Real on verge of title after late drama

MADRID, June 9 (Reuters) - Real Madrid were left on the verge of winning the Spanish title on Saturday after staging yet another dramatic comeback to grab a 2-2 draw at Real Zaragoza while Barcelona surrendered a lead to draw 2-2 with Espanyol.

Sergio Ramos and Pablo Aimar
DenisDoyle/GettyImages
Sergio Ramos of Real Madrid lands on Pablo Aimar of Zaragoza.

Real's title hopes looked to have gone up in smoke as they trailed Zaragoza 2-1 with just over a minute to go, while Barca led 2-1 at home against city rivals Espanyol.

But a late scrambled goal from Ruud van Nistelrooy earned Real their 2-2 draw and at almost exactly the same moment, Raul Tamudo scored his second to equalise against Barcelona.

The results mean that Real will win their first league title in four years if they beat mid-table Real Mallorca at home in the final game of the season next weekend.

With one game left to play Real and Barcelona are both on 73 points, but the nine-times European champions lead because of their better head-to-head record. Sevilla are two points behind on 71.

Juande Ramos's side were held 0-0 at Real Mallorca, but still have an outside chance of taking the title if they win their final match at home to Villarreal and both Barca and Real slip up.

If all three sides finish level on points Real will take the title, if Real and Sevilla have the same total then the Andalucians will be champions and if Barca and Sevilla are tied at the top then the Catalans will win through.

'It was a mad night, it was unbelievable with all those goals coming at the same time,' said Van Nistelrooy. 'But this side has shown it has got great spirit.'

In an evening of high drama, Real drew first blood when Barcelona fell behind after Tamudo stroked the ball into the top corner following a deft through pass from Ivan de la Pena on the half hour.

But at almost exactly the same moment, Real went 1-0 down to Zaragoza, Argentine striker Diego Milito smashing home from the penalty spot after Ivan Helguera had handled the ball.

Barca equalised when Lionel Messi emulated Diego Maradona's famous 'hand of god' goal just before halftime, launching himself at a cross and using his hand to steer the ball past Espanyol keeper Carlos Kameni.

Messi struck again early in the second half, this time with a legitimate goal, sweeping the ball home after a neat turn and pass from Deco.

Van Nistelrooy equalised for Real at almost the same time, but their title hopes appeared to have unravelled when Milito fired under Iker Casillas after a virtuoso run from Pablo Aimar.

Real were still behind in the title race when Van Nistelrooy scored his 25th goal of the season, poking home from a metre with a minute to go, but there was still one last twist to come.

A shaky-looking Barca back four left Tamudo free down the right after misjudging the offside trap and the Espanyol striker drilled a low angled shot past Victor Valdes to earn his side the 2-2 draw that put Real back on top.

On hearing of the goal in Barcelona, an ecstatic Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon ran down on to the pitch at La Romareda and gave a lap of honour to salute the travelling Real fans.

'It is going to be very difficult to digest this result,' said Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard. 'We missed a great chance, but we have to keep fighting while it is still mathematically possible. Tonight could have been so different.'

Exodus' book focuses on Bob's 1977 exile

Exodus' book focuses on Bob's 1977 exile

superted by:http://www.bobmarley.com

It is impossible to talk about Bob Marley's monumental album Exodus without an account of his own flight from Jamaica after the assassination attempt made on his life at 56 Hope Road on the night of December 3, 1976. Exodus: Bob Marley and The Wailers, Exile 1977 is a collection of rare photos and probing essays that contextualize Bob's time in exile, the two classic albums he produced in London, Exodus and Kaya and the politically charged times that left Bob in need of recuperation.

Contributor Lloyd Bradley, whose running essay "The Story of Exodus," serves as the book's thread, provides the story of the post-colonial, post-Independence period in Jamaica's history. Britain made its official exit in 1962, but not before essentially locking down the tourism, banana and bauxite industries. Within a decade, poverty enveloped the island; the murder rate per capita was triple that of New York and Kingston became so lawless that drivers were instructed to disobey traffic lights lest they get caught in the crossfire of midday gunplay. Bradley argues that Bob and the Rasta community essentially won Manley the 1972 election, believing his campaign promises to legalize marijuana and to assist in repatriation to Ethiopia. But by the 1976 election, those promises remained unfulfilled and so "Bob and other Rastas stayed away from the politricks of Babylon."

Still, Bob hoped to offer a reprieve to Kingston's masses, held hostage by the often politically motivated violence, with his "Smile Jamaica" concert. He ignored warnings via anonymous phone calls to his home to cancel his performance and even after he was shot, performed two nights later with a bullet lodged in his left arm. After the show Bob, the Wailers and his entourage chartered a late night flight to the Bahamas. Two weeks later they were in London.

Poet Kwesi Linton, whose essay "The Poetry of Exile" takes on Exodus' lyrical import and finds the assassination attempt essential to reading even the more spiritual songs on the album. "'Natural Mystic,' 'Three Little Birds' and 'One Love' only become significant in the light of the assassination attempt," she writes. "It is in Marley's Rastafarian faith, and his implacable belief in a 'natural mystic' that we locate the thematic thread, as we are taken through songs about faith, betrayal, persecution, defiance, resistance, recuperation, love and hope."

In the introduction to the book, Chris Blackwell argues that while Bob directly addressed the shooting on "Guiltiness" and "So Much Things to Say," Exodus as a whole contained "fewer political songs and a greater proportion of love songs [because] things were good." Though the accolades for Exodus would come much later (music critic Robert Christgau points out that Kaya charted better in the U.S.) the album that Time magazine named "Album of the Century" at millennium's end was recorded at what Blackwell calls a time of "confidence." Far from being derailed from his musical mission after the attempt on his life, the recording of Exodus was more than productive, it was a regenerative time, one where he was able to re-commit, relax and revitalize.

Longtime collaborator Vivien Goldman, who also authored a definitive book about the making of Exodus, remembers Bob's unique working style, one that saw him drifting between the collaborative jam sessions that his creativity required and the deep solitude in which he was able to retreat despite a crowded studio, where, she says, one could find him "locked in his own concentration."

Football (or soccer), Bob's other great passion, is duly documented by inside photographer Dennis Morris. Editor Richard Williams penned "The Football Match" about the many games Bob played as seriously as he would an arena concert. It was in London during one such match that Bob injured his toe and as girlfriend Cindy Breakspeare remembered, failed to "give it a chance to heal." It was also in London, after four concerts that marked the end of the European tour in support of Exodus that Bob was diagnosed with melanoma, a cancer that would eventually claim his life. Exodus, Exile 1977 captures a year that would not only forever alter Bob's life but the entire global musical landscape for decades to come.