Week 35 - Spanish football mourns Tito Vilanova

     Tito Vilanova was only Barcelona manager for one season and yet played his part in the most successful period in the club's history. In fact, the man from Bellcaire d'Empordà was only a manager for two full seasons in his entire career, which was cut so horribly short last Friday at the age of just 45.

     The professional life of Francesc Vilanova i Bayó was bookended by FC Barcelona. As a youth, he came through La Masia and graduated to Barcelona B where he became friends with Pep Guardiola, who he would link up with again far more memorably later down the line. At that point the pair's careers took different paths, Vilanova deciding to leave in search of first team opportunities and Guardiola staying at the club for over a decade to great success. Vilanova played for a succession of clubs, only appearing sporadically in the top flight while taking in three seasons at Celta Vigo, but the pair stayed in contact over the years nonetheless.

Pep and Tito in their playing days

After hanging up his boots with Gramenet in 2001, Vilanova later embarked into management with a year-long spell at FC Palafrugell which ended with ignominious relegation from the Tercera División. This failure notwithstanding, in 2007 his old friend Guardiola called on him to act as his assistant at Barcelona B. The pair led the team to promotion to Segunda División B in their first season as a double-act, and were then put in charge of first team affairs after Frank Rijkaard left in 2008. Over the next four years, Pep and Tito together revolutionised the style of football played at the club, since copied by a million poor imitations worldwide, which came to be known as tiki-taka. Their first season was the most successful in Barcelona's history, yielding six major trophies, and before Guardiola resigned in 2012 the team won an insane 14 out of a possible 19 dust collectors.

Mourinho's infamous eye-jab

     Although possibly best known on these shores at the time merely for being blind-sided (literally) and poked in the eye by a cowardly Mourinho during a heated Clásico Supercopa game, Vilanova was more than just an assistant manager and coach at Barça. The all-conquering tiki-taka style, as Guardiola himself has been at pains to point out time and again, was jointly developed by the pair, the current Bayern Munich manager explaining previously "I was just the voice of the ideas that Tito and I developed together." Quite apart from his day to day role at the club, Tito helped his friend by serving as a sounding-board, confidant and advisor.
     After Guardiola left to take his sabbatical, Vilanova was the obvious choice to replace him. The new man immediately stepped up to the challenge, his team collecting 55 points from a possible 57 in La Liga, winning 18 of its first 19 games and drawing one. Barcelona went on to win the league that year with 100 points despite the disruption caused by the manager having to be in and out of hospital at various points for treatment following the re-emergence of his throat cancer. Although Tito was determined to start the following season with a clean slate, his cancer reared its head once more, forcing him to step down from his position last July after concluding he could not concentrate 100% on the team while undergoing the continuous and aggressive treatment. Following Vilanova's death last Friday in a Barcelona hospital Guardiola, two years his friend's junior, said simply and touchingly "the sadness I feel will accompany me for the rest of my life".

The masses of flowers outside the stadium

This was just one of many comments from around Spanish football for a man widely recognised not just as a great tactician and organiser, but more importantly as a good man. After his funeral service FC Barcelona announced three days of mourning. Over 53,000 people queued up and visited Camp Nou to sign a book of condolence for the former manager over the weekend including the Barcelona youth team, which includes his 17-year-old son Adrià. The flower memorials and wreathes increase by the hour and flags remain at half mast around the stadium this week, and the players will wear black armbands in next weekend's game just as they did at El Madrigal on Sunday.

Minute silence at El Madrigal

     There was always the danger that the club's players could be unsettled and allow their sadness at their former manager's passing just two days earlier to overshadow them in a crunch game against Villarreal, and in truth that appears to have been the case, but they came away with all three points in the end regardless, although under fortuitous, some might say peculiar, circumstances. The Catalans were 2-0 down to goals from Cani and Manu Trigueros but stormed back to 2-2 thanks to a brace of own goals from hapless Villarreal centre-backs Gabriel and Mateo Musacchio. If the first was unfortunate and made the defender look clownish, the second appeared more suspect, Musacchio heading past Sergio Asenjo under no pressure whatsoever from a couple of yards out. Never ones to look a gift-horse in the food-hole, Barcelona pressed and the winning goal duly came from that man Messi eight minutes from time, with passing move + weak defending = a Barça winner.
     The game started and finished on different notes. The minute's silence was impeccably observed before kickoff and saw Sergio Busquets moved to tears, while in the 75th minute one imbecilic Villarreal fan saw fit to mark the occasion in their own way, by taking everyone back in time. As Dani Alves was preparing to take a corner the TV cameras picked up an object landing near him on the pitch. A banana. Alves calmy peeled the offending fruit and ate a bit before delivering the corner, a well-measured response to this type of idiotic act. Villarreal have since identified the fan who launched the banana and have banned them for life.

Raúl García

     A couple of hours earlier and a short drive away at the Mestalla, Atlético had managed to place one finger upon the Primera División trophy with a 1-0 victory over Valencia. The goal for los Colchoneros came from Raúl García, who nipped in ahead of a marooned Guaita under a looping high ball to glance a header into the empty net. That was the sixth consecutive game in which Atleti have scored a header and was their 16th to arrive in such a fashion all season, placing them behind only Athletic Bilbao in the ranking of goals scored with the noggin.

     Third-placed Real Madrid made short work of Osasuna to keep the pressure on the top two with Cristiano Ronaldo bagging a super-powered brace before defenders Sergio Ramos and Dani Carvajal got in on the act to round out the scoring. In the unlikely event that both Real and Barcelona lose next week, Atleti will wrap up their first Primera División title since 1996 with victory at Levante on Sunday. Although the odds of that happening are extremely slight given both teams are at home, Atlético and coach Cholo Simeone know that two victories from their last three games will ensure they are crowned champions nevertheless. One thing's for sure, it'll be bloody exciting.

"Wanted: Players worthy of this badge"

     Real Betis secured their return to the Segunda División with a characteristically meek defeat at home to Real Sociedad, who kept up their chase for Europe thanks to a penalty from former-Arsenal former-Mexican Carlos Vela. Betis supremo Manuel Domínguez assured fans after the game that "the club is economically sound" and has a "workable plan" which it will be able to put in place in the lower league. Supporters remain worried and mistrusting of his leadership nonetheless, as made clear by various chants and protest banners around the Estadio Benito Villamarín on Saturday. Cross-town rivals Sevilla also had a pretty bad time of it over the weekend, getting shown up 3-1 away at Athletic Bilbao in a European six-pointer. The result surely consigns the Seville team to a season in the Europa League rather than the more shiny and desirable Champions League given Bilbao are now six points ahead with only three games remaining. Málaga are currently in no-mans-land with nothing left to play for either way and boy did it ever show in their match against Getafe. They crumbled early in a nothing match and lost to a 7th-minute Adrián Colunga goal, while Granada were battered 3-0 at home by Rayo Vallecano.
     In fact, Almería were the only Andalusian team to get any kind of positive result, a Suso (yes, the one from Liverpool) free kick securing victory against nine-man Espanyol. Elche huffed and puffed but could only come out with a 1-1 draw against Levante, a result which leaves them three points clear of 18th-placed Almería. The unwanted and unloved Monday night slot falls to Celta Vigo and Valladolid. The hosts are safe and in roughly the same kind of end of season pointlessness as Málaga and a couple of others, whilst a win for the visitors would do wonders for their hopes of avoiding the drop, as well as their feelings of self-worth, no doubt.

     Liga Adelante leaders Deportivo La Coruña were stunned by a 3-0 defeat at the Riazor to 15th-placed Ponferradina on the weekend. The visitors were set on their way by an amusing own-goal from Laure just 10 minutes in, Germán Lux saving a one-on-one before the ball ricocheted straight into the path of his captain and thence straight into the net. "Arse-biscuits!" he may well have cried, and he'd havfe been well within his rights. Second-placed Eibar were unable to take much advantage, drawing 0-0 with Recreativo Huelva at home, while Tenerife and Las Palmas both lost, to Real Jaén and Barcelona B respectively. Of the top six able to go up, only Sporting Gijón were able to muster up more than a point, beating Lugo 2-0, both goals coming thanks to lucky bounces in the area and snaffled away before keeper Dani Mallo had a chance to react. To be brutally honest though, his teammates didn't look likely to help him.

Timor celebrates a precise finish

At the very bottom, Girona gave themselves a massive boost towards their aim of escaping the relegation zone by defeating Real Zaragoza at home 2-0. David Timor opened the scoring with a beautifully-placed shot past Leo Franco from the edge of the box before Ortuño finished into the top corner following a scramble brought about by a free kick in the 85th minute, the goal sparking wild celebrations on the touchline as well as in the stands. Unfortunately for the Catalans, their big result came on the same weekend as a couple of the others around them were able to do likewise. Apart from Jaén perhaps getting the result of the day against Tenerife, Alavés came out on top of a relegation six pointer against Mallorca with all three points thanks to a 79th minute Viguera strike.
      The races for both promotion from and salvation within the Segunda División look set to go right to the wire, with seemingly anyone capable of beating anyone else, as demonstrated aptly this week by Real Jaén and Ponferradina. However on this weekend I think it safe to say that those taking part in minute silences before the games will have had the 90 following minutes put into perspective. All apart from one pillock in Villarreal, anyway.