Villarreal legend Marcos Senna plays his last match this Sunday

It's somehow typical that Marcos Senna's retirement will be overshadowed for the casual football fan by Raul's retirement, isn't it?  Villarreal always seem to play second fiddle to the big two, and so it will be on Sunday when Submarine legend, eternal captain, Spanish international, etc.  Marcos Senna plays his final competitive match, the North American Soccer League Championship Game in New York against the Ottawa Fury.

Most of the attention and media coverage will likely be focused not on Senna, but on his Cosmos teammate and fellow Spanish star, Raúl, who is also retiring.   Of course, Raul has had a storied career, no question about that, and his retirement is certainly big news.

But let's not forget, Marcos Senna has something Raul does not--a European Championship medal from Euro 2008, and certainly would have been part of Spain's World Cup-winning squad in 2010 if not for injury.  Senna really should have won the outstanding player award in 2008--this Guardian article, written before the final, has some interesting insights. Did you know Manchester United almost plumped for him after our Champions League run in 2006?

At any rate, with all respect to Ottawa, let's hope both of these excellent Spanish football stars close out their storied careers with a win on Sunday.    And don't be surprised to see Marcos Senna back in Vila-real and working with Villarreal CF in some capacity in the years ahead!

FYI, it appears that the match is being streamed by ESPN in various parts of the world, including the US.  Kickoff is at 5PM Eastern time (2PM Pacific) on Sunday.  Incidentally, there is another Villarreal connection to the Cosmos--one of our former youth players, John Neeskens, is in their first team, though he hasn't appeared in any matches this spring.

So, ENDAVANT....er--COSMOS!