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Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlético all may have won in week two, but it is the reinstated team from a town of 27,000 who are looking down on Spain’s top tier
Week Two ended with the team that was relegated at the end of last season top of the table. It also ended with the team that just celebrated its first title in 34 years bottom; with the team that presented their beautiful new striker in their beautiful new stadium in front of 10,000 supporters goalless again; and with the team that returned to the Champions League this week, a fifth Spanish club whistling Zadok the Priest, getting whistled by their own supporters. It ended with 80,000 fans chanting the name of a new hero being shown the door; with the treble winners getting rescued by a thumping finish from a man who had gone so long without scoring that he admitted he didn’t know what to do next; and with the man who couldn’t score scoring again and the men who couldn’t stop scoring not scoring again.
Confused? It was that kind of week. So let’s explain. Week Two was the week in which Málaga, the only team to remain unbeaten against Barcelona last season, extended their run without conceding a goal against them to 254 minutes until, with nerves frayed and fans fretting, with Málaga midfielder Juankar almost scoring from inside his half – and yes, that really is his name and yes that really is how you say it – Thomas Vermaelen smacked in a 72nd-minute winner. “I didn’t celebrate because I am not used to scoring and I didn’t know what to do,” he said, so he just smiled a bit.
It was also the week in which Real Madrid, the team they said couldn’t score, and whose manager turned to 14th century fables to denounce the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t inevitability of criticism, hammered Betis 5-0; in which Gareth Bale scored his fastest ever goal after just 94 seconds and belted in another after 89 minutes, James Rodríguez got two superb strikes of his own, and Karim Benzema trumped them with a simple finish to a lovely move, but after which Marcelo responded “the penalty save” from Keylor Navas when he was asked which he liked the best. The same Navas whose name fans chanted and who knows that on Monday, the final day of the transfer window in Spain, the day that has kind of swallowed up the actual football, he could yet be on his way. This, after all, everyone declares is D-day. D for De Gea.
James Rodríguez scored two beauties in Real Madrid’s win over Betis. Photograph: Oscar de Marcos/Demotix/Corbis
There was more, just not really in Las Palmas, where first division football returned 13 years later, not to the old Estadio Insular but to the Gran Canaria, where there were cars parked behind the goal and a bus parked in front of it, Levante time-wasting from the first minute; or in Getafe, where Granada won 2-1 with one penalty and one dreadful mistake from Vicente Guaita; or in San Sebastián, where Asier Illaramendi returned for la Real but there were no goals. Valencia drew 1-1 with Deportivo for whom Lucas Pérez scored a beauty, prompting whistles from Mestalla three days after they qualified for the Champions League, Nuno noting: “It’s my job to turn them into applause.” And Super Cup winners Athletic Bilbao were beaten again, dropping to the bottom.
Down at the other end of the country, Fernando Llorente returned from Italy, made his debut for Sevilla at the recently renovated and very red Sanchez Pizjuán, a star signing that completes a hugely impressive squad – “one of the strongest in Spain,” said opposition manager Diego Simeone – but still lost 3-0 to Atlético Madrid. Amidst the din and the excitement there were goals from Koke, Gabi and Jackson Martínez, the first two dedicated to the departing Raúl García, who is joining Athletic, and impressive displays from the extraordinary Antoine Griezmann and from Torres. That’s Óliver Torres. The result left Sevilla with a single point and no goals; it also left Atlético with two wins from two.
There’s something about Atlético this season: they have spent more than €100m (their net spend is closer to €40m), Luciano Vietto has not even played yet, and as Gabi said: “We have more versatility this season.” They also have what they always had. For much of the second half Atlético resisted as Sevilla poured forward, the noise rising, the tension too, but they did so in that Atlético way that makes you think they’re actually quite enjoying it, and they could have killed the game on the break before they did, Gabi’s fortunate second coming in the 75th minute, Jackson curling the third in the 84th.
Besides, winning there is always impressive. As one of the slogans painted into the stand rightly put it: the Pizjuán “doesn’t gift points.” This is only the second time Sevilla have been defeated at home in over a year and almost 40 games, the other being a 3-2 loss to Real Madrid. “Cholo took the Pizjuán which is like crossing into North Korea at the 38th parallel and taking Kim Jong-un’s lunch off him,” wrote Juanma Trueba and others were equally impressed by Atlético. “Fearful,” Marca called them. “This Atlético are serious,” said AS. “It was hard,” admitted Llorente, his vest having presumably shrunk in the wash. Either that or he was wearing a bra.
Jackson Martínez celebrates with Atlético Madrid team-mates and coach Diego Simeone. Photograph: Marcelo Del Pozo/Reuters
So Llorente did not score and nor did Torres, but Roberto Soldado did. And here’s the thing, the bit where it gets odd again. Week Two ended with Roberto Soldado top scorer, doubling in two games his total from the whole of last season and adding two assists as well; it didn’t end with Leo Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo top of the goalscoring charts. In fact, it didn’t even end with them in the goalscoring charts. For the first time since they both played in Spain, the men who have shared the last six Pichichis went two consecutive weeks without a goal. Instead, the players level with Soldado are Villarreal team-mate Cédric Bakambu, plus James Rodríguez and Gareth Bale, Nolito and Adrián González.
Nolito plays for Celta de Vigo, who beat Rayo Vallecano 3-0, the first two his. Adrián plays for Eibar. Together, their teams are joint top of the league: two games, two wins, five goals scored, one goal against.
You may remember Adrián from Celta, Nastic, Getafe, Racing, Rayo or Elche; you may remember Eibar from last season. They were the team that went down on the final day, whose “devastated” manager Gaizka Garitano walked away because he had been unable to keep them up, and whose fans could barely believe what they were watching. But they are also the team that were reinstated after Adrián’s former club Elche, who finished 13th, were relegated for their financial problems, leaving Eibar to take their place. Now Eibar are top.
Eibar won 3-1 at Granada last week and this week they beat Athletic Bilbao 2-0 at home. Adrián scored in both – he already has as many goals as in any other season in his career. He headed the second after Saúl Berjón had given Eibar the lead. A derby victory and the leadership. “We should not be carried away with excitement,” declared El Diario Vasco, sounding quite a lot like they were getting carried away with excitement. “But it is hard to contain yourself when they overcome opponents with the efficiency and decisiveness with which they beat Athletic … a team that recently hammered Barcelona. We were worried that the opening day was a mirage, but [not] now.” The headline declared: Eibar are not a “one-day flower”.
Now, a bit of advice from Mr Wolf would not go amiss here, as they recognised. Eibar began last season with a derby win too, defeating Real Sociedad at Ipurua and by Christmas they were seventh, safety seemed assured. But then this happened: D, L, L, L, L, L, L, L, L, D, L, W, L, L, L, L, L, L, D, W. Eibar’s last 20 games in the first division included just two wins, two draws, and 16 losses in 20, eight points from a possible 60, and one of those two wins came on the final day against Córdoba – a team that had already been relegated a week before and had been made to travel to the match by bus, 797 kilometres away, as a punishment for being so awful and no longer seeming to care.
The risk of a repeat remains. Yet this hope never goes away entirely and this is also a different Eibar team now, even if the limitations remain at a ground that had just over 5,000 on Sunday in a town of 27,000. The new coach José Luis Mendilíbar is the man who was in charge in 2005, the closest they had ever been to the first division until Garitano took them up two years ago. The early signs are that they will press high, as Mendilibar’s teams tend to do, and that they may be a little more daring, more attacking, more of a mix of qualities – like going to work “in overalls and a bow tie”, as one paper put it – aided by their new signings. All 14 of them.
Maybe they can survive, and that of course is the real target. As for this, this is a moment to enjoy, time to take a pair of scissors to the paper, the league table a cut- and-keep souvenir. “Today is a great day for everyone,” declared Jon Errasti on Sunday. It was a sad one too. Errasti is one of the club captains and the only player from Eibar but the win against Athletic was his last, a match he watched from the stand. On Monday morning he officially announced that he’s going, heading to Italy having played for Eibar in the Second Division B, Spain’s regionalised, 80-team, four-division third tier, in the Second Division A, and the First Division, “a model and a gentleman”, as the club put it.
“Had we gone down, I would not have left,” Errasti says. “I would have stayed and helped out.” But Eibar didn’t go down, even though they went down. Now look at them. “When he came we were going through difficult times,” said president Alex Aranzábal. “Jon arrived in the Second Division B; he leaves with us leaders of the league.”
Week Two results: Villarreal 3-1 Espanyol, Real Sociedad 0-0 Sporting Gijón, Barcelona 1-0 Málaga, Celta 3-0 Rayo, Madrid 5-0 Betis, Eibar 2-0 Athletic, Sevilla 0-3 Atlético, Valencia 1-1 Deportivo, Las Palmas 0-0 Levante, Getafe 1-2 Granada.
Source by: http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/aug/31/eibar-joint-leaders-of-la-liga-despite-being-relegated-last-season
Week Two ended with the team that was relegated at the end of last season top of the table. It also ended with the team that just celebrated its first title in 34 years bottom; with the team that presented their beautiful new striker in their beautiful new stadium in front of 10,000 supporters goalless again; and with the team that returned to the Champions League this week, a fifth Spanish club whistling Zadok the Priest, getting whistled by their own supporters. It ended with 80,000 fans chanting the name of a new hero being shown the door; with the treble winners getting rescued by a thumping finish from a man who had gone so long without scoring that he admitted he didn’t know what to do next; and with the man who couldn’t score scoring again and the men who couldn’t stop scoring not scoring again.
Confused? It was that kind of week. So let’s explain. Week Two was the week in which Málaga, the only team to remain unbeaten against Barcelona last season, extended their run without conceding a goal against them to 254 minutes until, with nerves frayed and fans fretting, with Málaga midfielder Juankar almost scoring from inside his half – and yes, that really is his name and yes that really is how you say it – Thomas Vermaelen smacked in a 72nd-minute winner. “I didn’t celebrate because I am not used to scoring and I didn’t know what to do,” he said, so he just smiled a bit.
It was also the week in which Real Madrid, the team they said couldn’t score, and whose manager turned to 14th century fables to denounce the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t inevitability of criticism, hammered Betis 5-0; in which Gareth Bale scored his fastest ever goal after just 94 seconds and belted in another after 89 minutes, James Rodríguez got two superb strikes of his own, and Karim Benzema trumped them with a simple finish to a lovely move, but after which Marcelo responded “the penalty save” from Keylor Navas when he was asked which he liked the best. The same Navas whose name fans chanted and who knows that on Monday, the final day of the transfer window in Spain, the day that has kind of swallowed up the actual football, he could yet be on his way. This, after all, everyone declares is D-day. D for De Gea.
There was more, just not really in Las Palmas, where first division football returned 13 years later, not to the old Estadio Insular but to the Gran Canaria, where there were cars parked behind the goal and a bus parked in front of it, Levante time-wasting from the first minute; or in Getafe, where Granada won 2-1 with one penalty and one dreadful mistake from Vicente Guaita; or in San Sebastián, where Asier Illaramendi returned for la Real but there were no goals. Valencia drew 1-1 with Deportivo for whom Lucas Pérez scored a beauty, prompting whistles from Mestalla three days after they qualified for the Champions League, Nuno noting: “It’s my job to turn them into applause.” And Super Cup winners Athletic Bilbao were beaten again, dropping to the bottom.
Down at the other end of the country, Fernando Llorente returned from Italy, made his debut for Sevilla at the recently renovated and very red Sanchez Pizjuán, a star signing that completes a hugely impressive squad – “one of the strongest in Spain,” said opposition manager Diego Simeone – but still lost 3-0 to Atlético Madrid. Amidst the din and the excitement there were goals from Koke, Gabi and Jackson Martínez, the first two dedicated to the departing Raúl García, who is joining Athletic, and impressive displays from the extraordinary Antoine Griezmann and from Torres. That’s Óliver Torres. The result left Sevilla with a single point and no goals; it also left Atlético with two wins from two.
There’s something about Atlético this season: they have spent more than €100m (their net spend is closer to €40m), Luciano Vietto has not even played yet, and as Gabi said: “We have more versatility this season.” They also have what they always had. For much of the second half Atlético resisted as Sevilla poured forward, the noise rising, the tension too, but they did so in that Atlético way that makes you think they’re actually quite enjoying it, and they could have killed the game on the break before they did, Gabi’s fortunate second coming in the 75th minute, Jackson curling the third in the 84th.
Besides, winning there is always impressive. As one of the slogans painted into the stand rightly put it: the Pizjuán “doesn’t gift points.” This is only the second time Sevilla have been defeated at home in over a year and almost 40 games, the other being a 3-2 loss to Real Madrid. “Cholo took the Pizjuán which is like crossing into North Korea at the 38th parallel and taking Kim Jong-un’s lunch off him,” wrote Juanma Trueba and others were equally impressed by Atlético. “Fearful,” Marca called them. “This Atlético are serious,” said AS. “It was hard,” admitted Llorente, his vest having presumably shrunk in the wash. Either that or he was wearing a bra.
So Llorente did not score and nor did Torres, but Roberto Soldado did. And here’s the thing, the bit where it gets odd again. Week Two ended with Roberto Soldado top scorer, doubling in two games his total from the whole of last season and adding two assists as well; it didn’t end with Leo Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo top of the goalscoring charts. In fact, it didn’t even end with them in the goalscoring charts. For the first time since they both played in Spain, the men who have shared the last six Pichichis went two consecutive weeks without a goal. Instead, the players level with Soldado are Villarreal team-mate Cédric Bakambu, plus James Rodríguez and Gareth Bale, Nolito and Adrián González.
Nolito plays for Celta de Vigo, who beat Rayo Vallecano 3-0, the first two his. Adrián plays for Eibar. Together, their teams are joint top of the league: two games, two wins, five goals scored, one goal against.
You may remember Adrián from Celta, Nastic, Getafe, Racing, Rayo or Elche; you may remember Eibar from last season. They were the team that went down on the final day, whose “devastated” manager Gaizka Garitano walked away because he had been unable to keep them up, and whose fans could barely believe what they were watching. But they are also the team that were reinstated after Adrián’s former club Elche, who finished 13th, were relegated for their financial problems, leaving Eibar to take their place. Now Eibar are top.
Eibar won 3-1 at Granada last week and this week they beat Athletic Bilbao 2-0 at home. Adrián scored in both – he already has as many goals as in any other season in his career. He headed the second after Saúl Berjón had given Eibar the lead. A derby victory and the leadership. “We should not be carried away with excitement,” declared El Diario Vasco, sounding quite a lot like they were getting carried away with excitement. “But it is hard to contain yourself when they overcome opponents with the efficiency and decisiveness with which they beat Athletic … a team that recently hammered Barcelona. We were worried that the opening day was a mirage, but [not] now.” The headline declared: Eibar are not a “one-day flower”.
Now, a bit of advice from Mr Wolf would not go amiss here, as they recognised. Eibar began last season with a derby win too, defeating Real Sociedad at Ipurua and by Christmas they were seventh, safety seemed assured. But then this happened: D, L, L, L, L, L, L, L, L, D, L, W, L, L, L, L, L, L, D, W. Eibar’s last 20 games in the first division included just two wins, two draws, and 16 losses in 20, eight points from a possible 60, and one of those two wins came on the final day against Córdoba – a team that had already been relegated a week before and had been made to travel to the match by bus, 797 kilometres away, as a punishment for being so awful and no longer seeming to care.
The risk of a repeat remains. Yet this hope never goes away entirely and this is also a different Eibar team now, even if the limitations remain at a ground that had just over 5,000 on Sunday in a town of 27,000. The new coach José Luis Mendilíbar is the man who was in charge in 2005, the closest they had ever been to the first division until Garitano took them up two years ago. The early signs are that they will press high, as Mendilibar’s teams tend to do, and that they may be a little more daring, more attacking, more of a mix of qualities – like going to work “in overalls and a bow tie”, as one paper put it – aided by their new signings. All 14 of them.
Maybe they can survive, and that of course is the real target. As for this, this is a moment to enjoy, time to take a pair of scissors to the paper, the league table a cut- and-keep souvenir. “Today is a great day for everyone,” declared Jon Errasti on Sunday. It was a sad one too. Errasti is one of the club captains and the only player from Eibar but the win against Athletic was his last, a match he watched from the stand. On Monday morning he officially announced that he’s going, heading to Italy having played for Eibar in the Second Division B, Spain’s regionalised, 80-team, four-division third tier, in the Second Division A, and the First Division, “a model and a gentleman”, as the club put it.
“Had we gone down, I would not have left,” Errasti says. “I would have stayed and helped out.” But Eibar didn’t go down, even though they went down. Now look at them. “When he came we were going through difficult times,” said president Alex Aranzábal. “Jon arrived in the Second Division B; he leaves with us leaders of the league.”
Week Two results: Villarreal 3-1 Espanyol, Real Sociedad 0-0 Sporting Gijón, Barcelona 1-0 Málaga, Celta 3-0 Rayo, Madrid 5-0 Betis, Eibar 2-0 Athletic, Sevilla 0-3 Atlético, Valencia 1-1 Deportivo, Las Palmas 0-0 Levante, Getafe 1-2 Granada.
Source by: http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/aug/31/eibar-joint-leaders-of-la-liga-despite-being-relegated-last-season
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