La Liga kicked off this weekend and while I was stoked to put an end to my yearning for football, the TV rights snafu meant that I had to rely on Soccernet’s annoying gamecast for updates. Sadly, Barcelona with its fantastic quartet were held to a 0-0 scoreline by Racing Santander who played 23 minutes with just 10 men. Racing could have embarrassed Barca if they had a little bit of luck. The biggest worry for Barca after the signing of Henry was whether the team would be able to defend with such attacking talent on the pitch; few would have thought they would struggle in attack. Granted, the fantastic four didn’t play together but even then, they didn’t create enough to threaten Racing.

Even in preseason the forwards were toothless, only saved by the precocious talent of Giovanni Dos Santos, who was missing today because of typical Spanish Bureaucracy. Henry could have scored today but for the goal post but he still hasn’t found the wavelength to combine with Samuel Eto’o and Ronaldinho. Rijkaard has a lot of work to do and a few more of these performances will force the faithful at the Nou Camp to take out their white hankies. Ridiculous the amount of pressure managers face these days.
Villareal and Almeria provided the surprise results of the day. Villareal led by Roberto Ayala, who was returning to his old stomping ground at the Mestalla beat Valencia 3-0. This after experts including Sid Lowe of the Guardian tipped Valencia to push Barca to the finish line. Early days I concede but Valencia under Quique Flores have had the habit of disappointing on the big occasion. They just announced the signing of Manuel Fernandes from under Everton’s noses. I wonder if he will be able to change things. Newly promoted Almeria on the other hand beat Deportivo 3-0 at the Riazor.
Real Madrid beat cross town rivals Atletico on Saturday. Real who have formed a habit of scoring late goals in 2007 had Wesley Sniejder to thank for their 2-1 victory.

Here’s hoping they sort out the paperwork in Spain and have some football on the tele soon!!