While fans of Real Madrid and Barcelona are happy with the current state of Spanish football,
fans and players are of the other La Liga sides are not so enthused. Does any doubt that the title
race will once again be a two team race and that the rest of the league is playing for third
place?
Receiving several stern criticism due to their recent poor league form, Valencia's midfielder,
David Albelda, squashed away the opinion stating that his team are in a disastrous situation,
especially in La Liga.
Albelda admitted that they have been making plenty errors in the last few matches, but the dip
of form is something pretty normal considering they also have to share focus in the Europa League,
which they have been doing pretty well.
FC Barcelona cut the lead at the top back to ten points with a brilliant 5-1 win against
Valencia. Unai Emery's side has always made Barca struggle, but this was completely different. Even
though it didn't start well conceding a goal early, but after that it was total domination. We had
27 shots off 13 were at goal.
Feliz Sabado! It's our weekend wrap-up again, and first on the menu is
Cristiano's enthusiasm for playing dress-up... típicas!
Earlier this week, your favourite Portuguese hunk (don't try to deny this, grandmas!)
launched his special CR7 collection, which features a series of his favourite
white sneakers, the Nike5 Street Gato ("cat" in Spanish),
specially-designed T-shirts in red, white and blue, a CR7 matchball and even shin-guards!
The Association of Spanish Footballers (AFE) has revealed that La Liga players will strike for
the first two weekends of the season.
Players want a wage guarantee fund for when clubs become insolvent, an all-too frequent problem
in Spain, with Levante and Hercules struggling to pay staff members in recent years and Real
Zaragoza applying for administration this summer, which is a common occurrence particularly in the
Segunda Division.
The Association of Spanish Footballers (AFE) has revealed that La Liga players will strike for
the first two weekends of the season.
Players want a wage guarantee fund for when clubs become insolvent, an all-too frequent problem
in Spain, with Levante and Hercules struggling to pay staff members in recent years and Real
Zaragoza applying for administration this summer, which is a common occurrence particularly in the
Segunda Division.
Walking into Santiago Bernabeu is never an easy thing for the opposing team or the referees. As
the pressure of the Real Madrid fans are soaring throughout the match, Valencia midfielder David
Albelda, feels that the referees still remain influenced by the crowd.
As Los Che prepare to hopefully put another dent in Real Madrid's impressive start to the
season, Albelda feels that the referees can easily cost them the game.
Even the dog felt low after Athletic Bilbao's performance against Valencia.
Sevilla failed to show up against a desperate Real Valladolid side. Mallorca could only muster
a draw against Real Zaragoza at La Romareda. Athletic Bilbao knew that a win against Valencia on
Thursday would ascend them to within one point of Mallorca for the final Champions League spot.
Tonight's all Spanish Europa League quarter final fixture between 3rd place Valencia and 10th
place Atletico Madrid should be an entertaining fixture considering the fact that both these teams
are way off the pace in the La Liga title race.
Coming off yet another bad result over the weekend, Valencia will want to erase the memories of
the 3-0 drubbing they received at the hands of Real Zaragoza.
Bayern may have qualified for the Champs League (quello che è successo, Juve?!) but
Luca Toni is saying goodbye for real, and van Gaal himself has
already returned his Laura Pausini CD to the striker.
Ei chicas, you have to admit that front page image with David
Villaaaaa in his Kung-Fu pose is muito legal!!! He looks ferosha... come on, his
daughter already thinks it's cool and has started to draw on it with her red
Crayola. Anyway, Villaaaa opened the scoring against Osasuna in
the sixth minute thanks to his outstretched boot (talk about being at the right place, at the right
time) last night.
Since tonight's game is a friendly, I don't know what kind of team the Portland Timbers will
field tonight, and I'm really not all that knowledgeable on either Valencia or La Liga I've decided
to just make an easy, bare bones match thread for those of you who want to follow the game from
home and talk about it in the usual spot.
Valencia CF c. 2011-12 have inspired me to jump back on my soap box and preach to the
masses.
And why not? I'm giddy with excitement for the season to start this weekend!
That is, if it starts. The players union may strike. The season may be delayed. We may have to
wait to see Our Beloved Valencia CF trot out to defend the colors of the Valencian Community.
Parabens and Congratulations to AC Milan ace, Thiago
Silva for winning the Samba d'Or, an award given out by our
amigos over at SambaFoot! The award recognizes the 'Best Brazilian Footballer in
Europe' and previous winners have included Maicon, Luis Fabiano
and Kaka.
Frank Lampard and Fernando Torres are on the bench for the defining match of Andre Villas-Boas'
tenure at Chelsea thus far. Bold and correct decisions, will they pay off?
Architects
Team sheets
Chelsea
Cech, Ivanovic, Cole, Luiz, EBJT (c), Romeu, Ramires, Meireles, Mata, Drogba, Sturridge.
Ahead of their Champions League showdown against Bayer Leverkusen today, Valencia's David
Albelda gathers everyone close for a shot. One for the family Christmas album, guys?!! / via
Daylife
Por si su vida fuera de un campo del fútbol todavía no había dado lo suficiente de qué hablar,
el controvertido centrocampista argentino del Valencia no va a tener un buen retorno de sus
vacaciones al Valencia.
Allí, en palabras de su capitán David Albelda, y según publica 'Superdeporte' periódico
de referencia del valencianismo, hasta el mismo presidente Manuel Llorente, ya han exigido
una buena explicación a los últimos hechos de su jugador.
Ok, Albelda looks like he's enjoying a rave right in that photo so be quiet until
the moment passes! Tres, dos, uno... ok, here we go. Los Che pulled off a
nice 4-1 victory over Villarreal last night (poor, poor Nilmar)
and damn, the goals were coming at you like there was no tomorrow!
Look, even David Albelda can't help himself from smiling for the cameras! And
you can't really blame him, after Los Che battled back from a goal down to win this away
match against Athletic Bilbao last night. Goals by Villa and
Mathieu cancelled out 16-year-old Iker Munain's strike (the young
striker is a cross between the Pique and Torres breed, in case you were curious and even if you
were, shame on you for checking out jailbaits).
Liverpool concluded their pre-season schedule with a victory and a clean sheet after overcoming
Valencia at Anfield.
Andy Carroll netted his third goal of the summer by capitalizing on a mistake by David Albelda in
the sixth minute, the striker picking up the ball, hitting it against the post off goalkeeper Diego
Alves and finishing at the second attempt.
Just like that, Liverpool's preseason matches are done, and we can put to rest the conversation
about whether or not the results matter. From here on out, it's all for real, and there's little
time left to get themselves sorted before Sunderland visit in a week's time.
• Liverpool win 2-0 in bad-tempered affair • Anfield's first look at £47m midfield This
will be the season when Liverpool judges Andy Carroll and his £35m investment fee – and, as
Kenny Dalglish had insisted, he appears ready to make his mark.
The final friendly, and, at least on paper, Liverpool's most difficult opponent. It's no doubt been
a challenging preseason for Kenny Dalglish and company, and if earlier results in the preseason are
any indication, Saturday's match poses a hefty challenge of its own. Valencia have won four of
their five friendlies thus far, getting past opponents like PSV Eindhoven, Sporting CP, and Hamburg
SV, dropping only an away match to perennial Austrian powers Rapid Vienna.
I will have a column on the MLS Cup that was over at S365 this afternoon. For now, we go "ooh" and
"ahh" a half dozen times...Let's being with Demy "Gazza" de Zeeuw of Ajax. Frankly, I think this
one (second goal on the clip) is better in quality than the original.Man United's Darren Fletcher
lights the lamp with class (WARNING: get that volume down for this clip).
