The season concluded with Barcelona’s 99 points edging out Real Madrid’s 97. Valencia finished third with 72 points. The two clubs’ dominance was, as Barca manager Pep Guardiola put it, barbaric.

Will it get any better this season? No. If anything, it will get worse.

Barcelona and Madrid both strengthened their squads in the summer with big signings. The only other team that spent significant money was Atletico de Madrid, who finished ninth last season.

The idea of both of the Big Two finishing with 100 or more points this season has been openly expressed, and it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

But there are 18 other teams that will be competing in Spain’s “Other League,” and few of them are pretty good. A lot of them are rubbish – you could probably make a case for 12 teams as relegation contenders.

Only three of them will go down, of course, and it is there that I start my predictions for the 2010-11 La Liga table:

20) Levante
19) Zaragoza
18) Racing Santander

The last time we saw Levante in La Liga, the club wasn’t paying its players, and it seemed like it would be a long time before we saw it again in the top flight. That was 2008. Luis Garcia Plaza has done a great job with the Valencian club and led it to a third-place finish in the Segunda last season. Levante has added some interesting pieces in Xisco, Javi Venta and Asier del Horno (on loan from its rivals across town), but it’s hard to see survival for this group.

Zaragoza was mired in the relegation zone in January, when it brought in Humberto Suazo, Adrian Colunga and Eliseu (among others) on loan to save its season. The club is mired in so much debt that it couldn’t hold on to any of those players and, unless you want to count keeper Leo Franco, no one of real consequence was brought in.

Since being promoted to La Liga for the 2002-03 season, Racing has finished 16th or 17th five out of eight years, including last season. Sergio Canales, the club’s one impact player, is now at Real Madrid. The bubble is finally going to burst in Cantabria this year.

17) Hercules
16) Real Sociedad
15) Almeria
14) Mallorca
13) Malaga

The signing of Nelson Valdez from Borussia Dortmund has garnered attention for Hercules, but it is the addition of veteran defenders David Cortes (Getafe) and Mohamed Sarr (Standard Liege) that could mean the difference between relegation and survival. Spain’s third promoted side, Real Sociedad, added veteran strikers Raul Tamudo and Joseba Llorente to the fold and should also have enough to stay up.

Almeria had its moments last year, including a 2-2 tie against Barcelona. The club lost a pair of solid performers in midfielder Fernando Soriano (Osasuna) and fullback Domingo Cisma (Racing) in the summer, but Albert Crusat, Pablo Piatti and Juan Manuel Ortiz give the side enough quality to stay in the top division. Mallorca will surely tumble after last year’s miraculous fifth-place finish, but have a quality manager in Michael Laudrup and signed a player to watch in midfielder Jonathan De Guzman from Feyenoord.

Malaga has had a lot of people talking after Qatari billionaire Abdullah Bin Nasser Al-Thani bought the club in June. Jesualdo Ferreira will manage the club after four successful years at Porto. Malaga made a host of interesting signings over the summer, including Quincy, Sebastian Fernandez, Jose Salomon Rondon and Eliseu. Duda is coming off an excellent season. Malaga will improve off its 17th-place finish last season; 13th may even be conservative.

12) Deportivo la Coruna
11) Osasuna
10) Getafe
9) Sporting Gijon
8 ) Espanyol

Miguel Angel Lotina can draw only so much blood from the sinking stone that is Depor, who sold one of its two valuable commodities when fullback Filipe Luis went to Atletico. The other, Andres Guardado, can never stay healthy. Deportivo finished tenth last season and will do well to match that this year. Osasuna saw right back and rising star Cesar Azpilicueta move to Marseille, but added Dejan Lekic from Red Star Belgrade to bolster its attack. Jose Antonio Camacho knows what he’s doing on the sideline. Holding on to left back Nacho Monreal is key.

After finishing sixth last year, Getafe is due for a bit of a drop after selling Roberto Soldado and Pedro Leon to Valencia and Real Madrid, respectively. Colunga is a good addition; Javier Arizmendi, presumably as a replacement for Soldado, was not. Sporting has struggled to stay up since earning promotion in 2008, but have a solid squad led by attacking midfielders Diego Castro and Miguel de las Cuevas. Sebastian Eguren comes over from Villarreal and adds some bite to the midfield.

Espanyol is a hard team to figure. It probably should improve on its 11th-place showing last year, but will need to improve on a dreadful attack that scored a league-low 29 goals. Sergio Garcia can only help, but Joan Verdu needs to live up to the form he showed at Deportivo before signing for Espanyol last year. Carlos Kameni, one of the league’s top keepers, remains in the fold.

7) Valencia
6) Sevilla
5) Athletic Bilbao

Valencia would have been the team best equipped to challenge the Big Two, but finally had to give in to its crippling debt and sell David Villa and David Silva. Nikola Zigic, Carlos Marchena and Alexis are also gone. Soldado and Aritz Aduriz are capable forwards who will score goals, but obviously aren’t in the same league of the players they’re replacing. The club still has Juan Mata, Ever Banega and Joaquin, not to mention an excellent manager in Unai Emery. Another top-four finish isn’t out of the question, but you have to wonder about the effect on team psyche after seeing so many key players walk out the door.

Another team in a potentially fragile state is Sevilla, whose exit from the Champions League at the hands of Braga has already put the team in turmoil. Luis Fabiano may be on his way out before the end of the month, and the team still hasn’t found a central playmaker to complement the rest of its attacking talent. Jesus Navas is one of the world’s best wingers, and Diego Capel and Diego Perotti are both very good on the left flank. The real issue here is the defense, which looked porous against Braga. Alexis isn’t exactly an equal replacement for Sebastien Squillaci, now at Arsenal.

Athletic has held steady in terms of personnel, and that alone should be good enough for improvement upon its eighth-place performance last season. The side is strong up the middle with keeper Gorka Iraizoz, defender Fernando Amorebieta, midfielder Javi Martinez and forward Fernando Llorente. Seventeen-year old wunderkind Iker Muniain will be a year better. Susaeta is a solid performer on the wing, as is Koikili at left back. The squad is lean, so staying healthy is crucial for gaffer Joaquin Caparros. If that happens, European football beckons – possibly even in the form of a Champions League berth.

4) Villarreal
3) Atletico de Madrid

Losing Diego Godin is big, but Villarreal picked up a capable, veteran replacement in Marchena. Diego Lopez is one of the league’s top keepers. There’s a potentially potent strike partnership in Giuseppe Rossi and Nilmar. The club needs Marcos Senna and Santi Cazorla to stay on the pitch. The signing of Borja Valero, a major player in Mallorca’s success last season, may be the difference between Champions League qualification and a return to the Europa League.

Atletico is the chic pick to win the Other League, and it’s easy to see why. The club’s comical defending was its downfall last season. Quique Sanchez Flores started to change that, but could only go so far with the players he had back there. Adding Godin and Filipe Luis is a major upgrade, and they did it without having to sell Diego Forlan or Sergio Aguero. The two big questions: Can Jose Antonio Reyes keep up his great form? And will David De Gea continue his development as a first-choice keeper? If the answer to both questions is yes, third place is Atletico’s to lose.

2) Barcelona
1) Real Madrid

Relatively speaking, things in La Liga are cyclical. No team has won three in a row since Barcelona won four straight from 1991-1994 under Johan Cruyff. Barca is going for three straight this year, but it looks like the cycle may have turned.

Barcelona still has the best starting 11 in the world, and a front line of Lionel Messi, David Villa and Pedro is downright frightening. But Real Madrid was right there with the Catalans every step of the way last season; both teams entered the final match day with 96 points. Ultimately, the difference was Barcelona winning both matches against Madrid. With all due respect to Manuel Pellegrini – who did a fine job under the circumstances – one has to believe that hiring Jose Mourinho will make up for one of those results.

Given the likelihood of both teams dominating the rest of the league like they did last year, that’s all it may take.

Real Madrid also has a deeper squad, boosted by the additions of Ricardo Carvalho, Sami Khedira, Mesut Ozil, Angel di Maria and Canales. The only potential downfall is if this star-studded squad doesn’t buy into Mourinho’s way of doing things, but Mourinho has deftly handled egos at Chelsea and Inter Milan.

Barcelona has concerns about age and depth. The addition of Javier Mascherano helps, but who will Guardiola turn to if Xavi – who is 30 and hasn’t had a summer off since 2007 – gets injured? How long can Carles Puyol remain a world-class defender? Will all the matches Barcelona has played the last three years finally catch up?

It will be close. It may well come down to the final day again. But, the way it looks right now, the oh-so-slight edge goes to Real Madrid.

Barcelona won the 20th league title in its history with a record 99 points, the last three coming in Sunday’s 4-0 home win over Valladolid. Lionel Messi scored his 33rd and 34th league goals, and 46th and 47th overall – both tying club records set by Ronaldo in 1996-97.

The result sent Valladolid back to the Segunda, where it will be joined on its way down by Tenerife and Xerez. The boys from Castile and Leon would still be up had it not been for an unforeseen draw in Malaga, where an early goal from Duda was enough for the locals to get a 1-1 result against a Real Madrid side that needed a win (and a result from Valladolid) to win the title.

Instead, it was the Andalucians celebrating on their pitch, while Real sauntered off with the greatest second-place finish (96 points, 102 goals scored) in European football history.

The weekend’s biggest drama came Saturday, as Mallorca topped Espanyol 2-0 and stayed on the field to watch the conclusion of Almeria-Sevilla on the big screen. With the scored tied 2-2 deep in injury time, the Mallorca players stood on the pitch poised to celebrate a miraculous qualification for the Champions League… only for 19-year old cantera product Rodri, making his second appearance of the year, to score on an overhead kick to send Sevilla to fourth place and tears to the pitch from Mallorca players.

So, to recap the important stuff:

Champion: Barcelona
Champions League (automatic): Real Madrid, Valencia
Champions League (qualifying): Sevilla
Europa League: Mallorca, Getafe, Atletico de Madrid (as holders)
Relegated: Valladolid, Tenerife, Xerez

So, where do we go from here? Let’s start with the biggest questions:

What do Barcelona and Real Madrid do now?
As always, plenty of transfer rumors surround the big two.

David Villa is a lock to join Barcelona. Well, he was a lock to join Madrid last summer. Cesc Fabregas will finally head back to Catalunya. Well, he was supposed to do that two years ago, and last summer, and… Real want him, too. Madrid president Florentino Perez, meanwhile, will also go after David Silva… and Fernando Torres, and Wayne Rooney, and Jesus Navas, and Pele, and LeBron James, and…

And what will happen on the sidelines? One has to figure that if Jose Mourinho wants the job at the Bernabeu, he will get it. It would be unfair to Manuel Pellegrini, who took an essentially brand new team and got it to play some devastating football. But he will be judged on four games: the two against Barcelona, the return leg against Lyon in the Champions League round of 16, and the 4-0 loss to Alcorcon in the Copa del Rey.

While he’s signed for next year, Pep Guardiola is no lock to return to the Barcelona bench, depending on what happens with the June 13 presidential election. Although, the election may be rendered moot if Barcelona does in fact get Villa and/or Fabregas.

What does everyone else do now?
For the purpose of brevity, we’ll limit “everyone else” to teams that could, in theory, challenge the duopoly: Valencia, Sevilla, Villarreal, Atletico (OK, that’s stretching it).

Unai Emery did one of the better managing jobs in Spain this year, turning around the negative culture that had been surrounding Valencia the last few years and getting them into third place (not to mention the quarterfinals of the Europa League, from which it should have advanced had it not been for a woeful no-penalty decision in the closing minutes of the second leg at Atletico). He’ll have to do even better next year, with Villa, Silva and perhaps even Juan Mata almost certain to be sold.

Sevilla will be hoping Luis Fabiano shakes off his “injuries” to have a big World Cup for Brazil and drive up the asking price for his transfer. This may also be the time to sell high on winger Jesus Navas, given that Diego Capel and Diego Perotti are still on the books. If those funds can be allocated toward the team’s biggest needs – another forward, a playmaking central midfielder and another defender or two to alleviate the pressure off keeper Andres Palop – Sevilla may be able to make the noise it was expected to this season after a tremendous start.

Villarreal rebounded from an awful beginning to challenge for the European places, but look likely to be waving goodbye this summer to striker Giuseppe Rossi, who is said to desire a move to Italy. The Yellow Submarine has spent uncharacteristically big (by its standards, anyway) on Jozy Altidore and Nilmar the last two summers, and there are questions as to whether it can make that kind of splash again. Some midfield help to support the likes of aging Marcos Senna and injury-prone Santi Cazorla is needed.

Atletico will likely sell Sergio Aguero this summer (see the trend here?) and, with millions upon millions in debt still to be paid off, doesn’t figure to have the ability to plug the holes. A new back four would be a good place to start.

In short, expect to see another “two-league” Liga next year: the one for Barcelona and Madrid, and the one for everybody else.

Who could be in trouble for the drop next season?
There’s the obvious candidates: the three promoted teams (none of whom have been determined, as of yet), Malaga and Racing Santander. It’s also hard to see the likes of Almeria, Sporting Gijon and Osasuna getting much better.

If someone from this year’s top half is going to join them, it would probably be Mallorca. The islanders were a great story this year, with Gregorio Manzano taking a team of few recognizable names playing in front of a half-empty stadium to within seconds of a top-four finish. But Manzano is likely to leave (to Sevilla?) and so are at least a few of the club’s top players, defender Nunes (who’s 33), midfielder Gonzalo Castro and midfielder Borja Valero (on loan from West Brom) among them. And even if Mallorca wanted to sell leading scorer Aritz Aduriz (12 goals), could they? They haven’t even paid the full fee it took to get him from Athletic Bilbao two years ago.

Such are the economics of the times in La Liga.

Will the league’s organizers get their act together?
The answer is obviously “no,” but consider:

- The league started on the weekend of August 29 and 30, which was immediately followed by a World Cup qualifier weekend. Couldn’t they have started a little earlier to at least get into the flow of the season before it was disrupted?

- At the other end, there are Segunda matches scheduled for June 20. That’s almost two weeks into the World Cup. Real Betis – a team currently three points out of a promotion spot with five matches to play – will soon be seeing its best player, midfielder Achille Emana, leave for the Cameroon national team camp. It should be noted that teams in England’s Championship – which wraps up with this weekend’s playoff between Cardiff and Blackpool – play 46 games (49 if you’re the teams playing this weekend). In the Segunda, you play 42.

- The day and time for the Copa del Rey final wasn’t set until a month before the actual game, with haggling from both clubs (Sevilla and Atletico) on where it should be played. Spain doesn’t have a Wembley, sure, but how is a cup final not scheduled at least a year in advance?

- Alfonzo Perez Burrull is still employed as a first division referee.

Good or bad, it’s always interested in La Liga. Until next year…

The final table:
Barcelona – 99 points; Real Madrid – 96; Valencia – 71; Sevilla – 63; Mallorca – 62; Getafe – 58; Villarreal – 56; Athletic Bilbao – 54; Atletico de Madrid – 47; Deportivo la Coruna – 47; Espanyol – 44; Osasuna – 43; Almeria – 42; Real Zaragoza – 41; Sporting Gijon – 40; Racing Santander – 39; Malaga – 37; Valladolid – 36; Tenerife – 36; Xerez – 34.

Sunday’s 2-0 home loss to Osasuna was the final straw in a tough first season for Valverde at the helm of the Yellow Submarine.

Villarreal got off to a horrendous start this season, spending most of the first two months in the relegation zone after taking just three points in its first seven matches. The team had climbed to the top half of the table and, in its first match after the Christmas break, became the first team to take points off Barcelona at the Camp Nou this season with a deserved 1-1 draw on Jan. 2.

But it’s gone downhill since. Villarreal was eliminated by Segunda side Celta Vigo on a last-second penalty in the Copa del Rey’s round of 16, and the results in the league haven’t been much better: a 1-1 draw at home to relegation-threatened Almeria, 4-1 loss at Valencia and Sunday’s game to fellow mid-table side Osasuna. The previous weekend’s 4-2 home win against Zaragoza – currently in 19th place – wasn’t enough to stem the tide.

Valverde will land another job somewhere, and soon. He’s had some success recently, leading Espanyol to the 2007 UEFA Cup final (where it lost to Sevilla on penalty kicks) and Olympiacos to the Greek double in 2009 before returning to his native Spain.

But he’ll have some questions to answer as to how he didn’t get more out of a Villarreal squad that was expected to compete for a Champions League berth. The club is in ninth place with 26 points, 10 behind fourth place Sevilla and eight behind sixth place Deportivo la Coruna for the last guaranteed Europa League spot.

Villarreal has appointed Juan Carlos Garrido as its manager for the rest of the season. Garrido had been managing the club’s B side in the Segunda division, where it currently sits in seventh place.

Whether it’s an aging line-up, a lack of cohesiveness among the players, or absence of a dominant scoring threat, every fan has their one scapegoat which they deem responsible for the lack of better results. With the U.S. Men’s national team, it seems to be the starting left back position and a more consistent scoring threat.

Most of the U.S. supporters would be outraged to know that these missing pieces could have easily been solved with something as simple as a single phone call.Is the U.S. doing everything it can do to continue to develop the kind of talent worthy of challenging the world?

The debate about the success of the U-17 residency program continues on, but what about the few who got away? What if that missing defender was once a member of the development program? What if that consistent scoring threat was once enrolled in one of this country’s universities and was merely waiting for a simple phone call?

In the situation of possible impact players choosing to play elsewhere than the U.S., many people will point to the situation of Giuseppe Rossi. The New Jersey-born forward, who now plays for Villarreal in Spain, chose to play for the Italian national team instead of the U.S. That situation looked helpless from the start as Rossi declined an invitation to the pre-World Cup training camp from then coach Bruce Arena. Rossi stated from the beginning his desire to play for Italy, as he had played for them from the U-16 level through the U-21 level already.

Then consider the story of Neven Subotic, a Serbian born defender who was once enrolled in the residency program in Bradenton, Florida. Subotic moved to America with his family as a young child and would eventually make 12 appearances for the U.S. between the U-17 and U-20 national teams. Subotic now plays for Borussia Dortmund in Germany and appears ready for stardom in Europe. At the young age of 20, Subotic is already a very talented defender and presents himself as a legitimate scoring threat from the backline with six goals on the season for Dortmund.

Subotic’s Interview with US Soccer in November 2006(Click to listen)

In December of 2008, Subotic informed the U.S. Soccer Federation that he would be playing in International soccer with his native country of Serbia. There was much debate leading up to his decision which he called an “entirely professional decision” in an interview with Sports Illustrated.

After making only two appearances with the U.S. U-20 team, Subotic was left off of the U-20 World Cup roster back in 2007 by coach Thomas Rongen. Supporters can only wonder how much that affected Subotic’s decision. In the end the allure of playing on the big stage that is Europe and the proximity to which he grew up in Germany appear to be the deciding factor in Subotic’s decision.

Then Vedad Ibisevic, born in Bosnia, eventually ended up in the Saint Louis area. He played his high school soccer in the U.S. and starred at Saint Louis University for one year before returning to Europe to play professionally. Ibisevic earned NCAA Freshman of the Year honors while at Saint Louis University as well was a first team All-American player that year.

Here are two of the more extreme examples of players with dual citizenship capabilities that chose not to play for the U.S. Is the U.S. still viewed as second-rate on the international stage that players want to play for a traditionally more talented country? First thought is no because countries like Serbia and Bosnia are not on the level of an Italy or Germany squad.

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During an ESPN interview with Janusz Michallik(shown above), Ibisevic said, “…looking back I really had fun playing at SLU (Saint Louis University) and I would imagine if the contact came at the time, when I was still living here and playing here, it would be an option for me, definitely.”

In the same interview Ibisevic said that the only contact from the U.S. Soccer Federation came after he had already debuted for the Bosnian national team. A single phone call could have made the difference in one of the Bundesliga’s newest rising stars choosing the U.S. over Bosnia. Ibisevic scored 18 goals and recorded six assists during the first 17 games of the season for TSG 1899 Hoffenheim before a knee injury ended his season.

Questions about this remain unanswered so far, but there are still situations in which these decisions have gone in favor of the U.S. In October of 2008, Jose Francisco Torres chose to don the colors of the U.S. over Mexico, where he has been playing his club soccer with Pachuca since 2006.

So the situation has not always gone against the Americans, but supporters must be left to wonder what their team would look like had some young men made a different decision. How strong would the U.S. line-up look with Subotic in the backline and Ibisevic up top?