Diego Milito, Bernd Schuster, and the Great Closing of the Gap

By: Isaiah | April 12th, 2007

Ronaldinho’s Jimmy MacElroy impression against Zaragoza…

There’s never a dull moment this year in La Liga. Miss a couple of games because you’re eating chocolate rabbits and you’re suddenly lost as to how a league that was “getting out of hand” just a few weeks ago is now “coming down to the wire.” Naturally it was never out of hand, but was always hanging in the balance of a few bad games, but Barcelona are certainly very lucky to have even their slimmest of leads at the top of the table after losing 1-0 at La Romareda in Zaragoza. Sevilla haven’t exactly crumbled, but they’ve been on a drawing spree that would make Sven Goran Eriksson proud. Barcelona lost to a game and rather good Zaragoza side while a decent Santander side drew at the Sanchez Pizjuan. The top of the league looks like this:

1. Barcelona 56pts
2. Sevilla 55pts
3. Real Madrid 54pts
4. Zaragoza 50pts
5. Valencia 50pts

That’s a slightly different look than, say, Serie A, Ligue 1, or the SPL, but La Liga isn’t the only race that is heating up down the stretch. In England, Chelsea have narrowed the lead at the top to 3 points, meaning ManU will have to fight to the very end to be able to get even a double, much less the vaunted treble they’re look for. With Liverpool 15 points out of 2nd, it’s not as close as Spain or even the Bundesliga where Schalke retains a 2 point lead over Werder Bremen and a 4 and 6 point lead over Stuttgart and Bayern Munich respectively. Porto only lead the Portuguese league by 3 over Benfica and 3rd place Sporting Lisbon is a point behind that. The Dutch Eredivisie leaders PSV are 2 points above both Alkmaar and Ajax and only 6 points ahead of 4th place Twente Enschede (really? Twente Enschede? Glad I’ve heard of them…).

So it’s a general circle jerk around the league titles right now, but how did it come to this in Spain? A short rundown of what happened over the weekend:

Zaragoza 1 - 0 Barcelona
Sevilla 0 - 0 Santander
Real Madrid 2 - 0 Osasuna
Athletic Bilbao 1 - 0 Valencia

So Zaragoza jumped to 4th while Atletico Madrid kept within Champions League striking distance with a win at Villareal, but there is, as always, big transfer news which takes precedence over even the games themselves, especially during midweek. The latest rumor Barcelona-centric Sport has been bandying about (besides the ever-present Cristian Ronaldo links) is that Diego Milito, the man who scored for Zaragoza against the blaugrana on Saturday, is being linked to the Catalan club now. That and his brother, because why link one Milito when you can link two? Even though Gudjohnsen has declared he’s staying for next year, Saviola is destined to leave, so there’s no reason to believe Barcelona aren’t in hunt for a second/third striker (depending on where you rank Guddie). Milito would be a solid addition, but my guess is that without the promise of continuous starts, he won’t sign. He’s not Kanoute in terms of “under-the-radar” strikers, but he’s frighteningly good and whoever gets him from Zaragoza will automatically have a great addition to their ranks.

But that’s definitely not the biggest news for the Spanish media to wrap their prolific pens around: Bernd Schuster has signed a pre-agreement with Real Madrid. Is that like Figo saying he would stay at Barcelona? Or is it a ploy to get Capello to, I don’t know, win the league? If he does win the league and Schuster is lined up for the job, what does that say about Real Madrid, other than confirming all the terrible things ever written about the way Madristas think and act in reference to their club? Ah, rhetorical questions. Anyway, here’s the story. It’s big news, regardless of what actually transpires.

Valencia are out of the Champions League, meaning there are no Spanish representatives in the semifinals while three English sides will be there. Strange turn of events for me, as I’ve consistently proclaimed La Liga to be superior to the Premiership over the last few years. Barcelona “proved me right” last year with their victory and I could at least partially claim the Liverpool side that beat Milan in 2005 was Spanish. This year’s Liverpool is really just another English team, with their “armada” somewhat injury-prone and with their non-Spanish players really piling it on of late. Not that the Spanish players aren’t major figures in Liverpool’s run this year, but it doesn’t have the same feel as previous years. Perhaps they just need to buy Villa in the summer to bring themselves back up to par.

It’s sad to see the last Spanish team bounced out of Europe’s biggest stage, but Osasuna, Espanyol, and Sevilla trundle on in the UEFA Cup, which I guess should bring comfort to all those Spanish NIT fans…The games will be good, of course, but there will be that special Spanish flair missing: morbo.

Enough of me tonight; back tomorrow evening with a quickie about Barcelona’s home game against Mallorca. And maybe I’ll mention that titanic game in Valencia…