Sunday was a fun day to plunk in front of the television and watch Spanish football. Eleven AM (EST) had Sevilla’s come-from-behind victory, followed by Real Madrid’s strange (but phenomenal) win and finally
Readers know I am a Real fan, so that is the game I watched the closest. The turnaround the team has produced in the last two months has been quite remarkable; it got to the point in yesterday’s game when, after Recreativo tied the match with less than four minutes to play, I honestly believed Real would come back to win it. This is from a team that, when I watched them mid-winter, would genuinely surprise me when they scored a goal.
I’ve been though a lot with Real in their up-and-down year. At one point, after a particularly embarrassing loss, I tried a new gimmick of giving each of the players a “grade” as a way of expressing my frustration with the team. (See the January 7 entry of the blog.) I remember that game clearly but it seems a long time ago now. The feelings of rage and frustration while watching Real play have been replaced by a very hopeful optimism.
Regardless, we are essentially where were last week. Real, Barca, and Sevilla all still have a perfectly good shot at the title. After looking poor for weeks, Barca manhandled Athletico, just a few days after Xavi essentially told the media that the Barca players have stopped trying. What we are left with, then, is another fun weekend coming up and a wide-open race.
Below please find the link to Phil Ball’s latest column, where he discusses conspiracy theories and the sordid underbelly of la Liga. Yikes.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=432179&root=europe&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab3pos1&cc=5901
Finally, I will be posting predictions tomorrow for the Champions League final. Mostly I am hoping for a good game. There have been a few “big games” this year that haven’t really lived up to the hype, and I’m hoping we have a classic.
No comments:
Post a Comment