La Liga and the Madrid Conundrum

Atletico’s supporters display a banner reading ‘Atleti crushes’ before the Spanish league football match Club Atletico de Madrid vs FC Barcelona at the Vicente Calderon stadium in Madrid.

Is Atletico Madrid the new Spanish super power?

Club Atletico de Madrid have for long been known to be the second best team in Madrid after their city rivals Real Madrid. Real with their Galactico policy under Florentino Perez have certainly not done as well as everyone expected them to and Atletico have duly taken this opportunity to outshine their rivals.

In the past decade, Real have bought players worth more than $400 million whereas Athletico have had to sell players due to financial difficulties. Sergio ‘Kun’ Aguero, Fernando ‘El Niño’ Torres, Radamel Falcao are just a few players in a long illustrious list. Their newest magician Diego Costa’s name has been in the minds of several European clubs. It would be tricky to see how Atletico manage him.

In the past 10 years, Atletico have won 5 major tournaments and have been second best in 4 others and their counterparts Real, have won 6 and have been second best in 8 others. Although the numbers favour the Los Blancos, the Los Rojiblancos at least for now have the edge.

Players like Thibaut Courtious, Luis Garcia, David Villa along with their talismanic striker Diego Costa have made Atletico a team that no one in Europe would take lightly. Diego Simeone has certainly done a great job in transforming a team which arrived on the La Liga scene only a couple of seasons before he came in to a team. A team that is now virtually on top of the table.

Carlo Ancelotti has a huge task ahead. If he wants to bring the glory days back to Real, he would have to do something special. The current Real team certainly lacks motivation and guile. The transfer of Mesut Ozil has created a huge hole in their attack. The arrival of Gareth Bale had brought the world to its feet. But until now, he hasn’t done anything of that sorts. Cristiano Ronaldo still seems to be by a big margin the best player in Real.

The return of Xabi Alonso must be a big boost for the team. Angel Di Maria and Isco’s form have been one of the big positives for Real Madrid. Their biggest problem is that they don’t have any replacement for Ronaldo. They struggle without Ronaldo. Unless they’re able to cope without him, it’ll be a Herculean task for them to win any major title.

Coming back to Atletico, if they manage to win this year’s La Liga, it would be a fairy tale to an end of a decade which started with them being in the second division to them winning two European trophies and finally winning the La Liga. Well, if they do end up winning the title, it won’t be a bed of roses as the Catalan giants Barcelona and their city rivals Real Madrid would be on their toes.

With their latest match against FC Barcelona ending in a draw and Real Madrid winning, the gap has been reduced to just three points between the first and third placed teams. It would be interesting to see how the teams fare as it would literally be David i.e. in this case Barcelona and Real Madrid vs Goliath i.e. Atletico Madrid fight for the most prestigious championship in Spain, the La Liga.