Jornada/Spieltag 1 (late edition)

As the title would indicate, I'm onto my German/Spanish footy experience. I don't have any one game that drew my desire, so I might do a little on a couple teams that piqued my interest, and then give my thoughts on the whole for each league.

Bayern-Gladbach. First game of the weekend, as I'm not acknowledging the shit show that was Valencia-Getafe outside of this brief mention. I was at work, and I couldn't really be bothered to go back and watch the entire match. From what I saw, it just seems like Bayern aren't accustomed to Nagelsmann yet, and that's a process. Their window has been poor outside of Upamecano, who I don't even rate that highly. It ended 1-1, with the hosts racking up an xG of 2.15 and the Bavarians with a whopping 3.12 xG. Davies and Stanisic had decent chances, as did Lewandowksi. Failing to convert was what did Leipzig in last season, so it could be a Nagelsmann thing. Only one game though.

The three Bundesliga games of interest for me on Saturday were Stuttgart, Wolfsburg, and Frankfurt. The first two won, varying levels of impressiveness, while the latter got smacked by Dortmund. That win was deserved, by the way, with an xG of 3.09 to Frankfurt's 1.62. I turned it off at HT, given the 3-1 score line and the fact that Dortmund didn't look like losing. Wolfsburg "benefitted" from a Bochum sending off in the first five minutes. I say that because the promoted side then went into a shell, ending the match with < 40% possession. xG once again indicated an easy win, with the hosts amassing nearly 3 to the visitor's measly 0.35. The last game, Stuttgart's walk in the park against Fuerth, was the unexpected result. Not that I didn't think they'd win, given the lack of talent in the promoted side, but to score 5 goals with 9 first team players out and a starter going off in the first few minutes is impressive. I don't recall another time when Stuttgart racked up an xG of 4.65. That's insane!

For La Liga, Saturday was not a set of fixtures I was hyped about. I expected Cadiz and Mallorca to more or less park the bus, holding out for a draw, and that's what happened against Levante and Betis, respectively. xG wise, the Betis game was worse, with just over 1 xG worth of chances in total, while the Levante one was at about 2 xG. Both fixtures finished 1-1. In another boring draw, Osasuna were held 0-0 by Espanyol at El Sadar. Again, I figured the game would be dull. What struck me, having watched the second half, was how rash the shooting from the hosts was. Multiple times in the last 30 or so minutes I'd catch an Osasuna play rear back, take a low percentage shot, and watch the ball soar into the crowd. Espanyol tried to get something on the break, but to no avail. The other game was Madrid's 4-1 win over Alaves at Mendizorroza. I want to say I saw the two Benzema goals, and that was it, as I was looking at the Osasuna game. Point is, the host held out in the first half before buckling completely after the break. The first goal broke them and the floodgates opened. That's common in La Liga, given most teams park the bus these days.

Sunday was decent. I watched Mainz beat Leipzig again, pretty much the same performance as the last time during the great escape of 20/21. My main takeaway is that I don't see why Marsch started a bunch of midfielders who don't create. You don't need all of Adams, Haidara, Kampl against a team as direct as Mainz. They had 72% of the ball and created an xG of less than 1. I also think Mukiele is bad, like, really bad, and is only there due to athleticism. If you look at the subs, the four players to come on were 2 strikers and 2 creators. Why not start at least one more striker/creator? Save the hassle. Otherwise, Koeln beat Hertha 3-1, which was awesome. Did not expect that. I'm not sure why Hertha are so bad year in year out. I don't think Dardai is a good coach, so that's part of it. They played this weird system, looks like a diamond in midfield, but a washed Boateng, Ascacibar, and Tousart is not quite good enough in any facet of the game. I like Serdar, and it's funny/sad at the same time to see him go from one circus club to another.

Three Champions League sides featured in Spain on Sunday, all picking up wins. The tightest by far, in true Atleti fashion, was their 2-1 win over Celta in Vigo. I think they deserved the win, as the penalty IMO was soft, AKA shouldn't have been given. Aspas did miss a chance to equalize late on, and Gimenez I believe cleared one off the line. Two nice Correa goals, one of which was assisted brilliantly by Saul. The Sevilla 3-0 win was also conditioned by a red card, this time to Luca Zidane in the Rayo goal. They easily could've scored 4 or 5, and Rayo didn't create much at all (3.42 xG to 0.44). Barcelona had the most convincing win, beating La Real 4-2. That sounds closer than it was for most of the game. Barcelona led 3-0 and started to coast, as well as make subs. In the final 10, Barrenetxea fed a beautiful through ball to Lobete (making his debut) for the first. Shortly after, Oyarzabal scored a lovely free kick, although it wasn't a foul to begin with. Roberto finished off a counter in stoppage time to ice it once again. My takeaways: Barcelona will be fine, but still have the "bottling" instincts. Atleti continue to suffer, and long term that won't pay off. Sevilla can win the title, but it'll come in games against the park the bus teams, which sometimes is the kryptonite to "tiki taka".

Both La Liga games Monday ended 0-0. Going off xG, and the eye test from the bits of each I saw, Villarreal and Elche would have been the better side in their respective games, but neither found the finishing touch, so you can't say either deserved a win. I didn't watch much of Villarreal last season, but they strike me as a team kinda like Sevilla, but more "pragmatic". As in, they don't create many clear cut chances, but the other team creates even less. They struggle to beat teams that won't let them play. Athletic, the other "big club" that featured, is just not suited to modern football. I say that because big clubs have to take games by the scuff of the neck and will themselves to win. Athletic, especially having appointed Marcelino, are only gonna turn up in big games against teams they can counter attack. I'd bet the vast majority of their games against bottom half sides will end 0-0 or 1-0, with the occasional 1-1 or 2-0 if they're feeling frisky. It's horrible to watch. They don't have a striker, and they don't have anyone capable of creating outside of Muniain.