Atletico Madrid - Barcelona, Sunday 3pm EST

By: Isaiah | May 18th, 2007

I haven’t been feeling the whole posting thing these last few days, but there is a little something going on Sunday at the Vicente Calderon and it’s called us kicking rojiblanco booty to the curb. For all his supposed sex appeal, Fernando Torres is still, in my mind, an incomplete player. Part of that might have something to do with how his teammates would rather lose out on a UEFA Cup spot than have Real Madrid crowned La Liga champions for the 856th time. La Liga Loca has the dish:

The talk of Atletico Madrid throwing this match, has been ubiquitous as Esperanza Aguirre on Telemadrid, this week. Will the rojiblanco’s really jeapardise their UEGA cup hopes to stop their rivals from picking of the title crown? Or will they beat Barcelona, despite their best efforts. “We can only think about ourselves”, says Fernando Torres, who is firmly in the second camp. “I hope Barcelona win the league”, confessed Luccin, “Do you know what it will be like to live in Madrid if they don’t?”. Not exactly fighting talk, but considering the Frenchman has zero assists, zero goals and about ten red cards for his season’s work, it doesn’t really matter.

Not only that, but Torres himself does nothing but talk up Barca in this article in Sport. I translated it via Google, but it didn’t make any sense whatsoever, so I left it in Spanish. Sorry for everyone who reads this and doesn’t speak Spanish, but honestly, it made no sense in English. Anyway, he just says that Barcelona, as well as Real Madrid, are a class above everyone else. No doubt Valencia and Sevilla fans take at least a small amount of offense at that, but with a Madrid-centric view, the “lesser” clubs tend to fall away.

So, really, it all comes down to Atletico and their willingness to win? Not so much, says I. After all, we’re still Barcelona and if this week’s training is any indication, either we’re ready to rock and roll on this particular visit to Madrid (rather than not showing up like the last one) or our bench really does suck: Eto’o scored 4 goals and Messi 1 in a 5-0 drubbing of the substitutes by the starters in training. Deco is back and Rafa Marquez is making great strides towards fitness. Puyol is questionable after a metatarsal contusion and we all know those metatarsals are a bitch. Here’s hoping he’s fine.

The last time these two teams met, December 21 at Camp Nou, Ronaldinho and Aguero both scored in a 1-1 draw. What has been somewhat of a “bogey team” for Barcelona (2 losses in the 2005/06 season) is certainly tougher at home, but a quick look at the stats suggests Barcelona are, in fact, better than Atletico, even considering that Barcelona aren’t particularly good on the road.

Atletico’s Stats:
Home Goals/Game: 1.06 (18)
Home Goals Allowed/Game: 0.65 (11)
Home Win%: 47% (8)
Home Draw%: 35.3% (6)
Home Loss%: 17.65% (3)

Barcelona’s stats:
Away Goals/Game: 1.53 (26)
Away Goals Allowed/Game: 1.18 (20)
Away Win%: 35.3% (6)
Away Draw%: 29.4% (5)
Away Loss%: 35.3 (6)

So the stats point towards another 1-1 draw, but I don’t think the points will be split. It depends on the motivation level, but I think Barcelona should be running out gunning. Atletico are, of course, looking to consolidate their UEFA Cup position over Huelva and Villareal, who host Real Madrid and Racing Santander, respectively. Getafe, 1 point behind that, play Espanyol in Barcelona. Sevilla, in third, visit Depor while Valencia, in 4th, visit Mallorca. So it’s not an easy week for anyone, really. It never is, or at least it shouldn’t be.

And with that I’m out until Monday. Visca el Barça!