Reuters Soccer Blog

Are Barca and Real killing Spanish football?

In our latest post on Spanish soccer, Mark Elkington in Madrid ponders the opening round of matches in La Liga and what it underlined about the growing domination of the big two.

La Liga had a familiar look to it on Tuesday morning.

Wealthy behemoths Real Madrid and Barcelona top the standings on goal difference after each recorded emphatic wins against opponents who were utterly outclassed.

Villarreal, through to the Champions League group stages after finishing fourth last term, were thrashed 5-0 by Barca at the Nou Camp on Monday night, a day after Real Madrid romped to a 6-0 victory at Real Zaragoza.

Barca’s financial clout was underlined by the fact that coach Pep Guardiola was able to start without Spanish World Cup-winners Xavi and David Villa as new signings Cesc Fabregas and Alexis Sanchez scored on their home debuts in the league.

Villarreal president Fernando Roig said the growing financial disparity between Barca and Real and the rest of La Liga was killing Spanish football.

“If they only want to have two matches (Real v Barca), let them have two matches, but this isn’t good for football,” he told local media on Tuesday.

Do Barca really need to splash out on Cesc?

In our latest post on Spanish soccer, Iain Rogers in Madrid looks at the latest round of speculation over the future of Cesc Fabregas and classy Mali striker Frederic Kanoute’s decision to play on at Sevilla for one more season.

Do Barca really need to splash out on Cesc?

The annual ‘will Cesc Fabregas leave Arsenal and return to Barcelona’ media machine has been cranking into gear in recent weeks and the man himself showed up in Madrid last week to present a new fragrance at a trendy art gallery near Atocha railway station.

Without having the decency to ask anything about the perfume, the assembled sports hacks packing the room subjected the slightly embarrassed-looking Spain international to a sustained grilling about his future.

Depending on which Spanish newspaper you worked for, Fabregas was either definitely on his way back club he left as a 16-year-old in 2003, had committed his future to Arsenal or was cosying up to Real Madrid.

From what he has said in the past, it would be amazing if Fabregas, a born and bred Catalan, moved anywhere else apart from Barca (if he ever does leave Arsenal) and he reiterated that it had always been his dream to play for their first team, where he is seen as a natural successor to his Spain team mate and fellow playmaker Xavi.

It’s interesting, and perhaps revealing, to see that Fabregas is not one of the players Arsenal have used in the promotional photos for their new kit on their website (www.arsenal.com).

Soccer Break Monday

Good day everyone and welcome to a new week. Following a great weekend of footballing action and with so much at stake over the next few days in Europe, there is plenty to discuss.

Let’s begin with a look at the FA Cup quarter-finals, and please add the weekend of April 16/17 to your diaries as the Manchester derby will make its way to Wembley for the semi-finals while Stoke face Bolton.

There was drama in Spain (see photo), Barcelona’s thriller in Sevilla ending 1-1 to see their La Liga lead cut to five points.

Could Real yet pip them to the title? And will Real’s highly sought after coach Jose Mourinho remain at the club?

This is a huge week for the Madrid side, who play Olympique Lyon for a place in the Champions League quarter-finals. If statistics are your thing, read on here for the low down ahead of the four last 16 second leg ties this week.

Another two clubs badly in need of a last eight spot, are holders Inter Milan and 2010 runners-up Bayern Munich who were drawn together in the last 16. Will Bayern give their coach Louis van Gaal an end to the season to remember after the Dutchman announced last week he would leave at the end of the season?

The news that dominated the weekend was of course the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Sport, in particular football, is doing its best to bring some cheer to the people, in however small a way.

Sevilla training ground highlights disparity in La Liga resources

Seeing Sevilla’s rather dilapidated training ground for the first time in the beautiful Andalusian sunshine on Monday morning really brought home the gulf in resources compared with La Liga giants Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Currently fourth in the domestic league, a whopping 21 points behind leaders Real and second-placed Barca, Sevilla are the only other Spanish side still alive in this season’s Champions League but their Ciudad Deportiva José Ramón Cisneros Palacios is a world away from both the Madrid club’s enormous, state-of-the-art Ciudad Real Madrid out near Barajas airport and Barca’s gleaming Ciutat esportiva Joan Gamper.

Sprawling next to a busy highway and circled by a scrappy chain-link fence, Sevilla’s training pitches appear lush enough but the shabby buildings look like they were thrown up at minimal cost several decades ago.

As a colleague  remarked: “I’ve seen schools with better facilities.”

The club are proud of the facility, named after a former president, but there is no way they could afford the 68 million euros Barca spent building their training ground, which opened in 2006.

Real say their Valdebebas facility, at 1.2 million square metres, is more than four times the size of Manchester United’s (280,000 square metres). Sevilla’s, at 250,000 square metres, is considerably larger than Barca’s (137,000) but the low-slung, white brick buildings look tired and dated compared with the gleaming steel and glass of the Catalans’ facility.

Real and Barca topped the latest Deloitte ranking of clubs by revenue, in part due to their dominance of income from La Liga audiovisual rights, which are negotiated on an individual basis in Spain and not collectively as in rival European leagues.

Real look CR9 dependent as Sevilla heed cry for challengers

One swallow does not make a summer, but Sevilla’s bristling 2-1 victory over Real Madrid on Sunday offers hope that the answer to the question posed in Thursday’s blog is ‘no’.

Three teams can challenge for the La Liga title this year.

Manolo Jimenez’s side inflicted a first defeat on Real with a vibrant, attacking display that was reminiscent of their performances under Juande Ramos when they won back-to-back UEFA Cups.

Sevilla are now level on 15 points with Real, though third due to their inferior goal difference. Barcelona are top with 18 points from six games.

Wingers Jesus Navas and Diego Perotti did the damage at the Sanchez Pizjuan, truly testing Real Madrid’s defence for the first time this season, but it was a strong all-round team performance.

They have strength in depth, are solid at the back and club president Jose Maria del Nido boasts: “the best strike force in Europe” with Frederic Kanoute, Luis Fabiano and Alvaro Negredo. They have now won seven on the trot in all competitions.

La Liga: The most boring competition in Europe?

A few days ago, Real Zaragoza president Eduardo Bandres said: “The Spanish league will be a matter totally and absolutely between two teams, among other things because the system for distributing television rights determines that it will be this way. It is unique in Europe and because of this the Spanish league is one of the most boring in Europe.”

The television channels would beg to differ, as they regularly run adverts or open their coverage of matches from La Liga claiming it is the ‘best league in the world’ with clips of Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Lionel Messi running in the background.

But Bandres has a point. Five games in, and the table has an all-too familiar look about it. There are only two clubs left with a 100 percent record – Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Who has scored the most goals? Real and Barca with 16 apiece.

Who has conceded the fewest? Real with two. Barca have let in three.

Which clubs have the most money? Real and Barca are both working on budgets of over 400 million euros, three to four times greater than their nearest rivals. They rake in around half of the money earned from La Liga’s television rights, which are not negotiated on a collective basis.

Vlog on the Pitch: Florentino’s new era at Real Madrid

Florentino Perez began his second spell as Real Madrid president on Monday and immediately signed up Zinedine Zidane and Jorge Valdano for the project.

Those appointments are all very well, but the question we all want answering is which players Florentino is going to bring in. Will he content himself with one major signing, a la Zidane, or will he, as some have speculated, sign basically a whole new team.

Click the video above to see Owen and myself discussing Real, and considering briefly what went wrong at Real Betis.

And remember, comments are always welcome…

Metzelder may make it in Madrid after all

I nearly fell out of my chair on Sunday night when I realised the identity of the Real Madrid player who had surged into the box and sent across a perfectly-weighted centre for Raul to score the equaliser against Sevilla.

Christoph Metzelder? What on earth is he doing up there?

The 28-year-old defender is trying to win back his place in the German national side but has only played in eight of the Spanish champions’ 33 league matches this season and has said he is considering moving on if he doesn’t get more time on the pitch.

The 10-match ban handed to Pepe last week is his chance to impress. And judging by his performance in Sunday’s 4-2 comeback win he is determined to take it.

As well as creating the first goal, he looked to have rediscovered something close to the form that made him such an effective central defensive partner for Per Mertesacker at the 2006 World Cup.

He had looked nervous and clumsy when used by Real this season, but Germany coach Joachim Loew is sure to have noticed his impressive showing alongside Fabio Cannavaro on Sunday, with the pair comfortably keeping Sevilla strikers Frederic Kanoute and Luis Fabiano at bay.

Despite, or perhaps because of, his lack of first-team action, Metzelder has settled well into the Spanish capital and has learned very good Castellano that wins him praise at press conferences and for his appearances on radio and television.