Posted by Stephen Kuzner

By Stephen Kuzner - WFD Fan Corresponden

It's only been two rounds of La Liga, but it's a La Liga-neutral's dream to see Atlético Madrid atop the table and Diego Forlán leading all scorers. At least for now, the team with the best form and record is not from the big two of Barcelona and Real Madrid. Atlético's victory over Athletic Bilbao will give a team come confidence on the road that did not gain an away victory last season until December 5th. This was a hard-fought win at Bilbao's San Mamés fortress. Atlético made shrewd pick-ups with Tiago, Godín Leal, Mario Suárez, Fran Mérida, and Diego Costa that have already born fruit. This team looks to be poised and capable to make a run in La Liga.

Another team with shrewd pick-ups this past season, Valencia got a must-have 1-0 home win against ill-fated Racing. Both teams seem to be going in opposite directions with Valencia second to the top and Racing second to the bottom. Sevilla was held to a 0-0 draw with Deportivo La Coruna largely due to the performance of keeper Manu. Both Valencia and Sevilla are starting-out the season in Champions League shots that will be hard to hold-on to.

Rounding-out the top four is Real Madrid. Jose Mourinho probably could not be less accurate by describing Madrid's 1-0 victory over Osasuna as "easy". Madrid looked great going forward though they squandered a number of opportunities, but they also looked like swiss cheese at the back. The most important thing to take from this game was the emergence of Cristiano Ronaldo as a leader. Leader? He seemed more interested in getting a win than getting a goal. I've never seen that kind of body-language in him before. Mourinho's psychology seems to be have effected Ronaldo.

Villarreal destroyed pitiful Espanyol 4-0 with a brace by Giuseppe Rossi and goals by Borja Valero's and Nilmar. Getafe rebounded-back from a loss last week to an easy 4-1 win over lowly Levante on a brace by Jaime Gavilán Martínez.

The shock of the week came with a 0-2 victory for Hércules over Barcelona. Hércules played well as a unit defensively and did well counter-attacking. Paraguayan international Nelson Valdez scored a brace. Everything seemed off for Barcelona from a yellow-card to Javier Mascherano, it being a day game at the Camp Nou (I can't remember the last one), Bojan missing a early sitter, untidy passes all-over the field, Messi being effectively triple and quadruple-teamed out of the game, to even the usually stylishly-clad footballing mastermind Pep Guardiola dressing more akin to a high school science teacher wearing a short-sleeved dress shirt with a tie. Dropping 3 points at home to a promoted team is too much for a team that was possibly tired from an international break. This loss could be an early indicator that 19 players are not enough for the long haul.

The most exciting game had to be Málaga's 3-5 victory over Real Zaragoza. Málaga hammered Zaragoza for 5 goals in the 1st 35 minutes. This was a much surprising victory given Málaga lost eight players to injury. Yet another brace in La Liga this week by Juanmi of Málaga. Sporting Gijon earned their first 3 points of the season with a 2-0 win over Mallorca. Almeria will host Real Sociedad on Monday night. My prediction is a brace by anybody.

We are two rounds done in La Liga and the big two are still not in the top two. Maybe La Liga is not the SPL on steroids after all? Or maybe Madrid and Barcelona are just off to a slow start due to an international break and chemistry yet to be realized.



Please send any feedback to skuzner@mail.com.