Last year's Zamora Cañizares is back in the lead after his third clean sheet in a row kept his side at the top of the table. Valencia have an incredible record this year, leading the first division despite having only scored as many goals as next to bottom club Real Sociedad and one more than 'colistas' Rayo Vallecano. Their success this season though is in their defensive record, and Cañizares is a key part of their line up. It was an incident packed weekend for goalkeepers, starting with the unfortunate Nacho González, who was told by the Spanish football federation that the Italian authorities had reported irregularities in his passport documentation, and that they were suspending him pending further investigation. Las Palmas are trying to get the Argentine registered as a non-EU player in the meantime, but this weekend he was replaced by Cicovic. Even the Yugoslav had problems though, pulling a leg muscle taking a goalkick just before half time, and he too was substituted by young Orlando Quintana, who was drafted in from their affiliate side Universidad Las Palmas.

Celta's Cavallero had not recovered from the shoulder injury picked up in a clash with Zidane last week and he was replaced by Pinto, and Zaragoza's Láinez injured himself in the pre-match warm up and gave up his place to Juanmi. Osasuna's Unzué was down with flu and although he made the substitutes' bench, Sanzol took over between the sticks, having a bit of a disaster letting in four at Mallorca. Three managers changed their first choice keeper this week, most notably Vicente Del Bosque, who gave food for thought to Spanish team coach José Antonio Camacho when he dropped Iker Casillas to bring in César, both for the cup final and also for the league match against Villarreal. Rexach decided to bring back Argentine international Bonano, leaving under-21 keeper Reina on the bench, and Javier Clemente preferred Julio Iglesias to Sergio Aragoneses, presumably because he can also sing better in the bath after the game (sorry, not that Julio Iglesias - ed.). After all that it was another high scoring weekend, with only Cañizares, César, Julio Iglesias and Espanyol's Mora keeping clean sheets in the ten weekend games. (11.03.02)