In a huge Clasico, Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid defeated Barcelona at the Nou Camp 2-1 to all but lock up the La Liga title. The was Madrid’s first at the Nou Camp since 2007, and manager Jose Mourinho’s first career win in 10 visits to the legendary stadium. The scoring opened when Sami Khedira scored a goal off a corner in the 17th minute. The Catalans would pull one back when Alexis Sanchez would tally one in the 70th but a mere three minutes later, Cristiano ran onto a beautiful Mesut Ozil pass and smacked it passed Victor Valdes at an angle from the right.
With the win, it increased Madrid’s lead in the table to seven points with four games remaining. If everything stands pat, it would end Barcelona’s three year run as La Liga champions. It’s been a great run of form from Madrid this season, and with Cristiano breaking his own record for scoring, seemingly everything has gone right in the league this year for Madrid.
With Gonzalo Higuain out for tomorrows Champions League game, Karim Benzema should be starting for Real Madrid. Heres a little video of the Frenchman. Enjoy
In the month of October there was one football player who’s name was brought up seemingly daily, Cristiano Ronaldo, and for good reason. Cristiano did something in October that was truly magnificent. CR7 as he’s commonly referred to, scored an amazing ten goals over four consecutive matches, breaking the Real Madrid record of nine previously held by three former Madrid players. Overall, CR7 tallied 13 goals over nine matches, setting a career high in goals for a month, including a career high four goals against Racing. Next on his sight is breaking Puskas’ record of 13 goals over seven consecutive matches. Is it possible? Definately. CR7 has dominated so far this season in both La Liga play as well as in the Champions League. Arguably the world best player, C. Ronaldo has shown everyone exactly why with beautiful scoring touch, great passing, lethal set piece kicks as well as hustle. There isn’t much the 25 year old winger can’t do and expect another record to fall as CR7 continues his World-Class play.
Once again the Spanish juggernaut Real Madrid had a busy offseason. Adding players such as Germany’s Mesut Ozil and Argentina’s Angel Di Maria, the squad is up to 26 players and manager Jose Mourinho is looking to lighten to load of the squad. General manager Jorge Valdano told Marca: “We have 26 players right now, so we need to lighten the squad and it will happen in the coming days. This position does not affect the Spanish players currently on our books.” Speculation is that players in the midfield could be shipped out. Mahamadou Diarra and Lass are atop of that list as well as Dutchman Rafael Van der Vaart. It will be interesting to see who stays and who goes. One thing for certain is that Real Madrid will be looking to win back the La Liga title, something they have not done since the 2007-2008 season.
Brazil’s right winger and Inter Milan star Maicon made it clear that he would like to transfer to Real Madrid to reunite with Jose Mourinho, but he has no problem staying in Italy and playing for his current squad. The 28 year old right back is viewed as the best right back in the world and would definately be welcome in Madrid. If Real Madrid decides to push for the transfer it will be a tough one with Inter placing a steep price tag on the Brazilian. As a Real Madrid fan I would love to have him transfer, but at the right price. We’ll see how it plays out.
After many lackluster World Cup performances, Spain finally did it. Being a European soccer powerhouse for many years, Spain has many great teams and arguably the best club league in the world. All that never translated well into International play as Spain had never even made it to the World Cup final. Well Spain finally did in 2010 and didn’t let the opportunity slip. Facing the 4th ranked Netherlands, Spain was in a dogfight of a game. In a game with 13 yellow cards, one double yellow/red, 47 fouls and alot of stalled play, neither team could score in regulation. The best chances came from a 5th minute header that Spain’s Sergio Ramos caught cleanly but was parried away by the Dutch keeper Maarten Stekelenburg, and a late one on one chane for Arjen Robben that Iker Casillas knocked away with his foot. After the completion of the 90 minutes, we would see the game go into extra time. The chances seemingly started to increase gradually as both teams looked to get the go ahead goal. During the first fifteen minute stanza, the Dutch brought on Rafael Van der Vaart and it instantly seemed to boost their midfield and Spain had 60th minute sub Jesus Navas abusing the Dutch defense looking for a goal. Neither team would be able to score and we headed to the second fifteen minutes where the magic would happen.
Spain would bring in Fernando Torres for one of the tournaments stars, David Villa, and the Dutch would bring off their captain Giovanni Van Bronckhorst, effectively ending his career as he’s set to retire. Spain’s subbing was slightly questionable due to the fact that Torres’ form was not good during the tourney and he’d had lackluster performances, while Villa was tied for the most goals in the tourney with 5 and had been solid in every game. It turns out, Torres would be a key part of things to come. After some beautiful teamwork from Xavi and Andres Iniesta, a through ball to Iniesta from Xavi would get interrupted as Dutch defenseman John Heitinga would grab n drag Iniesta to the ground, resulting in his seconds yellow card of the game and effectively getting a red to expell him from the match. It would be costly as minutes later a play that will be seen for a long time occurred. Having the ball on the left wing, Torres crossed the ball into Cesc Fabregas who would volley the ball to an open Iniesta. Iniesta would take his time, keep his composure, and blast a shot to his left, right under the keepers right hand and score the go ahead goal for Spain with only a couple minutes to go. That goal would be all she wrote and Spain would end up winning their 4th straight 1-0 game in the knockout rounds and win their first World Cup, and the 10th for Europe.
Spain showed throughout this tournament that they weren’t just a goal scoring team and could play solid defense. Iker Casillas, who is in many peoples eyes the #1 keeper in the world, had 5 clean sheets in the Cup and wouldv’e had another against Chile if it weren’t for an unlucky deflection.The aformentioned David Villa was outstanding up top as he scored 5 goals and tied with 3 others as the leader of the tournament. Sergio Ramos performed great offensively and defensively and of course did the Barcelona connection of Xavi and Iniesta. I think Fernando Torres’ lack of form was a good thing for the team as it made guys like Jesus Navas, Pedro and Villa step up even more. Xabi Alonso, Cesc Fabregas and Sergio Busquests all were solid in the midfield and the defensive unit of Carles Puyol, Capdevilla,Pique and Ramos were fabulous as well. It was an all-around solid showing from the Spaniards, and they probably will reclaim the world’s #1 rank from Brazil, the country who’s hosting the 2014 World Cup. I was happy to see this type of play from Spain and hope it continues. Congratulations to captain Iker Casillas and the Spanish National Team for winning the 2010 World Cup.
After many poor calls in the 2010 World Cup so far, FIFA is going to start censoring replays shon inside the stadium after replays fueled an argument during the Argentina/Mexico showdown on Sunday. Carlos Tevez of Argentina scored a goal off of a header and appeared to be offsides. No call was made and Argentina took the lead and never looked back. Mexican players protested with the referee but to no avail. After replays were shown, the fans showed their disgust in the non call which only made things worse. It wasn’t the first bad call of the tournament nor will it be it’s last. Being a referee in any sport is difficult as a simple human error or disagreement could cost a team to lose and be eliminated from the tournament. Offsides in soccer is one the most toughest calls in all of sports to make and it has shown so far in the tournament with more than a couple missed calls, some resulting in goals. I think censoring the replays only help the referee and the sport to a certain degree. The ref will still be under heavy media scrutiny if a bad call is made, especially with as much television coverage there is worldwide. The paying fans in the stadium also deserve a full replay because not only are they paying money for their tickets, but also because they should be able to have a second look as to what happened or should have happened. I think this is a no win situation for FIFA and some will be happy with it while others wont be. Lets hope we can get a little more consistency with the calls for the rest of the tournament.
After leading Italian power Inter Milan to a Champions League title, Jose Mourinho will head off to Madrid to coach Spanish power Real Madrid in a deal that will see Madrid pay $19 million in two installments. In two years with Inter, Mourinho led the club to two league titles, one Italian cup and its first European Cup since 1965. Before that, he led Chelsea to two Premier League titles. He also won the Champions League with FC Porto of Portugal in 2004. Some question bringing in a defensive minded coach when the team has offensive players in Benzema,C.Ronaldo, and Kaka, but the Galacticos need a little help in the back in order to get from 2nd to 1st again in La Liga.
Barcelona striker and longtime soccer star Thierry Henry is on the verge of coming to the United States to play for the New York Red Bulls of the MLS. Henry, who holds the record for most goals for his native France, will join David Beckham as superstars who make the jump from Europe to the United States. Henry finished up his season with Barcelona over the weekend,(La Liga championship), and after a season in which he wasn’t a regular, the 32 yr old decided it was time to move on, especially since he still has alot left in the tank. Good luck to Thierry and I wish him luck in the World Cup and his future in America.
Posted by DABsportstalk 
