Villarreal USA: FanPosts

Villarreal CF Juvenil B Wins Michalovce Cup 2012

2012-08-18T10:42:00Z

Editor's note: Shabani18 put this up yesterday and has been keeping us up to date all week with what has been going on in Slovakia. I think it is pretty awesome that Villarreal has this international following that we are all part of. Even when the Juvenil B team goes to Slovakia, there are supporters! And not to mention, three wins in three matches - more youth coming through the ranks.

--maddi

__________

As some of you may be aware, our Juvenil B team participated in tournament called Michalovce Cup 2012 in town Michalovce, Slovakia. Michalovce is the twin town with Vila-real since 1992 and it's the town where our Penya El Madrigal is based.

Together with the home team MFK Zemplin Michalovce and our young guys there were also guys from Legia Warsaw and Juventus Torino. I'm very happy that Villarreal CF won this tournament with 9 points, so they beat every team. Our Penya was there to support them and they were very happy but surprised too that VCF have some fans in Slovakia. Young Pedrito also won the Best player of the tournament prize, so we can be very proud and it looks like the future is bright for VCF. Here are the results and some more links with pictures. Now let's get ready for tonight's match. TORNAREM

MFK Zemplín Michalovce - VILLARREAL CF 1:2 (1:2)

Goals:28.Pibe,35.Raul

MFK Zemplín Michalovce - Juventus Turín 4:2 (3:1)

VILLARREAL CF - Legia Varšava 4:0 (4:0)

Goals:7.Pino,12.Manger,25. and 31.Huescar

Juventus Torino - Legia Varšava 3:1 (3:0)

MFK Zemplín Michalovce - Legia Varšava 3:3 (1:1)

Juventus Torino - VILLARREAL CF 2:3 (1:2)

Goals:33.Wasa,34.Pedrito,55.Pibe

1. VILLARREAL CF 9

2. MFK Zemplín Michalovce 4

3. Juventus Turín 3

4. Legia Varšava 1

https://www.facebook.com/groups/157746821984/#!/media/set/?set=a.402048339844055.83295.226401047408786&type=1

http://web.mfkzemplin.sk/?clanok=851

VILLARREAL CF: Adrian Peňa Abreu, Antonio Cristian Glauder Garcia, Borja Quirant Gomez, Miguel Juan Llambich, Daniel Brian Joel Gonzalez, Ivan Orts Cantera, Javier Huescar Perez, Javier Jimenez Moreno, Jorge Mendez Ayola, Jose Aguilera Cara, Jose Emilio Defez Gallen, Juan Fernandez Blanco, Julian Plana del Olmo, Madger Antonio Gomez Aju, Marc Gelma Castillo, Joaquin Miralles Sanz, Pedro Martinez Garcia, Raul Ramos Haro, Ruben Fortuňo Garcia, Victor Pino Sales

Coach: Javier Cano Gallego

--maddi

__________

MFK Zemplín Michalovce - VILLARREAL CF 1:2 (1:2)

Goals:28.Pibe,35.Raul

MFK Zemplín Michalovce - Juventus Turín 4:2 (3:1)

VILLARREAL CF - Legia Varšava 4:0 (4:0)

Goals:7.Pino,12.Manger,25. and 31.Huescar

Juventus Torino - Legia Varšava 3:1 (3:0)

MFK Zemplín Michalovce - Legia Varšava 3:3 (1:1)

Juventus Torino - VILLARREAL CF 2:3 (1:2)

Goals:33.Wasa,34.Pedrito,55.Pibe

1. VILLARREAL CF 9

2. MFK Zemplín Michalovce 4

3. Juventus Turín 3

4. Legia Varšava 1

https://www.facebook.com/groups/157746821984/#!/media/set/?set=a.402048339844055.83295.226401047408786&type=1

http://web.mfkzemplin.sk/?clanok=851

Coach: Javier Cano Gallego

Hernán Pérez Scores for Paraguay

2012-08-16T14:17:58Z

Hernán Pérez scored in the 63rd minute of Paraguay's friendly against Guatamala last night, to give the South Americans a 3-2 lead. Unfortunately, Carlos Ruiz leveled the score in the 84th, and the sides had to settle for a 3-3 draw.

Well and good, right? Well, not exactly, inasmuch that Pérez will not be back with the club before tomorrow's match against Real Madrid-Castilla. More to come in preparation for tomorrow's match this evening.

** EDIT! ** Villarreal's website indicates he will be back in Vila-real tomorrow morning for training prior to the match against RMC. Who knows if he will be match-ready by the evening, but he could be a vital sub if he isn't asleep on the sideline!

2011/12 La Liga Season--A review of the numbers

2012-07-31T09:18:39Z

*Editor's Note (maddi): The below is from a heretofore unknown contributor to the Villarreal USA community, although he has provided more of this stellar brand of insight to quite a few other SBNation blogs. Absolutely fascinating stats below. It definitely brings back a lot of the pain from last season, though!

Thank you, shuddertothink.

Welcome to my review of the 2011/12 La Liga season.

Today we shall be looking at each La Liga team and that teams proficiency in several different categories. Think of goals, shots, save % and I shall also be looking at how many points a team gained in comparison to the monies the team was given from the 2011/12 TV deal.

Warning, this is a long post.

Join me after the jump.

Thank you, shuddertothink.

Welcome to my review of the 2011/12 La Liga season.

Warning, this is a long post.

Join me after the jump.

Here we go, the 2011/12 La Liga season

Points and Possession%

This is the La Liga table after 38 games.

How about the home and away points totals?

This is an interesting chart. I presume most teams lose nigh on 6 points a year by way of having to play Barcelona and Madrid away from home. But, still, it's interesting to see just how few teams register a healthy away points total.

Taking Madrid and Barcelona away from this chart the average looks to be in the mid to late teens in terms of away points accrued. That is a rough record of 4 wins 5 draws and 11 losses for the 19 away games.

In the 2011/12 EPL, when talking of away points gained, we have to drop down to 11th (bar Fulham and their notorious away form) until we get to a team that has gained less than 20 points on the road.

A trend towards more home wins in La Liga?

Now, we know how many points each team gained but how did each team gain that specific points total?

Goals

This is the goals for chart.

We can see how closely goals for correlates with points gained, at times goals for is an exact match for points gained. It's almost spooky, people say that defense wins titles, but looking at the above chart, we can say goals, in isolation, is a good indicator of points totals.

Notice how Madrid and Barcelona outscored the other La Liga teams by such a wide margin. Madrid scored double the amount of goals than every of other La Liga team not named Barcelona and over 4 times as many as Racing.

If a team scores more thus they are expected to gain more points. This we know already. Does goals against tell us anything new?

Goals Against

This chart tells shows us points in blue and goals against in red.

The information we see in the graph above tells us what we already know. Concede more goals and you don't accrue as many points.

We see some odd results here, Osasuna conceded the joint 4th most goals in the division but managed still to finish in 7th place. Osasuna are truly the odd team out.

Rayo conceded 73 goals, including 7 near the end of season game against Barca, but were still relatively comfortable.

How about goals for and goals against combined?

Goal Difference

These are graph 1 and graph 2 combined.

It's a useful method. We see as points decline (left to right decline) so does goal difference.

The staggering thing about this chart is how few teams have a + goal difference, staggering even more so is the extent to which Madrid and Barcelona dominate. Far more so than any other League I have looked at. Barcelona have +70 better goal difference than the 3rd place team. Plus seventy! La Liga is not a level playing field. TV monies and individual clubs income make this so.

Goal difference seems to be a far more consistent measure than goals for or against in isolation. Goal difference weeds out the oddities like Osasuna and Rayo's high goals conceded numbers and gives us a good overall picture.

Still, we can see some teams are still slightly out of place in what is otherwise a good correlation between declining goal difference and a decline in points.

Malaga with a +1 goal difference crashed into the top 4, Osasuna look out of place in 7th with a -17 figure. Villarreal also look a little unlucky in being relegated with a superior goal difference than some of their rivals had. Injuries tore the heart out of that team for a good portion of the season.

Now we know what goals for and against meant, let's look how the teams got said goals.

Shots for and Shots on Target for

Again we see points decline (and league position) as we go left to right.

What we see here is that shots for is a little more erratic and that shots on target for tends to decline at a steadier rate in comparison to points gained. Shots on target, in my opinion are a far more accurate tell on a teams performance.

Madrid and Barcelona are, quite boringly, well above the rest of the league again when looking at shots on target per game. Levante have the best shooting efficiency in the league and Zaragoza have the worst shooting efficiency. Levante's shooting efficiency of 49.5% is truly special.

Note how only 3 teams are above the mean line in shots on target for. This is the Barca/Madrid effect, they push the mean line up by virtue of their hugely superior shots on target totals. Levante are the third team above the mean in shots on target for.

Overall we do not see the same variance in shots on target for that we saw in the 2011/12 EPL review.

Scoring %

Here is the scoring % graph.

Barcelona and Madrid are the 2 best teams in La Liga by scoring %, but not by a huge margin. Their greater volume of shots in comparison to the rest of the league and in conjunction to their slightly higher scoring % is what enabled them to score so many more goals than all other teams.

Shoot more and convert those shots into goals at a higher rate than the rest of the league equals a lot more goals.

Granada have the worst scoring % I have ever seen at 18%. If this isn't corrected I would expect the club to struggle next season.

Why did Getafe and Rayo have a better scoring % than the teams around them? That is a question for you guys.

Now for the defensive measures.

Shots Against and Shots On Target Against

Again we look at shots against and shots on target against and see that shots against has more variance and is less well linked with points gained.

We see shots on target against rise as we go left to right and decrease in points. The more shots against per game a team concedes the less points a team is likely to gain. This, again, points to Villarreal being a touch unlucky.

Villarreal's 4.65 shots against per game number is, at a minimum, 1 shots against less per game than their relegation rivals. For every 10 shots conceded a team would expect to concede 3 goals.

Athletico Madrid post an excellent defensive number here, with 3.65 shots against per game. Valencia, Malaga and Mallorca also look strong, but naturally Madrid and Barcelona are the top clubs.

Now, a comment from Arron over at Barca Blaugranes had me thinking about some numbers. Arron said, and I paraphrase, one of the consequences of Barca's high possession number is containment of the oppositions attack. In other words if a team has a high possession % then you tend not to give up many shots against, although we are not sure of the quality of shots against.The quality of shots conceded may have been Barca's undoing away from home.

So let's have a look and see if a teams high possession number restricts the oppositions volume of shots?

Shots Against With Possession

The above chart deals solely with shots against as a total, these are blocked shots, shots on target, shots off target, shots that went for throw-in's!

Now this is a pretty telling graph. We see a relationship between declining possession and increasing shots against. The less possession a team has the more shots against that team concedes. From that we point we know how likely it is to concede more shots on target thus goals, thus a team are less likely to gain as many points.

Only Bilbao, 5th in the possession table, but with the 3rd worse shots against number stand out as an oddity in the above graph

Now we know about shots and shots against let's take a look at each teams ability to keep those shots out of the net.

Save %

The first thing that strikes me about save % is the consistency throughout the league. 19 out of the League's 20 teams are close to the mean line of 70%. Only Rayo with 61% were disappointing, but still, their number was only 9% way from the mean.

In the EPL there was far greater variance, with some teams far over the mean and teams like Blackburn and Arsenal being around 14% below the mean. Why is their a greater consistency in save % in La Liga?

Again, I put this question out to you, the fans. Has it something to do with a tactical consistency from team to team in La Liga, thus we don't see different systems that may be more defensive and gain a higher save %, or more attacking and have a lower save % as a result of being more open at the back?

Now lets put each teams save % together with their scoring % and get an overall team measure of their proficiency in scoring and saving. This I call PDO.

PDO

So this is the graph that points to a teams ability in all the categories we have looked at in the above graphs.

PDO is expected to trend toward the mean line over time. Every game has an available pdo score of 200 to be shared between the two teams.

We some very consistent numbers once again here. No team drops too far behind, no team races too far ahead. teams being relegated with a scores of 97, 96 and 95 is very strange for me to see.

Madrid and Barca are the two leaders in pdo, both teams have a lower pdo score than Man City and Man United posted in the 2011/12 EPL.

Valencia and Getafe's 108 number is very strong. Getafe's number is especially interesting as they finished in 11th place. They were able to finish in eleventh because of their strong scoring and save %. Getafe posted the 6th worst shots on target against and 5th worst shots on target for. Their skill (or luck) in converting so little shots on target into goals and keeping shots against out of their own net despite a high volume of shots against facilitated their 11th place finish. I'd expect a drop in their pdo next year.

PDO shows how well teams are doing with with what few or many shots for and against.

La Liga points by TV Money

Now I shall leave the reader with this graph. TV money in La Liga is a hot topic at the moment. Money in blue, points in yellow.

Some teams, Athletico Madrid, Malaga excel here. As do Osasuna, Sporting and Levante.

This graph is not an accurate read on wealth and points. TV money is only one aspect of the money a club earns and thus spends on playing staff.

I am not sure how the teams from Getafe downwards, 13 teams in all, are expected to compete at the top pf the table when they earn 9 or 10 times less TV money than Madrid or Barcelona. The big two teams are clearly more marketable, have a higher fan base and generate more global interest. But, if the TV monies continue to be distributed in such a manner throughout the league it will end in the two teams who earn the most monies in TV deals (and shirt sales etc) being so far ahead of the rest of the teams in the league that the word competition starts to become redundant.

It seems so long ago that Valencia won La Liga under Benitez, since then Valencia, due to it's financial state, have been plundered and are now forced to sell it's best player every year just to stay alive. Sounds like a struggling club, but no, Valencia finished 3rd in 2011/12. If the rich teams don't help the poor teams in the future we may see bankruptcies and liquidations.

If the rich don't help the poor there may not be much of a La Liga left for Barcelona and Madrid to utterly dominate and win every year. A good start to redress the in-balance of finances in La Liga would be a fairer distribution of TV money.

Thanks for reading

Follow shuddertothink on Twitter

El Mundo reporting Al-Thani is going to sell Malaga

2012-07-29T12:11:49Z

For full story go to www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2012/07/28/andalucia_malaga/1343507195.html

The report is an investment group from Albania owned by Rezart Taci, an oil tycoon, is the possible buyer. With Russian and Ukrainian money, too. This guy has been linked with a couple of Serie A clubs in the past: Bologna, and Milan. I have no idea if he would pass the EPL's "fit and proper persons" test or not, but of course this being Spain he wouldn't have to.

Meanwhile, the Guardian is reporting an agreement has been reached with Arsenal to sell Santi Cazorla, though since the price reported on twitter is only €18m, and Arsene Wenger is still denying anything is happening, skepticism is warranted. Meanwhile, as far as is known Villarreal and Osasuna's denunciations to UEFA need to be resolved by July 31, or else Malaga's Champions League dream may be over before it starts.

For full story go to www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2012/07/28/andalucia_malaga/1343507195.html

Riquelme leaves Boca Juniors.

2012-07-05T23:52:23Z

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/1122809/juan-roman-riquelme-quits-boca-juniors?cc=5901

He says he has nothing left to give the club.

How unfortunate a player with the caliber of Riquelme couldn't say good bye to his beloved team winning the Copa Libertadores.

Perhaps he could return to Villarreal?. Some Spanish sources claim he could either go to China, return to Villarreal or join Tigre managed by former teammate Rodolfo Arrubarrena since Riquelme was born close to Tigre's stadium and is a sympathizer of the team.

I don't see Riquelme returning to Villarreal but that would be awesome. You know. Riquelme helping Villarreal return to the Primera. That would be an awesome farewell to a great player like him. I strongly believe Roman has still some football in his boots. He was capable of single handedly taken Boca Juniors to the Copa Libertadores final.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/1122809/juan-roman-riquelme-quits-boca-juniors?cc=5901

He says he has nothing left to give the club.

How unfortunate a player with the caliber of Riquelme couldn't say good bye to his beloved team winning the Copa Libertadores.

Lugo defeat Cadiz to join the Segunda

2012-06-25T17:45:47Z

There were two important matches settled by penalty shootouts yesterday. In the better-played of the two (at least as far as scoring goals was concerned) Cadiz defeated Lugo 3-1 after regulation, which, since Lugo had defeated Cadiz by the same score in their ground, meant extra time had to be played. And since that didn't break the deadlock, the match went to penalties and Lugo defeated Cadiz to claim the last place on offer in the Segunda, Ponferradina having won their match against Tenerife the day before.

So, the promoted teams to the Segunda are Real Madrid Castilla, Mirandes, Ponferradina and Lugo.

Lugo last appeared in the Segunda in the 1992-1993 season, when they were relegated and Villarreal finished 13th. You can see a little bit of our final match against Lugo in this clip: La culminación del milagro (92-93) - Vìdeo Dailymotion (it is the second game shown, the first is against Mallorca who came fourth in the table that year)

So, the promoted teams to the Segunda are Real Madrid Castilla, Mirandes, Ponferradina and Lugo.

Jeff Montero joins Monarcas Morelia.

2012-06-16T05:57:34Z

http://espndeportes.espn.go.com/news/story?id=1543887&s=John_Sutcliffe&type=story

Quite surprising. Perhaps fellow countryman Joao Rojas convinced him to return to the Mexican League. Rojas is an interesting player too. They both played at the Sudamericano Sub 20 2009 if I'm not mistaken. Anyways. I believe Jeff is good to take part in helping Villarreal return to La Liga BBVA, keep playing in the Primera with another team, or move abroad to play in another European League. Either way good luck to him. Hope to see him play again Europe and excel though.

http://espndeportes.espn.go.com/news/story?id=1543887&s=John_Sutcliffe&type=story

Fantasy La Liga!!

2012-05-22T17:28:41Z

What's up my fellow Villarreal fans!

So, I doubt any of you remember this, but last summer I first joined Villarreal USA and I came up with the idea of creating a Fantasy La Liga league for us all and we ended up getting over 40 people joining which is awesome.

I remember it was said that the top 3 finishers in our league would get nice Villarreal CF prizes so I was wondering if this is still happening? I was never a part of a fantasy league before but I had a lot of fun participating. I was SO into every single La Liga game trying to get the most points out of my players. Messi drove me INSANE cause he wasn't part of my team and he was such a boss this season.

So yeah, I ended up finishing in 4th place which is not too shabby for my first Fantasy league ever. But you know, since we're all best friends and fans of the same team AND I came up with this whole fantasy league idea...I wouldn't mind a small Villarreal prize like a scarf or something (hehehehe just saying!!). I live in New Jersey and I'm way too dumb to figure out how to order things off of Villarreal's official website. If you guys know of any stores in the New York/New Jersey area that sell quality Villarreal items let me know.

But yeah, congrats to those top 3 finishers in our fantasy league! I hope we continue this next season and every season after that. It would be pretty badass if I started a tradition for Villarreal USA.

What's up my fellow Villarreal fans!

Sr. Roig: Malaga still owes money

2012-05-16T11:34:04Z

Sr. Roig addressed the press inside a crowded newsroom in Vila-real today. He confirmed that Villarreal will have a new coach--didn't say whom--and that we would not be cutting the cantera budget.

Interestingly, he said Malaga has STILL not paid the final installment for Santi's sale, and we will take action (unspecified) if need be if it's not received this month. Since Malaga has qualified for the Champions League, UEFA could refuse them a license if they have not settled this, so we have some pull here. (Recall that other clubs denounced Malaga to UEFA a couple of months ago also; no idea if they have seen any money).

Sr. Roig didn't give specifics, but he said we are not going to conduct a fire sale and our goal is going to be to return to the Primera next year, with "Rossi helping us to get there in the last months of the season". Obviously our goal is a quick return to the Primera, so the cuts to the budget will not be as large as some had feared.

I don't know which players attended; word was of those who were there only Marcos Senna and Diego Lopez were cheered, the others there were booed and apparently Camuñas came in for particular opprobrium, along with Nilmar who had to be escorted out. Interesting. Sr. Lotina also made an appearance and read his remarks.

BTW, within MINUTES of Sr. Roig concluding his comments, a Juve blog tweeted Juventus is signing Rossi (for €5m now, €10m payable over 4 years, with a unilateral recission clause in case he's reinjured). Sounds unlikely! But typical of the sort of thing we'll be hearing this summer....

Sr. Roig addressed the press inside a crowded newsroom in Vila-real today. He confirmed that Villarreal will have a new coach--didn't say whom--and that we would not be cutting the cantera budget.

La Liga Open Thread: Jornada 38

2012-05-13T17:00:00Z

It's that time again. The end of the La Liga season. Unfortunately for the Yellow Submarine, we may be 90 minutes from second-division football. But one point at El Madrigal or an away clean sheet in Vallecas would be enough for safety. Nerve-wracking.

Saturday, May 12 (all times CET)
Real Sociedad 1-0 Valencia
Real Betis 2-2 Barcelona

Sunday, May 13 @ 20:00
Getafe 0-2 Zaragoza
Levante 3-0 Athletic Bilbao
Real Madrid 4-1 Mallorca
Rayo Vallecano 1-0 Granada
Espanyol 1-1 Sevilla
Málaga 1-0 Sporting
Villarreal 0-1 Atlético Madrid
Racing Santander 2-4 Osasuna

Saturday, May 12 (all times CET)
Real Sociedad 1-0 Valencia
Real Betis 2-2 Barcelona

La Liga Open Thread: Jornada 37

2012-05-05T15:47:40Z

Apparently the match-fixing allegations hit two weeks too early. The last two jornadas will be played at the same time to avoid further improprieties. Enjoy, football fans.

Saturday, May 5 @ 21:00 CET
Zaragoza 2-1 Racing Santander
Athletic Bilbao 0-0 Getafe
Mallorca 1-0 Levante
Granada 1-2 Real Madrid
Sevilla 5-2 Rayo Vallecano
Barcelona 4-0 Espanyol
Sporting 2-1 Real Betis
Atlético Madrid 2-1 Málaga
Valencia 1-0 Villarreal
Osasuna 1-0 Real Sociedad

Apparently the match-fixing allegations hit two weeks too early. The last two jornadas will be played at the same time to avoid further improprieties. Enjoy, football fans.

La Liga Open Thread: Jornada 20

2012-05-02T17:28:00Z

Title-clinching may happen on Wednesday. But our focus is on one match: Tuesday evening at El Molinón.

Tuesday, May 1 (all times CET)
12:00 Getafe 1-1 Racing Santander
18:00 Granada 2-1 Espanyol
20:00 Sporting 2-3 Villarreal

Wednesday, May 2
18:00 Atlético Madrid 1-1 Real Sociedad
20:00 Barcelona 4-1 Málaga
20:00 Mallorca 1-0 Rayo Vallecano
20:00 Zaragoza 1-0 Levante
20:00 Sevilla 1-2 Real Betis
22:00 Valencia 4-0 Osasuna
22:00 Athletic Bilbao 0-3 Real Madrid

Title-clinching may happen on Wednesday. But our focus is on one match: Tuesday evening at El Molinón.

Tuesday, May 1 (all times CET)
12:00 Getafe 1-1 Racing Santander
18:00 Granada 2-1 Espanyol
20:00 Sporting 2-3 Villarreal

Villarreal Players' Average Salary

2012-05-01T20:27:30Z

This is a very interesting article from espn.com addressing the average salaries from 278 professional teams from around the world. Villarreal were ranked number 182, with an average salary (USD) of $1,641,640. The players are paid, on average, $31,570 per week. I do not know where they get their numbers, but not surprisingly, Barcelona ($8.7m average) and Real Madrid (7.8m average) were the two highest-paying clubs of any major sporting league in the world (including all sports, not just soccer). The full chart is available through the link, but here are Villarreal's numbers:

Rank	Last year	Team	League	Avg. annual pay $	Avg. weekly pay	% change in avg. weekly	Total payroll $ (rank)

182

162

Villarreal

La Liga

$1,641,640

$31,570

$41,040,989 (173)

Rank	Last year	Team	League	Avg. annual pay $	Avg. weekly pay	% change in avg. weekly	Total payroll $ (rank)

182

162

Villarreal

La Liga

$1,641,640

$31,570

$41,040,989 (173)

La Liga Open Thread: Jornada 36

2012-04-29T15:09:00Z

Sunday is chock-full of good matchups. Saturday, not so much. But hopefully the Yellow Submarine wins, our rivals lose beforehand, and Marcelo Bielsa takes the maños seriously.

Saturday, April 28
18:00 Getafe 1-3 Mallorca
18:00 Levante 3-1 Granada
18:00 Espanyol 0-3 Sporting
18:00 Real Sociedad 3-0 Racing Santander
22:00 Villarreal 1-1 Osasuna

Sunday, April 29
12:00 Real Madrid 3-0 Sevilla
16:00 Zaragoza 2-0 Athletic Bilbao
18:00 Málaga 1-0 Valencia
19:45 Real Betis 2-2 Atlético Madrid
21:30 Rayo Vallecano 0-7 Barcelona

Sunday is chock-full of good matchups. Saturday, not so much. But hopefully the Yellow Submarine wins, our rivals lose beforehand, and Marcelo Bielsa takes the maños seriously.

Saturday, April 28
18:00 Getafe 1-3 Mallorca
18:00 Levante 3-1 Granada
18:00 Espanyol 0-3 Sporting
18:00 Real Sociedad 3-0 Racing Santander
22:00 Villarreal 1-1 Osasuna

La Liga Open Thread: Jornada 35

2012-04-22T12:02:00Z

There's some big game this weekend. And the rest of La Liga plays too. The Yellow Submarine gets an early start on Sunday.

Saturday, April 21 (all times CET)
18:00 Mallorca 1-0 Zaragoza
18:00 Sporting 2-1 Rayo Vallecano
20:00 Barcelona 1-2 Real Madrid
22:30 Sevilla 1-1 Levante

Sunday, April 22
12:00 Granada 1-0 Getafe
12:00 Real Sociedad 1-1 Villarreal
16:00 Racing Santander 0-1 Athletic Bilbao
18:00 Atlético Madrid 3-1 Espanyol
21:30 Valencia 4-0 Real Betis

Monday, April 23
21:00 Osasuna 1-1 Málaga

There's some big game this weekend. And the rest of La Liga plays too. The Yellow Submarine gets an early start on Sunday.

Saturday, April 21 (all times CET)
18:00 Mallorca 1-0 Zaragoza
18:00 Sporting 2-1 Rayo Vallecano
20:00 Barcelona 1-2 Real Madrid
22:30 Sevilla 1-1 Levante

Monday, April 23
21:00 Osasuna 1-1 Málaga