The Pride of Vallekas

Michele Taylor is the voice of the Barcelona women's team. Full stop. You can follow her on Twitter here . If you're interested in following the Barcelona women's team for official updates, follow them here . A bit about yourself and your background I’m a Fiji-Kiwi. Born in Fiji and then moved to NZ with my family when I was 15, where I finished school and then worked in professional photography/film processing/photo printing until 2004 when I moved to Dubai. Since then, we’ve also lived in Germany, Australia and Spain. Now we spend our time between our families in Germany and New Zealand. How long have you been a fan of Barcelona and what made you support them in the first place? We watched the Men’s 2008 Euro Final between Spain and Germany, and were amazed by Spain’s playing style. It was beautiful to watch. When we moved to Barcelona in early 2009, we quickly became fans of the FCB men’s team. Their playing style was so exciting! We attended as many games as ...

Spanish football is always criticized for being a two horse race. That is a blanket statement - it doesn't capture the competitiveness of the Segunda, the fiery relegation and European spot battles of La Liga, the shocking frequency at which clubs in the lower leagues disappear. But there is one, and only one, context in which I believe that statement - and it's not the one you expect. The 2007-08 season of women's football was dominated by two teams - Rayo Vallecano and Levante. Before then, Levante had always come in the top 3 since 2000; they had won four league titles and six Copa de la Reina's. In contrast, Rayo Vallecano had only started existing since 2000 and had never been in the top 3, and had reached the semifinal stage in each of the previous three Copa de la Reina's. It wasn't even close - Levante were flying in the league table, and Rayo were not far behind. But it wasn't just the fact that Rayo were posing a serious challege and running...