*** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

Last year was a fantastic season. Very exciting, with 3 teams having a realistic shot with two weeks to go and it coming down to the second half of the final match for the big two.

This season I think will be similarly exciting. I think it will again be a Real Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla finish in some order. They are clearly the top 3 teams and should have distanced themselves from Valencia this offseason.

The two busiest clubs this offseason were the two teams in Madrid. Atletico gave up Fernando Torres and picked up Reyes, Simao, Luis Garcia and Forlan. That's a pretty big shakeup considering how consistently Torres had been their frontman. For Real Madrid their biggest signing was probably Robben long term but they also added Saviola, Heinze and Pepe and less known Drenthe, Sneijder, and Metzelder. Of the guys that player regularly they lost Emerson, Reyes, Ivan Helguera and the aging Beckham and Roberto Carlos. They had discussed getting a massive signing like Kaka, but I don't think that was too realistic. Barcelona signed fewer guys but they were all big names - Henry, Gaby Milito, Abidal and Toure. The major guy they lost was Giuly as well as I guess Saviola.

I'm feeling good about Sevilla's offseason. We'll see how the Alves thing goes as he basically demanded to leave the club and they turned down an offer that totaled 36 million euros. He's clearly very pissed at least at the Sevilla president. I just read that Alves didn't want to pose for the 2007-2008 team photo, showing up a half hour late. Apparently they will photoshop him into it. I personally think that Sevilla should offer him a contract that is equivalent (or a shade less) to what he would have gotten at Chelsea as he's the best player in his position in the world, brings something unique to the pitch every match and barring injury he should be a dominant player for another 6 or so years with 3 or 4 more good seasons after. If Sevilla are going to be a big club, we are going to have to not only get and hold on to such special players, but have them live and die with the club.

As I've said before, I don't think Sevilla need to make a ton of signings since the team is very young and very talented. They could use some help up front, especially as Kanoute should be due to have a drop off this season or next due to age. The important thing is to keep the team together, which they have done. The only guys that have left didn't get much playing time at all. The Alves thing is the key.

Valencia I expect to finish somewhat similarly to last year. Behind the above 3 but better than the rest. The main wildcard challenger is Atletico de Madrid. They could be anywhere from outside title challengers to middle of the table. I think Zaragoza will be the other UEFA Cup team.

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

Incidentally, what the hell is going on with goltv right now. They should be showing Real Madrid - Atletico de Madrid but it's some kind of preview show. The match is tied 1-1 in the 80th minute.

I didn't start watching at the beginning so I don't know if it's technical difficulties or what but I hope they fix it before the Sevilla match which starts in 20 minutes.

edit: apparently 2-1 now.

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

I think Madrid should win the league again, the only thing potentially holding them back could be Schuster. Drenthe and Sneijder are two sick players. The additions of Robben, Pepe, and Henize are also class pickups.

Barca will probably battle them neck and neck the whole way.


Sorry Jared, while Sevilla is a good team, they didn't add like Barca and RM, who only added better players to already good sides. I am not sold on those additions to Athletico Madrid. They basically signed rejects from other teams.

Could be a good season though.

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

TSC,

Sevilla are certainly a notch below the big 2. They are also IMO a notch above Valencia. I certainly don't think Sevilla have a great chance to win the league, but stranger things have happened. As usual, I expect Sevilla to do well in cup competitions and don't think even a semifinal appearance in the CL is out of the question. Sevilla on their day can be virtually unbeatable and they've shown that by dominating bigger teams who have problems dealing with the pace and style. Sevilla isn't a huge dog against anybody in a home and home. They are a fair dog against the few top teams if they play the first leg at home, but a favorable draw could see them go far. I will be disappointed if they either bust next week after the 2-0 first leg or don't get through the group stage.

The issue in the league is consistency. Sevilla didn't do nearly well enough against the bottom teams, especially away. I'm not sure that it's the most important stat but Sevilla recorded 8 0-0 draws. One was to Villarreal who finished 5th, two were to Racing who finished 10th, and the rest were teams lower. They drew 0-0 at home to the team that finished bottom. For contrast Barcelona drew 0-0 one time and Real Madrid twice.

I may make a separate thread about it, but in the small bit of research I've done the result of matches with the lower teams is far more telling about how a team does than the teams at the top. This makes sense in theory as being the only win for a terrible team means that everyone else got more points than you did against them. In a sense there are more points available. Not sure how interested others would be in this sort of thing.

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

Yea for some reason goltv decided not to show the game.... they were showing Bayern Munchen play instead. I was pretty angry considering I had my Beckham jersey on and my Real Madrid scarf on

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

The Sevilla game is on Goltv right now. One of the Sevilla defenders swallowed his tongue and it was one of the scariest moments ive ever seen in sports. 0-1 for getafe.

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

Wow, I think Antonio Puerta just started having a seizure on the pitch. It wasn't perfectly clear - he went down to his knees for no reason when the ball went out for a goal kick and then they panned away (reason #99458495845 why I wish goltvHD were a channel, it would have been on screen) and then the next shot they showed was Drago on top of him shoving his hand into his mouth. I don't think that's what you're supposed to do, but it's pretty standard.

I've never seen that before in a match.

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

Wow this is a crazy match. Early goal from Getafe on a nice free kick, two Getafe players have now been sent off in addition to Puerta having a seizure.

Hopefully Sevilla can come back up two players.

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

This game is quite bizarre. I still think the red card was very harsh and undeserved, but this should be an entertaining 2nd half.

edit: 1st red

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

[ QUOTE ]
This game is quite bizarre. I still think the red card was very harsh and undeserved, but this should be an entertaining 2nd half.

edit: 1st red

[/ QUOTE ]

First red was for a second yellow. The GolTV thing messed it up. I went back and checked and in the 7th minute Sousa got booked for a late challenge. They said it was somebody else. It seemed like an ok yellow, not overly harsh but maybe a bit. The second yellow was for an intentional handball on a through ball when Sevilla were attacking. That's pretty standard.

It's one of those situations, which are unfortunate for the neutral fan, where a player gets two legitimate yellows but neither were for doing anything too bad. One of the better examples I can remember is Pope against Italy in the last World Cup. I don't remember the first yellow but the second was certainly legitimate. It's unfortunate that this puts you a man down but that's how it goes.

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

Nice couple header goals.

Good to start with a win even if it is in no small part because the other team had two players sent off.

Another goal and Sevilla go top [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

edit: Goal by Kanoute, Sevilla currently #1 in the standings

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
This game is quite bizarre. I still think the red card was very harsh and undeserved, but this should be an entertaining 2nd half.

edit: 1st red

[/ QUOTE ]

First red was for a second yellow. The GolTV thing messed it up. I went back and checked and in the 7th minute Sousa got booked for a late challenge. They said it was somebody else. It seemed like an ok yellow, not overly harsh but maybe a bit. The second yellow was for an intentional handball on a through ball when Sevilla were attacking. That's pretty standard.

It's one of those situations, which are unfortunate for the neutral fan, where a player gets two legitimate yellows but neither were for doing anything too bad. One of the better examples I can remember is Pope against Italy in the last World Cup. I don't remember the first yellow but the second was certainly legitimate. It's unfortunate that this puts you a man down but that's how it goes.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ahh, thanks - that makes sense now. I thought it was a straight red, and the Pope analogy seems appropriate.

Barring anything serious to Puerta, it's a great start for Sevilla. Their style is really starting to grow on me.

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

Unfortunately there is/was somekind of tv rights struggle going on between the different players which resulted in Atletico and Real not being aired anywhere.

Hope it's sorted next week.

I remember last year where for a while the Sevilla games couldn't be aired here.

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

I'm not reading this thread yet because I don't want to know the result of the Atletico match, but if anyone knows anywhere where I can get a video/torrent anything of the full Real vs Atletico match I would really appreciate it. Instant message me at 'sir starvs alot' if you do. Thanks a lot

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

Gah I couldn't find the full match but I saw the highlights, pointing. Highlights made it look like Real basically ran over Atletico but its hard to judge really. I'm optimistic about Atletico but its basically a whole new team, so players have to mesh and all that.

If someone who caught the GolTV replay of the match at 6 could comment on how Atletico looks that'd be nice. I really hope they get this TV dispute fixed up.

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

Jared, what happened to one of Sevilla's players? Someone fainted or something.

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

holy [censored] [censored].

Just got back from a party and went to get an update on Puerta. I didn't post earlier, but after he had a seizure on the pitch and was taken to the locker room it happened again. That was the last I had heard.

I just read this. I hope I'm misunderstanding but I don't think so.

This is an update from the people at the Virgen del Rocio hospital.
[ QUOTE ]
"Antonio Puerta ingresaba a las 22:53 en parada cardio-respiratoria. Se le practica reanimación con éxito y pasa a la Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos (UCI) donde permanece con ventilación mecánica y en estado de inestabilidad. El pronóstico es muy grave y el próximo parte se dará mañana". No admitieron preguntas los galenos porque "no es una rueda de prensa, sino un comunicado medico".


[/ QUOTE ]

Here's my translation:
"Antonio Puerta checked in at 10:53 in cardiac arrest. He was revived successfully and sent to the intensive care unit where he remained unstable with labored breathing. He is in critical condition and an update will be given tomorrow." They did not answer questions from reporters because "it [was] a medical statement not a press conference."

////

This looks serious.

ANIMO PUERTA

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

holy [censored].

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

I just found other stuff that seems to imply that he is stable but I'm not sure whether that is before or after that one. The problem is that this news stuff happened after midnight over there and so it's not updated everywhere.

My Spanish is rusty but the first two sentences surely say that he was in cardiac arrest and was revived and sent to the ICU.

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

what could have caused that?

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

The update today said nothing had changed. Also, it's probably worse than I thought as "permanece con ventilación mecánica" almost certainly means that he is on a ventilator.

This [censored] is [censored] scary. I haven't been this worried about something related to sports since Montana got taken to the hospital in that playoff game against the Giants when I was 7.

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

The Guardian reports "Antonio Puerta remains under sedation in the intensive care unit, with assisted ventilation and haemodynamic instability."
Guardian Story

This is scary. I'm still amazed how quick Dragutinovic was realizing what was happening.

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

Wiki says it was a heart attack. No idea how reliable that is or if you guys have seen it yet.

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

[ QUOTE ]
Wiki says it was a heart attack. No idea how reliable that is or if you guys have seen it yet.

[/ QUOTE ]

Interesting. I haven't seen any corroboration of that on English-language sites yet.

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Wiki says it was a heart attack. No idea how reliable that is or if you guys have seen it yet.

[/ QUOTE ]

Interesting. I haven't seen any corroboration of that on English-language sites yet.

[/ QUOTE ]
This was cited: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...pe/6964586.stm

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

[ QUOTE ]
Wiki says it was a heart attack. No idea how reliable that is or if you guys have seen it yet.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah I guess he had two. One was on the pitch. I thought it was a seizure but I was mainly going off of online spanish dictionaries because I have no clue about medical terms unless they are obvious, which basically means that the English word is from Latin. It could also be that initial reports thought it was a seizure but it was really a heart attack. Honestly it looked bad at the time but I thought he would be ok since he recovered alright afterward. The trainer/medical guy immediately called for a sub but Puerta walked off if I recall correctly. I mean, he did look dazed and a little out of it and not ready to keep going but it didn't look life threatening afterward. To be honest it did look to me like it was a seizure based on having seen them four or five times.

Something I don't get about this whole thing is that everything I've read said that Drago and the medical people kept him from swallowing his tongue but I thought that was an urban legend. Maybe they were really moving the tongue to keep his airway clear? I guess I could be wrong or it could just be really widespread.

BTW I have to commend the Betis fans. On the Sevilla message board I frequent (http://www.hastalamuerte.net) fans from several teams have come in and said they wish the best. In particular there have been several Betis fans that have said things like that they hate Sevilla with a passion but would want to see Sevilla win the league and Betis be relegated if it meant that Puerta could come back. There are also links to a few Betis message boards where there are threads about it and every single post on them is either a Betis fan saying they hope he is ok or Sevilla fans thanking the Betis fans. It's pretty nice, though somewhat sad that it takes something like this to see that even the most intense rivalries aren't particularly meaningful when it gets down to it.

I haven't shed them yet, but have been on the brink of tears multiple times last night and today. It's horrible news in any case, but Puerta was like Sevilla's son since he was born and raised in Sevilla and came up through the youth squad.

For those who haven't seen it here's a video of what happened on the pitch to Puerta.

OK so that shedding thing is no longer the case. I just watched the extra-time goal from the 2006 UEFA Cup Semifinal for probably the 200th time.

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

Why didn't Gol TV show the Barcelona game either? This is pissing me off.

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

really sad to hear this

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...pe/6964586.stm

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

The Sevilla game has been postponed, i think.

Link

This has hit me harder than I expected. Best wishes to all concerned.

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

So I'm beginning to watch all the games from this past weekend . . .

. . . I had no clue that Simao, Forlan, and Raul Garcia were with Atletico. Wow.

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

Well now they have Riquelme too...

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

[ QUOTE ]
Well now they have Riquelme too...

[/ QUOTE ]

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/st...et&cc=5901

Brilliant. Looks like a rotation squad will be in place . . .

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

Atletico now a top-4 team in Spain? I think so.

Valencia looked awful Sunday. Only one game, but still.

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

[ QUOTE ]
really sad to hear this

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...pe/6964586.stm

[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, that came out of nowhere. Very sad. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

[ QUOTE ]
Atletico now a top-4 team in Spain? I think so.

Valencia looked awful Sunday. Only one game, but still.

[/ QUOTE ]

I watched this game, Valencia was beyond disappointing.

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

GOLAZO!!!

What a perfect free kick by Ronaldinho.

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

Anyone know why Ronaldinho did not play in Barca's win over Sevilla today?

According to ESPN Soccernet Gamecast, he was not in the lineup. Is this 'feud' between him and Rijkaard blowing up even more?

Also, I have usually been looking on YouTube for highlights a few hours after the game because I don't get any of the live feeds on TV here (USA). Are there better websites than youtube that have more complete highlights / streaming video?

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

[ QUOTE ]
Anyone know why Ronaldinho did not play in Barca's win over Sevilla today?

According to ESPN Soccernet Gamecast, he was not in the lineup. Is this 'feud' between him and Rijkaard blowing up even more?

Also, I have usually been looking on YouTube for highlights a few hours after the game because I don't get any of the live feeds on TV here (USA). Are there better websites than youtube that have more complete highlights / streaming video?

[/ QUOTE ]nice bump

Re: *** Official Spanish Primera Division 2007-2008 ***
 

I can't believe this thread was buried on page 7, especially after the thread ranking the leagues in the world had La Liga either 1st or 2nd.