Philosofooty

By Tanuj Lakhina, writing from Delhi

Real Madrid played Osasuna at 12 pm (Madrid time) last Sunday at the Santiago Bernabeu. It was an easy and convincing win for the Merengues as they beat their opponents 7-1 with Cristiano Ronaldo bagging yet another hat-trick.

The early kickoff is a concept introduced by Liga de Futbol Profesional (LFP) to compete with the English Premier League and gain some more eyeballs in South East Asia and far East Asia, where the Premiership attracts far more attention. Rayo Vallecano played host to Espanyol in the first week at 12 PM, Betis hosted Vallecano at 12 PM the next week, Gijon played Bilbao at 12 PM on 30^th October and now one of the big clubs played early on.

While this early kick off may have been a problem for viewers and fans in North America for whom it would have been early morning, it was the perfect setting for fans in countries like Indonesia, China and Japan who otherwise are accustomed to setting alarms for ungodly hours in the middle of the night to see their favourite teams and stars like Andres Iniesta in action.

Read More

By Saheli RC, writing from Singapore

For the world looking to Spain, there seem to be three popular pastimes: bullfighting; football; and the somewhat dubious, but perhaps most interesting of the three, dramatic scandals. Okay, maybe not in that particular order, but they are certainly there up at the top. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you have probably heard about the latest scandal brewing in sunny Spain, involving a famous radio station, a journalist with a hyperactive imagination and three angry football clubs.

Read More

by Elizabeth Hanchett, writing from Toronto

On Sunday night, soon after the Sevilla-Barcelona match which saw the two sides draw somewhat anti-climactically (the match itself was intense, though the result was not something the blaugrana and their fans would have wanted after the performance), in part thanks to the decisions made by referee Pérez Lasa, the Cope radio station in Spain announced that Real Madrid was beginning a process of asking the Spanish Football Federation to test more often and better for performance-enhancing drugs, citing FC Barcelona and Valencia CF as notable targets.

Read More

By Saheli RC, writing from Singapore

At beginning of the year, Real Madrid Castilla were languishing mid-table in their group in the Segunda B division, with a promotion play-off spot well out of sight. (Note: Real Madrid & the Castilla could not legally both play in La Liga. Same holds true for Barça B, etc…) Players looked lost on the pitch, there was a lack of coordination among them, and the desire to win or at least take the game to the opposition was missing. To the harshest of cynics, it vaguely justified the Management’s lack of faith to nurture talent from the Academy, and instead turn to multi-million dollar superstars, who have already established their credentials in the game.

It’s not difficult to spot the obvious connection between coaches and Real Madrid – they do not go together in the same sentence. Castilla coach, Alejandro Menendez, was promptly sacked at the beginning of this year. Except, this time, his sack was somewhat justified. Castilla were relegated to Segunda B a couple of seasons back, when former Castilla graduate and current Getafe coach Michel was in charge.  This season, under Menendez, Castilla started out poorly and looked as if they were well on their to the Tercera division – out of the 19 games they played under Menendez, they won only 7 times.

Read More

By Dominic Vieira, writing from Lancaster, England

French fortunes and MARCA headlines are radically transforming throughout the Spanish capital as Real Madrid’s golden Cristiano Ronaldo remains sidelined whilst Karim Benzema continues to blossom and score under Jose Mourinho. After hat-trick hero Ronaldo hobbled off during the team’s 7-0 thrashing over Malaga, a new talisman was needed but that solution was already on the field as a French striker netted two goals in that fixture. 

Real Madrid’s number nine was heavily criticised by the Portuguese manager throughout pre-season and started the campaign on the bench which would disappoint any player of this calibre. However, the second round of La Liga has been the spark in his fairly dim Madrid career, he’s scored 8 goals in the last 9 games in which 6 were evenly scored in the past 3. The spark was not consistently appearing in the first team, dedicating or scoring goals; the catalyst behind it all was Mourinho, the motivator.

Read More