SocceR 4 CoutuR9

El canal estadounidense ESPN, líder mundial en deportes, está preparando un gran despliegue para el Clásico Barcelona-Real Madrid del próximo lunes. De hecho, la productora española Asimétrica ha preparado una 'promo' especial que se puede ver en la pantalla gigante de Times Square, centro neurálgico de Nueva York.

La promoción es espectacular y se emitirá durante los próximos días tanto en Estados Unidos como Latinoamericana pues ESPN tiene diversos canales, tanto en inglés como en español y portugués.

Sin duda, un gran trabajo de nuestros compañeros que sirve para dar aún más lustre al duelo futbolístico más atractivo del planeta, que con iniciativas como ésta llega ya a cualquier rincón de la Tierra.

Up 4-0 over Ajax on Tuesday and with advancement to the knockout stage all sealed up, Jose Mourinho and Real Madrid got a little sneaky in their yellow card management.

First, Xabi Alonso earned his second yellow card and was sent off in the 87th minute after wasting time on a free kick in a way that looked like some kind of running seizure (video above). Then, in the 90th minute, Sergio Ramos earned his second yellow and got sent off when he took his sweet time on a goal kick (video below). That rules both players out for Real's final, utterly meaningless group stage match against Auxerre and gives them a clean slate for the knockout rounds.

Though they would never admit that they did this deliberately, you'd have to still believe in Peter Pan to believe that they didn't. To some people -- Champions League commentators included -- this is an outrage and to others it's just another example of Jose Mourinho's genius. After the match, Mourinho had this to say (via the AP):

“I don’t think it was necessary to get those red cards because we were in control,” Mourinho said. “But this is a fantastic result and that’s the only thing that matters.”

Marca thinks Jose used backup goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek in a game of whisper down the lane to pull this off.

UPDATE II: Well, it seems these guys weren't sneaky enough. UEFA has now charged Mourinho, Ramos, Alonso, and even Casillas and Dudek with "unsporting conduct." Their cases will be heard on November 30.

"Without Gol there is no Clasico" the billboards around Spain proclaim ahead of the season's first "match of the century." The pay-per-view television channel Gol TV has the rights to the game, and it's making sure everybody knows it with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, its elected poster boys, towering over roadsides and adorning subway stations. And it's not joking about the privilege -- the signal will be shut off in somewhere near 1,350 bars nationwide that are masquerading as private homes to avoid paying a heftier fee.

Spain tends to get very excited over the Clasico. Last year, an apocalyptic commercial with lightning bolts and crashing thunder blared from television sets in the lead-up to the Camp Nou game. Its message was loud and clear: This was going to be the match of the century. As it turned out, it wasn't. A single Zlatan Ibrahimovic strike proved sufficient to give Barca victory in an otherwise largely forgettable encounter.

It was a far cry from the previous Clasico, when Barcelona came to the Bernanbeu in the 2008-2009 season. With four points separating the two clubs, Barca inflicted so biblical a defeat that Real didn't win another game for the rest of the season.

With Lionel Messi in fine form, El Clasico promises to live up to the hype.

Manuel Pellegrini, Jose Mourinho's predecessor at Real and now at the helm at Malaga, might allow himself a wry smile as he goes about his business this week. Two Clasicos without goals last season would have suited the Chilean schemer, as it would have handed the title to Real. As it was, Barca beat Madrid 1-0 at home and 2-0 away.

"It's a game worth six points," Ronaldo told reporters last week, alluding to the importance of the fixture.

After the weekend added 13 goals to bring Barca and Real's tally to 33 each -- with a hat-trick apiece for Messi and Ronaldo -- any notion that this La Liga season would provide a third contender in the title race was effectively sunk when Villarreal and Valencia tied 1-1 at El Madrigal last weekend. The draw left both sides eight and eleven points adrift of Real Madrid, respectively. Espanyol is in fourth place with the winter break approaching, but even the most romantic fans of the Parakeets are not singing about a European campaign in the spring. A goal difference of -1 suggests a striking deficiency in former Espanyol defender-turned-coach Mauricio Pochettino's squad.

This weekend only proved to highlight the dominance of Barca and Real. Almeria was Barca's victim on Saturday, although its eight-goal drubbing was not a major surprise. The coastal club has been in woeful form all season and coach Juanma Lillo was sacked in the aftermath. Real's 5-1 win over Athletic Bilbao was more eye-catching, even if it was the same result as the corresponding fixture last season. With Fernando Llorente now one of the division's most feared strikers and youth players such as Iker Muniain coming through, Athletic is one of La Liga's stronger outfits. Yet Real still won easily.

The title will be decided, as it was last season, by which team prevails in Spain's two-match mini-league. History favors the home side for Monday's clash. In 25 years, Real has beaten Barca in the Catalan capital three times. It took the legendary Quinta del Buitre, under the tutelage of Alfredo di Stefano, to do so in 1983. And it required the Galacticos of president Florentino Perez's first tenure to repeat the feat 20 years later. Four years later, Julio Baptista gave Real a 1-0 victory in the club's last title-winning season.

It will take a team of similar caliber to win the day on this occasion, and Mourinho and Perez have constructed one. Real remains unbeaten in all competitions and is scoring freely while conceding just six goals in the league. The blossoming of Marcelo and Pepe, and the purchase of veteran campaigner Ricardo Carvalho, has cured Real's Achilles heel, its defense.

But in spite of Real's ostentatious assembly, it's not accurate to label the match as one purely of cash versus craft. Barcelona's team of mostly home-grown talent was not cheaply convened. The likes of Messi, Xavi, Andres Iniesta were taught their trade at La Masia, the most expensive finishing school in the world game, which operates on an annual budget similar to that of Almeria's. Neither do players such as Dani Alves, David Villa, Seydou Keita or Javier Mascherano arrive in Catalonia for the cost of an airfare.

"I don't think there has ever been a Clasico with as much parity as this one," Diego Maradona told reporters when he sat in on a Real training session recently. "Barca is in a great moment and Mourinho's team is very solid. This game will tip the balance in favor of which team will win the league. It will demonstrate the reliability of Mourinho and the playing style of Barcelona -- the team that plays with most personality will win."

The two most highly regarded coaches of their generation, the two strongest teams in Europe on current form, and the two finest attacking players in the game: El Clasico promises to be a game worthy of its lavish publicity.

It might even prove to be the match of the century.

One of the biggest issues discussed on blogs, podcasts, social networks, etc., is the current financial problems in La Liga and the probability that the title race could be a race between two clubs — the two richest clubs. We have discussed the TV rights issue ad naseum and how it should be a more shared and distributed model, similar to that of the Premiership, on the Forza Futbol podcast. We've discussed salary caps, parachute payments and separating La Liga from Segunda. That said, I want to use this opportunity to address another area, that of stadium ownership.

One of the areas of disparity that holds La Liga back is stadium ownership. The majority of La Liga clubs do NOT own their stadium. Only the rich or well-established clubs do. The rest of the clubs rent their stadium from the municipality or town council. Let's take a deeper look at each club's situation.

Barcelona and Real Madrid own their own stadiums. They reside in their respective capitals and generate a large amount of revenue with their large facilities. Sevilla and Villarreal also own their stadiums. Sevilla President Jose Maria Del Nido and Villareal President Fernando Roig are two of the shrewdest business men in the Spanish league. Del Nido is trying to build a competitive top-four club in La Liga with Sevilla. He wants to solidify Sevilla's place in the Champions League and knows that Europe is where the money is. Roig is trying to do the same with Villarreal. It is such an incredible story — a town with a population of 45,000 has a stadium that holds 45,000. With their focus on youth (Villarreal B is in the second division this season) and purchasing South American players at low costs, Roig has built a competitive team at Villarreal.

Both Atletico de Madrid and Athletic Bilbao own their own stadium. In order to replace their old stadum with a new one, they have made a pact with the local council to "buy" their old stadium. Atléti will take over the Madrid Stadium, a.k.a. La Peineta, from the city after the renovations are completed. It will be a 73,000 seater. San Mames Barria begins construction this year. It will be a 53,000-seat stadium.

Espanyol finally has a home of their own at Cornellá-El Prat. Osasuna owns the Reyna de Navarra stadium. Betis owns the Manuel de Lopera. However, it has never been fully completed as promised, due to financial issues. Valencia owns two stadiums, the old Mestalla and the half built Nou Mestalla. This is why Los Che is in debt to the tune of €600 million. But Sporting Gijon, Racing Santander, Almeria, Getafe, Deportivo La Coruña, Malaga, Mallorca, Zaragoza and newly relegated Valladolid, Tenerife and Xerez, all do not own their own stadiums. Is there any wonder why the Premiership is better off financially?

Elisa Uranga is the La Liga and Spain correspondent for Global Football Today. You can hear Elisa spread her love for La Liga, La Furia Roja and the beautiful game on the Forza Futbol podcast at www.forzafutbol.com and itunes. You can follow her on twitter: elisaU or find her on facebook @ www.facebook.com\medelliae where she loves to debate and discuss football 24-7.

The arrival of Portuguese gaffer Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid has increased the interest of La Liga football among Zimbabweans. The Special One has a huge following among Zimbabweans going back to his days at English premiership side Chelsea. Locals are now hooked to the action, as they want to see the matadors of football battle it out for top honours in Spain. One thing though about the Spanish game has however vexed locals and that is the number of clubs that have the prefix “Real” to their names. The word “Real” means Royal in Spanish. Most of these clubs that prefix their name with “Real” enjoy the patronage of the Spanish royal family. Out of the 20 teams in the top-flight league seven of them have the prefix “Real”. They are Madrid, Zaragoza, Mallorca and Espanyol. The others are Sporting Gijon and Sociedad. Villa have used “Real” as a suffix to make it Villareal. Betis, Valladolid and Murcia also fall in this same bracket, but currently they are playing in the lower leagues. It all began in 1902 when clubs suggested a football tournament to honour the coronation of King Alfonso XIII. The tournament was then christened Copa Del Rey meaning Cup of Kings. King Alfonso XIII subsequently became the patron of many Spanish football clubs, granting them permission to use “Real” in their names.