Halftime In Spain

Now that they've reached the halfway point in the La Liga season, we have enough information to get a handle on who's who and what's what in Spain. For the neutral fan, it's been a great season so far. There are five teams, currently separated by four points, that legitimately have a chance of lifting the trophy while there are at least eight teams battling to stay in Spain's top division.

Barcelona have finished the first half of the season as La Liga's winter champions. The significance of this title depends on our optimistic you are. On one hand, Frank Rijkaard's team is a shell of the one who dominated Europe last year. On the other hand, without playing very well, they find themselves atop the league standings, in the round of 16 in the Champions League, and in the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey. When discussing Barca, the question on everyone's mind should be: what happens when Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi come back from injury?

Designated as the top soccer club in the world by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics(?), Sevilla have been in top form for most of the season. That said, they haven't been able to take advantage of Barca's slip-ups in the last couple of weeks. It is in this department, consistency, that will seal the Rojiblancos fate. Of course, having the league's leading goal scorer, Frederic Kanoute, doesn't hurt.

As for Real Madrid, well, I guess that depends on whether Ramon Calderon, Predrag Mijatovic, and Fabio Capello can get on the same page. The "project" that Capello has been in charge of has been rejuvenated by the addition of Fernando Gago, Gonzalo Higuain, and Marcelo. It has taken Real's average age from 28-years-old to 24-years-old. Coupled by the departures of David Beckham, Ronaldo, and Antonio Cassano, it seems that los Merengues have finally put the galatico era to bed. At the moment, though not scoring many goals or playing in an attractive manner, Capello has been able to keep the club among the top places and within striking distance.

After a difficult period that saw many of it's starters out with injury, Valencia has climbed back among the favorites. Without a fully fit Vicente Rodriguez, David Silva has stepped into the left-winger position to become on of La Liga's top players. If los Ches have had a bust so far this season, it's former Real Betis star Joaquin. After being courted by every top club in Europe, it seems that a move to Valencia wasn't the best choice. While it seems that the club's supporters haven't given up on him yet, Quique Sanchez Flores has only given him a handful of run-outs with the first team so far this season. Regardless, without a doubt, Valencia have the quality to overtake the three clubs currently ahead of them.

Javier Aguirre has his Atletico de Madrid side playing at a level that hasn't been seen since the La Liga/Copa del Rey double winning side of 1996. Though they've just been scraping by, Atletico will be hard pressed to finish worse than last year: tenth in the standings, 30 points off the pace. With an exciting nucleus of Fernando Torres, Maxi Rodriguez, Sergio Aguero, and Maniche, Madrid's other club should be up among the challengers for years to come.

As was mentioned above, the relegation zone has at least eight teams in it's vicinity. Gimnastic de Tarragona are currently in the bottom spot and haven't shown much to convince anybody that they can climb out of their predicament. The same goes for Real Sociedad, going through it's worst season in years. Like Gimnastic, they'll need a superhuman effort in the second half of the season to save themselves from relegation. The next group of teams, Real Betis, Levante, and Athletic Bilbao are going to have to battle hard to stay up. The worst offender here is the Basque club. Of La Liga's founding members, only Athletic, Real Madrid, and Barca have never been relegated. One would have to think that if the team does drop to the second division, it could be some time before Athletic, because of it's Basque-only policy, make it back to the top flight.

Here are the matches I'll be keeping on eye on during the second half of the season:

Sunday - Real Sociedad v. Athletic Bilbao
Feb. 4th - Valencia v. Atletico Madrid
Feb. 18th - Sevilla v. Atletico Madrid, Valencia v. Barcelona
Feb. 20th - Real Madrid v. Bayern Munich
Feb. 21st - Barcelona v. Liverpool, Inter v. Valencia
Feb. 25th - Atletico Madrid v. Real Madrid
Mar. 4th - Sevilla v. Barcelona, Real Madrid v. Getafe
Mar. 6th - Liverpool v. Barcelona, Valencia v. Inter
Mar. 7th - Bayern Munich v. Real Madrid
Mar. 11th - Barcelona v. Real Madrid
Apr. 15th - Valencia v. Sevilla
Apr. 22nd - Real Madrid v. Valencia
May 6th - Real Madrid v. Sevilla
May 13th - Getafe v. Atletico Madrid
May 20th - Atletico Madrid v. Barcelona
May 27th - Valencia v. Villarreal
June 10th - Barcelona v. Espanyol, Levante v. Valencia
June 17th - Sevilla v. Villarreal, Gimnastic de Tarragona v. Barcelona, Osasuna v. Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid v. Mallorca, Valencia v. Real Sociedad

-ac