Given today’s lack of news, I thought I’d pass along an article on La Liga, the Spanish soccer league. As the season reaches its midway point, the clear favorites are FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. That’s expected, of course, considering their sizable payrolls and glamorous rosters.

Per the Los Angeles Times:

As far as gambles go, it was Florentino Perez who rolled the dice the hardest.

What the 62-year-old Spanish businessman did last summer was to splash out more than $355 million to bring the likes of Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo ($132 million), Brazil’s Kaka ($90 million), Spain’s Xabi Alonso ($48 million) and France’s Karim Benzema ($48 million) to Real Madrid.

What he wanted to do, he said, was “to create a spectacular project . . . to make Real Madrid the best club in the world once more.”

Halfway through the 2009-10 season, his “project” still has a long way to go. Like many top European teams that last summer gambled that a few expensive new players or a high-profile new coach would change their fortunes, Real has not seen things quite work out its way. Not yet, anyway.

So, with due deference to King Juan Carlos and family, the reign in Spain that is most closely watched as the new year approaches is that of FC Barcelona.

What follows is a glimpse at the two Spanish powers at the season’s midpoint. Fans of Sevilla, Valencia, Deportivo La Coruna, Mallorca and all other pretenders to the title need look no further.

In Spain, there are only two teams.

Sounds more enticing than anything offered by the MLS, doesn’t it? Both teams have plenty at stake this season and I’m excited to see how everything unravels.

Photo from fOTOGLIF