Oscar Ustari can only stare blankly as Gonzalo Higuaín beats him for a second time.

The fashionable district.� The working-class south.� The established.� The disrespected.� Commerce.� Industry.� A comparison between the two top Madrid clubs.� Getafe just wants to be in the conversation.

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Iker Muniain tornou-se no início do mês o futebolista mais jovem de sempre a marcar na Liga Espanhola. Com apenas 16 anos e 289 dias, o avançado do Athletic de Bilbao marcou um dos golos do empate a duas bolas em Valladolid. O jovem, que já é comparado por alguns a Messi e que pode defrontar o Nacional da Madeira na Liga Europa, também já tinha feito o gosto ao pé nas provas europeias frente ao Áustria de Viena e Young Boys. Click to continue reading...

Mawete João Batista, conhecido no mundo do futebol por Mawete Júnior, é mais um dos muitos "flops" saídos da cantera benfiquista. Actualmente com 27 anos, o angolano, que chegou a jogar e a fazer alguns golos na principal equipa do SLB, anda perdido pelo terceiro escalão do mediano futebol cipriota, onde cumpre a sua segunda época ao serviço do desconhecido Chalkanoras Idaliou. Click to continue reading...

Athletic Bilbao have enjoyed a notable start to the season, sitting in eighth place in La Liga following the weekend's 2-2 draw away at Real Valladolid, as Joaquin Caparros has led the team to one of their brighter La Liga starts in recent years.

Caparros, who made his name as Sevilla manager, has constructed a team that is certainly not lacking in quality.

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Pictures of famous Athletic Bilbao players at San Mamés. Photo courtesy of Nicholas McGowan.

Athletic Bilbao would have no problems with the proposed UEFA plan of mandating eight homegrown players in the squad of eighteen for every match or the theoretical 6 + 5 rule, where six players of the starting eleven would have to be eligible for the national team of their club's country.

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Agora é do outro lado da 2ª circular. Uma saída de peso. Quem foi o responsável por esta brilhante e decisiva contratação? Qualquer jovem saído da "cantera" teria feito melhor. Uma vez desculpa-se, mas � segunda... Click to continue reading...

Part one of the 2009-2010 La Liga season preview will be out in the next couple of days, but today is devoted to Daniel Jarque González, who tragically passed away at the age of twenty-six while his RCD Espanyol team and he were on their preseason tour of Italy.� According to the RCD Espanyol website, "Tragedy struck Espanyol and the family of Dani Jarque this evening.

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Lleno eres de gloria
Bendito tú eres entre todos los clubes
Y bendito es el fruto de tu cantera: Cuffaro
Rosario Central, padre de ñuls,
Ruega por nosotros, Grondona y acreedores,
Ahora y en la hora de comenzar el torneo".
Con esta plegaria pagana comienzo una nota que hace rato vengo postergando en función de que se fueran definiendo algunas incorporaciones. Click to continue reading...

Por casi media década el sistema Lavolpista habitó entre nosotros, con buenos y malos recuerdos. Desde las finales perdidas con Herrera, el paso fugaz de Mizrahi hasta la llegada del patriarca del sistema y su imprevista partida.

Ningún otro equipo pudiera haber recibido mejor a Lavolpe como Atlas, tanto por su conocida cantera como el cobijo de una afición que añoraba su regreso, algunas personas tienen suerte y después de la tempestad resurgen con nuevas oportunidades.

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Arbeloa to Madrid for £3.5m
Unfortunately, it's not surprising, although the fee is lower than expected. Still, even in the last year of his contract, it's £1m more than Benitez paid for him. Silver linings, and all.
But when Kolo Toure's moving for £15m at the same time as it looks like Dossena's going back to Italy for £4-6m, it feels a bit like the Rick Parry bad old days of Liverpool getting screwed on transfer fees. Click to continue reading...

La tarde del viernes, España jugaba el segundo partido del Europeo sub 19. El resultado ha sido 2-1 en contra de los españoles, resultado con el que se complica la clasificación para la segunda fase de la competición. Ya he declarado alguna vez mi disconformidad con el cuerpo técnico de las selecciones inferiores españolas: Hierro, del Bosque, López Caro, Luis Milla y Aitor Karanka me parecen poco adecuados para una cantera como la española, pero he de admitir que Luis Milla es mi preferido de la terna de entrenadores. Click to continue reading...

The tectonic plates that underpin global football moved and moved precipitously towards Real Madrid one again.

Another 35 million euros shelled out, this time to Lyon for the services of Karim Benzema. The French striker becomes the fourth player to sign up in the Florentino Perez era joining Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Raul Albiol.

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El flamante campeón de Europa ya piensa en la siguiente temporada. Fue el propio Pep Guardiola el que afirmó tras la final de Roma que le gustaría contar con una plantilla más amplia en el próximo ejercicio, ya que, según el de Santpedor, los equipos campeones necesitan "renovarse" y cambiar caras para no perder competitividad.

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We all know David Villa, the world's greatest striker, resides with Valencia CF.

We also know he's fond of Sporting Gijon, the club where he began his professional career.

We also happen to be playing Gijon this weekend (more on that in a bit). So let's hope Villa doesn't let sentimentality get in the way of scoring a few goals and leading us to victory.

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Lo de Ramón Calderón y Pedja Mijatovic al frente del Real Madrid ha dejado incluso de ser gracioso. Ese límite fue traspasado hace ya tiempo. Ahora se podría decir que dan pena, para no caer en los insultos y menosprecios. Y es que la última ha sido gorda. Míchel, entrenador del Real Madrid Castilla hasta hace [. Click to continue reading...

As things have gone from bad to worse recently, Barcelona fans have increasingly focused our hopes on young players coming out of the club's much praised youth system. In fact, most of the best and most consistent performers in the past two seasons have been new cantera graduates - Messi, Iniesta and Bojan in addition to those who have been stalwarts for a while like Xavi and Puyol. Click to continue reading...

From a foreigner's perspective, Spain is truly an interesting county. For those of you that don't remember my previous post on Spanish Football and Basque Nationalism Spain has a 'central' culture, but most Spainards feel more of a cultural tie to the region where they are from. Ask someone from Barcelona where they are [. Click to continue reading...

Stuttgart 0-2 Barca
A 2-0 away win against the German champions, who hadn't lost at home for 19 games - yeah, I'll take that. We've never had an easy time in Germany, and this was no different. This result, combined with Rangers' fantastic win, have left us very well placed in the group.
However, Rijkaard criticized the forward line for being wasteful and hinted that the star players would have to work harder. Click to continue reading...

The so-called 'FIFA virus' strikes again. Personally, I've got nothing against international football - in fact, I love it - but I just wish the federations and FIFA would schedule things a bit better. It's unfortunate that this international break comes two weeks into the La Liga (and Serie A) season. 14 Barca players have been called up this time:
friendies
Ronaldinho (Brazil, vs Mexico and USA)
Giovani dso Santos (Mexico, vs Panama and Brazil)
Gabi Milito and Leo Messi (Argentina, vs Australia)
competitive matches
Xavi and Iniesta (Spain, Euro 08 qualifiers vs Iceland and Latvia)
Lilian Thuram, Eric Abidal and Thierry Henry (France, Euro 08 qualifiers vs Italy and Scotland)
Gianluca Zambrotta (Italy, Euro 08 qualifiers vs France and Ukraine)
Eidur Gudjohnsen (Iceland, Euro 08 qualifiers vs Spain and Northern Ireland)
Deco (Portugal, Euro 08 qualifiers vs Poland and Serbia)
Yaya Toure (Ivory Coast, African Nations Cup qualifier, Gabon)
Samuel Eto'o had his operation, and it was apparently a success. Click to continue reading...

It always pains me to be writing about the departure of a canterano, a player who came up through the youth system of the club. Thiago (pictured above with fellow canterano Messi and good friend Ronaldinho) appeared more than 100 times for Barca B before he was promoted to the first team in 2001.
The fact that during 6 seasons in the first team he only managed 138 appearances tells its own story about his misfortunes. Click to continue reading...

"Today has been one of the saddest days in the history of Sevilla FC," Del Nido told the club's official website. "The diamond left-footed player Antonio Puerta has left us, a player that changed our lives now leaves us."

The man who scored this goal in extra time against Schalke to take Sevilla into their first ever European final and the last penalty in the shoot-out which won them their second UEFA Cup in 2 seasons has left us. Click to continue reading...