Only In La Liga
By: Corey | March 14th, 2009Kind of a blow by blow of the game between Athletic Bilbao and Real Madrid at San Mames, as an allegory of how ridiculous La Liga is sometimes. This is a stream of consciousness type writing, so keep in mind I just wrote down what I was thinking, dont get to offended.
Only in La Liga can the talents of Lass fully be appreciated. His ball winning skills are second to none, and I wish we had a whole team of Lass, then no one would dare cross us. But then again, in the same team you have the brilliant ball winner and the guy who cant win a tackle without fouling in Heinze. A league of contrasts it seems. Then…
Only in La Liga can Robben score a brilliant goal, but then in two similar situations refuse to pass the ball to team mates and waste glorious chances. Selfishness personified. Then…
Only in La Liga can Aitor Ocio (the Butcher of Bilbao II?) get away with elbowing Huntelaar twice in aerial challenged, then retreat after the second foul and clothesline an on rushing Sneijder without any yellow card. Then….
Only in La Liga can Gabriel Heinze do something note worthy and score a great diving header off a Sneijder service. Then….
Only in La Liga can Wesley Sneijder get wacked in the knee and the pay does not stop, only for a shot to be parried by Casillas. Then….
Only in La Liga (this part not really ) can Gabriel Heinze 3 minutes after scoring, then score a ridiculous own-goal after a save from Casillas that was driven back in by an Athletic player. Then…..
Only in La Liga can 4 Athletic players get yellow cards and 1 get a red for a push on Casillas, yet Casillas gets nothing when he runs out of his goal screaming. Ocio finally got his card btw. Then….
Only in La Liga, and only 10 minutes later, Llorente equalizes on a set piece to end the first half, only minutes after Sneijder had blazed over the bar from close range in a inexplicable miss. Casillas, who showed how brilliant he was by keeping Liverpool out so many times in the midweek despite the 4-0 scoreline, somehow cant keep a simple header like that out. Must be the fans behind the goal. Then….
Only in La Liga can Sneijder can rape three different ways by Orbaiz for a free kick, but Orbaiz goes unpunished. The Sneijder takes a poor free kick, and runs into a Bilbao player and gets a yellow card for retaliation. Then….
Halftime. Time to tell the ref how badly he has messed up this game. La Liga, with terrible refereeing, bat shit crazy players, and more passion in seemingly dull games then any league in the world, all because of the fractured landscape of modern day Spain. Best league in the world? Not if Champions League performances count. But the best league to live and die by? Hell yes, to bad it seems Real Madrid is dieing more often then not. Now its time for the second half, what splendors of skill, or erroneous errors will we get this half???
Only in La Liga can right after the restart, Raul serve a ball up to Huntelaar who hits a placed shot passed Irazoiz for the 3-2 marker. Amazing. Then….
Only in La Liga can Robben just miss after some great breakup play by Lass, then slick passing the ripped Athletic apart. Okay, enough with this formality.
To watch the Bilbao faithful hurl obscenities and middle fingers at Heinze for absolutely no reason. Sometimes I think the Bilbao fans are like Yankee fans, the least-classy fans in the country. Then again, I would probably do the same to Heinze…
As of 52 minutes, Real has 62% possession. We are working Athletic hard with good ball movement. That ball never went off Metzelders hand Llorente, stop complaining so much and play the game.
How was Robben penalized when Gabilondo literally jumped on his back! What a joke, this ref has lost the plot completely, typical. Suseata on for Orbaiz, Capparos is feeling dangerous tonight I guess.
Amorbieta is late on Robben, nails his ankle and then complains about getting a yellow. Yet Athletic players have been falling all over the pitch whenever they hear foot steps behind them or the warm breeze from the Atlantic makes its way through the stadium.
Ion Velez is given a red card from the bench. Ref has lost it!
Casillas with a huge save, great stuff Iker! The Marcelo wins the ball, and the crowd irruptes demanding a foul and the ref obliges. Ohh the glorious bias!
After the restart, Robben breaks and dishes to Hunter who scores yet again on a chip! Robben makes the right decision, Hunter doesnt waste the chance with a great little chip that does the job. Nails in the coffin for the overly aggressive Bilbao players. Get rich or die trying 50 cent???
Raul is definately playing very deep now, almost as a central midfielder, even deeper then when Higuain was on the wing.
Ramos with a pity foul it seems. Raul has played his part, and is subbed off for Higuain. More misery on Athletic tonight? Hopefully. Robben comes off to, so maybe not.
And I missed the last 20 minutes because I had to go to dinner with my parents. What I could surmise from your comments is that Higuain’s goal was great and that Faubert is absolute rubbish.
I think that this will suffice for a match review. Leave your comments on the match here, it sure was a wild one! HALA MADRID!
Category: Team News
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Comments
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Also, there was some suggestion that Juande was stupid to leave Higuain out in favor of Hunter or Raul. Hunter proved he is twice the finisher that Higuain is, which merits his selection. And Raul was played in a far different position then where Higuain could operate.
Posted from
United States
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por que el comentarista es taaaan malo? esta como aburrido, ni siquiera se entera del penalty!!1 jajajajajaja
de que canal cojen las imagenes????? espero que no sea de pago aunque seguro ( y mucho ) que es mejor que el que lo ha comentado hoy aqui en españa… andres montes, solo busquen imagenes suyas!!!
viva el hunter y viva van gol, que no le olvidamos (tampoco a M. diarra!!!!)Posted from
Spain -
absolutely jamesmadrid…can’t wait till Van Gol is fit.
Posted from
United States -
I have no clue what Jamesmadrid just said but…I have sort of gotten the answer from Corey that Huntelaar is much better than Higuan.Real Madrid is not bad, but we must have a winning mentality, consistency, and a coach who can play the tactical mind games that Hiddink, Benitez,Ferguson…all possess.
Our defense is a bit shaky Canna is old, Heinze sucks according to you guys, Metzelder does not do the job, so we only have Pepe and Casillas.We have to play as a team…and Robben has to be a creative playmaker.
Of course, players we dont need must be let go and those we need have to make sure they are in the best physical shape possible. Also please spare the team from the managerial drama that takes place.
I love stream of consciousness:M.Proust and James Joyce.Posted from
United States -
Great game…it felt good after that defeat…n yeah hunter definatly better than higuan finishing wise…diarra n robben are good…but heinze is shit…hope the new changes taking place in management will be for the better…
Posted from
United States -
Around the 70th minute or so Lass still had a 100% passing completion record. Insane.
What a fucking crazy game. This reminds me of when I play FIFA with my friends in a “red-card challenge.” (2 points for red cards, 1 point for yellow card, .5 point for a goal)
Posted from
Spain -
Sorry for the cheesy rhyme… but Lass is just top class!
I thought Sniejder was half-decent at midfield too. He’s not a ‘10′ as his jersey says or a playmaker either, he’s just the guy who moves all over the pitch spraying passes all aobut and taking his long range pot shots at goal every so often. If he’s on his game, I don’t see why Juande shouldn’t pair him up with Lass instead at the middle.Robben is brilliant, but is a selfish bastard. If he opted to pass instead of shoot HALF the time, we’d be able to score even more goals. If we end up with CR7, I dread the prospect of 2 selfish wingers taking every goalscoring opportunity and leaving our front men starved for service.
I’m happy to see signs of Huntelaar coming to life. I think he and Higuain are different players and I hope to see a strike partnership between the 2 form ASAP. That also means I think Raul should go to the bench soon enough. I do think that Huntelaar can’t dribble for nuts (RVN could at least to do it a bit)… so he’s just the pure ‘9′ who can hold the ball up and score lots of goals in the box.
That said, I hope that in the midst of this election season of promises on players we’re supposed to get, that the candidates can talk with some sense too and address the need for a left back. Heinze is just a disaster! I really think that Juande should in fact give Miguel Torres an opportunity to show that he night be a better option than the disaster-prone ‘gringo’
At Centerback, Cannavaro is likely to leave us and perhaps Garay can fill in. We’re all hoping he comes good to form a good partnership with Pepe.
Posted from
Singapore -
I don’t think so. With Perez coming in, we’ll just buy another centreback to replace him. Hell, even Torres never given a chance.
Lass is on top of his form. But I would like to Robben dropped to bench and Sneijder plays in his position on the right, sure he’ll drop to the middle and posibly all over the pitch, but surely that’s far better than selfish winger on his own?
Raul can still play his trequarista position, behind both strikers, with Marcelo on the left. Remembers when we said Madrid plays better without Robben? The problem is then Lass will have higher responsibility to protect the defenders since we all know Sneijder will never helps out and Marcelo sucks at defending. I think that’s our strongest possible lineup, with of course somebody replacing Heinze on the left. Hell, surely Dudek on left back is better than him. Or Saviola.
Posted from
Australia -
Huntelaar looks so calm in front of goal – he certainly has his faults, but he’s really starting to reveal his strengths now.
Looking forward to seeing Higuain and Huntelaar play as a partneship together.
He needs unselfish servicePosted from
United States -
higuain leads the assist charts for us,doesn’t he ?? he has not been scoring as frequently as before but he still provides assists,does the running around and plays very well if he gets the service from the midfield. i think both him and huntelaar have staked a nice claim for a starters berth.
our problem lies in the midfield. its malfunctioning and misfiring on all cylinders. only lass is the one going strong. even gago,one of the stars up till half-season, has lost form badly. there is something wrong with the team if the forwards have to do both,create and score ,almost all the time.
glassboy.he is the good,the bad and the ugly all rolled in one.he has talent.oodles of it.but he is selfish.and that causes fissures and friction in the team.the match against betis,the madrid plane could have landed in the space that marcelo had and robben didn’t pass but took the shot himself.this match too.and it holds up the whole team. juande has 2 put his arm round him and say, PASS ,YOU FUCKING IDIOT.or u r benched.something’s gotta give.
Posted from
United States -
Hi Guys, check this link out… this guy is ‘proposing’ a starting XI for next season incorportating ‘Florentino’s New Galacticos’… using Babelfish / Google Translate, the english will still be half-gibberish but understandable… I think it looks like a lineup to win La Decima
http://www.oleole.es/blogs/fansdelmadrid/posts/floren-te-hago-el-equipo
I’d prefer to see Lahm over Zhirkov at Left Back though. And if Canna & Metz leaves, we’ll need another CB, perhaps a candidate for Castilla?
Posted from
Singapore -
I foresee a lot of problems for Madrid, in the form of Robben-itus. His selfishness is really starting to overwhelm his brilliance. He simply refuses to pass to his team mates 95% of the time. When he finally does, we score. On Saturday, we were able to afford his many wasted chances, but when we play away games at Sevilla, Valencia, Villarreal and Osasuna, and of course el clasico part two, the Bernabeu version, we likely won’t have that luxury.
But even beyond his wasting ways, his personality is starting to spoil, with clear rifts between himself and Klass Jan, and his team mates clearly growing frustrated by his selfishness. The last thing Madrid needs during their push for the title is dressing room feuds. Perhaps it’s time for the man of glass to do what he does best: get broken.
Posted from
United States -
At times he is selfish, but if you want agressive players who go for goal and score goals – then you need to be a bit selfish – otherwise you end up like Arsenal.
I think the main problem with Robben is that he often makes the wrong decision, and actually he doesn’t seem to be very good at short passesPosted from
United States
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