A Touch of Class~*

What Price Loyalty? In the days where footballers, agents, owners, and clubs are greedy bastards, a gem of a player wants to give thanks and honor his team for all that they have given to him. For the wonderful opportunity of playing football. Athletic’s long time captain, icon and idol, Joseba Exteberría, has agreed to play his last professional year for Athletic Bilbao for free. Can you believe it?

El Gallo, translated by yours truly, (Elisa) from the official press conference:

My dream has always been to play for 15 years with Athletic. I will play my last professional year free, as a thank you to the club and all that it has give to me. My years with Athletic have been great for me and my family. It’s not a question of football, Athletic has changed my life. My daughter is Bilbaína and I will continue living in Bilbao. I am not trying to set a precedent. We are in a professional world and everyone should be able to defend their rights and contracts. For me this is a personal gesture, nothing more. (When asked about his future) I would like to coach at the club is some capacity, but I have not had discussions yet with the club.

What a class act! In the modern day, who would have believed such a gesture? I’m speechless. Puts my faith back in football.

Is the Premier League Outshining La Liga?

With the start of the new Champions League campaign, one of the topics that has frequented Spanish commentary and blogs is – Is the Premier League outshining La Liga? Is La Liga are 2nd Tier League? (I don’t want to go there, but the same Spanish rags claim that Serie A is a retirement league and will get worse should Ibra or Kaká leave.)

OK, the yahoos from the Spanish rages, exaggerate, freak out and love high drama. They need to fill up their dailies and create news. But it’s been awhile since a La Liga team has won the Champions League, Spanish clubs are in debt, and people are worried.

Does the Prem brand better than La Liga? Is the Prem moving towards the NBA mega-sensation and is La Liga far behind? C’mon, La Liga still shows their games at 10pm at nite. This is not conducive to Asia and the the other foreign markets. Do the Spanish teams do a good job of promoting themselves overseas other than the Big Two? Look, Everton has been coming to the US every year and West Ham came over to play this past year. Pompey went to China. These teams are spreading the Prem love and they are NOT the Big Four. Is La Liga doing enough to earn fans and sell shirts? We have the best fútbol, shouldn’t that be enough?

Also what about the provincial, club media deals? Is this archaic? Is a league-wide agreement as used in England, more conducive to a strong league?

Deportivo La Coruña’s President has said that the future of Spanish football is foreign investment? Do you agree?

Here’s my two cents, I think Spain can learn a lot from the Premiership, particularly the media deals and distribution of wealth (even though the richer clubs still get more money due to more appearances on TV and attendances). I also adore the parachute package for teams promoted and relegated. Spain needs something like this drastically. I also think the branding can improve of La Liga, but in moderation. The league as a whole should try and assist in this matter. Why don’t they produce and offer Friday preview shows in Spanish? Why aren’t some of the Spanish football opinion shows made available, with dubbing or translation to foreign markets?

The infrastructure and organization in Spain needs vast improvement. Why are the games decided sometimes 3 hours before kickoff? How is that conducive to coach potato fans? The technology, camera angles, and TV picture, needs to get to the 21st century. The visuals are appalling. Have you ever compared a Prem or CL game to a La Liga game. The La Liga game pales in comparison.

We need access to more La Liga games on TV or via broadband. Why not offer the other games at a more moderate price? It’s difficult for Spaniards to watch non local games, let alone foreigners. This has got to improve. Also access to kits, merchandise, magazines, daily rags would be awesome. Do you know how hard it is to find an Athletic Bilbao kit?

But I like the provincial nuances and local flavor of La Liga and I for one, don’t want them to lose this. The play on the pitch is amazing, along with the parity and strength of the mid table teams. The cantera or youth academies keep producing wonderful talent. And there are players that are loyal or don’t want to go abroad – see Cazorla, Villa, Silva, Casillas. I don’t want foreign investment to come in and ruin La Liga or great an artificial market. We don’t need billionaires, just better marketing and business savvy. The Spanish owners already do a fine job sticking their clubs in the red. I also feel that the last remaining socio clubs, need to stay that way – Real Madrid, Barçelona, Athletic Bilbao, etc. It keeps accountability.

But where there is talent on the pitch and in the back office ie managers and technical directors, some will want to go abroad where the money is IE England. But I am not worried about the level of play or the trophies, to me it’s all cyclical. The money is in the Prem, but that is a bubble that will burst and a recalibration or reallignment will take place. The Premiership will not always be at the top. Relax.

And honestly I don’t want a super league. I don’t want to watch just the top leagues or the same teams always winning. That’s boring and not what football is all about. We already have the Champions League, World Cup and other tournaments where the cream of the crop rise to the top. Isn’t that enough?

OK, those are my thoughts, but I want to hear from you. What do you think? Give us your comments and we’ll read them on the podcast. We’d love to hear from you. It’s a fascinating topic, that won’t go away.

Spanish Goal Keepers Galore!

During the summer I read a very interesting article in Marca that I wanted to share with our Non Spanish speaking readers. It was a tribute to all the Spanish goal keepers in La Liga as well as in England. It’s a testimony to the cantera or youth academy systems, that Spain continues to develop quality Keepers.

Did you know that there are 5 Spanish teams where ALL 3 Goal Keepers are from Spain?

Athletic de Bilbao (Iraizoz, Armando and Lafuente), Barcelona (Valdés, Pinto and Jorquera), Málaga (Arnau, Goitia and Tudela), Numancia (Juan Pablo, Diego and Jesús Fernández) and Osasuna (Ricardo, Roberto and Andrés Fernández). Very impressive.

We can’t forget all the number one Goal Keepers, that have earned their top spot at their club:

Iker Casillas (Real Madrid and Spain) , Diego López (Villarreal) , Sergio Asenjo (Valladolid), Andres Palop (Sevilla) and Daniel Aranzubía (Deportivo La Coruña).

Did you know that there are several young Goalies (U-21) who play in Spain and have earned the no. 1 spot?

Asenjo (Valladolid and Spain U-21), Miguel Ángel Moyá (Mallorca), Asier Riesgo and Roberto (Recreativo de Huelva). The future looks bright!

Did you know that there are now 3 Spaniards who earn their trade in England?

Pepe Reina (Liverpool); Manolo Almunia (Arsenal) and César Sánchez (Tottenham backup).

Let’s hope that Spain never has the problem that England and other countries have with this position. Spain needs to continue to produce quality Keepers, at all costs.

Spain Rivals – Bosnia Herzegovina and Armenia en casa

The first World Cup Qualifiers kick off this week for La Furia Roja. All things considered, these two games should be an easy 6 points for the European champions, right? Both games at home, Murcia and Albacete, respectively. Not exactly the mighty mights. Bosina-H could be tricky, but our boys should do the business. .. –>more–>

Concerning call ups – no real big changes from the call ups to the Friendly vs Denmark. The only changes are Cesc is back and fit, so De La Red is out. Del Bosque also dropped Amorebieta in defense. He’s injured anyway. With the recent injury to El Niño Torres, Bojan Krkic may get his first actual game with La Furia. Great news! The boy is 100% playing for La Roja. Andoni Iraola from Athletic Bilbao, has been called up again at Right Back, along with Diego Capel, the stellar left winger from Sevilla. Both players showed brilliantly vs Denmark and deserve a call up. No Raul, nuff said!

Did I mention that we thoroughly trashed Denmark? OK, it was only a friendly, but nice to see Xabi Alonso with a brace. He looked like a natural striker, IMO. I like the flexibility that Capel and Iraola brought to the game.

Here is my guess at the starting 11. Don’t beat me up if it changes…..

Goal – Casillas (who else?)
Defense- Ramos – Puyol – Albiol – Capdevila (Marchena is still hurt)
Midfield – Iniesta – Xavi – Senna – Silva (Midfield magic)
Strikers – Guiza and Villa (Should be interesting!)

The path to World Cup glory – vamanos!!!!

Tradition!

It’s not just for Fiddlers on Roofs apparently. The Ronaldinho saga is apparently over, as it has been confirmed that, instead of signing a more lucrative deal for Manchester City, he will be traveling to Milan to join up with the Brazilian contingent at Milanello as another in a long line of samba stars to have graced the fashion capital of the world with their presence. What made him ignore Dr. Thaksin’s Blue Moon experiment?

 

Apparently, the lure of Milan was too much for ‘Dinho to ignore. They have more of a pedigree of forward thinking, attacking football certainly; a leftover of the great Arrigo Sacchi sides that blew past competitors in the late 80’s/early 90’s. They bring a style of football more suited to his particular talents, away from the the chuck-and-run nonsense of England. They also have the comforts of home for him as the lilt of Portuguese will be heard from compatriots Kaka and Alexandre Pato, not to mention Digao, Emerson and Dida , giving Milan more than a passing semblance of Rio or Sao Paolo on the mother continent. Ultimately, they have what clubs like Manchester City, or LA Galaxy for that matter if that report is to be believed, cannot have and that is tradition.

 

Manchester United has it, as does Arsenal or Liverpool, but all three clubs have gone generations in the past without winning. In Spain, Real Madrid and Barcelona do, as do Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan in Italy. All of the above have gone years in their history without winning trophies. Winning doesn’t necessarily make tradition or else Deportivo La Coruna, Celta de Vigo in Spain or Sampdoria  and Parma in Italy would have the same cache at different times. Great players can make a club great as Pele did with Santos or Maradona did with Napoli but that doesn’t necessarily bridge the gap towards tradition. Big cities can make a club a traditional power, capitols London and Madrid comply as do larger cities like Barcelona, Turin and Manchester, but how do you explain the lack of tradition in Paris, Rome, or Berlin?

 

It’s in the supporters, the fan base, and certainly has little to do with even spending more money than your competitor. Nouveau-riche owners like Thaksin Shinawatra or Roman Abramovich can create successful clubs that win trophies by overspending their competitors, but in the end their success has a finite life.

 

A footballer has been likened to a modern mercenary, have money will travel, but when given the choice he will follow that trophy case, that fanbase, and that tradition that calls to them, more than any lucrative contract ever could.

RCD: 2-0 v Valencia

Alright I can say it now. Whew! the jinx is over. No not really, because Little Buddha De La Pena is out again from a leg injury and won’t be fit against Madrid, but there are encouraging signs that capitan Tamudo might be able to return from his broken arm in time, and there is the very impressive win over a Valencia squad that is still dealing with the after-effects of the Koeman Reolution. Luis Garcia scored both goals, the first off a pretty bad goalkeeping error by Timo Hildebrand, and the second off a deserved penalty, and for the first time in weeks we fairly dominated.

The other important news of the week is that constant speculation over keeper Carlos Kameni’s future at the club are weighing on Ernesto Valverde. Sure Jarque, Riera and Torrejon have all been linked recently to moves away from the club, but Kameni has been putting out feelers through his agent since going off to play in the Africa Nation’s Cup. It looks like his move to Tottenham has almost been finalized, but Dinamo Tiblisi keeper Didier Ovono has been lined up as a replacement. I wish agents and players would start drumming up interest after the season is over. This constant harping to AS or Marca is just ridiculous.

Beyond that, I’d say it’s a slow newsweek as the attention is riding high on the European Championships. More next week.

RCD: 2-4 v Sevilla

Every time I watch Espanyol play Sevilla, in whatever format since it’s rare that we get to see other than the usual big 4 games here in the States, I’m reminded of that magical night in Scotland where Espanyol almost, and should have won, the UEFA Cup final. Sevilla did well that night don’t get me wrong, but Espanyol looked hungrier more direct and even when down to 10 men with the loss of Moises Hurtado, they battled and sent the game to penalties.

This game, was nothing like that one. Sevilla were playing without key players like Chevanton who was hurt, and Dani Alves and Keita who were suspended, but for the fourth game in five Espanyol failed to step up to the challenge, especially when their nearest rivals Villareal and Atletico Madrid both lost. With this run of form they’re only 5 points and 4 clubs away from 9th, with both Sevilla and “lowly” Almeria just 3 points shy. I know they have injuries, all clubs do at this point of the season, and I grant you that not many would have withstood the shock to the system that is losing Raul Tamudo, but give me a break already. The problem isn’t about scoring goals. It’s the back line.

Espanyol came out flat again, lost their concentration, let in a couple of easy goals one by Kanoute and the other by his strike partner and hopeful pichichi winner Luis Fabiano, with Clemente being especially useless, but Riera and Garcia both showed some much needed determination, the latter getting us within a goal before halftime. We came out sharp, but a second bout with stupidity saw Zabaleta sent off for bringing Capel down, a professional foul but he was already carrying a yellow which makes it a semi-pro foul.

That’s when Sevilla went for the kill. Capel and yellow-card magnet Poulsen both scored to put the game away even if a pretty goal on a half-volley by Coro really impressed even. It was too little too late.

What this sets up is a pressurized last few months, filled with some key matches. Next week, it’s at the Riazor against Depor which looks winnable and it’s away finally so that we can get out of Barcelona for a change, but then it’s Valencia followed by Real Madrid, and a succession of tough midtable sides like Racing and Mallorca sandwiched around relegation contenders Murcia.

It’s going to be tough, but some bright lights are appearing. The contract talks for Valverde and keeper Carlos Kameni are being fastracked and even better news, Raul Tamudo who had his sights on returning for the Real Madrid game in March, is now cautiously optimistic that he’ll be there for the match at home against Valencia.

Cue the Leonard Cohen: “Hallelujah”

RCD: 1-2 v Recreativo Huelva

The talk of the week was that the win going to spark us out of the doldrums. Espanyol’s recent form has been piss-poor, losing away to Valladolid and Almeria, losing at home to Real Betis, and drawing at the Montjuic to Bilbao in the Copa Del Rey. They brought in Ewerthon from Vfc Stuttgart who was languishing on the bench in Germany (they said he lacked fittness), but he played so well last year at Real Zaragoza that I was optimistic that we could get through the loss of Raul Tamudo without too much of a blip. They didn’t really need Ewerthon all that much against Getafe, because Jonathan Soriano, straight from the cantera after loan spells at Poli Ejido and Almeria, scored the winning goal.

This week, Carlos Kameni was still in Ghana playing in the Africa Cup of Nations final against Egypt which saw the Indomitable Lions lose despite some remarkable saves by our much missed goalkeeper. He refuted reports that he wanted out at the end of the year, and was concentrating his efforts for club and country. Espanyol’s recent form is usually given to the injury crisis, but true fans know how important the Cameroonian is to the blanc-i-blau.

The opponents: Recreativo Huelva were coming into the match every bit the relegation victims. They had fired their coach Victor Munoz after losing to Sevilla, had lost 3 of 4 matches and were without some key starters for an away trip at the Montjuic.

Expectations: Well, I expected a better performance at least. Huelva got the expected new-coach-bump from Huelva native Manolo Zambrano and a two goal outpouring from ex-Liverpool cast-off Florent Sinama-Pongolle, helped on again by another dubious performance in goal by Real Madrid reject Kiko Casilla. Still, we should have played better. Again they came out flat against an inferior opponent, and at home I might add, Jonathan Soriano and Moises were lost after 20 minutes with head injuries after some rash challenges, and again Valverde was left to praise the opponent and also the League for being so competitive.

Ewerthon did score a late goal and the club did try their best for a late equalizer, but it wasn’t to be. Another loss like this leaves me wondering which club will show up on any given week. Hopefully this really does mark a turning point for Espanyol in the league.

RCD Espanyol

My name is Armando, and I’m a blogger and podcaster at Forzafutbol.com. I’ve been covering the Spanish League pretty intensely over the last year for our growing podcast and in that time I have become a pretty intense fanatic of RCD Espanyol.

Yes, in that time I have gone to visit family that live in Barcelona and while I took the tour of the Camp Nou as all good tourists should, I actually caught a match at the Estadi Olimpic de Montjuic, saw the Periquitos play Deportivo La Coruna, and made lots of friends, rode the supporters buses up the hill from Plaça d’Espanya, made some more friends at the game, learned some songs, and walked right back down the hill through the beautiful park along the hillside back to the train station later on, that it all felt right to throw myself headlong into supporting them as my club.

So, while I haven’t been a staunch supporter for half my life, not even half the year actually, I think it’s never too late to pick a club in Spain, one of my favorite leagues, and wear the colors, laugh at your rivals and cheer on your team.

So, from here on in, I’ll try my best to connect with my fellow blanc-i-blau fanatics, bring the latest news and gossip to this blog, and try my best to bring awareness of one of the Spanish League’s oldest clubs to English soccer fans.

Valencia, my eye.

Others have noted that it has been a rough week for former Dutch international Ronald Koeman, Barcelona dream-teamer under Johan Cruyff, and ex-manager of Benfica, PSV Endhoven and current top man at Valencia . I say he hasn’t had a rough enough week.

Since resigning from PSV on October 31, 2007, and accepting the Valencia job after the sudden firing of Quique Sanchez-Flores, he has done practically everything wrong. He arrives 5 days late after being hired, misses the weekend win against Mallorca, fails to get the club organized for a midweek Champions League match against comparative minnows Rosenberg, loses 2-0 at home in the Mestalla, and leaves Trond Henriksen, the Norwegian side’s coach unimpressed, calling the Spanish side’s performance “cowardly”. He then sits on-form winger and Spain international Joaquin for his lack of effort in training after only a few days in charge, benches three of his top players Santiago Canizares, David Albelda and Miguel Angel Angulo for and now even minority ownership at the club are calling his tenure at the club a joke.

The club have backtracked from their humiliating treatment of the three, they have released a statement that the 3 have only been dropped not ostracized, but everything out of the club is stating that this is only the beginning of the Koeman Revolution. Baraja, Vicente and even David Villa are on the outs, and young starlets like Boca Juniors midfielder Ever Banega and Ajax striker Klaus-Jan Huntelaar are rumoured coming into the squad for the January transfer window.

Is he crazy? This is a club that was top four as little as two months ago. Was there a lack of quality on the side? Sure, some like Angulo and Vicente were often injured and Canizares is riding on fumes, but this is a Champions League level team with proven strikers like Villa to play off of Morientes who still has a few years left, Timo Hildebrand was being groomed as Santi’s replacement and it had a proven spine built by a Champions League winning coach in Rafa Benitez. You can’t change a club’s heart in 3 weeks and then expect the rest to play for you. You can’t expect players who have thrived playing one way, and fit them into an outdated mix of Rinus Michel’s, Johann Cruyff’s, and Louis Van Gaal’s least creative tendencies.

Ronald Koeman was a fantastic player, a defender in the libero mold, who ran the famous Barcelona dream-team of Cruyff to the 1992 European Cup final. Since his retirement, he has commanded Dutch side Vitesse Arnheim to a UEFA Cup berth in 2001, took Ajax to the Champions League quarter finals before losing to AC Milan, but spent the next 3 years grinding out wins and ruining the legendary Dutch side’s fortunes, where he was ultimately fired after a 2004 loss to Auxerre in the UEFA Cup. He was hired to replace Giovanni Trappatoni at Benfica in 2005 but couldn’t get the Portuguese champs to more than a third place finish in the league, lost out in the League Cup to a soon-to-be relegated side, and won their only trophy in the Superliga which pits the League and Cup winners from the previous years. To add insult to injury, he left Benfica for while the Portuguese squad were still in contention for the Champions League that without him lost only to eventual champs Barcelona in the quarter finals. He then leads PSV to a dominant first half, but allows both Ajax and AZ Alkmaar to cut the lead until by the penultimate match all 3 teams were tied at 72 points. In the final game, Alkmaar loses, Ajax beats Willem II, but PSV wins on goal differential against (hold it), Ronald Koeman’s old squad Vitesse Arnheim.

Tintin was the wrong choice to turn the fortunes of a struggling champ like Valencia around. The numbers don’t lie. He lucked into a young squad at Ajax led by Zlatan Ibrahimovich, Van der Vaart and Christian Chivu, destroyed a Benfica that had been brought back to prominence by Il Trap, and finally replaced Gus Hiddink at PSV only to turn them into a dour, ill-conceived squad that eat Arsenal by an aggregate score of 2-1 over two legs, but then were held goalless and thoroughly dominated by eventual finalists Liverpool.

What will his time at Valencia be remembered for? If his past is any indication, he is living a charmed life, because few have done so little after being given so much.