Unbeaten Sociedad proclaimed Spanish 'winter champions'

Spanish league leaders Real Sociedad retained their unbeaten record this season with a 2-1 win over Atletico Madrid on Saturday and were proclaimed the 'winter champions' in the process.

Second half goals from Tayfun Korkut and Darko Kovacevic ensured three points for the visiting Basques, the latter responding to an Atletico equaliser from Luis Garcia.

Sociedad have 43 points from their 19 games while second-placed Real Madrid lie six points in arrears but have a game in hand and play at Athletic Bilbao on Sunday.

After a first half of intermittent excitement, the game moved up a gear after the break.
Only 9O seconds had elapsed before Sociedad broke the deadlock.

Spanish international winger Javier De Pedro sent a pass in from the left and Tayfun crept in unmarked to stab the ball past Atletico goalkeeper Mono Burgos.
However, the hosts wasted little time in getting back on level terms.

Two minutes later, Luis Garcia darted down the left wing and fired the ball under Sander Westerveld's body from an acute angle.

Kovacevic then headed his 11th goal of the season just after the hour, connecting with an Aitor Lopez Rekarte cross from the right touchline.

The Yugoslav striker, and arguably the most consistantly dangerous header of the ball in the top flight of Spanish football, had gone close to giving Sociedad the lead a minute before half-time but headed a corner against the upright.

However, it was Westerveld who was Real Sociedad's true star on Saturday.

The Dutch goalkeeper saved his second penalty in as many weeks, parrying Fernando Correa's effort midway through the first half, after Bjorn Kvarme had felled Fernando Torres.

Westerveld also stopped a vicious, rasping, long-range thunderbolt from Correa early in the second half which few 'keepers could have contained, and had a series of excellent saves late in the game.

Nevertheless, Sociedad will not be considering themselves the champions just yet.

They have twice before led the league at its halfway point, albeit in the 1930s, only to slip up down the home straight.

By contrast, the two seasons they took the title, in the consecutive years of 1981 and 1982, they came from behind in the second half of the season.

Among the key matches on Sunday is Barcelona's visit to Celta Vigo with the job of Barca coach Louis van Gaal in jeopardy.

The struggling Catalans lie 10th and have lost more games than they have won in the league this season.