La Liga Facts

fixturemagazine:

After the draw between Real Madrid and Málaga CF last weekend, the gap between the top two has slimmed to 8 points. How will this effect the race for the title?

Marca has an interesting graphic available where you can plug in your predictions for the remaining matchdays to predict who will be crowned champions of La Liga. We’ve posted our prediction above…what do you think? Fill out your predictions of the remaining matches this season. (Instructions: “1” means the home team will win, “2” means the visiting team will win, “X” means there will be a tie. Click on your prediction and the graphic will automatically adjust to reflect the change.)

…read more.

Very interesting. We definitely recommend checking out this Marca graphic. We won’t tell you what our predictions were, but let’s just say we think this season will be very, very close and fought to the very last jornada.

As of 2/19/12…

After FC Barcelona’s 5-1 thrashing of Valencia CF, there is a curious phenomenon in the league table.

Out of the 20 teams in the top flight of La Liga, 15 of them have negative goal differences, meaning they have conceded more goals than they have scored. The remaining teams have positive goal differences, but only in the single digits. There are two giant exceptions: Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, who are completely dominating the entire table with goal differences of 58 and 51, respectively.

Literally, from 7th place down, every team has a negative goal difference. Even RCD Espanyol, who is occupying a Europa League spot currently, has a goal difference of -1.

Valencia CF midfielder Éver Banega has been taken into emergency surgery this afternoon just hours before Valencia’s match against FC Barcelona. While the club has not issued a statement on the particulars of the accident, it appears that Banega was run over by his own car in a gas station when he forgot to put the handbrake on. Banega has suffered a broken ankle.

[As of Jornada 21]

Today’s match was a massive win for Real Sociedad against Sporting Gijon. The final score was 5-1. Why is this extraordinary? The last time Real Sociedad scored five or more goals in the league was in December 2004, over seven years ago. 

FC Barcelona, on the other hand, has scored five or more in a match already five times in this season alone.

Feeling the Clásico fatigue yet? Well you’re not the only one. For 8 seasons straight (2002-2010) there were only ever two clashes between Real Madrid CF and FC Barcelona per year.

Last season there were 7. And this season we’re already guaranteed to see 4, perhaps more depending on how the Champions League goes. And then there’s the Supercopa as well… All in all, the maximum number of times that Real Madrid and Barcelona can potentially face each other in one season is 8 times in all competitions, which has never happened before. Prior to last season’s Clásico overload, the most Real Madrid and Barcelona had ever met in one season was 5 times.

[The above graphic is from Marca, who have on their website a super informative graphic with the results of every Clásico ever played, top scorers in El Clásico, etc. Enjoy.]

Did you know? (As of 1/15/2012)

Has your team gotten off to a disappointing start after La Liga’s winter break? Well they’re not alone. In last week’s fixtures, there was only one win in the entire top half of the table. That’s right. The top ten teams in La Liga all drew or lost, with the exception being Real Madrid CF’s one win.

This week has seen better results for the top 10, but still poor results for the top 5. In fact, CA Osasuna’s loss today sees them tumbling from #5 on the table to #6. (They are on level with Athletic Bilbao on points, but have a lower goal differential.)

The only game left to play today is FC Barcelona’s match against Real Betis. Will Barcelona shake the post-break blues? 

Did you know?

Sometimes the symmetry of some statistics can be quite interesting. For example, the number 6. Real Madrid have been awarded the most penalties this season, 6, and not a single one against. FC Barcelona has seen the most expulsions go their way this season, 6 opponents sent off and not a single Barcelona player sent off.

On the flip side, RCD Espanyol has seen all their refereeing decisions go the wrong way. They’ve had 5 penalties called against them and not a single penalty called in their favor. In addition, they’ve had 4 of their players sent off (tied for the most with Osasuna) and seen only one opposing team player sent off. And guess who it was? Yup, the infamous youngster Eneko Satrústegui.

Did you know?

Both Real Madrid and FC Barcelona have scored 50 goals in La Liga so far. The league total is 397, so together the two teams make up roughly 25% of the entire league. The average number of goals scored by each team is about 20.

The team with the smallest number of goals scored? Granada CF, 8 goals.

Did you know? (As of 12-1-11)

FC Barcelona and Rayo Vallecano jumped ahead and played their Jornada 17 game a few days ago due to scheduling conflicts. This makes things super confusing for the next three weeks because those players have played an extra game, throwing off all the statistics we had planned to share.

But on the other hand, we do have this fun fact for you! Victor Valdés kept yet another clean sheet at the Camp Nou, making it his 8th in a row in La Liga. But because of Barcelona’s style of play, Valdés doesn’t see much of the ball. He has only made 16 saves over the course of 14 games. Every other starting goalkeeper in La Liga has made double that number (despite having played less games) and over half of the league’s goalkeepers have made 40 saves or more. Roberto, of Granada CF, for example, has made 60 saves and has a save rate of 82%. Valdés has a save rate of 69%.

And guess who just won LFP’s Best Goalkeeper of the Year award? Not Roberto. He wasn’t even nominated.