La Liga gets the first crack at the new season among Europe’s Big Five leagues this weekend, although it has found an odd way to stage its opening act, with most of the top teams getting the first weekend off.
The league officially begins Saturday, August 15, but the condensed turnaround from the World Cup forced several Matchday 1 games to be postponed. Players who reached the World Cup semifinals were guaranteed 21 days of vacation, so Atlético Madrid will not open until Wednesday against newly promoted Málaga. Real Madrid’s opener against Real Sociedad has been moved to August 26, while Barcelona will finally begin its title defense against Athletic Club on August 27.
Once everyone actually gets on the field, the title race starts from a familiar place. Barcelona has won La Liga in each of Hansi Flick’s first two seasons and finished eight points clear of Real Madrid last year, scoring 95 goals on the way to 94 points. Madrid finished second with 86, while Villarreal surprisingly took third with 72 and Atlético Madrid stumbled to fourth with 69.
The betting market sees another Barcelona–Real Madrid fight, but the two clubs are approaching the season from almost opposite directions. Barcelona is betting primarily on continuity from a young team that already works. Madrid responded to another disappointing season by bringing José Mourinho back to the Bernabéu and overhauling the squad around him.
Atlético has spent heavily enough to remain interesting, while Villarreal and Real Betis lead a second tier hoping the favorites leave an opening.
Preseason order
The title race, at a glance
Bet365 odds / August 13- 01
Barcelona8/11 · The highest floorFavorite - 02
Real Madrid6/5 · The highest ceilingChallenger - 03
Atlético Madrid14/1 · The expensive questionThird force? - —
Villarreal & Real Betis66/1 & 50/1 · Europe’s chase packNext tier
How to Watch La Liga in the United States
For American viewers, the league can be found on ESPN+.
ESPN’s U.S. rights agreement with La Liga runs through the 2028-29 season. All 380 league matches are available live and on demand on ESPN+ in both English and Spanish, with selected games also moved onto ESPN’s television networks.
The larger games will occasionally get broader distribution. On Matchday 2, for example, Espanyol–Real Madrid on Saturday and Elche–Barcelona on Sunday are scheduled for ABC, while Atlético–Villarreal will also air on ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes in addition to ESPN+.
The Americans: Johnny Cardoso and Alex Freeman
There are only two current USMNT players in La Liga this season, but both are at clubs with Champions League ambitions: Johnny Cardoso at Atlético Madrid and Alex Freeman at Villarreal. U.S. Soccer itself highlighted the pair heading into the new campaign.
Johnny CardosoAtlético Madrid / Midfield
Alex FreemanVillarreal / Right back
Johnny Cardoso, Atlético Madrid
This is an important season for Cardoso after a frustrating first year in Madrid.
His debut Atlético season was repeatedly interrupted by injuries, culminating in the severe ankle sprain that required surgery in May and cost him a place at the World Cup. He has finally returned to full team training and is working his way back toward match fitness.
The good news is that Cardoso has already shown he can play at this level. The bad news is that Atlético has not spent the summer waiting around for him.
Hjulmand’s arrival adds direct competition at defensive midfield, Pablo Barrios is a major part of Simeone’s plans and Koke remains around as the veteran organizer. Cardoso should have opportunities, especially with Atlético playing in multiple competitions, but he enters the season needing to win a significant role rather than simply inherit one.
His skill set still fits. Cardoso can protect the center, receive the ball under pressure and move it forward without needing to dominate possession. In a team that may alternate between a back four and a back five, there should be roles where that balance is useful.
He needs to stay healthy. After basically losing the World Cup and much of his first Atlético season to injuries, a full year of consistent club soccer would put him right back into the middle of the USMNT midfield conversation for the next cycle.
Alex Freeman, Villarreal
Freeman’s move from Orlando City to Villarreal in January was always going to require some patience.
He ended up making nine appearances and playing 340 minutes after arriving, enough to get his first exposure to La Liga without immediately taking over the position. Villarreal describes him as primarily a right back whose size, speed and attacking ability can also allow him to play farther forward.
That makes this season very interesting.
The adjustment period is over. Villarreal invested in Freeman as a long-term player, but now he has to become a regular part of the rotation for a club that finished third in Spain.
There is also opportunity in the coaching change. Iñigo Pérez does not owe last season’s hierarchy anything, which gives Freeman another chance to demonstrate that the physical tools that made him such an unusual MLS fullback can translate consistently against La Liga attackers.
For the USMNT, this is a key development situation. Freeman already demonstrated he can be an effective starter at a World Cup this summer, becoming one of the breakout performers for the U.S. Playing meaningful minutes in La Liga and the Champions League will expose him to a level of tactical and technical pressure that is difficult to reproduce elsewhere and can help push his game to the next level.
Of the two Americans in Spain, Freeman probably has more upward mobility this season. Cardoso is trying to re-establish himself after injury. Freeman is still finding out how high his club ceiling might be.
The Title Race
The preseason odds from Bet365 as of August 13 illustrate how quickly the field falls away after the big two: Barcelona at 8/11, Real Madrid at 6/5, Atlético Madrid at 14/1, Real Betis at 50/1, and Villarreal and Athletic Club at 66/1.
That seems about right. Atlético is talented enough to make this a three-team race, but Barcelona and Madrid begin the season with considerably fewer questions.
Barcelona: Can They Keep Scoring Without Lewandowski?
Hansi Flick enters his third season having won La Liga in each of his first two, and Barcelona has an advantage of merely building on an already accomplished team.
The basic approach is established. Barcelona wants to press high, recover the ball quickly and attack before the opponent can settle. Lamine Yamal, Pedri, Raphinha and the rest of the young core have now spent two seasons playing together in the system. Players such as Pau Cubarsí, Gavi and Marc Bernal have another year of experience behind them.
Barcelona has added even more speed with Anthony Gordon and Karim Adeyemi. Both can attack space behind a defense and give Flick additional options to rotate his wide players without dramatically changing the way the team attacks.
The concern is obvious: who scores the goals in the middle?
Robert Lewandowski has departed for Chicago, and Ferran Torres now appears headed for Paris Saint-Germain after Barcelona and PSG reached a preliminary agreement worth around €50 million on Thursday. That leaves plenty of dangerous attacking players, but no obvious replacement for Lewandowski’s ability to occupy center backs and finish chances around the penalty spot.
Gordon and Adeyemi make Barcelona faster, but they aren’t target strikers and they don’t necessarily make Barcelona better at breaking down the deep defensive blocks they will see in half of their league games. Barcelona has pursued a move for Julián Álvarez from Atlético Madrid, but it does not seem imminent at this point.
There may still be another enormous addition. Barcelona continues to pursue Rodri, with Manchester City rejecting an improved offer of around €60 million and Barcelona reportedly preparing another bid. Nothing is complete yet, so he cannot really be included in a preseason lineup, but obviously adding one of the best defensive midfielders in the world would change the calculation.
Even without him, Barcelona starts as my favorite. They know who they are, they have the best midfielder in the league and one of the best wingers in the world. Lamine is increasingly capable of deciding games that otherwise look stuck.
The question is whether losing two of their most natural central finishers creates a problem that all the extra speed on the wings cannot completely solve.
Real Madrid: Mourinho Returns to a Very Different Madrid
Real Madrid responded to finishing eight points behind Barcelona with something closer to a renovation than a tune-up.
José Mourinho is back at the club 13 years after his first stint ended, and Madrid has added Denzel Dumfries, Ibrahima Konaté, Marc Cucurella, Bernardo Silva, Carlos Espí and Yan Diomande. Diomande became the most expensive transfer in club history.
That is a lot of talent, but the most interesting question is how Mourinho arranges it.
Madrid already had Kylian Mbappé, Vinícius Jr. and Jude Bellingham. They now have another explosive attacker in Diomande, another creative midfielder in Bernardo and much more attacking ability from the fullback positions through Dumfries and Cucurella.
The roster is not short on players who want the ball near the opponent’s penalty area. The harder problem is connecting all of them.
Madrid has never completely replaced the control provided by Toni Kroos and Luka Modrić. Bernardo can drop deeper and help organize possession, and early indications suggest Mourinho is experimenting with him in a deeper midfield role while Arda Güler gets opportunities farther forward. But there is a difference between having several excellent passers and having a midfielder who controls where a game is played.
Mourinho may not mind that as much as some other coaches would. His best Madrid team during his first stint was devastating when it could defend, win the ball and release its attackers into open field. There are few scarier transition combinations imaginable than Vinícius and Mbappé attacking a retreating defense with Bellingham arriving behind them.
The fullback upgrades should also help. Dumfries can provide width and another runner on the right, while Cucurella gives Madrid a much more natural attacking presence on the left. Konaté adds another established center back to a group that has dealt with injuries.
The talent is ridiculous. The concern is whether the collection becomes a balanced team quickly enough. Barcelona does not really have to discover what it wants to be this season. Madrid does.
If Mourinho figures that out, the gap between these teams should be much smaller than eight points.
Atlético Madrid: A Real Contender or Just an Expensive Third-Place Team?
Atlético Madrid has been active enough that it would be foolish to completely dismiss them.
Last season was disappointing domestically. Atlético fell out of the title race early and eventually finished fourth, three points behind Villarreal and 25 behind Barcelona. Diego Simeone is now reconsidering the basic defensive shape, including the possibility of returning to a five-man back line similar to the structure he used during Atlético’s 2021 championship season.
The summer additions make that idea interesting. Alejandro Grimaldo is most dangerous when he can get forward from the left without spending the entire game defending as a traditional fullback. Morten Hjulmand gives Simeone a true defensive midfielder in front of the back line, while Kang-in Lee adds another technical player capable of receiving between the lines. Atlético has also reached an agreement with Tottenham for Cristian Romero, who should become the aggressive defensive leader Simeone has been looking for.
However, they have significant departures as well. Antoine Griezmann is gone, leaving behind not just his goals but much of the connective play that helped turn Atlético’s midfield possession into actual chances. Julián Álvarez remains with the club and is training for the season despite Barcelona’s interest, but his future has been one of the major transfer stories of the summer. Atlético continues to insist it does not want to sell him.
If Álvarez stays, a front line built around him, Ademola Lookman and Alexander Sørloth has plenty of firepower. If he leaves this late in the window, Atlético suddenly has a much larger problem.
The new midfield and defensive pieces make sense. The 14/1 odds reflect the uncertainty about whether Simeone can fit all of them together quickly enough to close a 25-point gap.
I would expect Atlético to be better. I am not yet convinced that means they are a real title challenger.
The Next Tier
Villarreal was the surprise of last season, finishing third with 72 points. Most of the roster remains intact, but the biggest change is on the sideline. Marcelino left after that excellent campaign and has been replaced by former Rayo Vallecano coach Iñigo Pérez. Maintaining Champions League qualification while changing the coach who produced a third-place finish is a much harder task than simply keeping the same players together.
Real Betis finished fifth and offers almost the opposite argument. Manuel Pellegrini is entering his seventh season, the core remains stable and Betis will now add Champions League soccer to the schedule. Isco, Antony, Abde and Cucho Hernández give them enough attacking quality to bother anyone, while former Real Madrid left back Fran García is one of the notable additions.
Neither is a serious title pick. Villarreal has to prove last year was sustainable under a different coach, while Betis now has to manage the additional physical burden of Champions League games. But both should be involved in a crowded fight for the European places.
Other Storylines to Watch
The World Cup Hangover
The strange opening schedule will not be the end of the World Cup effect.
Spain won the tournament on July 19, and many of the players who went deep into the competition are concentrated at Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlético. Those players received their required vacation, but they did not receive a normal preseason.
That could make August and September unusually messy for the favorites. Coaches will have to manage fitness while simultaneously trying to integrate new signings, and Madrid and Atlético in particular are changing important parts of their tactical setup.
The champion in May probably will not care who looked best in August, but there may be more early dropped points than usual.
Some Familiar Clubs Are Back
The newly promoted group has considerably more name recognition than usual. Racing Santander, Deportivo La Coruña and Málaga have all returned to the top flight. Deportivo’s decline was especially dramatic, dropping all the way into the third tier before beginning the climb back, and the club has added Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for its return to La Liga.
The betting market expects all three to struggle. Málaga and Racing are currently the two shortest-priced teams to be relegated, with Deportivo also among the leading candidates. That should at least create some fun atmospheres at the bottom of the table.
Sevilla Is Still in Trouble
It still looks strange seeing Sevilla discussed alongside relegation candidates, but that is where the club has drifted. They finished just 13th last season with 43 points, only a point clear of 16th-place Levante, and the roster still looks unsettled entering the opener. Bet365 currently has Sevilla at 4/1 to be relegated, shorter odds than several clubs that would traditionally enter the season with far smaller budgets.
A club that spent much of the previous decade collecting Europa League trophies is now trying to prove last season’s flirtation with the bottom was temporary.
Edin Terzić at Athletic Club
One of the more interesting coaching changes comes in Bilbao, where Athletic Club replaced Ernesto Valverde with former Borussia Dortmund manager Edin Terzić.
Terzić won the German Cup with Dortmund, came within one result of a Bundesliga title and took the club to the 2024 Champions League final. Athletic remains committed to its unique Basque player policy, so this is not a job where a new coach can simply rebuild the roster by shopping around Europe. He has to work with the talent already there and coming through the academy.
After Athletic slumped to 12th last season, Terzić has an interesting collection of players led by Nico Williams and a clear mandate to get the club back into Europe.
Prediction
I am taking Barcelona to win a third straight La Liga title, but I expect a significantly closer race.
The biggest reason is not that Barcelona clearly has more talent than Real Madrid. I am not sure they do. It is that Barcelona begins the season knowing exactly how it wants to play. Flick has a system the players understand, a midfield capable of controlling games and arguably the best young attacker in the world in Lamine Yamal. The striker situation is a real concern, but it is the one major structural question in an otherwise settled team.
Madrid has done enough to close the talent gap and perhaps surpass Barcelona on paper. Mourinho also may prove to be a good fit for a team with devastating transition attackers. But six significant additions, a new coach and an unresolved midfield hierarchy create considerably more variables.
Atlético should close some of the gap, especially if Romero completes his move and Álvarez stays, but asking them to erase 25 points in one summer is a lot.
So the preseason order here is Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid, followed by a more open fight involving Villarreal, Betis, Athletic and whoever else can put together a consistent season.
Barcelona starts with the highest floor. Real Madrid may have the highest ceiling. That should make the next nine months considerably more interesting than last year’s eight-point final margin suggests.