An exciting finish to the league season, with a three horse race for the Pichichi title as teams came in to the last day. Javi Moreno was the first of the three to play, with his match brought forward to Saturday as neither Alavés nor their rivals Numancia had anything left to play for. Alavés lost, but Moreno got a goal in his last game for the club to move level with Raúl on 22 at the top of the table pending Sunday's games. Barcelona and Real Madrid kicked off at the same time as each other, with Rivaldo needing three goals to overtake the joint leaders. Within four minutes he had reduced the gap to one with a free kick, but then Raúl struck in the Bernabeu to go out in front by himself. Rivaldo got another two minutes later, and it was all down to the last 45 minutes. Five minutes from the end though the Real Madrid striker added his second of the game and his 24th of the season, and although Rivaldo completed his hat-trick with a spectacular bicycle kick in the last minute to take Barcelona into the Champions League, he ended the day still a goal behind his rival.

This was the second time in three years that the pair of them have finished in first and second spot, with Raúl also pipping the Brazilian star at the post in the 1998/99 season. Incidentally last year's Pichichi Salva, now with Atlético Madrid, set an unusual record finishing as Pichichi in the second division this year. Rivaldo still finished top of Soccer-Spain's "all club competition" table, despite missing a last minute penalty in the cup semi-final against Celta played the week after the league finished. See the weekly reports below for full details.

Week 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39

The season finished with a total of 2,301 yellow cards and 157 reds dished out in the 380 league games and the 9 rounds of the Spanish cup. Of those, some 2,224 cards related to the league games, an average of 5.9 cards a game throughout the season. It was not all players though, with 66 yellows and eight reds going to managers and other members of the technical staff. All in all 405 match days worth of suspensions were given out, an average of over 20 per club. The leading villains were Celta Vigo, who picked up 152 yellows and 14 reds, including 26 yellows and 5 reds in the cup competition. Discounting the cup matches though, Celta were still the villains in the league with 135 cards, followed by Las Palmas and Valencia, both with 123. The cleanest side in the league was Real Madrid with 81 cards, including 2 reds, with Osasuna on 91 and Zaragoza on 92.

On an individual basis, Alavés and Spanish international defender Téllez takes the Soccer-Spain "Villains" title for the second year in a row. He picked up three reds and thirteen yellows during the season, and that taking into account that he missed no less than eight matches through suspension. Racing's Arzeno drove him close though with two yellows in the last two games, but he fell one short at the end. Rayo's Poschner was third, one behind Arzeno, with 24 points, which included three sendings off. He was also sent for an early bath in the UEFA cup competition, but that didn't count in our competition, which is limited to domestic competitions.

Week 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39

As expected Cañizares took the Zamora prize this season, although Rivaldo made a bit of a dent in his numbers with a hat-trick on the last day. He eventually wins by three goals difference over Molina, who kept a clean sheet for 80 minutes on the last day and then graciously gave up his place to Songo'o for him to say goodbye to fans before leaving for French club Metz. Four other clean sheets this week, with one of them going to Amador, third choice keeper of Las Palmas, who was given a game this week as a reward for his loyalty. Osasuna's Sanzol kept his second in a row since coming in to the side in place of the injured Nuno, and it was enough to give them their second 1-0 victory in a row and keep them in the first division. How the league's only ever-present player Esteban would have loved to say the same thing - his side Oviedo were relegated after the keeper let in four more, and after starting the year in the Spanish squad, he now finds himself playing in the second division next season. Racing's Ceballos will be there too, despite seeing his side beat Bilbao 3-0.

Week 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38

Wow! You've got to hand it to the federation, they had us fooled! In our weekly report at the end of the league season we suggested that the referees designated for the four cup semi-final matches were rather tame chaps who were not going to rock the boat. Nothing of the kind. Between them and García-Aranda (who refereed the final in his last match before retiring) they sent off nine men and showed 53 cards in all, more than in an average weekend of ten games. Their performances rounded off a long hard season in which Daudén Ibáñez ran out winner of our white stick award with 136 cards shown in the twenty games he refereed, including eleven reds. Daudén just beats Bueno Grimal, who has a higher average per match but has refereed fewer games.

There will be four new faces next season, with Andradas Asurmendi also retiring and two other of our favourite referees, the theatrical and emotive penalty king Prados García (remember the Contreras pushing incident last season) and not-so-Bueno Grimal (who sent off an away player for the first time in his very last match), being forced to give up the game rather than drop to the second division. They were both given low ratings by the federation officials who score the referees' performances every match, and as they are both 44 years old they were asked to retire. A shame really, and regular readers of this feature will surely miss two of the most eccentric and colourful characters in the Spanish game today. The four referees who are promoted from the second division A are as follows: Téllez Sánchez, González Vázquez, Pérez Pérez and Pino Zamorano. We await their performances with baited breath.

Week 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39