Football Update: Review of the opening week of the Spanish La Liga
The Spanish La Liga started at the weekend and despite being the league with the most talented breed of footballers, it threatens to be the most boring of all to watch.
Such is the gap between the top two and the rest that one cannot even hope of anyone else breaking the monotony of the top two.
Let alone the monotony of the top two it looks like that Real Madrid even after splashing more than 400 million pounds in two years will struggle to break the hegemony of Barcelona.
In 2009, Florentino Perez took charge of a Real Madrid squad that boasts the stars like Van Nistelrooy, Robben and Sneijder.
But all three were guilty of being brought in by the previous regime and the trio was sold to be replaced by Kaka, Ronaldo and Benzema for a fee of over 200 million pounds and while the other two failed to live up to their expectation and hype, only Ronaldo could be somewhat described as a success.
There is nothing like long term planning or patience at a club like Real Madrid, after the debacle of last season, Pelligrini was sacked and brought in was Jose Mourinho and long with him came six more signings.
Perhaps it was no wonder that the Portuguese’s first excuse for an inexplicable first loss away to Mallorca was that his team’s season had started too soon.
In Mourinho’s eyes, his squad did not have enough time to work together and they find themselves trailing the last year’s champions by 2 points already.
Will these 2 points prove horribly costly for Madrid? Only time will tell but in a league where Barcelona sets the standards any dropped points can be costly.
Of the 11 player that started the game for Madrid at the Iberostar Estadio, just 4 have spent two or more seasons at the club, Higuain, Ramos, Casillas and Marcelo. Even more surprisingly 5 of the 14 players that were involved on the night, made their League debuts.
The debutants included Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira and Angel Di Maria and with such quality on the pitch, drawing to a team like Mallorca is just a sin.
In stark contrast, their foes, Barcelona started the season where they left off, clinically dispatching Racing Santander 3-0. Messi opened his account in the very first game of the season.
The only unfamiliar faces in the Barca line up were left back Maxwell and David Villa, a striker who scored on his league debut with a beautiful looping header and who is by no means a stranger to Spanish football or team mates like Pedro, Xavi, Iniesta and Sergio Busquets.
Real were not only unfamiliar with each other and player like a bunch of strangers thrown on the pitch just to go through the motions. Their front three of Ronaldo, Benzema and Higuain were c**p on the night and wasted many chances.
Madrid can be using the lack of time for the players to gel together but Jose Mourinho should realize that if his team is to go on and beat Barcelona to the title, then it needs some mighty work to be done. Given the evidence of the opening week’s performance, this doesn’t seem likely but then again Mourinho is the special one and Barcelona is the special 11.
Its special one against the special 11 in the La Liga and things are just about to get very interesting, as Barcelona have set the pace early on in the season and from day one Mourinho’s men have to play catch up.
These are going to be fun times.
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