Top clubs crash out of League Cups

Many of the big guns have been knocked out of domestic league cups lately, perhaps the most notable, Real Madrid's loss to the Basque 3rd division side Real Union. Another one bit the dust tonight, as Villareal crashed out to Polideportivo Ejido, also a 3rd division side, which they deserved after drawing 1-1 at El Madrigal after losing 5-0 away.

Now it's Chelsea and Liverpool's turn. The Blues were knocked out by Championship side Burnley on penalties, which featured a Drogba goal on his return from injury, and a little rude gesture as well. And for Liverpool, well, they got manhandled by Spurs, who have scored an impressive 18 goals in the last six matches.

No doubt it would've been nice to compete on several fronts, but this is perhaps a blessing in disguise for the Premier League leaders, as the Carling Cup means less to the top 4 than it does to the rest of the league. Except Arsenal, since even a broken handle off of a tarnished tea set would make Gooners ecstatic, let alone an actual cup you can swill champagne out of.

While mocked in the media as a frivolous competition for top-flight sides, and cherished as a massive financial and sporting opportunity for the smaller clubs in England, the League Cup may further lose its significance as the credit crunch continues and we see half full stadia.

[Goal, Telegraph, Daily Mail, Examiner]

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Real Madrid: What A Mess

In what is easily one of the the biggest upsets in Spanish soccer, if not European or world soccer, Real Madrid were beaten today in the 4th round of the Copa del Rey by 3rd division Real Unión. Over two legs, the small Basque club won the tie 6-6 on away goals, the first time los Merengues have lost out to a 3rd division club. Just to put this into perspective, this was the Real Madrid line-up:

Jerzy Dudek; Míchel Salgado, Fabio Cannavaro (Javi García, 46min), Christoph Metzelder, Marcelo; Fernando Gago, Wesley Sneijder, Rafael Van der Vaart; Royston Drenthe (Alberto Bueno, 60min), Javier Saviola (Gonzalo Higuaín, 80min) and Raúl

The Basque party crashers aren't strangers to success in Spain's cup competition, heck, beating the Madrid giants is nothing new to them either. Real Unión won the Copa del Rey in 1918, 1924, and 1927, beating Real Madrid in the '18 and '24 finals.

The best part of the night: out of the 16 4th round ties played this week in the Copa del Rey, the Madrid-Unión tie was the only one played tonight, the rest to be played tomorrow night. Not only was the whole country watching, the long knives are now out for Bernd Schuster. The rumors out of the Real Madrid boardroom is that if they don't beat Valladolid convincingly this weekend in la Liga, the German boss will be shown the door.

El Madrid y sus miserias caen arrojadas al vacío (in Spanish) [Marca]

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Quote Of The Day

"If you think that I will use Iniesta as an excuse then think again. He's not here, and that's all there is to it. We will cope without him for two months as we have several alternatives in that position."

-Pep Guardiola, making it perfectly clear that he will not tolerate any let off from his Barcelona side against Valladolid tomorrow afternoon. The Catalan giants will likely be without Andrés Iniesta for six weeks after he strained his right thigh muscle in Barça's midweek Champions League game. The need to pick up maximum points is of the utmost importance with a horrid 4-week stretch of matches on the horizon: @Sevilla, Valencia, Real Madrid, @Villarreal.

Guardiola: "Viviremos dos meses sin Iniesta; no está, y punto" (in Spanish) [Marca]

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Real Madrid's Youth System

Spanish daily El País has an interesting article about Real Madrid's youth system. On the eve of Spain's friendly against Italy, the report says that there are 59 Real canteranos playing for other clubs in top flight leagues around the world. The most famous ones at the moment are Liverpool's Álvaro Arbeloa and Getafe's Rubén De la Red, both earning their first call-ups to Luis Aragonés' side.

The number of Real first-teamers who have made it up through the youth system: three. Midfielder Javier Balboa, goalie Jordi Codina, and forward Roberto Soldado. I guess that when you're the richest club in the world you buy talent, rather than cultivate it. By the way, how did that galácticos thing work out?

Los últimos de una fábrica poco aprovechada (in Spanish) [El País]
Arbeloa Wants Euro 2008 Call, And La Liga For Madrid [Goal.com]
Getafe starlet set for 'dream' debut [UEFA official site]

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Defiance In Spain

In an act of petulance, Real Betis has ignored the Spanish FA's competition comittee and scheduled this weekend's match against Barcelona at their home stadium, the Manuel Ruiz de Lopera. As you may recall, this goes against a FA ruling that Betis be penalized with a two match stadium ban after the bottle throwing incident against Athletic Bilbao on March 15th. While on the surface it seems that the club's board is playing word games with the FA, there seems to be a little kernal of precedent on the Seville club's side.

Betis, after the ban was announced, appealed the ruling. But since the FA doesn't get together until Thursday, two days before the scheduled match against Barça, it'll be too late to schedule another venue and get the ticket sale up and running. Last year, when Betis were banned from playing at home for the incident that saw Juande Ramos knocked out during a cup match, the FA failed to confirm the competition committee's ruling until two weeks after the match against Sevilla. Thus, until the FA confirm or deny the stadium ban, the games should go on at Betis' home ground.

While this seems to throw some of the blame for this clusterfuck back at FA for it's archaic meeting schedule, Betis knows it's still in the doghouse. The club is threatening to take it's cause to the streets, organizing a march in support of leniency. After seeing the extent of what happened to the Athletic keeper, I say Betis should shut up, accept their punishment, and breathe a huge sigh of relief that it wasn't worse.

El Betis anuncia que el partido contra el Barcelona será en el Ruiz de Lopera (in Spanish) [Marca]
El Betis quiere manifestarse en la calle como medida de presión (in Spanish) [El País]

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Not An Isolated Incident

The Spanish FA has decided the bottle throwing episode during the Real Betis v. Athletic Bilbao was not a isolated incident and has imposed a two match stadium ban as well as awarding the three points to Athletic. Betis' president had been calling for leniency after the incident, hoping to play out the game's last 20 minutes at a future date. This was rejected for a number of reasons, one including the fact that the Basque club had already used all three of it's substitutes at the point when keeper Armando Ribeiro was struck down.

According to the head of the FA's competition committee, the punishment for Betis would have been more severe if not for the reaction of the home fans sitting in the section behind Armando's goal. They not only admonished the bottle thrower (center of picture, with hat on), but held on to him as he tried to make his way towards the exits. If not for this "intervention" by the Betis fans, the stadium ban would have been a minimum of four matches, if not more.

Awarding the full three points to Athletic proves rather costly to Betis. While both teams are in a fight to avoid the drop, the result of today's ruling leaves the Seville club even on points (but ahead on goal difference) with the relegation zone. The win propels Athletic to 10th place in la Liga, even on points with Valencia, four points above Betis.

Dos partidos de sanción y tres puntos para el Athletic por el botellazo (in Spanish) [AS]

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Saviola In The Shop Window

Argentine international Javier Saviola is being let go by Real Madrid. Having played in just six matches (2 goals) for the Spanish league leaders, Saviola has failed to impress first year coach Bernd Schuster. According to Spanish daily Marca, the 40-capped Saviola doesn't have one Real Madrid entity in his corner, having failed to even make his mark with anyone in president Ramón Calderón's inner circle.

Saviola made his way to los Merengues last summer, after also finding it a bit rough in Barcelona. Where to next is up to speculation, but some in Spain are talking about rumors of a swap-plus-cash move to Werder Bremen in exchange for Brazilian Diego.

Saviola está en venta (in Spainish) [Marca]

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The Night In Pictures: Estadio Manuel Ruiz de Lopera Edition

Without the benefit of live pictures on either Sky Sports News or The Fox Soccer Report, I was left with a piqued interest in last night's bottle throwing incident in Seville. While Sky (7pm ET edition) didn't even bother showing the goals from the Real Betis v. Athletic Bilbao match, Fox showed the goals, but failed to show or even mention that Athletic keeper Armando Ribeiro was hit in the face by a bottle thrown from the stands. These screen grabs tell the story:














































































Keep in mind that Betis were given a three match stadium ban a little over a year ago after a similar incident knocked out former Sevilla coach Juande Ramos.

Una botella acaba con el espectáculo (in Spanish) [Marca]
Betis given three-game ground ban [BBC]

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Quote Of The Day

"I'm sure we'll have players with Chinese and Moroccan parents before long, the world is changing. It doesn't matter what color they are to us. What's important is that they are good soccer players."






-Xabier Fernandez, a spokesman for Athletic Bilbao, commenting on one of the club's two firsts from Wednesday's debut of Jonas Ramalho. Ramalho, whose Angolan father hooked up with a local, became Athletic's first ever black debutant. He also became the youngest ever to play for los leones, clocking in at 14-years-old.

Basque Team Athletic Bilbao Fields Black Player for First Time [Bloomberg]

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Defending His Boyfriend's Honor

Real Madrid stalwart, Jose Maria Gutierrez (better known as Guti), has come out in defense of his teammate Raul. Guti came out swinging against national team boss Luis Aragones after he put his feelings (see it here) on selecting Raul for the national side out there for all to see.

During an interview on Spanish TV station La Sexta, Guti put it thusly:

"If Raul had said what Luis had, that would have been some scandal. They were unfortunate words on part of the national team coach. We all know who the winners are in Spain. No one can say much about having won anything with Spain, including Luis Aragones. It's just unfortunate because he's never won anything with Spain either."

I wonder who got a night out on the town after this episode? Go ahead and look, I'm sure there are some photos floating around of Raul and Guti enjoying a candle lit dinner.

Guti: "Aragones tampoco ha ganado nada con la Seleccion" (in Spanish) [El País]
Calenton (in Spanish) [Marca]

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Quote Of The Day

"The road in one's footballing life doesn't have to go through Madrid or Barça."

-Rangers centerback Carlos Cuellar, commenting on Spaniards playing abroad. After two notable seasons in Osasuna, Cuellar has left the country to elevate his game after seeing no interest from any of la Liga's biggest clubs. According to Spanish sports daily As, there are currently 82 Spanish footballers plying their trade throughout Europe.

España exporta: 82 jugadores en las ligas europeas (in Spanish ) [As]

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Touchy, Touchy

Well then, I guess there is a limit to how many times you can ask Luis Aragones about Raul's absence from the Spanish national time. There's no doubt that the Real Madrid captain is currently in cracking form, partnering Ruud van Nistelrooy to lead los Merengues to the top of the table.

Aragones' answer to the Raul question was absolutely classic: "How many European Championships and World Cups have we won with Raul?"

When you wear a Raul mask and ask why Spain's second-leading cap winner isn't in the squad, you're probably guaranteed to get a similar response from Aragones. Check out the video.

Aragones explodes at question about Raul absence [Digital Journal]
Calenton (in Spanish) [Marca]

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Quote of the Day: 10.8.2007

Post-game comments after the much-hyped Sergio Aguero v. Leo Messi matchup on Sunday turned into the Messi show:

"It's great watching Messi and Barcelona on telly," added Luis García, "but it's not so much fun when they're on the same pitch as you." And AS's Atléti-supporting match reporter Iñako Díaz-Guerra shrugged: "When Deco and Messi take you apart it's like watching George Clooney and Brad Pitt steal your girlfriend: you feel privileged just to have been able to compete for a while."

Messi beats off the challenge of another young pretender [Guardian Football]

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Poor, Obscure Tennis Player Hitches His Wagon To Henry (and Tiger)

Men's tennis world number one, Roger Federer, is hoping that signing up with Nike and Gillette (joining Tierry Henry and Tiger Woods) will broaden his profile here in the U.S. Sure, you might not know much about the guy, but it takes a diagnosis of blindness to have ignored Federer's success the last couple of years.

I'm sure that Henry is much too humble to compare his popularity in this country to Tiger, but I'd bet that Barca's new No. 14 would give Eldrick a run in the worldwide fame department.

Federer Says Nike, Gillette Will Help Lift Profile [Bloomberg]

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Antonio Puerta Dies After Multiple Heart Attacks

This is one of those few times at SMiA where we're not bagging on someone for being an idiot or just a plain ass, so I'll try not to ruin it with feeble attempts at humor.

Sadly, 22-year old left-sided midfielder Antonio Puerta has died in hospital after suffering major cardiac arrest twice during Sevilla's clash w/Getafe over the weekend. Tonight's Champions League match w/AEK Athens (they themselves, dealing with the wildfires in Greece) will be postponed until September 3, as well as Monday's match with Osasuna.

Puerta played on the left-side of defense and midfield for Sevilla. A first-team player for three seasons, Puerta joined the club as an 8 year old. La Liga plans to hold a minute silence before every match next weekend.

REYES ANGUISH AT PUERTA CONDITION [Sporting Life]

Sevilla midfielder Puerta dies [Guardian Unlimited]

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Champions League Draw

The memory of that unexciting night in Athens can finally be extinguished on August 30th, when UEFA hold the draw for the group stage of the Champions League. It'll kick off two days of glitz and ping pong balls, with a meaningless exhibition match thrown in for good measure.

Besides setting the early schedule for the two European cups, UEFA's Monaco extravaganza will culminate with the UEFA Super Cup. Sevilla will meet Milan at the Stade Louis II stadium on Friday, August 31st. It'll be only the fifth time in the game's 35 year history that a team has had the opportunity to defend it's title.

Monaco media details [UEFA.com]

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Spaniards Sure Are Quick To Judge

With just over 150,000 people voting, Spanish daily Marca has published an online poll that has Jonathan Woodgate as the biggest la Liga bust of the 21st century. Currently, the former Real Madrid man has a shade over 37% of the vote. He's far ahead of the next vote getter, Bosnian Elvir Baljic (again, a Real signing), who's at just over 10%.

Now at Middlesbrough, the 27-year-old defender was plucked from Newcastle's backline for the ridiculous sum of $25M in August of 2004. Because of a chronic thigh injury, he would not make his debut for the Madrid giants until a year later. And what a debut it was.

Eventually, Woodgate scurried back to England and his hometown club, Middlesbrough, after playing only 14 games for Real. The Woodman made his move permanent earlier this year, for a mind-boggling $14M. Middlesbrough have been keeping cleansheets ever since...

Real nightmare for Woodgate debut [BBC]
Woodgate voted the worst signing of the century (in Spanish) [Marca]

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Making Baby Jesus Cry

You must really be in dire straights to use the image of Jesus being crucified to sell season tickets. La Liga side Getafe have launched a new and exciting ad campaign in an effort to pump up their ticket sales. Though church leaders are in vocal opposition to using such an image for commercial reasons, they took a look at the box office receipts for The Passion of the Christ and decided to shut the hell up.

Getafe apologise but stand by controversial advert [Reuters]

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Galaxy Rub Hands Together, Start Reserving Brinks Trucks

While David Beckham might not bring a championship to Los Angeles, he will bring the cash. And if this report on how much he brought in for Real Madrid is to be believed, the Galaxy and MLS are going to be rolling in it.

Becks And Bucks [Forbes]

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Is Torres worth the cash?

You have to wonder how much age is a factor in Rafa Benetiz's $53M move for Fernando Torres. The 23-year old striker passed a medical for Liverpool today in a deal that sees 29-year old Luis Garcia head to Athletico Madrid for $8M.

I know Luis Garcia hasn't really been lighting it up at the Kop lately, but Fernando Torres, as good as he is, is no Andriy Shevchenko, but he's gone for nearly the same amount of money. While Torres is gifted and with unlimited potential, his fee dwarfs Thierry Henry's fee in his move from Arsenal to Barcelona.

Sure TH may be on the decline (not likely) at his age, but if you had told me a few years ago that a player like Torres would have gone for $20M more than him (at least before the age of 30), I'd have to ask you to roll me one too. Which makes me wonder if Tom Hicks will one day be speaking of Torres in the same breath as Juan Gonzalez. [Times Online, ESPN]

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