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A few La Liga tidbits to enjoy on Christmas.....

Catching up on some items that have crossed the wires over the last few weeks.

David Ramos/Getty Images

An interesting study here, on the 6,514 penalties awarded in La Liga (from the beginning season in 1928, through the 11th week of play in the 2015-16 season).   It's in Spanish, but you can make out the details easy enough.  A few tidbits:

(1) Hugo Sanchez has taken the most penalties in the league, 71, for Atleti, Real Madrid and Rayo from 1981 to 1994.  Cristiano Ronaldo has taken 52, which is joint second on the list and the most for one club.

(2) When it comes to saving penalties, as if you needed corroboration, Diego Alves is simply freakish.  He's saved 16 out of 36 penalties--over 44%.  No one else who has stopped 10 or more is above 28%.

(3) Villarreal haven't had many penalties awarded either for or against lately (2 in favor, 3 against last year; 1 in favor, 1 against so far this year).  Overall, we have had 85 penalties awarded in favor and 90 against in our La Liga "career".

Plenty more where that came from.  Enjoy!

Also, news that Villarreal had a young MLS player visiting recently--Collin Fernandez, a young 18-year old midfielder for the Chicago Fire.  He trained with our academy sides for a couple of weeks.  I don't know exactly how the contact between Villarreal and the Fire came about, but it appears Collin had a pretty nice visit (and he got to watch us defeat Real Madrid!)