Filed under: Quiniela | Tags: soccer, football, futbol, spain, espana, la liga, Quiniela
Photo: REUTERS
The Quiniela is back for another season. To rehash, the quiniela is a Spanish betting game where participants pick the results of all ten La Liga matches and a select number of matches from the Segunda División (Second Division). A pick of ’1′ means home win, ’2′ is an away win, and ‘X’ is a draw. It’s sports gambling in its finest form and even Spanish abuelas (grandmothers) play hoping to get a good enough score to win a cash prize. Last season, I picked La Liga winners in addition to the weekly Argentine match-of-the-week on Fox Soccer Channel. Unfortunately, there is no Argentine soccer on FSC this season so I will be sticking solely to Spain’s top division.
This biggest news since my last quiniela was Spain’s triumph at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. 7 of the 11 players that featured for Spain in the final play for Barcelona, last season’s champions (second-year running). Real Madrid, Barça’s eternal rival, responded with another summer spending spree. Notable new players now wearing the famous white Madrid shirt are German World Cup stars Sami Khedira and Mesut Ozil, Argentine Angel Di María, and former Chelsea defender Ricardo Carvalho. However, the biggest arrival is the new manager, Jose Mourinho. Mourinho won the treble (domestic league, domestic league cup, and European Cup) last year with Inter Milan, managed Chelsea to successive English league titles, and won his first European Cup with FC Porto of his native Portugal. It will be a two-horse race once again between these two teams for the title but there should be an exciting battle for the European places (1st thru 4th qualify for Champions League; 5th & 6th for Europa League). Here is how I predict the table will look at the end of the year, with my Jornada (round) One predictions after the jump:
01 – Intro
02 – So It Begins
03 – Ghosts
04 – Reality
05 – White Rabbit
06 – Haunted
07 – Remorse
08 – The Only Way
09 – Going Back
10 – Lost Again
11 – Nothing is Irreversible
12 – Believe
13 – I’m Ready
14 – It Worked
15 – Found
16 – What I Want
17 – Understand
18 – Once You’re Ready
19 – To Remember
20 – To Let Go
21 – Moving On
Tuesday nights were my favorite part of the week this past spring for two reasons. First , the Homy Inn. Second, watching the sixth and final season of LOST with friends. The TV show came to The End in May and I’ve spent the past couple of weeks remembering in order to let go. Now I’m moving on to a re-watch of LOST. Each week I will watch an episode of LOST, starting this week to coincide with the release of LOST: The Complete Collection. Every Tuesday I will post videos relevant to the episode that I watched that week, i.e. memorable scenes, brief recaps, etc.
