The Copa Del Rey draw was conducted this week. In this round, the big boys enter the fray. Look, I'm not the biggest supporter of this cup tournament because it is very one-sided towards La Primera teams to advance. But it is good fun especially during the upcoming round where the smaller clubs are able to make some cha-ching in the coffers, when the big boys come to town. It's also an opportunity for the non-European bound clubs to get some silverware in recent years. Would I like the RFEF to change the format to a knock out competition, more in line with the FA Cup? Sure. But we're talking Spain, so maybe not.

So here ya go - the round of 32:

1st Leg - 29/10/2008
2nd Leg - 12/11/2008
Poli Ejido - Villarreal
Real Unión - Real Madrid
Benidorm - Barcelona
Orihuela - Atlético
Portugalete - Valencia
Ponferradina - Sevilla
Elche - Deportivo
Murcia - Racing
Celta - Espanyol
Rayo Vallecano - Almería
Hercules - Valladolid
Castellón - Betis
Athletic - Recreativo
Getafe - Osasuna
Numancia - Sporting
Málaga – Mallorca

Some juicy matches with some upsets in the makings. Maybe Hercules can get one over Valladolid? They are top of the table in Segunda A right now on 13 points! Not to mention Castellon could do over Betis? Both Valencian teams might have a chance. Frequently, La Primera teams play their reserves, so you never know.

Ponferradina and Real Unión are from Segunda B (the third divsion), they probably don't have a chance in hell up against Real Madrid and Sevilla, so it's all about pride. The little team from León and the Basque country could give a banana skin to the big clubs, but over two legs? Highly unlikely. The same applies to Poli Ejido, Orihuela and Benidorm. The Third division team from Andalusia and the two Valencianas, are estatic about matching up against Villarreal, Barçelona and Atleti, but they will be hoping for a miracle as it's been almost 30 years since a non Primera team has made it to the final.

Unlike the English FA Cup, entry is limited. Only teams from the Primera, Segunda A, about 23 teams from Segunda B and the Tercera Division champions (or runners-up if the champion is a reserve team of La Primera), are invited to enter. The Tercera is really the 4th division, but miracle of miracles, Portugalete from the Basque Country is still in the mix and will get to play Valencia. Portu are the only representative from the 4th division and they should be proud of their accomplishment thus far.

I am going to try and watch as many of these games as I can, because they are passionate, intense and full of spunk. I highly recommend rojadirecta.org for your online La Liga fix. They normally will let you know where to find as many La Liga games as possible, as well as other fútbol leagues.

So let the games begin...

As started on our weekly Forza Fútbol podcast, this season we do predictions each week.  Three games in La Liga and three games in Serie A.  Two points for the correct result and one point for guessing a goal scorer.  So far Hannah has tore up the table and leads with 28 points, Mando has 24, and I (Elisa) suck with 18. Our resident Napolitano Gene has joined in the fun this week.

 

Here's our picks from podcast 33, play along and let us know your predictions!

 

La Liga:

Almería v Sevilla:  HANNAH Sevilla Kanoute, ELISA draw Negredo, MANDO Sevilla Navas, GENE Sevilla

Betis v Mallorca:  HANNAH Mallorca Webo, ELISA Betis Sergio Garcia, MANDO Betis Jose Marí, GENE Betis

Racing v Deportivo:  HANNAH Depor Lafita, ELISA draw Guardado, MANDO Depor Mista, GENE Deportivo

 

Serie A:

Napoli v Juventus:  MANDO Napoli, Lavezzi, ELISA Napoli Lavezzi, HANNAH Napoli Hamsik, GENE Napoli Denis

Chievo v Atalanta:  MANDO Atalanta Doni, ELISA Draw Doni, HANNAH Atalanta Floccari, GENE Nil Nil Draw

Lecce v Udinese:  MANDO Udinese Quagliarella, ELISA Udinese Quags, HANNAH Udinese DiNatale, GENE Udinese Quags 

 

Join in the fun and let's hear what you think!  Post here @ Oleole or email us at forzafutbol@forzafutbol.com.  Grazie y Adios!

 

 

The European Champions play Estonia away on Oct 11th and Belgium away on Oct 15th. For those of you live in the States, it looks like FSC will be airing these fixtures. These away games will be very tough, but I have faith that our boys will grab another 6 points.

So who has Teddy Bear aka Vicente Del Bosque called up? The usual suspects. In defense, Andoni Iraola and Arbeloa are back as well as a healthy Marchena. Raúl Albiol is hurt, but VDB has decided that 21 players are enough. So defensively all good in the hood. In the midfield, David Silva is still out injured. Ruben De La Red has NOT been called up as we have too many damn midfielders. Shame. Upfront, El Niño Torres has returned to the senior squad at full fitness and with his shooting boots on.

Full Squad - Goalkeepers: Reina (Liverpool), Casillas (Real Madrid);

Defenders: Iraola (Athletic Bilbao), Puyol (Barcelona), Juanito (Betis), Arbeloa (Liverpool), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Fernando Navarro (Sevilla), Marchena (Valencia), Capdevila (Villarreal);

Midfielders: Cesc Fábregas (Arsenal), Iniesta and Xavi (Barcelona), Xabi Alonso (Liverpool), Diego Capel (Sevilla), Cazorla and Marcos Senna (Villarreal);

Forwards: Güiza (Fenerbahçe), Fernando Torres (Liverpool), David Villa (Valencia).

U-21 News

Bojan Krkic has been recalled to the under 21 squad for Spain's extremely critical double header playoff against Switzerland on Oct 11th and 14th. Check rojadirecta.org for listings. The winner will qualify for the U-21 European Championships. Other notables called up to the U-21s Mata, el Crack, from Valencia, and debutantes Sergio Busquets from Barça and Chico from Almería. Markel Susaeta from Athletic Bilbao has been dropped by Lopez Caro because we have too many damn midfielders. Shame.

Full Squad- Goalkeepers: Roberto (Recreativo), Sergio Asenjo (Valladolid);

Defenders: Chico (Almería), Piqué (Barcelona), Azpilicueta (Osasuna), Javi García and Miguel Torres (Real Madrid), Crespo (Sevilla);

Midfielders: Javi Martínez (Athletic Bilbao), Raúl García (Atlético Madrid), Pedro and Sergio Busquets (Barcelona), Granero (Getafe), Jurado (Mallorca), Dani Parejo (Queens Park Rangers), Sisi (Recreativo);

Forwards: Bojan (Barcelona), Xisco (Newcastle), Jonathan Pereira (Racing Santander), Mata (Valencia).

Does España have the best up and coming squad? I sure think so. Vamanos La Roja!

This week on Forza Futbol we look at week six in Serie A and La Liga. We also discuss the Azzurri call ups from the upcoming World Cup Qualifiers.

What Price Loyalty? In the days where footballers, agents, owners, and clubs are greedy bastards, a gem of a player wants to give thanks and honor his team for all that they have given to him. For the wonderful opportunity of playing football. Athletic's long time captain, icon and idol, Joseba Exteberría, has agreed to play his last professional year for Athletic Bilbao for free. Can you believe it?

El Gallo, translated by yours truly, (Elisa) from the official press conference:

My dream has always been to play for 15 years with Athletic. I will play my last professional year free, as a thank you to the club and all that it has give to me. My years with Athletic have been great for me and my family. It's not a question of football, Athletic has changed my life. My daughter is Bilbaína and I will continue living in Bilbao. I am not trying to set a precedent. We are in a professional world and everyone should be able to defend their rights and contracts. For me this is a personal gesture, nothing more. (When asked about his future) I would like to coach at the club is some capacity, but I have not had discussions yet with the club.

What a class act! In the modern day, who would have believed such a gesture? I'm speechless. Puts my faith back in football.

Much will be said in he coming weeks over this game, there will be match bans and fan arrests, calls for retribution from officials and from either set of supporters, but in the end it will be just one game (RCD Espanyol) played in one city (Barcelona), where in spite of being down one goal for much of the game, the visitors eked out a win against an over-matched home squad by scoring two in the final half, and the decider coming on a penalty awarded in an extended period of injury time that reached well beyond the Saturday night start time and ended past midnight in the early hours of Sunday. What do we know though about the off-field troubles, though? Well, midweek on the Boixois Nois website, the ill-famed ultras that support Barcelona FC (but are not allowed to enter the Camp Nou) threatened to give the Montjuic Stadium a well-deserved “send-off” as this will be the last derby hosted there. 10 minutes into the second half, the Barca supporters sitting in the upper deck of a half-empty Montjuic started throwing objects onto the Espanyol supporters below. A flare went off in the crowd, no one was seriously injured, and other than a minuscule group of Espanyol muscle who tried to scale the barrier below and cross the pitch, order was secured and the violence was curtailed. For those used to seeing this in Italian soccer this would have been a fairly innocuous bit of crowd trouble, but this was Barcelona and the media have blown things out of proportion. Espanyol blame Barca for allowing their supporters to travel and make mischief across town. An angry Barca president Joan Laporta blames Espanyol for not securing the stadium, the league for not doing more against the violent ultras as he has done, and both clubs have hammered the stadium security. Attached to this, in the wake of the violence and the loss, Sanchez Libre the Espanyol chairman, has returned to that typical “big-club paranoia” that the league has been bought and paid for at the expense of smaller clubs like Espanyol. Now, I don’t necessarily disagree with him. I’m an Espanyol supporter for godsakes, but in this case he doesn’t have much to stand on. The red card sending off for Nene was appropriate for an aerial challenge where he led with his hand outstretched. There was contact on the player and not the ball that led up to the decisive penalty and Espanyol’s goal was dicey in and of itself. What he does have a right to complain about is the typically shoddy refereeing of Luis Medina Cantalejo, who has stepped into the brown-stained shoes of Graham Poll as the worst referee in the world. Any referee worth his salt communicates with players, guides play and controls the game quietly and sternly. The authoritarian Cantalejo botches calls, waves flags mercilessly and angrily denounces the sort of dissent he brings on himself. In this match, Cantalejo failed to control the sort of problems that tipify derbies (overly enthusiastic tackles, heated emotions, and rough play)

With the start of the new Champions League campaign, one of the topics that has frequented Spanish commentary and blogs is - Is the Premier League outshining La Liga? Is La Liga are 2nd Tier League? (I don't want to go there, but the same Spanish rags claim that Serie A is a retirement league and will get worse should Ibra or Kaká leave.)

OK, the yahoos from the Spanish rages, exaggerate, freak out and love high drama. They need to fill up their dailies and create news. But it's been awhile since a La Liga team has won the Champions League, Spanish clubs are in debt, and people are worried.

Does the Prem brand better than La Liga? Is the Prem moving towards the NBA mega-sensation and is La Liga far behind? C'mon, La Liga still shows their games at 10pm at nite. This is not conducive to Asia and the the other foreign markets. Do the Spanish teams do a good job of promoting themselves overseas other than the Big Two? Look, Everton has been coming to the US every year and West Ham came over to play this past year. Pompey went to China. These teams are spreading the Prem love and they are NOT the Big Four. Is La Liga doing enough to earn fans and sell shirts? We have the best fútbol, shouldn't that be enough?

Also what about the provincial, club media deals? Is this archaic? Is a league-wide agreement as used in England, more conducive to a strong league?

Deportivo La Coruña's President has said that the future of Spanish football is foreign investment? Do you agree?

Here's my two cents, I think Spain can learn a lot from the Premiership, particularly the media deals and distribution of wealth (even though the richer clubs still get more money due to more appearances on TV and attendances). I also adore the parachute package for teams promoted and relegated. Spain needs something like this drastically. I also think the branding can improve of La Liga, but in moderation. The league as a whole should try and assist in this matter. Why don't they produce and offer Friday preview shows in Spanish? Why aren't some of the Spanish football opinion shows made available, with dubbing or translation to foreign markets?

The infrastructure and organization in Spain needs vast improvement. Why are the games decided sometimes 3 hours before kickoff? How is that conducive to coach potato fans? The technology, camera angles, and TV picture, needs to get to the 21st century. The visuals are appalling. Have you ever compared a Prem or CL game to a La Liga game. The La Liga game pales in comparison.

We need access to more La Liga games on TV or via broadband. Why not offer the other games at a more moderate price? It's difficult for Spaniards to watch non local games, let alone foreigners. This has got to improve. Also access to kits, merchandise, magazines, daily rags would be awesome. Do you know how hard it is to find an Athletic Bilbao kit?

But I like the provincial nuances and local flavor of La Liga and I for one, don't want them to lose this. The play on the pitch is amazing, along with the parity and strength of the mid table teams. The cantera or youth academies keep producing wonderful talent. And there are players that are loyal or don't want to go abroad - see Cazorla, Villa, Silva, Casillas. I don't want foreign investment to come in and ruin La Liga or great an artificial market. We don't need billionaires, just better marketing and business savvy. The Spanish owners already do a fine job sticking their clubs in the red. I also feel that the last remaining socio clubs, need to stay that way - Real Madrid, Barçelona, Athletic Bilbao, etc. It keeps accountability.

But where there is talent on the pitch and in the back office ie managers and technical directors, some will want to go abroad where the money is IE England. But I am not worried about the level of play or the trophies, to me it's all cyclical. The money is in the Prem, but that is a bubble that will burst and a recalibration or reallignment will take place. The Premiership will not always be at the top. Relax.

And honestly I don't want a super league. I don't want to watch just the top leagues or the same teams always winning. That's boring and not what football is all about. We already have the Champions League, World Cup and other tournaments where the cream of the crop rise to the top. Isn't that enough?

OK, those are my thoughts, but I want to hear from you. What do you think? Give us your comments and we'll read them on the podcast. We'd love to hear from you. It's a fascinating topic, that won't go away.

During the summer I read a very interesting article in Marca that I wanted to share with our Non Spanish speaking readers. It was a tribute to all the Spanish goal keepers in La Liga as well as in England. It's a testimony to the cantera or youth academy systems, that Spain continues to develop quality Keepers.

Did you know that there are 5 Spanish teams where ALL 3 Goal Keepers are from Spain?

Athletic de Bilbao (Iraizoz, Armando and Lafuente), Barcelona (Valdés, Pinto and Jorquera), Málaga (Arnau, Goitia and Tudela), Numancia (Juan Pablo, Diego and Jesús Fernández) and Osasuna (Ricardo, Roberto and Andrés Fernández). Very impressive.

We can't forget all the number one Goal Keepers, that have earned their top spot at their club:

Iker Casillas (Real Madrid and Spain) , Diego López (Villarreal) , Sergio Asenjo (Valladolid), Andres Palop (Sevilla) and Daniel Aranzubía (Deportivo La Coruña).

Did you know that there are several young Goalies (U-21) who play in Spain and have earned the no. 1 spot?

Asenjo (Valladolid and Spain U-21), Miguel Ángel Moyá (Mallorca), Asier Riesgo and Roberto (Recreativo de Huelva). The future looks bright!

Did you know that there are now 3 Spaniards who earn their trade in England?

Pepe Reina (Liverpool); Manolo Almunia (Arsenal) and César Sánchez (Tottenham backup).

Let's hope that Spain never has the problem that England and other countries have with this position. Spain needs to continue to produce quality Keepers, at all costs.

The first World Cup Qualifiers kick off this week for La Furia Roja. All things considered, these two games should be an easy 6 points for the European champions, right? Both games at home, Murcia and Albacete, respectively. Not exactly the mighty mights. Bosina-H could be tricky, but our boys should do the business. Concerning call ups - no real big changes from the call ups to the Friendly vs Denmark. The only changes are Cesc is back and fit, so De La Red is out. Del Bosque also dropped Amorebieta in defense. He's injured anyway. With the recent injury to El Niño Torres, Bojan Krkic may get his first actual game with La Furia. Great news! The boy is 100% playing for La Roja. Andoni Iraola from Athletic Bilbao, has been called up again at Right Back, along with Diego Capel, the stellar left winger from Sevilla. Both players showed brilliantly vs Denmark and deserve a call up. No Raul, nuff said! Did I mention that we thoroughly trashed Denmark? OK, it was only a friendly, but nice to see Xabi Alonso with a brace. He looked like a natural striker, IMO. I like the flexibility that Capel and Iraola brought to the game. Here is my guess at the starting 11. Don't beat me up if it changes..... Goal - Casillas (who else?) Defense- Ramos - Puyol - Albiol - Capdevila (Marchena is still hurt) Midfield - Iniesta - Xavi - Senna - Silva (Midfield magic) Strikers - Guiza and Villa (Should be interesting!) The path to World Cup glory - vamanos!!!!

We were all bored to tears with the drama that was, between Cronaldo, Man United and Real Madrid. Well, little did Madrid know, but they alienated one of their key, creative players in the process, little Robinho. Robinho was offered to Manchester United as part of the CRon deal, to lower the asking price down to 65M Euros. No one from the Madrid camp, of course, bothered to talk to Robinho about the whole situation and Robinho felt unwanted, unsure of his place in the Madrid pantheon, etc. Did Madrid coddle their star? Offer an improved salary and contract? No, nothing, nada.

Along comes Samba, Felipao and Big Bucks Chelsea, with an offer Robinho cannot refuse. They can double his wages as long as Madrid agrees to the transfer. Well Madrid was furious, so Robinho does his best rendition of Cristiano Ronaldo and is doing a fine job of touche while pushing his way out. He's gone to the press, pleaded his case and frankly is playing like crap when he is forced to participate. Madrid's President Calderon has come out now stating if Robinho wants to go, he can buyout his contract. Not the 120M buyout clause but the 45M Euros that Madrid has asked Chelsea to meet.

It's going to happen. Madrid has been out played by their own player. Whodathunk? Just desserts? Did Madrid value and treasure one of it's most precious assets? Or did they spend their time drooling over the merchandise bonanza and possibilities of Cristiano Ronaldo? Well, now they got beat at their own game.

And Robinho is not the only one. Vincent Company was not happy with the way Hamburg treated him at the Olympics, so now he is at Man City. Who knows what is going to happen to Rafinha at Schalke or Diego at Bremen? I say they will be leaving their respective clubs, shortly. And what about Xabi Alonso, put on the market for Garreth Barry, without his knowledge. I am sure Xabi did not appreciate this, especially since he is a damn good player. Better than Barry IMO. I saw the way Xabi played against Middlesboro. He was poor, lacked confidence, until the end when he helped bring about the last two goals. Rafa has broken his spirit, very similar to Madrid with Robinho.

Is this just the latest star player vs club battles that we have seen since the time of Maradona or Garrincha?  Or is this some new player impowerment of late, that has emerged with all the money that has been invested in football?  What do you think?