La Liga Lowdown, Jornada 1: Barcelona lay down a marker

The new La Liga season finally returned this weekend and the early advantage goes to Pep Guardiola and Barçelona. Alright, it’s only day one and there’s still a long road ahead, but I’m sure José Mourinho won’t want to get into the habit of passing up on points too often.

Of course it’s going to take time for Real Madrid to get going, with six new additions to the squad (three of whom started against Real Mallorca), but with Barça being in such good form, those few points could prove costly at the end of the season. As we saw last season, just three points ended up being the difference between the two sides.

Real Mallorca fans packed into the ground and provided a great atmosphere for what turned out to be a good point for them. The loss of key players like Borja Valero didn’t seem as bad as many thought it would’ve been and new manager Michael Laudrup included a number of young players in his starting line-up. In came 20-year-old Sergi Enrich to lead the line alongside Víctor, with Jonathan de Guzmán supporting from the centre and Emilio Nsue from the right.

Mourinho kept faith in teenager Sergio Canales after an impressive pre-season and he didn’t disappoint in his first league appearance for Real after joining permanently from Racing Santander. As skillful and elegant as ever, he looked at home in the attacking midfield role behind Gonzalo Higuaín and is only going to get better. No doubt he has extremely stiff competition though, with the signing of German international Mesut Özil who came on in the second half. New boys Ricardo Carvalho and Ángel di María also made their debuts.

Although Real clearly lacked rhythm and ideas, they did create a number of chances, something which Mourinho claimed as a positive. But when Real Madrid lack ideas, one thing happens – everyone looks to find Cristiano Ronaldo. And sure enough that happened. Even when Ronaldo made it through on goal, Dudu Aouate, the giant Israeli who was in top form, was there to prevent him. As for Mallorca, they created chances themselves, but also showed a lack of killer instinct upfront which lead to the eventual goalless finish at the recently re-named Iberostar Estadi.

Elsewhere, Bar­ça got off to a great start with a 3-0 win away at Racing with Leo Messi opening the scoring after just four minutes. World Cup hero Andrés Iniesta found himself on the score sheet after a magnificent lobbed volley ten minutes before half time. And with the whole Zlatan-Raiola drama going on, it was their new striker David Villa who wrapped up the victory with his first goal for the club – no doubt the first of many this season. It was the same old Barça, same old philosophy, and another great team performance to kick off the season.

Espanyol began life without Raúl Tamudo at home to Getafe, but he wasn’t really missed. His replacement Pablo Osvaldo scored twice and another player on loan for the season, Jesús Dátolo, secured a 3-1 win with a last minute goal. Newly promoted Levante were predictably battered 4-1 by Sevilla with Abdoulay Konko of all people getting two goals. Even more predictably, Deportivo played out a 0-0 draw with Zaragoza at the Riazor.

But enough of that, here’s one that nobody predicted…Real Sociedad beating Villarreal 1-0. As I mentioned in my season preview, la Real look to be the strongest of the three newly promoted teams. They lined up with a number of local players who have progressed to the senior team and were too good for a lacklustre Villarreal.

It was in fact new signing Joseba Llorente who provided a moment of class for the goal, as his flicked back-heel pass found its way to Xabi Prieto who calmy slotted home. A great result for them, but Juan Carlos Garrido will not be happy with the way his team played and will certainly expect better next week against Espanyol.

The league’s other two newcomers didn’t fare as well. Hércules lost 1-0 to Athletic Bilbao, World Cup winner Fernando Llorente scored the only goal of the game with, you guessed it, a header. Over at La Rosaleda Málaga lost 3-1 to Valencia, much to the disappointment of their new Arab owners. The loss of David Villa and David Silva meant that Unai Emery played with Juan Mata in the hole and Aritz Aduriz as the lone striker. He also treated us to a classic wing pairing of Vicente and Joaquín.

Los Che went ahead in the 9th minute through Aduriz, only to be pegged back on the stroke of half time by Málaga’s record signing Sebastián Fernández. But later on in the second half Joaquín weighed in with two well taken goals inside five minutes, effectively ending the game. He can be infuriating and is often inconsistent, but he’s a top class winger when confident and in form. Hopefully he will keep it up. Wouldn’t hold your breath though.

Results

Hércules 0-1 Athletic, Málaga 1-3 Valencia, Levante 1-4 Sevilla, Real Sociedad 1-0 Villarreal, Osasuna 0-0 Almería, Deportivo 0-0 Zaragoza, Espanyol 3-1 Getafe, Racing 0-3 Barcelona, Mallorca 0-0 Real Madrid.

Goal of the Week

Andrés iniesta (Racing 0-3 Barcelona)

(pic via cerezo on Flickr)

Andres Iniesta, David Villa, Espanyol, FC Barcelona, Hercules, Joaquin, Malaga, Real Madrid, Real Mallorca, Real Sociedad, Sergio Canales, Sevilla, Spanish Primera Division, Valencia, Villarreal