Spain: 2006-2007 La Liga Preview

Hell freezes over: Who ever thought they'd see the day when Real's big signing was a defensive midfielder from Mali?





Bust out the gambas al ajillo and tortilla espanola. Whip up a few pitchers of sangria. Catch a quick siesta and finish that damn Don Quixote book - it's time for la Liga. Come this weekend, the best league in the world is back in action. And boy have things changed since the boys in Iberia hung up their boots back in May. Almost half the teams have new coaches, the biggest club went out and got a brand-new president, general manager, and coach, a boatload of superstars from Italy, England, Argentina and France have flocked to the footie heaven of la Primera, and some big-names have changed squads over the summer break. Welcome to la Liga 2007.

Well, before we get all caught up in what's new in Espana, let's start with what hasn't changed: Barca is still beating all-comers, Real Madrid is still a bit of a mess, and Atletico still looks like world-beaters on paper. Okay, so maybe calling it an extreme makeover might be a bit of an exaggeration, but a closer look indicates that a repeat of last year's league table is probably not on the cards. And that's a good thing - after Barca's back-to-back Liga titles in 2004 and 2005, plus a Champions League title last year for good measure, a little jolt of excitement is just what la Liga needs. Of course, in the two-horse race that is the Primera, if anyone hopes to mount a challenge to the Catalan giants, it's the Blancos over in the Bernabeu. Will Real Madrid be able to right the ship and put up a good fight this year? Further back in the title race, can Atletico make all of their talent gel into a cohesive, consistent team for once? Can Valencia return to the glory days of a few years ago? Will Villareal manage to duplicate last year's Cinderella run to the Champions League semis in la Liga? And what will become of some of the other danger squads like UEFA Cup champs Sevilla, their hated city rivals Real Betis, last year's fourth-place finishers Osasuna, and former front-runners Deportivo La Coruna? Questions abound in la Liga de las Estrellas. For answers, read on.

After watching their domination of Spain and Europe last year, one would be hard pressed to find any chinks in Barca's armor, but that doesn't mean we can't try. In the past few seasons, no team in the world has played the type of beautiful, direct, attacking soccer seen in Barcelona. With a take-no-prisoners defense of Puyol, Marquez, and Edmilson, a magical group of midfield artists like Xavi, Deco, and Iniesta, and an inspired, inventive attack led by Ronaldinho, Messi, and Etoo, Barca has managed to assemble as close to a perfect team as any in recent memory. They've got it all and - what's even more scary - they're young. These guys aren't going anywhere for a while. Messi looks like he's barely 15, Iniesta even younger, and Ronaldinho, Etoo, Xavi, and Deco are all entering the respective primes of their careers. Watch out, world - this could get ugly. A world-class line-up deserves a world-class coach: Frank Rijkaard has been the perfect antidote to Barca's culture of frenzied desperation for titles, fame, and acknowledgment. The Dutchman simply exudes calmness and confidence and, during the requisite rough patches, it has been his cool under pressure that has seen his side through to success. So what, if any, could prove to be Barca's Achilles heel? First, their president, Joan Laporta, is an arrogant, loud-mouth control freak; in recent years, he has alienated almost everyone in the upper levels of the club, including his former close friend and right-hand man Sandro Rosell. It was Rosell who closed the signing of Ronaldinho, kept the faith with Rijkaard during a difficult initial few months, and aggresively sought out the core of this team: Deco, Edmilson, Marquez and Etoo were all hand-picked by the man affectionately dubbed "Sandrinho" by Laporta. Laporta, though, appears to be driving a lot of good soccer minds away and his recent re-election this summer (by the fans) will do nothing to quell his power-hungry quest for complete control at Can Barca - and we all know what becomes of dictatorial presidents drunk on success (see Perez, Florentino). Another brewing issue could be Barca's new signings: former Juventus defenders Lilian Thuram and Gianluca Zambrotta and former Chelsea striker Eidur Gudjohnsen (the only Iceland native known to people outside Iceland). Far be it from me to take issue with the skills of any of this posse, but one must wonder where and how they will fit into a Barca squad that is damn near perfect - Thuram, a World Cup winner, will not sit quietly behind Puyol, Marquez, and Edmilson; Zambrotta will theoretically slot into the right-back spot to replace Oleguer or Belletti, the latter being the scorer of Barca's winner against Arsenal in the Champions League final, or the left-back spot, already capably managed by Giovanni van Bronckhorst or Sylvinho; Gudjohnsen, in fact, has already started to upset the pecking order at the Nou Camp: Etoo, after being replaced by the former Chelsea man at halftime of the Supercopa game against Espanyol, stormed out of the locker room and went home, skipping the rest of the match and ensuing title celebrations. A fluke outburst from a hot-headed youngster or a sign of trouble in paradise? Time will tell, of course, but for all of their brilliance on the pitch, trouble off of it could bring an abrupt end to Barca's reign at the top.

Over in Castilla, the former king, Real Madrid - as they are wont to do - have not sat idly by while watching their archenemy win titles galore. And nothing quite wreaks havoc at the Bernabeu quite like Barcelona lifting trophies over on the East Coast. In the past three years, los Merengues have seen four presidents, seven (!) coaches, and a plethora of world-class players pass through the doors of the Bernabeu. This summer, club elections produced a disputed winner, Ramon Calderon, a former player as general manager, Pedja Mijatovic (scorer of the winning goal in the '98 Champions League final vs Juventus), and a hardman Italian coach, Fabio Capello (from where else? Juventus). Calderon won the elections largely on the promise to bring in imaginative youngsters like AC Milan's Kaka, Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas, and Chelsea's Arjen Robben. No sooner had Calderon won the elections when Capello ordered Mijatovic to sign, um, aging superstars like Juve's Fabio Cannavaro and Emerson and ManU's Ruud van Nistelrooy. While the latter batch of players is surely more of what Real Madrid needed (honestly, when you've got Robinho, who needs Robben?), the Bernabeu faithful value attractive, attacking soccer above all else, including winning. Capello's teams have never been known to indulge anyone in 'jogo bonito', so it remains to be seen how the Madrilenos will react after a fifth-straight 1-0 dud of a win over a bottom team in la Liga. At the time of writing, Real appeared close to selling Ronaldo to AC Milan, a sale that, combined with their recent signing of Mali's defensive midfielder Mahamadou Diarra, is one more step in the Capellization of the world's richest club. The Italian has already banished Robinho to the bench, backed out of the signing of Arsenal's young winger Jose Antonio Reyes, and showed a far greater interest in acquiring defenders (Roma's Christian Chivu and Chelsea's William Gallas have also been mentioned). There is no doubt that Real will now have a formidable defense, with Sergio Ramos and Cannavaro at the back and Emerson and Diarra just in front of them (there has been talk in Madrid papers that Capello guaranteed that Real wouldn't lose a game all year - no word on how many nil-nil draws to expect, though), and in all probability, such a strong backline will allow attackers like Guti, Cassano, Raul, and Van Nistelrooy to flourish, but suffice to say that a man with the reputation of Capello, albeit even a winning one, will be kept on a short leash in Madrid.

Across town, by the not-so-pretty banks of the Manzanares river that cuts through Madrid, Real's neighbors Atletico have also endured a turbulent summer. They, too, have made a coaching change, bringing in Osasuna's Mexican disciplinarian Javier Aguirre, as well as a plethora of high-profile signings. Of course, when you're talking about Atletico, the Washington Redskins of soccer, that's hardly newsworthy. This summer, watching the likes of Fernando Torres, Maxi Rodriguez, and Pablo play so brilliantly for their national teams at the World Cup, you couldn't help but wonder how Atletico made such a hash of it last season. The directors at the Vicente Calderon stadium clearly wondered the same thing, going on another all-out spending spree to acquire Argentinian wunderkind Sergio Aguero, Portugal midfielder Costinha, and Spaniards Mariano Pernia, Mista, and Jurado (from Real, of all places). And they held on to the franchise poster boy Torres, which might be the best move of all. So on paper, of course, Atletico look poised for a top-three finish; but on paper it also says that they finished 10th last year, behind the likes of Celta and Getafe. Yikes.

Far from the bright lights of the two big cities, three of last season's top-five finishers enter this season with a tough task ahead to re-produce their form of the previous campaign. Valencia, Osasuna, and Sevilla all look set for a let-down. Los Ches have lost their own Argentinian prodigy Pablo Aimar, a surprise sale to Real Zaragoza; if there was a major coup in the Spanish transfer market this summer, then Aimar's move is it - he is one of the top ten players in the world when he is healthy and on form and Zaragoza bought him for peanuts. Factor in that Valencia also lost Brazilian left winger Fabio Aurelio to Liverpool and appear set to say adios to another Argentine, centerback Roberto Fabian Ayala. Sorry to say it because Valencia has been such a good side in recent years, spurred on by one of the best midfield tandems in Spain in David Albelda and Ruben Baraja, but you don't lose your best defender, best midfielder, and best striker all in the same off-season and live to tell about it. Their participation in the Champions League won't help them any in la Liga, either. Unfortunately for the boys in the Basque Country, that's a problem that Osasuna only wishes they had to deal with. All of their efforts from last season were squashed by Hamburg, who eliminated them this week. Osasuna also lost Aguirre to Atletico, so pencil them in for a mid-table finish. As for Sevilla, they have lost Javier Saviola back to Barcelona (I mean, seriously, Barca are so good that they don't even have room for Saviola or Riquelme!) and might yet lose right wingback Daniel Alves to any one of a number of teams. As well as they played in thrashing Middlesborough to win the UEFA Cup, it's hard to imagine Sevilla managing another top-five finish after all of the talent that's left the Sanchez Pizjuan in recent years (see Baptista, Julio and Ramos, Sergio).

So who could spring a surprise and vault up into the European spots? Look no further than the team that went on its own excellent European adventure last year: Villareal. The Yellow Submarine, led by the aforementioned Riquelme, made it all the way to the semis of the Champions League, almost forcing extra time against Arsenal had Riquelme converted a late penalty. This year, despite the devastating early-season knee injuries to centerback Gonzalo Rodriguez and new signing Robert Pires (from Arsenal, of course - what other sport has the symmetry of soccer?), they should be able to concentrate on la Liga and make it back into Europe. Elsewhere, Zaragoza should squeak into Europe thanks to Aimar; he should be an excellent strike partner for Diego Milito and Ewerthon - plus, Diego's brother Gabriel has turned into one of the top defenders in Spain, maybe even Europe. Up north, Deportivo la Coruna seem to be embroiled in way too much turmoil to make any noise this year, while Galician neighbors Celta Vigo will be hard-pressed to duplicate last year's top-six success. Across the northern coast, Athletic Bilbao showed some promise late in last season, especially attacker Francisco Yeste, but it should be another long year spent battling relegation for their Basque rivals Real Sociedad.

Of the rest of the squads, it warrants mentioning that new boys Levante have made some nice signings, among them former Roma middie Damiano Tommasi. Real Betis are about to lose right winger Joaquin to Valencia (los Ches' one good move in the past three months), plus left winger Ricardo Oliveira - something tells me that crosses won't exactly be flying in from the Betis flanks this year. Nothing of note on Gimnastic or Recreativo Huelva, mainly because I can't even tell you where they play or who plays for them, but I digress.

In the end, it's awfully hard to imagine any team in Spain, much less the world, getting the better of Barca. Still, the Catalans did benefit from some dubious calls last year (both in la Liga and in Europe) and their star players last year, save Deco, all endured dismal World Cups. A few calls going the other way, some friction between Etoo and Rijkaard, and more controversy involving Laporta could spell doom for the blaugrana and, with Capello's track record of success and Real's new and improved backline, Madrid will be at the ready to pounce on any Catalan mishaps. Ultimately, though, schedule another trophy parade down Las Ramblas at the end of the season - all the same, here's one fan that wouldn't dare miss a single match along the way.

1. Barcelona (new uni design is actually growing on me, shocking as it is to say)
2. Real Madrid (terrible new unis -just way too much going on)
3. Atletico Madrid (speaking of unis, check out the new look for Atleti)
4. Villareal (they'd be wise to hang on to unwanted winger Juan Pablo Sorin)
5. Real Zaragoza
6. Valencia (no better stadium in Spain than the steep stands of Mestalla)
7. Sevilla (youngster Jesus Navas, if he can get his head straight, is a budding superstar)
8. Athletic Bilbao (second-best stadium in the league: San Mames, known as El Catedral)
9. Real Betis (gotta love the Kappa...)
10. Osasuna