Same old top three: La Liga 21-22

[Tony C]

Sergio guardiola? Is this a real person or a football manager regen?

Ha, real. He’s on loan from Valladolid.

[Sporting]

He calls himself Sergi.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Sergi guardiola is worse. It just makes him a regen in cm 2

[Tony C]

The consistently good Trejo opens the scoring for Rayo against Getafe. Falcao starts on the bench.

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/marca/status/1439223731142938625?s=21

[ursus arctos]

Falcao makes it 3-0 on his debut

[Tony C]

Falcao makes it 3-0 on his debut

I knew that would be a great signing.

[Sam]

Xisco iirc? A tap in from three yards?
I was there if so. It was right in front of us as well. Next tier up from the one the ultra types are in but to their when looking at the pitch.

Quite possibly. I still haven't seen it to this day – we'd just got to our seats and were checking the seat numbers against our tickets when it went in. We were about ten rows back in the bottom tier, slightly wide of the right-hand post. It was October 2007, if that narrows it down.

[anton pulisov]

This new Valencia manager Bordalás might be something special. Reading up on him. Got Alaves promoted and got Getafe promoted and nearly into the Champions League.

Currently watching virtually bankrupt Valencia boss Real Madrid around on the pitch. The scum will probably still will, but it's good to see.

[anton pulisov]

Ha ha gol
amunt!

[anton pulisov]

His manner seems very much like the Spanish Jürgen Klopp.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

His manner seems very much like the Spanish Jürgen Klopp.

I genuinely can't imagine what that looks like in practice.

[ursus arctos]

He has built his reputation on teams that no one wants to play because they are so bloody minded

[anton pulisov]

In the final five minutes, Real Madrid equalise off a deflection, and go ahead thanks to Benzema "heading" the ball in with his upper arm. No VAR in La Liga??? There was in 2019/20 when I went to watch a match.

[ursus arctos]

There is VAR
Neither the ref nor the VAR saw it that way

[anton pulisov]

Great photograph of it here

[Jon]

Yes, I was surprised they didn't do a VAR check on that. In that photo it looks like his upper arm but when I saw it last night it seemed to come off his shoulder.

Bordalas is doing well for Valencia. They've had a good start and played well yesterday, despite losing two key players relatively early in the game. It was the first time I'd seen Madrid this season. The usual. Valencia were the better team throughout much of the game without troubling Courtois too much. But they did start to wilt a little under increasing Madrid pressure late on and the inevitable happened. The equaliser came. And about two minutes another goal too. 1-2 to Madrid. Benzema assisting Vini Jr and then vice versa for the second. To think that, less than a year ago, Benzema was urging his teammates to not pass to Vini Jr. They are both having excellent starts to the season, certainly in terms of goals scored anyway. Incredible that Vini Jr is still only 21. He seems to have been around for ever.


First time I'd seen Camavinga, who came on a sub. He looks phenomenally confident and settled on the ball for an 18 year old.

[imp]

I watched the last half hour of Barcelona's desperate scramble to rescue a point against Granada. It was honestly a surprise when Barça equalised in the last minute, they'd been so careless in their finishing up until then. The 0-1 seemed in the script given recent trends. Also hard to get used to the sight of them playing long balls up front. Not frequently, but often enough to be conspicuous. Koeman's final tactic was to send Piqué on as a striker, which arguably worked as he had the secondary assist on the goal. I also established that Oscar Mingueza is an argumentative arsehole.

[Jon]

A good day for Atleti and Rayo. Both won away from home. Atleti at Getafe and now go top of the table. Rayo at previously unbeaten Athletic Bilbao. I don't need to tell you who scored the winner in the 96th minute, do I?

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

I watched the last half hour of Barcelona's desperate scramble to rescue a point against Granada. It was honestly a surprise when Barça equalised in the last minute, they'd been so careless in their finishing up until then. The 0-1 seemed in the script given recent trends. Also hard to get used to the sight of them playing long balls up front. Not frequently, but often enough to be conspicuous. Koeman's final tactic was to send Piqué on as a striker, which arguably worked as he had the secondary assist on the goal. I also established that Oscar Mingueza is an argumentative arsehole.

Pique and luuk de jong up front, with lads banging in crosses is a lot closer to cruyff's Dream team than people would like to admit. The "cross" for the goal was a thing of beauty though.

[ursus arctos]

There's some truth in that, though Stoichkov and Salinas were a bit more adept at the task than Pique and De Jong

Of course, the Dream Team's episodic struggles to score are also responsible for Koeman ever being considered for the managerial position, let alone appointed.

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/tsf_podcast/status/1440435286194855940?s=21

[Jon]

Pretty good considering they finished sixth in the segunda last season.

[Tony C]

Ah the joy of a 90 + 8 away winner. Athletic had made a good start to the season so this was a fine win. Falcao looking a better idea game by game. Vamos Rayo.

[Jon]

Madrid 6 Mallorca 1. Even Luca jovic was (nearly) among the goals, hitting the crossbar and producing a save from an overhead kick.