Posted by Stephen Kuzner

By Stephen Kuzner - WFD Fan Correspondent

Barcelona may have passed Real Madrid on the table, but it was Valencia that leapfrogged Real Madrid to first place with a 0-2 win over Sporting Gijon on the road at the El Molinón. Early goals from Mehmet Topal and Roberto Soldado were enough to keep secure the victory. We don't want to get carried away with Valencia since we are only 5 games into the La Liga season, but at some point, probably sooner than later, Los Che will present real trouble for Barcelona and Real Madrid. Only 5 matches into the season, Valencia have started 19 different players and played 2 others as substitutes. If Barcelona is counting, that's 21 players. Valencia's quality of depth could win-out in a season-long battle of attrition with the Blaugranes. With Valencia's current finishing quality, Los Blancos could find themselves in a deep hole early-on if they don't improve their execution in front of the goal.

This lack of finishing quality resulted in a 0-0 draw with Levante on the road at Estadi Ciutat de València, dropping Madrid to #4. To sum-up the missed chances, Gonzalo Higuaín missed a sitter at 10', Ronaldo had a brilliant header saved at 38', Higuaín had a goal waved-off at 41' for offsides, Ronald botched a chip at 42', Mesut Özil kicked a gridiron field-goal at 43'....I'll save you misery, there were 4 more opportunities that should-of, would-of, could-of been goals. That's 9 golden opportunities. This year through 5 matches, they have scored 6 goals from 105 shots on-goal for the worst accuracy in La Liga. Then again, when you are giving-up 0.2 goals a game, a goal a game might cut-it. It feels like Madrid will have a deluge pretty soon. They are not going to sputter the whole season if they are getting 20+ shots on-target a game. Seriously, Higuaín (27), Ronaldo (26), Özil (9), Ángel Di María (5), Karim Benzema (8), Pedro León (8), and Kaka (8) (remember him) all combined for 91 goals in League play last year. Madrid will go on a tear soon enough as long as they don't listen to the media, accept me, ironically a Barca Supporter.

Villarreal advanced-up the table to #2 with a 2-3 win against Málaga at La Rosaleda. This was a great game with 5 goals in the 1st half: a brace by Spanish International Santi Cazorla, a rocket-shot by Portuguese International Eliseu, a far-post roller by Giuseppe Rossi, and a sharp header by Venezuelan International Rondón. You have to like what both of these teams are doing. Málaga seems all-or-nothing having drawn no games scoring a La Liga tops 11 goals while also letting in a La Liga high 11. Villarreal are right behind with 10 scored and 4 conceded.

Barcelona rounds out the top four at #3 with their 1-3 win at the always-tough San Mamés. Fernando Amorebieta's redcard at 34' was a bit excessive and playing a man down against Barcelona is like two grown-ups playing a game of keep=away against a kid. If you are rooting against Barcelona, these games are annoying. However, if there ever was a time for David Villa to get redcarded, a game before a home game against Mallorca would be the time. Nevertheless, I didn't like him losing his cool.

What else happened? Espanyol put Osasuna back in their place 1-0, Racing no-surprisingly fell to Getafe 0-1, Deportivo dropped to Almeria 0-2, Mallorca beat Real Sociedad 2-0, and Atlético Madrid could only muster a goal to beat Real Zaragoza 1-0. The shocker-of-the-week was Hercules 2-0 victory over Sevilla, though Hercules beating anyone at this point is probably not a surprise anymore. But, it was disappointment enough for Sevilla to sack Antonio Alvarez and hire the architect behind Mallorca's surprise 5th place finish last year, Gregorio Manzano. A win against Racing last week and Hercules this week would have put Sevilla in 1st place. A tie with Racing, a loss to Hercules, and an early exit from the Champions League wins you the sack-race.



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