la liga – blog

Real Madrid Finally Overcame The World's Best Player By Building The World's Best Team

For close to a decade now, Real Madrid have been tasked with solving the most difficult problem facing any club in the whole sport: What do we do about Lionel Messi?

Barcelona Fans Celebrate Messi Goal With Homage To His Clásico Celebration

It was a full-on party today in Barcelona as the Catalan club blasted Osasuna by a score of 7-1. Before the game, fans unveiled a massive banner to commemorate Lionel Messi’s 500th Barça goal, the one he scored this weekend when he snipped the balls off of Real Madrid and then celebrated in the most badass way…

Lionel Messi Turned A Meaningless Clásico Into One For The Ages

Barcelona probably won’t win anything significant this season. They remain underdogs for the league title, were ousted from the Champions League by Juventus after surviving the Paris Saint-Germain tie by the skin of their teeth, and can only really count on a Copa del Rey consolation prize to cap off what has been an…

Messi Scores 500th Goal For Barcelona With Gorgeous Game-Winner In Stoppage Time

Lionel Messi scored his 500th goal for Barcelona in style today—notching a game-winner in stoppage time for the club to take El Clasico by a score of 3-2.

Barcelona Drop Bid To Have Neymar's Ban Suspended, Confirm He Will Not Play In Clasico

Two days after lodging an appeal against a three-game suspension for Neymar, Barcelona announced that they will not call up the Brazilian star for today’s match against Real Madrid.

Neymar Gets Three-Game Suspension, Will Miss Match Against Real Madrid

Neymar picked the absolute worst time to lose his cool. After picking up two cheap yellow cards in a match against Málaga and sarcastically applauding one of the referees on his way off the pitch, Neymar has been handed a three-match suspension today. That means he’ll have to sit out Barcelona’s critical Clàsico match…

Giuseppe Rossi, America's Lost Star, Touches The Sky And Falls Back To Earth, Again

There are two times American fans of European soccer are reminded of Giuseppe Rossi, boundlessly talented yet heartbreakingly star-crossed striker and The One That Got Away. One reason is good and the other one is bad, and both prompts were recently triggered in the span of a single, exultant-turned-depressing week.

Lionel Messi And Luis Suárez Are Extremely Good At Soccer

Barcelona and Sevilla, respectively the second- and fourth-placed teams in La Liga, are midway through what on paper should’ve been a tense, tough match. Only one of those teams has Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez, so it’s already a blowout thanks to those the genius of those two.

Sergio Ramos Is Real Madrid's Cocky, Header-Scoring Savior

Sergio Ramos has a magical forehead imbued with the power to score clutch goals. This head of his brings unending joy to Real Madrid fans, despair to opponents and rivals, and is arguably the most valuable body part in Madrid this side of Cristiano Ronaldo’s priceless right leg.

Fernando Torres's Severe Head Injury Sends Fellow Players Into A Panic

Late on in today’s Atlético Madrid-Deportivo match, Fernando Torres clashed with a Deportivo player while going up for a header, and fell face first onto the ground, apparently unconscious. The way Torres fell itself is nasty, but it’s the distraught reaction of the players who saw the injury up close that makes the…

Antoine Griezmann Follows Up Teammate's Near-Miss Wondergoal With Wondergoal Of His Own

Just when it looked like Atlético Madrid would come away empty handed after a deep blast from full back Filipe Luís came crashing off the woodwork, Antoine Griezmann responded almost immediately with an even more audacious hit of his own that sailed over the keeper’s head and into the back of the net.

Mesut Özil Recounts Ridiculously Dramatic Tiff With José Mourinho In New Book

If you hear about this anecdote from Mesut Özil’s forthcoming autobiography excerpted in Bild, it will probably focus on the fact that when Özil and José Mourinho were at Real Madrid, they once got into an argument in which Mourinho called Özil a coward. This is true, and pretty interesting in itself, but the full…

How Luis Enrique Lost His Place At Barcelona

It’s seemed pretty likely for a while now, and became all but inevitable after the humiliation in Paris last month, but it is now official: Barcelona manager Luis Enrique will not coach the team next season.

Barcelona Are Miserable

If there’s been one consistent attribute of Barcelona’s play over the past decade or so that has seduced fans and neutrals and even ostensible enemies to buy a ticket to the Camp Nou or to flick on the TV to whichever obscure channel wound up with the La Liga broadcasting rights or to trawl sketchy video sites for the…

Good Soccer Man Embarrasses A Quartet Of Defenders

Jonathan Mejía and his UCAM Murcia squad lost to Real Valladolid on Saturday in some hot second-division Spanish soccer action, but really, who cares, for young Mejía scored the goal of his life. Look at the Honduran international turn these four dudes into jelly.

Fernando Torres Goes Back In Time, Scores Gorgeous Overhead Goal

Atlético Madrid got an early equalizer against Celta de Vigo today when Fernando Torres tapped into his past greatness to flip an overhead strike and loft it past keeper Sergio Álvarez. Fancy! Maybe he’ll get that new contract after all.

Aleix Vidal Stretchered Off After Horrible Ankle Injury At End Of 6-0 Match

Barcelona butchered Deportivo Alavés 6-0 today, but lost their right back as Aleix Vidal had to be stretchered off following a nasty ankle injury following a tackle in the 87th minute.

Hometown Kid Jesé Introduces Himself To Las Palmas Fans With An Awful Miss

In the 67th minute of Monday’s Granada-Las Palmas La Liga match, PSG loanee Jesé stepped onto the pitch for the first time with his new club Las Palmas. That moment was the culmination of Jesé’s life journey so far, one that started in the city of Las Palmas, went through Madrid, took a short detour in Paris, and now…

Behold The Unrelenting Genius Of Lionel Messi's Passes

The danger, if you can call it that, of regularly watching Lionel Messi play soccer—which is to say, to watch one man routinely perform stupefying acts of brilliance the likes of which you’ve never seen before—is that at some point, you run the risk of becoming inured to it.

Sevilla End Real Madrid's 40 Game Unbeaten Run With Two Late Goals

Real Madrid hadn’t lost since an April Champions League match against Wolfsburg, winning or drawing 40 games in a row to set the record for longest unbeaten streak in Spanish soccer history. But that ended at the Estadio Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán in Seville this evening, as Sevilla stormed back from a 1-0 deficit to…

Lionel Messi Is God

Seriously, there’s nothing more to say. Just look at what he did to Espanyol’s whole team yesterday: