.



Most of Spain is like this is in my experience. The big two have too big a hold on the nation. That said, at a national team level, this period of Barça/Real saturation has coincided with Spain winning Euro U-19, Euro U-21, the European Championship and the World Cup. This season began with Spanish players going on strike over money. How long before the imbalance in La Liga results in a breakaway?



*Dunga and David Trezeguet are the latest to take the Arab shilling, having agreed to take jobs with club sides in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates respectively.



The 47 year-old Brazilian most recently coached his nation at the World Cup finals and will coach Al Rayyan, while the 33 year-old French striker leaves a storied European career including spells at Hercules, Juventus and Monaco. 'Trez' won the World Cup with France and scored the winning (golden) goal in the Euro 2000 final. He will now play for Baniyas SC.



No doubt he, like Dunga, are heading to the Middle East for the stratospheric salaries and little else, but in footballing terms it still seems a shame to be moving to real soccer backwaters in search of one last big payday.



*Best wishes to Owen Hargreaves as he attempts one last resurrection of his injury-plagued career at Manchester City. The Canada-born midfielder, it is easy to forget, was England's best player at the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany, despite, or perhaps because he had never played in English club football, gaining his soccer education instead first in North America and then at Bayern Munich.



-Sean O'Conor



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Wembley final promises much

UEFA Champions League Final 2011 - Barcelona v Manchester United 19:45 GMT

In 1992, with 70,000 others, I saw Barcelona win their first European Cup at Wembley.

How was it such a storied club had never done it before? Who knows, although they have made up for lost time since and are set to stay a European giant for the foreseeable future.

As they enter their second final in three seasons, once more locking swords with Manchester United, Barcelona have to prove they are one of the greatest teams of all time, as many have claimed.

Their swatting of Arsenal raised club football to a new height because of the intensity of the pressing and the intricacy of their close passing, a hybrid game which left Europe stunned.

Man United are more direct and wide, preferring to attack than marinate possession, a legacy of their English origins: The clash of styles is one to relish; then there is the opportunity for Alex Ferguson to show he has learned from the defeat in 2009. It is quickly forgotten that Man U had Barça on the ropes in the opening ten minutes, before the game metamorphosed after Barcelona scored with their first attack.

The Catalans clearly have the edge, although the English setting and weather (it is cool and cloudy in London today) will give the Red Devils confidence too. Perhaps Javier Hernandez, who has electrified the domestic league this season, will snatch the crown from Lionel Messi.

Not that Barça will not feel at home: Pep Guardiola himself was on the turf in 1992.
This Wembley is a new building however, with no resemblance to the old Twin Towers.

While it promises to be a classic final, it could just as easily be an ultra-cagey affair as finals often are, where nerves and the meeting of two great teams cancel out the space and mistakes that open contests need.

Spain is split between Real and Barça just like England is between pro and anti Man United. Barça won admirers with their tiki-taka masterclass against the Gunners, but lost many fans with their gamesmanship against Real in the semi-final. We do not like to see our heroes pretending to be injured, diving for free-kicks or waving imaginary cards in the referee's face to get opponents sent off.

A fair fight and an enthralling contest is what the world has ordered.

As long as the fans are happy I am. I could not afford to repeat my 1992 visit tonight as UEFA and Co. had increased ticket prices to extortionate levels. But I have fond memories of that balmy day when Catalans and Genoese came to town.

The stadium fans might be an afterthought these days for the corporate circus that football has become, but the thousands of fans in London will be enjoying it more than anyone.

(c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile

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Beating the Barça blues

In the aftermath of Arsenal's European death in the Camp Nou, the football world is wondering just who if anyone can beat the behemoth of Barcelona to the biggest prize.

The Gunners could yet turn out to be the English champions in 2011 but will not be making the trip to Wembley in May for the Champions League final. A 4-3 aggregate loss to the blaugrana sounds like no disgrace but the vital statistics paint a devastating picture - 738 completed passes from Barcelona to 199 from Arsenal, 19 shots to none.

Forget the harsh second yellow card for Robin Van Persie; the Gunners were outgunned and imprisoned out of possession for the best part of the match. The Londoners failed to fire a single shot on their opponents' goal and only registered two touches inside the Barça box throughout the course of the contest. Robbed? Hardly when even their equalizer was an own goal scored by Sergio Busquets. How good were Barcelona? In the following night's clash between Tottenham and Milan, no slouches themselves, neither side looked like they could hold a candle to the Catalans.

Domestically, Arsene Wenger's team are accustomed to guarding the ball from their opponents and circulating it with a sleek élan. At home against Barça, they were forced to play like an away team and in the Camp Nou cauldron hardly had a sniff of what could be called possession, struggling to string sequential passes together in the face of some truly fierce pressing high up the field. The sad irony was that Arsenal play the closest thing there is in England to Barcelona's style yet clearly have an awful lot of ground to make up.



Wenger and Gunners diehards bemoaned the red card as their fall guy and have every right to release their frustration on something. The Frenchman has sweat blood and tears for years forging an Empire at the Emirates only to be cruelly reminded Rome was not built in a day.

The hosts' attacking wizardry was as expected, the ferocious closing-down a shock to the English system. The pressing game properly began with Liverpool in the late 1970s before being honed by Milan in the early 1990s. Barça's pack of hounds haring after the ball were matched by their silky attackers ganging up when bearing down on goal. Playing so close allowed them to unfurl the tiki-taka tactics which let a blue and burgundy-inspired Spain bag both the World Cup and European Championship over the past three years.

Lionel Messi's opener came with some quick feet and an exquisite split-second chip over the advancing goalkeeper, while Xavi's goal was a textbook example of how to zig-zag right through the middle of a tight backline. Their crack troops are primed for short sprints and talented enough to dart through tight angles. When the gaps appear, Barça's artisans have the skill to craft something magical. By contrast, when Arsenal's golden chance arrived late in the day, the sturdy yet gangling Nicklas Bendtner failed to control Jack Wilshere's pass properly and the chance was lost.

The actual gap between the blaugrana and the rest of Europe is worrying. Last week I watched Barcelona defeat Valencia 1-0 away with another goal from Messi. The hosts were third in La Liga behind the big two but looked a good division below in quality as their visitors outclassed them utterly on their own patch. Barça could have scored a hatful in the first half at La Mestalla, torturing their hosts with the same harrying tactics they used to destroy Arsenal. Surely no team in the world is using space as ruthlessly as Barcelona at the moment.

So how do we beat them? Once your team has done the basics of keeping its shape and its marking tight, it could try to tempt Barcelona upfield and then hit them on the break, but you have to be lightning quick as they scurry back after the ball faster than anyone. Nevertheless, full-backs Adriano and Daniel Alves stay true to their Brazilian blood and fly up the flanks into attack, leaving yards of grass behind to exploit on the counter.

Their goalkeeper Victor Valdes and back four are not as stellar as their midfield and attack, and can crack under pressure and at set pieces, as Arsenal's goal proved. Applying any pressure is the hardest thing to do as Barça not only fight like tigers for the ball but run like cheetahs on the counter, making committing men forward a highly risky business.

But Pep Guardiola's men are certainly beatable by a well-organised team, as Inter showed last year on their way to the trophy. Perhaps it is only Real Madrid, buoyed by their historical feud and by Jose Mourinho, who would take Barcelona on without fear and give them a run for their money.

More than a club? Certainly, but more than human they are not.

(c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile

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