{"id":96646,"date":"2025-08-20T11:07:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T11:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/96646\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T11:07:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T11:07:07","slug":"madrid-teams-show-growing-pains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/96646\/","title":{"rendered":"Madrid teams show growing pains"},"content":{"rendered":"

La Liga<\/a> returns this week, and the August games in Spain are so hot that referees are forced to call for hydration breaks for the games. Climate change is real, people, and so is a campaign where Barcelona will try to defend their title. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the scoop on the first week of action.<\/p>\n

La Liga Matchday 1 WinnersNahuel Tenaglia<\/p>\n

Alav\u00e9s weren\u2019t safe until the penultimate day of last season, so their fans will enjoy the auspicious start to their 2025-26 campaign thanks to their Argentinian attacker, who put home a loose ball in stoppage time to secure their 2-1 win<\/a> over newly promoted Levante.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Luiz J\u00fanior<\/p>\n

The Villarreal goalkeeper conceded a penalty when Real Oviedo attacker Ilyas Chaira ran into his forearm chasing after a loose ball, but Luiz J\u00fanior cleaned up the mistake by stopping Jos\u00e9 Salom\u00f3n Rond\u00f3n\u2019s penalty kick to keep the game scoreless. That save and Alberto Reina\u2019s subsequent red card keyed a 2-0 home win<\/a> for Villarreal.<\/p>\n

Robert Navarro<\/p>\n

After Sevilla\u2019s two screamers tied things up against Athletic Bilbao, the home team\u2019s new arrival proved his worth by volleying home Nico Williams\u2019 cross to win the opener for Athletic Club. The San Mam\u00e9s faithful already have reason to be glad he joined the team from Mallorca.<\/p>\n

Germ\u00e1n Valera<\/p>\n

The opening week didn\u2019t go so well for the newly promoted teams in La Liga, with Levante and Real Oviedo both losing. It was Valera who salvaged a point for the new boys, as his scuffed finish found its way into the net in the 91st minute to grab a home draw for Elche against Real Betis. The Atl\u00e9tico Madrid academy product (who is of Lithuanian descent) helped los franjiverdes win promotion from La Segunda Divisi\u00f3n last season and extended his contract with the Alicante club, and now he has given them their first goal this season.<\/p>\n

La Liga Matchday 1 LosersAtl\u00e9tico Madrid<\/p>\n

The offseason didn\u2019t stop the hits from coming for Atleti, as they threw away a 1-0 lead on the road to give Espanyol a 2-1 win. Diego Simeone reworked his defense by bringing in D\u00e1vid Hancko, Matteo Ruggeri, and USA\u2019s Johnny Cardoso this summer, and the new guys had better settle in quickly to get the team back on track.<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Luis Munuera Montero<\/p>\n

WNBA fans have spent this summer complaining (justifiably so) about their referees, but they should take a look at La Liga. It wasn\u2019t the fault of the ref in Barcelona\u2019s victory<\/a> over Mallorca that Manu Morlanes got red-carded for complaining, or that Vedat Muriqi did the same for almost decapitating Joan Garc\u00eda while going after a loose ball, but the official lost control of the game when Antonio Rallo went down after Lamine Yamal\u2019s shot hit him in the head and stayed down until after Ferran Torres\u2019 follow-up went in the net. If Rallo was truly concussed, the game should have been stopped and Torres\u2019 goal should have been ruled out. If Rallo was faking it, he should have been booked for it. Munuera Montero created needless confusion by stopping the game and then awarding Torres\u2019 goal, and gave the Mallorca fans the impression that he was out to win the game for visiting Bar\u00e7a.<\/p>\n

Paulo Gazzaniga<\/p>\n

When goalkeepers have bad games, everyone notices, and Girona\u2019s backstopper had a nightmare. Yes, David L\u00f3pez should not have passed the ball back to him when he wasn\u2019t expecting it, but the Argentinian netminder whiffed on his attempt to play the ball, and Rayo Vallecano\u2019s Jorge de Frutos deposited it into the unguarded net. The two collided again when Gazzaniga dithered too long waiting for the ball to come into his penalty box, cleared it off an onrushing de Frutos, and then tackled him for a red card. His errors were the difference in Rayo\u2019s 3-1 win<\/a>, and now he\u2019ll be suspended while Vladyslav Krapyvtsov gets a chance to take his starting job.<\/p>\n

Juan Cruz<\/p>\n

Given the unenviable task of marking Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, the Osasuna defender slew-footed the Real Madrid attacker in the penalty box while attempting to block a cross that never came. Cruz protested mightily, but we saw him hit himself in the head in a universal \u201cStupid!\u201d gesture as soon as he committed the foul. Mbapp\u00e9 converted the resulting penalty for Real\u2019s 1-0 victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Real Madrid\u2019s offense<\/p>\n

Yes, they got the three points and their defense limited Osasuna to very few chances, but Real\u2019s attack still looks disjointed because there are too many left-side players. This problem needs solving either via the transfer window or on the whiteboard with new Coach Xabi Alonso. If it isn\u2019t, los blancos will be second best again this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"La Liga returns this week, and the August games in Spain are so hot that referees are forced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-96646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}