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September 22nd 2009 17:13
September 15th 2009 02:51
The usual suspects won their games in La Liga's second week. Here are the full results.
Atletico de Madrid Racing Santander: 1-1
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Sorry about not posting this earlier. Real life kept me pretty busy these past two days. Anyways, here it goes... The Spanish Liga got underway last weekend with the Galacticos 2.0 raising the curtain against Deportivo. While Raul got the first goal of the new season, Zlatan Ibrahimovic - Barcelona's response to Madrid's crazy summer got the last goal of the first week, scoring Barca's third in their comfortable victory against Sporting de Gijon. The full results follow.
Real Madrid R.C. Deportivo: 3-2 (Read my recap HERE)
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With Real Madrid going undefeated for 18 games since last December, the second edition of this season's Clasico promised to be a passionate affair as the defending champions could pull up to one point behind this year's juggernaut, Barcelona. What happened instead was a real massacre as the Blaugrana simply ran over Madrid by putting six goals past a helpless Casillas and ensure a seven-point lead over their closest rival in the race for the title.
The home team started pretty well as they exploited a shaky Eric Abidal on Barca's left flank. In the 13th minute, Sergio Ramos simply outran the defender before delivering a precise cross to Gonzalo Higuain who headed the ball past Victor Valdes for the first goal of the game. The whole play seemed slowed down as Robben and Toure collided at the edge of the box consequently breaking Puyol and Pique's focus as the defenders let Higuain slip between the two of them and take a free header near the six-yard box
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Real Madrid Almeria: 3-0
Juande Ramos seems to have found the perfect solution to strengthen his team's left side both offensively and defensively. Indeed, with the departure of Robinho, that side of the field seemed to cause problems for the Meringues as they had no reliable wingers other than Robben for the attacking side of things while Marcelo's inexperience made things dicey in defense. All of that is past now as Marcelo is slowly taking over the role of left-winger with a defensive side that betrays his left-back origin. Behind him, Heinze's experience helps to plug any hole the Brazilian might have left while Lassana Diarra's tireless running makes sure that the two men are properly covered in case of a major breakdown.
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Barcelona Mallorca: 3-1
I'm starting to feel like a broken record here, but it was another win for Barcelona on Saturday. The Blaugrana's winning streak now extends to five as Pep Guardiola's troops keep rolling along. Unlike their previous victories, this one wasn't easy as Barcelona struggled to get the rust out of their system after the two-week break. Puyol especially looked a bit off-balance in the first half, and his absence in the center of defense (he switched positions with right-back Victor Sanchez after five minutes of play) proved devastating for the home side who conceded the first goal in the 14th minute on Mallorca's first real opportunity.
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Faced with the prospect of seeing Barcelona running away with an unassailable lead in La Liga's standings, many teams were rooting for fourth-placed Villareal to defeat or at least get a draw against the Spanish giants. For a while, it looked like the Yellow Submarine would succeed in their tasks, but, similarly to the game against Real Madrid, the Blaugrana kept pushing for their fourth consecutive win.
Both teams came close to opening the score in the first half. After only two minutes of play, goalkeeper Diego Lopez had to come up with a save to deny Henry. At the 18th minute, Giuseppe Rossi, sent in alone to face Victor Valdes, could only fire his shot inches wide of the net. Rossi's breakaway from Barca's backline showed how playing the offside trap was a tricky affair. Still, both teams played it until the final whistle
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When Iker Casillas stopped Samuel Eto'o's penalty kick at the 69th minute, you could tell that the defending champions were starting to believe that they could hold off La Liga's current leaders to a draw. Although Barcelona had most of the possession during the game, they couldn't get through an overly physical Madrid side who constantly brought down Lionel Messi to his knees, forcing the Blaugrana to explore other options. When Barcelona did penetrate into Madrid's box, their shots were blocked by either Cannavaro or Metzelder who made a pretty solid tandem in center defense.
Eto'o's Penalty
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Barcelona Valencia: 4-0
There is no stopping the steamrolling machine that is Barcelona. Without La Liga's current leading scorer in the line-up, the Blaugrana put up another impressive offensive display with a 4-0 win over Valencia including a hat-trick by Thierry Henry. The Blaugrana made their intentions clear from the first minute of the game when Xavi's shot rattled off the post after a defensive mistake in Valencia's backline. At the 19th minute, Henry scored his first of the game after a nice pass from Toure. The goal was a carbon copy of the hundreds he scored under the Arsenal shirt in the Premiership. Less than ten minutes later, he scored his second, giving Barcelona a 2-0 advantage against Valencia. The home side then added a third goal before the half via Daniel Alves.
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Will he fill the goal like VanGol?
Earlier this week, Spanish giants Real Madrid announced the signing of 25-year old striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar for a reported sum of 27 million euros. Heralded as the next Van Nistelrooy, the young striker becomes the sixth Dutch player in the Madrid squad which is currently plagued by injuries. Ironically, Huntelaar is also injured and should have recovered by January when he joins the team, but his ankle injury brings some questions. Clearly, with Van Nistelrooy out for the rest of the season, Madrid do need another striker, but is Huntelaar another man of glass like his compatriot Robben? If not, then who gets to play the most, him or Higuain?
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Real Madrid Getafe: 1-3
Things are getting worse and worse at the Bernabeu as Real Madrid put up yet another disappointing performance against a lower-tiered team. After holding Barcelona to a draw, Getafe exploited every flaw in the Madrid defense to defeat the defending champions 3-1. They first hit the net two minutes into the game, forcing the defending champions to give their all to find a way through Getafe's defense. Unfortunately for Bernd Schuster's men, they suffered a major setback in the first half when Sneijder was taken off the field in a stretcher with his second injury of the season. Rafael Van der Vaart took his place, but it was clear that Madrid simply weren't the same after the incident.
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Anticipating their oncoming Champions League fixture against Sporting this week, Pep Guardiola decided to rest his primary weapon, Lionel Messi, putting youngster Bojan Krkic in his place. The change made things a lot more easier for the Getafe defense who easily contained the young striker, depriving Barcelona of a much needed width.
As a matter of fact, it was Getafe who scored first despite their defensive stance. At the 18th minute, striker Manu delivered a wonderful strike beating Victor Valdes in the lower-corner of the net. Barcelona tried to press harder after that, but Getafe's intensive man-marking prevented the home side from developping their elaborate passing game as they were often pressed into making quick decisions with the ball. The few plays they built were wasted by Bojan who was too rusty for such a demanding game. Barca's best opportunity came at the 38th minute after a superb run by Carles Puyol into the heart of Getafe's defense. The result was a powerful strike by Eto'o that bounced off the crossbar
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