Posted by By Stephen Kuzner, WFD La Liga Blogger
The final week of La Liga saw all the games that involved something to be played for occurring all at the same time in the last time slot. It felt kind of strange watching three games before them that had little to watch for other than to see if Ronaldo would beat the single season scoring record (which he did emphatically), to see if Barça’s youth team could beat Málaga at La Rosaleda (which it did), or wonder the point of Hercules vs. Sporting Gijón (which it didn’t). I have to admit the drama of 5 games with relegation implications being contested at the same time is compelling. So here is La Liga week 38 and year 2010-11 in sum.
Scores
Málaga 1-2 Barçalona | Fernández 31', Bojan Krkic p44', Afellay 76', Bartra 84'
Hercules 0-0S Gijón | Pointless and Scoreless.
Deportivo 0-2 Valencia | Adruiz 4', Soldado 90'
Espanyol 2-3Sevilla | Osvaldo 54', Verdu 73', Negredo 2',62', Kanoute 45'
Levante 1-2 R Zaragoza | Stuani 80', Gabi 39',73'
Mallorca 3-4 A Madrid | Guzman p62', Webo 71',90', Agüero 12',59',81', Juanfran 18'
Osasuna 1-0 Villarreal | Cejudo 42'
Racing 1-2 A Bilbao | Bakircioglü 88', Lopez 21', Llorente 22'
R Sociedad 1-1 Getafe | Sutil 66', Diaz 9'
R Madrid 8-1 Almeria | Ronaldo 4',77', Adebayor 31',52',73', Benzema 48',62', Joselu 87', Uche 33'
Table
As (#) is what I predicted in my La Liga preview. Not too shabby.
La Liga’s Best 11
Iker Casillas (R Madrid) Zamora to Victor Valdez, but Saint Iker is the best.
Nacho Monreal (Osasuna) Performance helped keep Osasuna afloat to #9.
Gerard Piqué (Barçalona) When things are good with Shakira, he stops it all.
R Carvalho (R Madrid) His arrival improved Madrid’s defensive consistency.
Dani Alves (Barçalona) Hate the theatrics, but he’s La Liga’s best right-back.
Mesut Özil (R Madrid) You want someone to create chances. This is your guy.
S Busquets (Barçalona) A top holding midfielder & now world’s best supervillain.
Xabi Prieto (R Sociedad) Only Messi, Özil, and Alves had more assists than Prieto.
Ronaldo (R Madrid) Really…40 goals in La Liga and he’s not the world’s best?
Lionel Messi (Barçalona) Correct, Messi is the consensus best player in the world.
Soldado (Valencia) Agüero & Negredo scored more, but Soldado won more.
Substitutes: Sergio Agüero (A Madrid), Giuseppe Rossi (Villarreal), Andrés Iniesta (Barçalona), Xavi (Barçalona), Pepe (R Madrid), Marcello (R Madrid), Victor Valdés (Barçalona)
Pichichi
Cristiano Ronaldo may not have won the FIFA World Player of the Year and Real Madrid did not win the league or the Champions League. However, if Ronaldo isn’t considered the best player on the planet, he certainly is the world’s best scorer. This year felt like one where he’d go on a tear in La Liga like we’ve never seen before. And, boy did he, not only winning the Pichichi, but beating La Liga’s all-time single season scoring record with 40 goals. Preseason Pichichi prediction? Ronaldo.
La Liga’s Revelation
This is kind of a hard thing to judge this year because there was no one standout revelation but a groundswell of youthful talent everywhere. If I had to choose someone it would be keeper of David de Gea of Atlético Madrid. It’s going to be hard for Atlético to hold on to him. France’s Antoine Griezmann (Real Sociedad) would be my runner-up. Also, Mateo Musacchio (Villarreal) played a major part in them getting back to the Champions League.
For kicks, Spain does play its youth. Other Spanish U-23 players that made an impact this year are Alberto Botia (Sporting Gijón), Mikel San Jose (Athletic Bilbao), Jordi Alba (Valencia), Thiago (Barcelona), Raul Baena (Espanyol), Ander Herrera (Zaragoza), Daniel Parejo (Getafe), Adrian Lopez (Deportivo), Iker Muniain (Athletic Bilbao), Emilio Nsue (Mallorca), Bojan Krkic (Barcelona), Andreu Fontas (Barcelona), Alvaro Dominguez (Atletico Madrid), and Sergi Busquets (Barcelona).
Stephen Kuzner is a Baltimore-based Blogger for WorldFootballDaily.com who specializes in La Liga. You can reach him on Facebook at facebook.com/BarcaBlogger or Twitter at @twitter.com/BarcaBlogger. |
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