With an emphasis on one-touch passing, instant decision making and defensive pressing, Barcelona’s rondo drill has become synonymous with the club.
Johan Cruyff introduced the practice to Barcelona from the famed academy of Ajax, and the likes of Pep Guardiola and Xavi Hernandez enforced the significance of the tradition to this day.
Real Madrid’s hopes of winning the treble suffered a blow as Celta Vigo scored an improbable 2-1 victory in the Copa del Rey quarterfinal first leg at the Santiago Bernabeu. Real will now look to overturn the deficit on January 25 at the Balaidos in Galicia.
Zinedine Zidane has seen his total number of losses as Real Madrid manager double in the space of three days, although that speaks more for his remarkable success at the helm than it does any sort of crisis in the Spanish capital.
According to reports from German weekly sports magazine Sport Bild, Bayern Munich midfielder and Spanish legend Xabi Alonso is planning to retire at the end of the season. Alonso, who still plays a key role for the Bavarian club in the center of the park, is said to have informed the club of his decision to hang up his boots at the conclusion of this season.
Louis van Gaal, formerly the most entertaining manager in world football, has retired. We are sad now.
Van Gaal had everything we look for in a manager who doesn't manage the club we personally root for, which is to say: antics.
This article explains basically every reason van Gaal will be missed so much, but it predates both van Gaal's famous sideline flop against Arsenal and the time he said his players needed to be more horny.