Spanish Football’s La Liga has completed competition play and after 38 rounds Real Madrid won the championship with 87 points to Barcelona’s 82. Atletico Madrid and Sevilla came in third and fourth at 70 points but with differing goal differentials. The top four clubs completed the Champions League slots. Villarreal at 60 points, and Real Sociedad and Granada at 56, rounded out the Europa League qualifiers. Spain will be exporting good futbol next year.
At the other end of the table, Leganes, Mallorca, and Espanyol will descend to second division while Cadiz and Huesca will be promoted from second to first division and Almeria, Girona, Real Zaragoza and Elche will vie for the final second division promotion slot via a playoff. And don’t be fooled by the moniker, the second division futbol competition will be high-drama entertainment.
Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, at 25 goals and 21 assists topped the scorers’ table followed by Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema at 21 goals and eight assists and Villarreal’s Gerard Moreno at 18 goals and five assists. The top keeper award (Zamora trophy) went to Real Madrid goalie, Thibaut Courtois; Sergio Ramos scored 11 goals, the most by a La Liga defender in 20 years, while Villarreal midfielder Santi Cazorla displayed great futbol skills all season long and ended with 15-goals and 18-assists, the most productive contribution from a midfielder this season.
To say the season was a one-of is an understatement as Covid-19 changed all the “normals” into “new normals.” But the three things that jumped out to Papa were: first, the entertainment value of the best soccer league on the planet, which continued to provide top-notch futbol throughout. Second, that even with a diminished spectacle to offer, and many a curtailed mainstay, the competition was not a runaway, and the team leading at the break, Barcelona, was not the one lifting the trophy at the end, ten games later. We were treated to a competitive league race and to excellent seasons from unexpected teams, such as Sociedad, Villarreal, and Granada.
Third, the previous champions had a lot to prove and still do, while the trophy-holders also have a lot to prove moving forward. So, we have two of the best teams on the globe having provided great futbol for the past two months and yet both feel they have more to produce this year and much better selves to develop into come next season. This augurs well for La Liga 2020-21.
World Soccer
Moving into what will be an extended new normal—domestic season, Euro/Copa America /Gold Cup, domestic season, World Cup—just as the likes of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modric, Angel di Maria, Luis Suarez, Neymar, Robert Lewandowsky, and Sergio Ramos, among others, potentially take their final bows and just as the new generation of superstars Kylian Mbappe, Mathijs de Ligt, Erling Haland, Joao Feliz, Ansu Fati, climb onto center stage, we are poised to enjoy a 28-month extravaganza of top-flight soccer like no other. Watch out!
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