The Plot Thickens: The Great Weekend

By: Isaiah | May 1st, 2007

El Pais, “the most widely circulated paper in Spain”, suggests that Barcelona have the easiest final 6 games of the top 4 teams. I would tend to agree and no doubt there are conspiracy theorists out there suggesting it was all set up this way to ensure a Catalan title come June 17. That is, of course just idiotic. Sevilla, Madrid, and Valencia end the season with patsy home games (against Villareal, Mallorca, and Real Sociedad respectively) while Barcelona are away for Week 38 (granted, to bottom of the table Nastic, but they’re at least away). Barca, Sevilla, and Valencia are split 3-3 in terms of home and way games during their last 6 matches while Madrid have 4 home games, though the merengues still have the toughest schedule of the 4 in my estimation.

Anyway, regardless of what a snapshot of the final 6 weeks suggests politically (or scientifically, esthetically, or otherwise for that matter), every team must play each other once away and once at home over the course of the season and however that works out is how it works out, assuming Juventus hasn’t moved to Spain recently (cheap shot and I know it, sorry Gianfranco). So enough with the nonsense akin to Sasquatch and man landing on the moon. Let’s stick to reality here, please.

The most realest thing out there at the moment is that Madrid host Sevilla at the Bernabeu on Sunday (3pm EST) in what could be the decisive game of the year for both clubs. A draw could potentially sink them 4 and 3 points respectively behind Barcelona (if they should beat Real Sociedad on Saturday). It could also mean that Valencia draws within 2 points of 3rd place and 1 tiny point should Madrid do the unthinkable and lose at home at a time like this. I can already see the Madridista terrible towels waving in the stands…– the white handkerchiefs, if you’re not up on your NFL references. I won’t bother to write up a preview of that one as there are enough of those by Madrid and Sevilla fans around the intertubes; suffice it to say that it’ll be a good game regardless and I’ll certainly be watching.

There are quite a few abberations possible this weekend and it would be a folly to attempt to list them all as it would take a long time to read and digest, much less write. If Barcelona pull out the 3 points on Saturday, the fight in Madrid will be all that much more rigorous and while I should be hoping for a draw in terms of best potential result for Barcelona, I think my heart will always lie with Barcelona beating their team and Real Madrid losing to theirs. So go Sevilla, if only for this week. Then I hope Recreativo beats their pants off. I basically don’t care what Valencia does anymore, even if they’re not mathematically eliminated from winning the title. They won’t make up 6 points on the leader in 6 games, I’m pretty positive of that. What’d I’d like to see Los Ches do is swoop in and bitch slap some 4th place on to Madrid. That’s not looking likely from the way the merengues are playing, but one can always hope…

There’s the Copa del Rey to consider as well as both Sevilla and Barcelona are still in it and both are cruising into the second leg with 3 goal leads. It’s merely that Sevilla are returning home for the “vuelta” up 0-3 and Barcelona head to the outskirts of Madrid up 5-2. A 3-0 victory for Getafe is pretty damn unlikely, but more likely than Depor forcing extra time or taking the tie outright with an 0-4 win. I’ll consider it all more after the weekend, of course, when the games are closer and the rosters are out.

And that’s today’s speed bump of truth.

And next you’ll tell me Hurricane Katrina wasn’t a government plot planned years in advance to hike gas prices.