This was probably one of the most boring weekends in La Liga I’ve ever attempted to watch. Not much happened worth talking about but that’s hardly the league’s fault for a series of reason:

1. It was Easter weekend. Just an awkward time to have 4 matches scheduled for a Sunday usually reserved for church and family.
2. A round of World Cup 2014 qualifications happened last week. One of the highlight? The clash between France and Spain.
3. This week is Champions League!!! Enough said.

I mean, really, how can the usual round of league matches possibly live up to those standards of excitement when everyone’s minds were on last week and this week!

Rodri’s goal celebration against Real Madrid was the most exciting part of the weekend

The top 4 teams all drew in their respective matches. So no movement up top. The bottom 4 teams didn’t move positions either. Both Celta Vigo and Real Zaragoza drew in their matches. The bottom two, Mallorca and Deportivo La Coruña, played each other, but Depor’s win keeps them at the very bottom but only a point from Mallorca. There was a little shuffling in mid table but nothing drastic enough to be like WOW!

In all honestly, it was actually kind of nice to have the dull weekend to recuperate from the FIFA excitement and to prepare for some epic battles in the Champions League. Here are the results from the weekend:

Saturday:
Rayo Vallecano 1-3 Málaga
Celta Vigo 2-2 Barcelona
Real Zaragoza 1-1 Real Madrid
Levante 1-0 Sevilla

Sunday:
Valladolid 1-3 Osasuna
Mallorca 2-3 Deportivo La Coruña
Espanyol 2-2 Real Sociedad
Atlético Madrid 1-1 Valencia

Monday:
Athletic Bilbao 1-0 Granada
Real Betis 0-0 Getafe

On Tuesday, Barcelona travels to Paris to take on the French giants PSG. I’m expecting this round to be fairly routine for Barça to get through, but it’s always fun to have an upset. Both Real Madrid and Málaga play on Wednesday. Real Madrid welcomes Galatasaray to the Bernabeú in hopes of getting everything done right from the start. Málaga has the monumental challenge of trying to overturn Borussia Dortmund. I’m super excited to see how this one turns out. It’ll be extremely difficult, but I think Málaga just might be able to pull it off!

Photo courtesy of LigaBBVA.com. Tune in to @AerysSoccer for all your updates on the world of soccer!

This was probably one of the most boring weekends in La Liga I’ve ever attempted to watch. Not much happened worth talking about but that’s hardly the league’s fault for a series of reason:

1. It was Easter weekend. Just an awkward time to have 4 matches scheduled for a Sunday usually reserved for church and family.
2. A round of World Cup 2014 qualifications happened last week. One of the highlight? The clash between France and Spain.
3. This week is Champions League!!! Enough said.

I mean, really, how can the usual round of league matches possibly live up to those standards of excitement when everyone’s minds were on last week and this week!

Rodri’s goal celebration against Real Madrid was the most exciting part of the weekend

The top 4 teams all drew in their respective matches. So no movement up top. The bottom 4 teams didn’t move positions either. Both Celta Vigo and Real Zaragoza drew in their matches. The bottom two, Mallorca and Deportivo La Coruña, played each other, but Depor’s win keeps them at the very bottom but only a point from Mallorca. There was a little shuffling in mid table but nothing drastic enough to be like WOW!

In all honestly, it was actually kind of nice to have the dull weekend to recuperate from the FIFA excitement and to prepare for some epic battles in the Champions League. Here are the results from the weekend:

Saturday:
Rayo Vallecano 1-3 Málaga
Celta Vigo 2-2 Barcelona
Real Zaragoza 1-1 Real Madrid
Levante 1-0 Sevilla

Sunday:
Valladolid 1-3 Osasuna
Mallorca 2-3 Deportivo La Coruña
Espanyol 2-2 Real Sociedad
Atlético Madrid 1-1 Valencia

Monday:
Athletic Bilbao 1-0 Granada
Real Betis 0-0 Getafe

On Tuesday, Barcelona travels to Paris to take on the French giants PSG. I’m expecting this round to be fairly routine for Barça to get through, but it’s always fun to have an upset. Both Real Madrid and Málaga play on Wednesday. Real Madrid welcomes Galatasaray to the Bernabeú in hopes of getting everything done right from the start. Málaga has the monumental challenge of trying to overturn Borussia Dortmund. I’m super excited to see how this one turns out. It’ll be extremely difficult, but I think Málaga just might be able to pull it off!

Photo courtesy of LigaBBVA.com. Tune in to @AerysSoccer for all your updates on the world of soccer!

It’s the Champions League, baby!

Needless to say, this match up was anything but brilliant as Real Madrid hosted Manchester United, both clubs winning their league titles respectively.

Ronaldo’s first half goal. Just look at his hang time!

I guess to sum up the match for those who couldn’t watch, both Real and United both got a ‘head’ of each other, only to draw at 1-1. In the 20′ United’s Danny Welbeck scored a header that his defender, Sergio Ramos would be proud of. And as the jokes flooded twitter, it almost looked as if Danny boy scored using just his hair.

Ten minutes later, golden boy Ronaldo also headed the ball in which it seemed he stopped time as it appeared he was just hanging in the air.

Both clubs had great chances throughout the match as both Real’s Angel Di Maria and Fabio Coentrao almost put the club up two more goals. A wasted goal opportunity from Robin Van Pursie kept United equalized until the final whistle.

Defensively, Real was on their best performance, barely letting United’s dangerous forwards a way to sneak past the backline. With the absence of captain Iker Casillas, Diego Lopez really stepped up tending the goal while David de Gea, the young keeper for United, played a fantastic match and kept focused, which saved Real from scoring more goals.

Ronaldo talks to old manager Sir Alex Ferguson

It was a special moment for one player specifically, Cristiano Ronaldo, who faced his former club for the first time since leaving back in 2009. Ronnie began his lustrous career as a Red Devil where he further developed his style and perfected his fancy footwork. Before signing with Real, Ronaldo won 3 league titles, 1 FA Cup as well as other numerous trophies.

It was highly anticipated as to how Ronaldo would celebrate had he scored a goal. By far the best moment of the match was when he did, in fact, score that goal. He kept it classy, nodding and raising two fingers up in the air before being pummeled by his teammates.

The second leg of this intense match up will be on March 5th at Old Trafford. This match is one you want to mark on your calendar. Even as an Arsenal supporter, the reaction I’ll have seeing Ronaldo walk onto Old Trafford’s pitch, his old stomping grounds, will be a pivotal moment. And just imagine if he’d score yet another goal. Till then, we have to wait another 3 weeks.

I’ll just leave this here for you’re viewing pleasure. #TeamRonaldo

Stay tuned to Aerys Soccer for all your Champions League updates and more!

Photo courtesy of Real Madrid C.F.

Sorry for missing my post last week folks! Life decided to get a bit too crazy to handle. But I’m back and bringing you the news from La Liga!

Yet another miserable weekend for Deportivo leaves the club in crisis

Some of the biggest happenings from Spain this weekend involved Deportivo La Coruña, who suffered a humiliating 3-0 loss at home to Granada. As a result, their manager has resigned. He’d been with the club for only a month and a half. His tenure did not bring new hope to a worrying first half of the season; since the start of the new year, Depor have lost all of their games home and away. It’s quite demoralizing to see a team which won the league title in 2000 to fall so far. If their first season back in the Primera Division, Depor have only won 3 games.

The outing this weekend went from bad to worse with little room for hope. An own goal by defender Carlos Marchena gave Granada the lead just before half time. After the break, the home team looked unsettled and nervous as sloppy play led to numerous missed opportunities and Granada’s second goal. The final straw came during injury time as a harsh tackle in the box produced a penalty. If that wasn’t hard enough, offender Manuel Pablo was sent off with a straight red for dissent, insulting and, in general, taking out his anger on the ref. Barring a complete collapse of any of the other teams above them, Depor look sure to return to the Segunda at the end of the season.

Athletic Bilbao also had a weekend they’d rather forget as they were pummeled at home by Espanyol who continue to grow stronger with each game. With once-prized striker Llorente in a bit of limbo until the summer when he moves to Juventus, Athletic are yet again looking for answers to the uncertainty that has plagued them all season.

Rayo Vallecano beat Atlético Madrid decisively in Vallecas in front of a crowd that only filled a third of their stadium. A third of the stadium. This was a Madrid derby and yet Rayo’s fans couldn’t be bothered to come out to see one of the most entertaining teams in the league take down 2nd place Atleti (who by the way are starting to show signs of weakness in their away form). Barcelona and Real Madrid both had easy wins over their opposition as both look to the return of the Champions League. Here are the full results from the weekend:

Barça’s first noon fixture in years to celebrate the Chinese New Year

Saturday:
Mallorca 1-1 Osasuna
Celta Vigo 0-1 Valencia
Levante 1-2 Málaga
Deportivo La Coruña 0-3 Granada
Real Madrid 4-1 Sevilla

Sunday:
Barcelona 6-1 Getafe
Real Zaragoza 1-2 Real Sociedad
Athletic Bilbao 0-4 Espanyol
Rayo Vallecano 2-1 Atlético Madrid

Monday:
Real Betis 0-0 Valladolid

Champions League play is back!! We’ve got some heavyweight matches this week and next as Real Madrid face Manchester United and Barcelona take on Italian rivals AC Milan. Málaga meet reigning Portuguese champs Porto and Valencia clash with PSG and the beloved David Beckham.

Photos courtesy of LigaBBVA.com. Tune into @AerysSoccer for daily updates on the world of soccer!

125-year old Celtic defeats Barça.

Last week was very tumultuous for Spanish clubs! First there was UEFA craziness followed by a weekend filled with drama.

Okay so to start with Champions League, Real Madrid barely managed to escape with a draw from their home fixture against Dortmund thanks to a brilliant free kick from Mesut Ozil. Talk about a thing of beauty for the defending La Liga champions. Málaga are still unbeaten even though Milan tried their hardest to change that status. Then on Wednesday, Barcelona fell to Celtic. What. A. Dramatic. Game! It was Celtic’s 125th anniversary, Lionel Messi was still looking for the goal to celebrate the birth of his son Thiago, and, in the end, little ole Celtic took down the giants. To round off Champions League, Valencia put on a great showing at home to defect Borisov 4-2. In the Europa League, Atlético Madrid suffered their first defeat at the hands of Académica and Athletic Bilbao just lost out on a highly exciting game against Lyon. Here are the full results:

Champions League:
AC Milan 1-1 Málaga
Real Madrid 2-2 Borussia Dortmund
Valencia 4-2 BATE Borisov
Celtic 2-1 Barcelona

Europa League:
Académica 2-0 Atlético Madrid
Athletic Bilbao 2-3 Lyon
Twente 0-0 Levante

Whew. Now to get to the really juicy stuff. Real Zaragoza was the highlight of Saturday’s games as they managed to come back from 2-0 down against Deportivo La Coruña to win 5-3! Of course it helped a bit that Pizzi was sent off with his second yellow of the night for diving. Depor suffered greatly without him and conceded to Zaragoza four times in 22 minutes. Osasuna also pulled off an incredible away 3-0 win defeating Espanyol, who are just above them at the bottom of the table. Maybe this win will provide the boost Osasuna need to move up from the relegation zone.

Half blind, still scores

The big headline from the weekend came from Levante vs. Real Madrid. Last time Madrid visited this team in Valencia, they lost 1-0. Already 8 points behind Barça, Madrid could not afford anything other than a win. With both Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higuaín out with injuries, Ronaldo took up the role at center forward and came away with an injury that removed him from the game after half-time. Levante’s Navarro punched CR7 in the eye leaving the Portuguese captain needing medical aid. Regardless of the injury, Ronaldo managed to score before he completely lost his sight. After Levante equalized and with no strikers left on the field, Mourinho put in  former youth team forward, 20-year old Álvaro Morata. With just his first touch of the game, Morata scored! A 20-year old saved Real Madrid’s title hopes. Incredible!

What happened after the game is still murky, but we do know that the police were called in to stop fighting between “employees” from Levante and Real Madrid. The names “Sergio Ballesteros” and “Pepe” were included in the hubbub. There are conflicting reports on who punched who and who insulted who, but both clubs released statements this week backing up their players. Whew. That’s one sticky situation. The rest of the results from the weekend are:

Saturday:
Rayo Vallecano 3-2 Celta Vigo
Espanyol 0-3 Osasuna
Real Zaragoza 5-3 Deportivo La Coruña
Málaga 1-2 Real Sociedad

Sunday:
Valladolid 1-1 Valencia
Athletic Bilbao 2-1 Sevilla
Mallorca 2-4 Barcelona
Atlético Madrid 2-0 Getafe
Levante 1-2 Real Madrid

Just a heads up, my recap of next weekend’s games will be my last for a few weeks. My semester is coming to an end, so all my teachers are piling on the work before finals. Until next time!

Photos courtesy of LigaBBVA.com and FoxSoccer.

If you’ve watched any games from La Liga in the past few years on GolTV or on beIN Sport this year, you’ll know there’s one incredibly distinctive voice that rises above the rest: Ray Hudson. This exuberant commentator was born in Britain, played for Newcastle for a bit before embarking on an interesting soccer career here in the States. He even managed D.C. United for a couple years. What makes him unique, however, is his ability to create poetry out of thin air. It’s an absolute delight to listen to Ray Hudson and Phil Schoen team up for La Liga matches. His favorite teams are clearly Real Madrid and Barcelona. After listening to him commentate countless games, I just needed to make sure you all knew who he was. Here are a few of his sayings from the current season, followed by a excerpt from a 2007 Real Madrid game against Mallorca:

On David Villa – “A thousand exorcists couldn’t get rid of this demonic skill!”

On Andrés Iniesta – “He takes the full moon into consideration, the absolute gravitational pull, for this pinpoint precision!”

On Gonzalo Higuaín – “‘Anything you can do, I can do better,’ Gonzalo says to Lionel. Los Blancos fans celebrate this time.”

On a more serious note, the boys in Spain have been very busy lately playing with league matches and Copa del Rey fixtures. Málaga had a rather hard time beating Cacereno but just managed to squeeze a narrow 4-3 win in the end. Osasuna is really starting to depress me; these guys can’t win in the League or in the Copa del Rey. Here are the plethora of results from the Copa del Rey:

Tuesday:
Llagostera 0-2 Valencia
Alavés 0-3 Barcelona

Wednesday:
Almeria 2-0 Celta Vigo
Cacereno 3-4 Málaga
Jaen 0-3 Atlético Madrid
Real Zaragoza 1-0 Granada
Las Palmas 1-0 Rayo Vallecano
Alcoyano 1-4 Real Madrid

Thursday:
Eibar 0-0 Athletic Bilbao
Valladolid 1-0 Real Betis
Melilla 1-0 Levante
Córdoba 2-0 Real Sociedad
Ponferradina 0-4 Getafe
Sevilla 3-1 Espanyol
Sporting Gijón 1-0 Osasuna
Deportivo de La Coruña 1-1 Mallorca

Poor Falcao didn’t score and got kicked in the head

Now the results from the weekends start to look a little funky. Of the three powerhouse goal scorers, neither Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, nor Radamel Falcao managed to score. I guess Messi has a viable excuse: he did become a first-time father last week, so that’s probably going to throw off his game a tad. Both Barcelona and Real Madrid had run-away successes, but Atlético Madrid were handed their first defeat from Valencia.

The strides Atleti have made since last season are so impressive that this first loss doesn’t faze them at all. Manager Diego Simeone really has managed to turn this team around completely since he took over almost a year ago. The worries will come at the end of the season when the bigger clubs from around Europe try to steal their star Falcao. Also on the losing side were Málaga who fell 2-1 at home to Rayo Vallecano. Apparently this was the first game Málaga’s owner has attended all season. Just their luck that they lose when he decided to show up. On the flip side, Athletic Bilbao finally achieved that much needed win. Maybe now they’ll start to build some stability and rhythm as a foundation for the rest of the season.

Saturday:
Málaga 1-2 Rayo Vallecano
Barcelona 3-1 Celta Vigo
Real Madrid 4-0 Real Zaragoza
Valencia 2-0 Atlético Madrid

Sunday:
Real Sociedad 0-1 Espanyol
Deportivo de La Coruña 1-0 Mallorca
Osasuna 0-1 Valladolid
Granada 1-2 Athletic Bilbao
Sevilla 0-0 Levante

Monday:
Getafe 2-4 Real Betis

After that extremely busy week, the Spanish teams have to gear up for the fourth round of group play in UEFA. Can Real Madrid pull off a crucial victory as Borussia Dortmund visit the capital? Can Málaga remain unbeaten in the Champions League? Will Athletic Bilbao be able to translate their win over the weekend to some success in the Europa League? Hopefully they’re not too tired from last week to take on the best of Europe!

Photo courtesy of LigaBBVA.com.

Can Bielsa figure it out before it’s too late?

Athletic Bilbao finished last season on the uprise. They made it to two finals: the Europa League against Atlético Madrid and the Copa del Rey against Barcelona! On the road to this point, they finished at the top of their group in the Europa League, defeated Manchester United in Old Trafford, and steadily stole the hearts of everyone who watched them play with their incredible work rate. Bilbao was becoming everyone in Spain’s “second favorite” team and also a favorite of many English supporters. They’re not my favorite team but I loved watching them play because it just felt like I was watching something special.

If you look at them today, just one quick glimpse will tell you something’s gone wrong at the Basque club. They are 1 point off the relegation zone in La Liga and ranked 16th. In the Europa League, they’ve only managed to get a single point after three matches in group play. I’ve noticed the slow slide all season, but I was never sure why it was happening. Until yesterday when this article came out. As it turns out the summer transfer window drama may have affected the club more than anticipated.

First, Javi Martínez left Athletic and signed for Bayern Munich without the Basque club’s permission. Then, star striker Fernando Llorente decided he did not want to extend his contract and started looking for a transfer to Italian powerhouse Juventus. That didn’t work out and now Llorente will leave Bilbao at the end of the season on a free transfer. This is still a sticky issue as manager Marcelo Bielsa seems reluctant to play Llorente consistently.

Athletic Bilbao seems on the verge of self-destructing and it breaks my heart to watch. They went from an exciting, inspiring team to a dysfunctional mess in such a short time. If you compare the stats from this season and last season, things don’t really look that bad on the surface: 8 points from 9 matches in league play versus 9 points at the same time last year. The worrying fact is that there doesn’t seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel right now. Plagued with injuries, mistrust, and fatigue, it may take a bit of a miracle to revive one of the hardest working and most heart-lifting teams from last season.

Around the league, Falcao has now scored in 11 consecutive games. Wow! Now the question is how long he’ll last at Atlético Madrid before a larger club snaps him up. Both Barcelona and Real Madrid won 5-0 away from home. (I saw a rumor that, after Barça smashed Rayo Vallecano, Tito Vilanova said Real Madrid should learn to travel away and win 5-0…which they did the following day in Mallorca. I kind of hope that’s true because it would be hysterical.) Real Zaragoza won a 2-1 stunner against Sevilla on Sunday. Zaragoza, almost relegated at the end of last season, now sits in 9th place. Good for them! Here are the rest of the results from the weekend:

Saturday:
Espanyol 0-0 Málaga
Real Betis 1-0 Valencia
Celta Vigo 1-1 Deportivo La Coruña
Rayo Vallecano 0-5 Barcelona

Sunday:
Real Zaragoza 2-1 Sevilla
Levante 3-1 Granada
Athletic Bilbao 1-2 Getafe
Atlético Madrid 3-1 Osasuna
Mallorca 0-5 Real Madrid

Monday:
Valladolid 2-2 Real Sociedad

Of the UEFA midweek fixtures, Real Madrid was the only Spanish team in the Champions League to not win. It was heartbreaking, but they were outplayed sadly. Barça just managed to squeeze a win past Celtic in the dying minutes of the game and Málaga continued their unbeaten streak in spectacular fashion. Here are the full results:

Champions League:
BATE Borisov 0-3 Valencia
Barcelona 2-1 Celtic
Málaga 1-0 AC Milan
Borussia Dortmund 2-1 Real Madrid

Europa League:
Atlético Madrid 2-1 Académica de Coimbra
Lyon 2-1 Athletic Bilbao
Levante 3-0 Twente Enschede

Another round of Champions League matches took place today and the two things most people were talking about were Barcelona’s Carlos Puyol’s horrific injury and Bayern Munich’s surprising loss to BATE Borisov; I know many of you just said “Who’s that??”

So what happened today in Champions League? In Group E, Chelsea had a convincing 4-0 win over  FC Nordsjaelland. David Luiz scored along with Juan Mata (2) and Ramires. In the other match, Juventus and Shakhtar Donetsk played in a 1-1 draw.

In Group F, Valencia won 2-0 over Lille, but it was the Bayern-BATE match that got more attention. After all, most people had never heard of BATE, yet here they were beating Bayern 3-1 despite only having 34% possession.  They are currently at the top of their group with 6 points. Valencia and Bayern are in second place with 3 points each.

Group G, Celtic won their match 3-2 and Barcelona won 2-0 over Benfica. However, despite getting the 3 points, Barcelona players and fans aren’t very happy with today’s match. After all, Sergio Busquets was sent off with a straight red card, which most people said was given unfairly, and Puyol fell awkwardly on his arm and is ruled off for the upcomin Clasico against their rivals Real Madrid.

Group H, both Manchester United and Braga won their respective matches. United defeated Cluj 2-1 and Braga defeated Galatasaray 2-0.

Here’s today’s Champions League goal of the day. It comes from Chelsea defender, David Luiz. Enjoy!

El Guaje demonstrates the frustrations of his team

 Midweek UEFA fixtures saw some pretty tough battles for both Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona.

In the Champions League, Madrid managed to come away with a narrow 3-2 victory after about 68 minutes of dullness against Manchester City. The match ended in a whirlwind of goals. Málaga, on the other hand, easily dispatched Zenit 3-0 in La Rosaleda. The convincing win was particularly satisfying given their crazy offseason with debt problems and players leaving.

Barcelona managed to scrape a win 3-2 at home against Spartak Moskva after losing Piqué early on to injury and an atrocious own-goal by Dani Alves. (Please watch it if you haven’t already. Painful if you’re a Barça fan, but kinda entertaining if you’re not.) Valencia went down early away against Bayern Munich, but managed to come away with one goal against the home team in the 2-1 loss.

In the Europa League, Athlético Madrid easily won 3-0 over Hapoel Tel Aviv, Athletic Bilbao fought to a 1-1 draw with H. Kiryat Shmona, and Levante beat Helsingborg 1-0. I’m not surprised Athlético won 3-0 away; they’ve been on fire lately. Athletic disappointed me though. They played at home in the San Memes against the little known Israeli side (meaning I’ve never heard of them before), and could only manage a draw. Even bringing on Fernando Llorente early in the second half didn’t give them enough of a spark to win.

Champions League Results:
Málaga 3-0 Zenit
Real
Madrid 3-2 Manchester City
Bayern Munich 2-1 Valencia
Barcelona 3-2 Spartak Moskva

Europa League Results:
Hapoel Tel-Aviv 0-3 Atlético Madrid
Athletic Bilbao 1-1 H. Kiryat Shmona
Levante 1-0 Helsingborg

Week 5 of La Liga was rather quiet in terms of results, without any huge upsets. Mallorca is still winning and ranked 2nd while Valencia sits deep in the table at 15th followed closely by Athletic in 16th. Newcomers to the top flight Deportivo and Celta aren’t doing too badly at 10th and 11th. The most talked about games of the weekend, of course, come from Barça and Real Madrid.

On Saturday, it took a moment of brilliance from Xavi in the 86th minute for the Catalans to finally score against Granada, who had looked the most likely to score for a better part of the game. Toño (Granada’s goalkeeper) had one hell of a game, making one incredible save after another. Even though Barcelona keep winning, they’re not winning well or convincingly, showing signs of frustration on the pitch. Nevertheless, a win is a win.

Which is probably also what Real Madrid thought Monday night at Vallecas after their win against Rayo Vallecano. The match was originally scheduled for Sunday night, but the cables to the floodlights in the stadium were cut and the game was pushed to Monday. Why or by whom is unclear, but sources speculate it was done in protest to the raise in prices at the Vallecas stadium. Weird stuff, I know. The game wasn’t as comfortable a win as Madrid would’ve liked as Rayo continued to attack even when they were two goals down. Casillas, and even Xabi at one point, had to come up with some pretty awesome saves to keep Rayo off the scoreboard.

Point of interest: right now at this early stage in the season, the race for the Pichichi award looks like a battle between Messi and Falcao, with 6 and 5 goals, respectively. (Ronaldo only has 3 goals so far.)

Saturday’s Results:
Real Zaragoza 3-1 Osasuna
Celta Vigo 2-1 Getafe
Real Betis 1-0 Espanyol
Barcelona 2-0 Granada

Sunday’s Results:
Mallorca 2-0 Valencia
Levante 2-1 Real Sociedad
Atlético Madrid 2-1 Valladolid
Athletic Bilbao 0-0 Málaga

Monday’s Results:
Rayo Vallecano 0-2 Real Madrid
Deportivo La Coruña 0-2 Sevilla

*Photo credit: LigaBBVA

 Midweek games are always some of my favorites, especially when players you hardly get to see play have a chance to show what they are made of.

Last night was that kind of night as the LA Galaxy took on PR Islanders in a CCL showdown. It’s always interesting seeing how Galaxy Head Coach Bruce Arena will come up with some of the most far-fetched lineups and still end up coming away with a win or draw. On twitter everyone has dubbed this LA lineup the “YOLO” lineup. If it worked once, why not again? Bruce must of heard the pre-game chatter because he left the starters behind and put the reserve team to the test.

PR Islanders have always been a test for LA, beating them, and even tying them, gets sweeter every time (especially since that terrible game last year where LA lost… *sigh*). Tonight ended in a draw, but LA still holds strong at the top of their group because of the goal differentials. On to the first half!

I must say, this was one of those halves where you are sitting in the floor begging for some kind of action to happen… (or is that just me?), anyways, so there I was kneeling in the middle of my floor just wanting SOMETHING to happen… but, nothing did. At all. No action, sure LA had a few shots on goal but nothing that got me up off the floor screaming. It was very uneventful to say the least.

Then on rolls the second half and as I was still sitting in the floor, I was praying for this half to give me a little jolt. It didn’t disappoint! LA had some great shots on goal, but came up empty handed. PR Islanders weren’t going out without a bang either, within the 70th-74th minute PR fired off some intense shots that made Brian Perk step up and make some great saves. Bruce decided to change it up and brought on two regular starters; Landon Donovan and  Juninho. I then got up off the floor and thought, “Now this is what I like to see!”

From then on, the game started to open up and both teams were fighting tooth and nail to score a goal. Edson Buddle almost had a chance in the 81st minute when Donovan crossed the ball in front of the goal and Buddle just mishandled it and missed a chance for LA to take the lead. Juninho and Donovan also had some shots on goal but again they came up empty handed… When the final whistle blew LA come away with a draw thus eliminating PR Islanders from the Champions League.

This lineup showed how much faith Bruce puts into the “YOLO” team. I love when coaches aren’t afriad to go outside of the “norm” and it also shows how confident he is in the whole team. LA’s next game will be this Saturday (9/22) against Toronto FC. It’s a big game for LA because if they come away with a win they can clinch a playoff spot. So throw on your Galaxy gear and cheer on the boys!

Photo credit; LA Galaxy’s Facebook