O derbi galego

This past Friday was o derbi galego, the Galician derby between Celta de Vigo and Deportivo La Coruña. If you have no idea where Galicia is, you’re not alone. Galicia is one of the autonomous regions of Spain, which is directly north of Portugal. Vigo is about a two hour drive north of Porto and La Coruña is another three hours north of that. Celta and Deportivo have have had a long rivalry, and like most football derbies, come about from political tension. Without getting into too much detail, Vigo is the economic capital of the region whilst La Coruña is one of the administrative hubs of the region (neither are the government capital).

Football-wise, Deportivo La Coruña has had more success in it's lifetime. They had a great run from the mid 1990s to the mid 2000s in which they became the smallest city in Spain (approximately 200,000) to win a Spanish league title in 2000 and were runners-up in 2001 and 2002. They also experienced some success in the Champions League reaching the semi-finals in 2004. This team was affectionately known as Superdepor.

Celta de Vigo have not had the same success as their northern Galician rivals. Their highest ever finish in Spain’s Primera división came in 2003, when they finished fourth. However, during Superdepor’s era, Celta had it’s own golden era, in which they qualified for the UEFA Cup (the precursor to the Europa League) and the Champions League. The Spanish press dubbed them Eurocelta because they became “giant killers” in Europe. During this period, the squad’s talisman was Aleksandr Mostovoi, who was known as El Zar de Balaídos (The Tsar of Balaídos).

Aleksander Mostovoi

Unfortunately for both clubs, they have declined since their European highs in the mid-2000s. Celta’s struggles started first and were relegated to La segunda división in 2007 and only returned to La primera división in 2012. Deportivo were relegated in 2011 but quickly came back up for the 2012 season as well. 

As it turns out, this particular instance of the derby has serious ramifications to both clubs since both Celta and Deportivo are in a relegation battle. This match could conceivably be the difference between relegation and staying in Spain’s top flight. From Celta’s point-of-view, this was a little payback for all the teasing they received from Deportivo when they were in La segunda divisón. Now it was Celta’s turn to ensure the final nail was hammered on Deportivo’s coffin and relegate them to La segunda divisón.

The La Coruña police took no chances for this match, sending out the riot squad to escort the Celta bus to the Riazor, Deportivo's stadium.

And there was no love-loss by the Deportivo supporters:

Deportivo fans "greeting" the Celta bus and supporters

Riki celebrates

On to the match itself, both clubs has new managers since both had recently sacked their coaches, and in Deportivo's case  this was their third mister of the campaign. Deportivo came out strong and within seven minutes, Iván Sánchez (Riki) found the back of the net with a spectacular volley.

Overall, Celta had a terrible match. They looked unorganized, confused, and rarely looked like they were going to trouble La Coruña. They were starting to look to Iago Aspas to provide them a spark. Iago did create some fireworks. However, it wasn't what Celta wanted, as he foolishly head-butted Marchena and received an automatic red card.

Iago, what are you doing?!

From this point on, Deportivo took full control of the match and cruised to a comfortable 3-1 win in front of their supporters. To add to the shenanigans of the match, Hugo Mallo, a Celta player who was injured but decided to join the supporter caravan to Riazor was photographed with a "FOR SALE" sign with Deportivo's club emblem over a Portuguese flag. He was also making obscene gestures at the Riazor to the point that the police had to intervene before a full-out riot took place. The club has decided to sanction both players for their poor conduct.

With this win, the relegation battle has become intense since the difference between twentieth and seventeenth, is only six points. However, for Celta, they face Barça next week and are without their star player for the next few weeks. In my opinion, things don't look good for Celta, but such is life in football.

Barça 4 - 0 AC Milan

What a match! If you're a fan of "the beautiful game", this was one of those matches that makes you proud of being a "footie supporter". For those of you who aren't, let me try and  explain some of the background to this match.

FC Barcelona (Barça) lost to AC Milan 2-0 in Milan. It was universally regarded as an upset since Barça are regarded as the best football club on the planet, and are deserved of this title. From 2006 to 2012, Barça have won four (4) Spanish titles, four (4) Supercopa de España, two (2) Copa del Rey titles, three (3) UEFA Champions League, two (2) UEFA Super Cups and two (2) FIFA Club World Cup titles. It's also important to note that some of the senior members of this squad are part of the core that has helped Spain win two (2) UEFA European Championships and a FIFA World Cup. It would not be far-fetched to say that this is arguably the greatest club in the history of football, or at the very least, one of the top five of all-time.

Back to the match, a relatively young AC Milan squad stepped out in the San Siro and delivered one of the greatest examples of catenaccio, that is to say, the Italian strategy of defend first and counter-attack. Barça looked sluggish, slow, and lost. After this match, they faced el eterno rival, the eternal rival, which is to say Real Madrid. They lost to Real Madrid in the second leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final 3-1 in front of their home crowd. That weekend, they went to the Santiago Bernabéu and proceeded to lose 2-1 once again to Real Madrid. By now, the press had completely turned on Barça, especially in Spain. Calls for Jordi Roura's (their interim coach) head were coming from all sides. Even in Calalunya, the club's home region, questions were being asked about whether or not this was the end of Barça's superiority. Even questions about Lionel Messi, their star player were being asked, and this is a footballer who only three months earlier, won his fourth consecutive Balon D'Or.

The media portrayed Barça as a rudderless, over-the-hill squad that lacked pace and creativity. After only three poor matches, they were being discarded as yesterday's news. Queue the second leg of the Champions League match at the Camp Nou. The atmosphere couldn't have been any more electric, the almost 90,000 blaugrana faithful packed one of Europe's greatest football cathedrals and the players came out to this:

"SOM UN EQUIP!", "WE ARE A TEAM!" was the message from the cules to their squad. Their squad did not dissapoint. The world's greatest footballer, Messi, came out storming and within five minutes scored one of the best goals I have seen in a while, surrounded by five AC Milan players, he not only only managed to get a shot out, but he curled it around and over the keeper.

What proceeded was one of the most dominant displays of football in a few years. Barcelona needed to score at least twice to draw this two-legged tie and three if they wanted to outright win. The third, and deciding goal came from David Villa, the former Valencia player who had just come back from injury. It was one of those goals that only true "poachers" of the game can score.

A fourth came from their speedy left-winger, Jordi Alba, another Valencia alumni. The world press were shocked to see the dominant display of Barça and even the Italian press could not deny the superiority of this club. It seemed that for one night, Barça had once again reclaimed their title of "the world's greatest club". The next test will be against one of Europe's elite squad. Will we have another Clásico? I'm certain Barça would love nothing more than to face their rivals once again to prove that they are not only Spain's, but Europe's superpower.

As the Barça supporters say, VISCA BARÇA!