Same place, different time. Valencia-Barcelona recap

   Valencia and Barcelona finished their match on Sunday to a 1-1 draw at the Mestalla. Second place Valencia hosted the league leaders Barcelona for a clash of the two best teams in La Liga. The match was a tale of two halves, but before we get into certain specifics lets address the horrendous error by the refereeing officials. In minute 30, Lionel Messi shot the ball straight towards Valencia's goalkeeper who fumbled it into the goal. The ball went over the line. That means it was a goal. Yet, the goal was not awarded.
 
   Barcelona dominated the first half. They were the more threatening and aggressive team by far. The Catalan side had around 70% possession in the first half and finished the half with 8 shots. Valencia defended as a unit, but seemed to play like a small club who respected their opponent too much. Barcelona were very frustrated and disappointed going into the half with no goals. Valencia weren't able to leave their own half for the majority of the first 45 minutes which was due to their poor passing. The valencia team had completed less than half of their passing attempts at the end of the first half. However, the second half saw a completely different Valencia side emerge from the dressing room.
 
   The second half was noticeably better for the home team who came out pressing higher lines and attacking Barcelona's goal. Los che threatened on the counter, especially on the left side where Gaya and Guedes had a great combination to score the first counted goal. Semedo had a rough day defending Barcelona's right side. Valencia went up 1-0 and almost could have extended their lead if a penalty was called on Umtiti's tackle on Guedes inside the box. The call wasn't made and play resumed and Barcelona tied the game with a superb pass from Messi to find Jordi Alba on a perfectly timed run to one time it behind the keeper and into the net.

   There were whispers going around that Valencia's Owner, Peter Lim, is going to go speak with Paris Saint-Germain on acquiring Goncalo Guedes on a permanent basis. Guedes is a talented young man who has a bright future where ever he plays his football, but Mr. Lim should also travel to Milan to speak to the Internazionale side on getting Geoffrey Kondogbia to stay in Valencia on a permanent basis as well. The Frenchman demonstrated his strength and capability to read the game from the midfield position. Kondogbia prevented Busquets from effectively passing the ball to Iniesta and Paulinho, disrupting Barcelona's midfield game plan. This lead to Busquest having to play deeper, to the point where he seemed to play as a third centerback in between Umtiti and Vermaelen. In addition to disrupting the opponents midfield, Kondogbia also connected passes that lead to quick counter-attacks. This allowed for Dani Parejo to join the forwards high pressing line. Iniesta was eventually subbed off in the second half by Valverde. Kondogbia accomplished a job where most coaches put two players to prevent Barcelona's midfield from cutting them apart with their precision passing. Kondogbia was a joy to watch from a fan's perspective.

   Obviously, Kondogbia wasn't on his own as Valencia is a well organized team that demonstrated in the second half to be real title contenders. There is still a lot of games left to play, but Marcelino's side revealed that his young Valencia team isn't undefeated by accident and has no plans on easing up any pressure on the league leaders.

La Liga: A Two Horse race ?.....again.

    Valencia will host Barcelona at the Mestalla on Sunday November 26. Barcelona is leading the Spanish La Liga with 34 points while Valencia sits in 2nd place with 30 points. It will be an enticing match between first place versus second place.

    Valencia hasn't played well in their last two matches. Their opponents were the better aggressors in those matches, yet Valencia were able to win both those matches with a combined score of 5-0. Valencia have had the biggest turn around from any team from last season that was disastrous from the start. A lot of credit should be given to their new manager, Marcelino Garcia Toral, who reorganized the team on the field and changed the locker room mind set. Veteran players were sold and a few new players were brought into the squad. Valencia is well organized and attacks well on the counter. Barcelona will be without Gerard Pique and Luis Suarez due to suspension for accumulating yellow cards. Barcelona's head coach, Valverde, said that the team will appeal to the league to overturn the players' suspensions. Valencia are not immune to suspension as they will be without their head coach due to be seeing sent off on Sunday's match against Espanyol. There was a bit of confusion why the head coach was sent off and the team plans to appeal to the league on overturning their coaches suspensions. 

   Both teams are undefeated in La Liga heading into Sunday's match and at the moment Valencia seem like the only team that can slow down Barcelona as both Real Madrid and Athletico Madrid are 10 points behind and seem to have currently dipped in form. It is too early to call, but at the moment La liga looks a two horse race between Barcelona and Valencia. However, after Sunday's matchcomes to a conclusion it can either provide the answer to Valencia's title contender credentials or establish that this was truly a one horse race from the start.        

Thou shalt not steal....stuff...unless it's free labor. That's cool

      I tend not to pay much attention to college sports at the national level. I don't live under a rock and self-righteously avoid watching any college football or basketball games. I would just be terrible at a college sports trivia game due to the fact that I don't care for it too much. The UCLA basketball players caught stealing in China is a story that became entangled in a web with creatures from all over the spectrum. A member of the Ball family to the President of the United States are in on this act. A quick summary; Three UCLA basketball players were caught shoplifting from a Louis Vuitton store in China. The three college "students" were arrested and faced a harsh punishment for their crime. To clarify, stealing is wrong, but serving 10 years for theft is an easy case where the punishment doesn't fit the crime. This has lead to the President asking for thank yous and media condemning how dumb these three men are and stirred up all kinds of opinions from people in sports, politics, and everything in between.
   
      What I want to know is why UCLA basketball team in China in the first place? This is a college athletic program not a professional team. The men that play on the team are "Student"-athletes. The word student is before athlete because they are students before they are athletes, is the interpretation of the NCAA president. I understand that the UCLA men's basketball team plays basketball, duh, but why were they playing in China? I think the excuse from UCLA athletic department and NCAA was that it attempted to educate the team about a different culture. But, come on! If that were remotely true-which I highly doubt it was-then why was the team at a Louis Vuitton store?! Shouldn't the field trip consist of seeing the Great Wall of China? That's an easy one to point to, but the rest of it just further reveals how the NCAA and college athletic programs are about making money. Playing basketball in China is not about goodwill or spreading the game as it already exist in that country. It was a clear marketing stunt tagged with the standard b.s. that comes with the two major college sports. The preseason exhibition games would be a poor excuse since there are plenty of basketball programs in the United States to prepare a team for the upcoming season without having to fly over the Pacific ocean. To be fair, I have not heard or read that excuse made because frankly that would be a really dumb excuse to use as a defense for those in charge.

    UCLA is on a quarterly 10 week academic schedule which means midterms and finals come fast for non-athlete college student. "Student'-athletes have a busy schedule as is, now casually toss in a trip to China to promote the school's brand while those in the NCAA administration and sadly others regurgitate that "student"-athletes are not being paid because they are compensated by receiving the best education the top schools in the nation have to offer. This solidifies that the whole "student"-athlete is a joke. They are not receiving an education and happen to play top level basketball, they are top level basketball players that are forced to sign up as students in order to be eligible for their "compensation."