La Liga Week 11 Standings & Schedule: Real Madrid in First Place for Spanish League Title, Barcelona Just Two Points Behind
The two best soccer clubs in Spain find themselves once again fighting for the La Liga Spanish Football Championship. Real Madrid and Barcelona are atop the La Liga Standings, with last year's champions Atletico Madrid currently in fourth place.
Presently, Real Madrid is in first place overall with a 9-0-2 record giving them 27 points. Barcelona is in second place with 25 points. Barcelona has also played 11 games, but they have an 8-1-2 record.
Real Madrid has the best offense in the league by far this season with 42 goals scored, and they have allowed 11 goals against. Barcelona, on the other hand, has the edge in team defense. Barcelona has allowed just five goals in their 11 games, but have just 25 goals scored for. It's your classic case of elite offense vs. elite defense.
Barcelona's next game is against Seville FC on Nov. 22, while Real Madrid's next game is against SD Eibar on Nov. 22 as well.
Cristiano Ronaldo leads the powerful Real Madrid offense with a league-leading 18 goals this season. One of the best performances this season came during Game 9 of the El Clasico matchup against Barcelona when Ronaldo led his team to a 3-1 victory at home. Karim Benzema has six goals this season, and 23-year-old Colombian James Rodriguez continues to prove he's one of the great up-and-comers in the soccer world.
Middle fielder Toni Kroos, who helped Germany win the 2014 FIFA World Cup, has a team-leading six assists this year for Real Madrid. The young 24-year-old has a bright future ahead of him. Goalkeeper Iker Casillas has allowed nine goals in his nine starts this year while backup goalkeeper Keylor Navas has allowed two goals in his two starts.
The only losses for Real Madrid this season came to Atletico Madrid and Real Sociedad in Weeks 2 and 3. Since then, Real Madrid has won their last eight games.
Barcelona's strength is their defense. Jordi Alba and Javier Mascherano have created the No. 1 defensive unit in all of La Liga. Even though Barcelona has scored 17 less goals than Real Madrid this season, they do have a somewhat balanced attack. Neymar leads the team with 10 goals, and superstar Lionel Messi has seven himself. Messi leads Barcelona with seven assists.
After losing to Real Madrid on Oct. 25 in Week 9, Barcelona suffered a devastating 1-0 loss against Celta Vigo at home the following week. Celta Vigo is currently just 5-5-2 this season. Going forward, Barcelona will need more scoring to win the championship. Valencia CF is just one point behind Barcelona, and they only have one loss.
Chilean goalkeeper Claudio Bravo has started all 11 games for Barcelona this season. There's a good chance we will see Bravo win this year's Ricardo Zamora Trophy for best goalkeeper.
The 2014-15 La Liga season still has 27 weeks remaining and a lot of critical games are left to be played. Real Madrid and Barcelona will play each other one more time this season in Week 28 on March 22 at the Camp Nou Stadium -- the largest stadium in Europe -- in Barcelona, Spain.
For up-to-date sports news, scores, and more, follow Latin Post Sports on Twitter
FOR MORE SOCCER NEWS AND UPDATES, CLICK ON THIS LINK TO VISIT LATIN POST.COM'S SPORTS PAGE