Copa Del Rey Final Set

The silver lining to being buried under, or more accurately frozen under, a severe winter storm is that work is canceled and if you get the cleaning up out of the way you can watch some midweek games you would otherwise miss. Unless it is a game I really, really have to see I don't watch games on tape delay or Tivo so I didn't think I was going to see either of the Copa semis. But I did! And a few minutes of the Liverpool - Stoke City Prem match. The Cannibal of Amsterdam got off on the right foot with a nice finish for the second goal in a 2-0 win.

But the big story- Real Madrid vs Barcelona in the Copa Del Rey Final on April 20th. Real won a fairly comfortable 3-0 aggregate victory over a good Sevilla team while Barcelona's mostly reserve line-up put another 3 on Almeria for an 8-0 aggregate stomping. Any time these two teams get together there is a certain magic about it. Add in that silverware is on the line in a winner take all and it gets better. Take into account the massive egos involved and it goes up another notch. Factor in the best player in the world versus the second best and it is even sicker. And then on top of all this consider that less than a week earlier, on April 17th, they will meet in a league clash at the Bernabeu that may well decide this season's Spanish Champions. Of course with Madrid trailing by more than 3 points there is a chance Barcelona will actually claim the title on their rival's home ground. That could make for a truly epic battle for the Copa Del Rey.

I think you are starting to see some signs of unrest in Mou's Madrid. The friction with players that are seen as Real insiders, the more or less public spat with Valdano, the sniping at the way the organization has been run in the recent past, more visible frustration than we are use to seeing from the Special One... I am not saying his days at the Bernabeu are numbered or that he has to win major silverware but I do think this game could be a key moment in his tenure at Los Merengues.

Interesting note: unless something cataclysmic happens next summer's Spanish Super Cup will feature these two teams. Could make a very ho-hum two-legged trophy very exciting.