Real Madrid are the record holders of the Spanish La Liga competition or Liga de Ftbol Profesional (Professional Football League) with 29 titles and are poised to add another silverware to their collection at the expense of Barcelona who led the charts for most of the season. Barcelona and Real Madrid are level at the top with 72 points with the Madrid side leading the standings because of a better head to head record against the chief rivals. Real Madrid only have to beat mid-table Mallorca on Sunday to clinch the title irrespective of what happens in Barcelona-Giminastic match. Sevilla who are two points adrift will be hoping to cash in if the two giants falter. As good as it gets, the La Liga title race is far from over going into the final games and the drama might cause emotional trauma. This is the only major league in Europe not to have a champion before the last match-day.
Real will thank their inspirational midfielder, David Beckham who was at some stage denied first team play by coach, Fabio Capello. Beckham came off the sidelines in the second half of the season to stir the Galacticos to significant victories though he has already secured a multi-million switch to the United States' Major League Soccer side Los Angeles Galaxy next season. Madrid fans forced Capello to recall Beckham and his inspiration saw Real upstage defending champions Barcelona in the title race. Though champions in the last two seasons, the Catalans have played indifferently in this campaign - leading the standings most of the time. However, Barcelona's major undoing has been the inability to pull away from the chasing pack of Real Madrid, Sevilla and Valencia. Their failure to finish off some of the weaker teams landed them in the current situation.
The La Liga is currently ranked the best competition in Europe ahead of the Italian Serie A, followed by the English premiership considerable to their achievement in European competitions. The deficit in their (Barcelona and Madrid) usually high standards instigated claims from English teams' managers that English league has surpassed La Liga as the best in Europe.
Barcelona, who definitely have a stronger frontline than Real started to struggle for goals in the crucial part of the season when their marksmen, Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi sat out more than a handful matches due to injuries. The team had depth but with due respect, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Javier Saviola and Ludovic Guily did not rise to the occasion. Eto'o, the three-time African footballer of the year has been the Catalans top scorer since he joined the club. His injury proved disastrous and he seemed not to have recovered fully. The ever-present Ronaldihno did not have a good season and this earned him many critics from the Spanish press and fans who blamed his alleged weight problem. It was said that he had developed a 'bigger belly'.
Barcelona's poor form this season once saw their fans shouting at the players and branding them lazy money-grabbers. After their 4-0 humiliation by Getafe in the Spanish King Cup, Madrid bases Sports daily, AS invented the term 'Barcicide' (Barcelona suicide).
There were also reports that a rift had emerged in the team between supporters of president Joan Laporta and former vice-president Sandro Rosell.
Eto'o, who was berated as the kingpin in the trouble made an unflattering comments to coach Frank Rijkaard and team-mate Ronaldihno, after refusing to come on as a late substitute. "If a team-mate (Ronaldihno) says that you must think of the team, it's up to him to think of the team. Personally I always think first about the group and then money," he seethed. "Anyone (Rijkaard) who comes out to the press and says Eto'o has refused to play is a bad person," Eto'o retorted.
On the other hand, Real has once again been the most unbalanced side this season and opponents have abundantly exploited their defensive frailties. Real Madrid has hardly produced the best defender in Europe and even presently, history remains unchanged. However, the old Galacticos have been shipped out of the Bernabeu. The club spent millions bringing in players most of whom were inexperienced and did not fit the bill of the traditional 'Galatico' status. Madrid spent the best part of the season in mid table, constantly shielding blows and feeding on scraps. This season the club has fielded only a few regulars like Iker Casillas, Raul Gonzalez and Ruud van Nistelrooy. Many of the old and new characters constantly appeared and disappeared as the team lost shape. The return of Fabio Capello as coach saw the team resorting to more defensive formations rather than the customary aggressive attacking football of the Barnabeu greats. Capello the man who masterminded AC Milan's success in late 1980s to early 1990s incurred heavy criticism and was constantly reported to be on his way out just halfway on his first season. On loan Arsenal midfielder to Real, Jose Antonio Reyes once expressed his disapproval of Capello's tactics of employing defensive methods saying that the team needed to be looking for goals. ""We play defensively because that is the way the coach wanted, to prevent the other team scoring. But you also have to score because draws are not good enough. The team is disoriented because one day I play on the left, the next on the right. But it doesn't only happen with me. It is the same for my colleagues," Reyes told Radio Marca.
A few stars also blamed the coach's method after the team narrowly lost to Bayern Munich in the Champions League. Capello later managed to put out strong squads and got a reasonable number of victories, which uplifted his team to the top of La Liga.
The reality check is that whatever happens during the weekend, the two giants will maintain respect for pushing each other to the wire, and the showdown will definitely live up to the billing. Regardless the outcome, may be this season's La Liga title will go down as one of the biggest upsets in the competition's history looking at where Real and Barcelona are coming from.
For Sevilla, it will be a bonus should they lift the title. This is a battle of the titans.
