Van der Vaart press conference
Rafael van der Vaart discussed how important it was to see how much the fans support the team following today’s open-door training session and the Dutchman stressed the magnitude of this weekend’s match against Racing.
"We want to play against Barcelona as the top team in the table"
Open-door training session:
I love when people come watch us because it creates such a good atmosphere. There are always good vibes whether fans are present or not, but it is nice to be able to share it when them.
Clasico:
Our next opponent is Racing, and that is the only team we have in mind right now. It is an important match because it won’t be easy playing them on their home turf. We can start talking about Barcelona if we beat them.
Title hopes:
We need to win a lot of matches if we want to win La Liga. Winning in Sunday is very important because we want to play against Barcelona as the top team in the table.
Marcelo press conference
Marcelo made it clear that Real Madrid are focusing on one match at a time during Thursday’s press conference.
Clasico:
We need to take each match as it comes. We are not thinking about Barcelona right now and will only focus on them the week prior to the match. I will only pay attention to what Barcelona do during the week of the Clasico. Until then I won’t.
Current form:
The fact that we have almost scored 100 goals in all three competitions this season may motivate us, but we don’t think about scoring many goals but rather winning at all cost. We need to focus on Racing because they can really put us in a bind if we have our heads elsewhere.
How I learned to stop worrying and love the misunderstanding
This has been lingering in my mind ever since the rumor about a possible misunderstanding between Cristiano Ronaldo and Gonzalo Higuaín was started by the press. Why cannot it be true? Why can’t they not like each other? As optimistic as I am that nothing of that sort exists, the evil in me refuses to think around the fact that Ronaldo and Higuaín might just not be all that fond of each other as much as we might want them to be. Albeit I have the least bit of materialistic evidence to prove my theory I must say that I am unable to not think why not? Call me insipid but I cannot refrain myself from thinking the way I am thinking right now. I wonder why not, not for the first time today.
As far fetched as it seems here is my argument. Cristiano Ronaldo is just not used to sharing the limelight with anyone around him let alone Gonzalo Higuaín. I am not sure whether it is him or Alex Ferguson who is to be blamed for this defect of his but Ronaldo just loves doing stuff on his own.
I can quote several instances to prove this point of mine. For one, take his last three seasons at Manchester United which saw him emerge as arguably the best player in the World. In 2006-07, Cristiano scored 17 goals for Man United in the league alone but was closely followed by Wayne Rooney with 14 and United managed only the Premier League title. It was the season in which fans all over England booed Ronaldo wherever he went because of the scuffle between him and Rooney in the World Cup prior to the season. Yet, he still managed so many strikes. The next season would become the best 10 months that he has had in his career.
He amassed a whopping 31 goals for them in the league (grabbing 44 in all competitions) while United’s second highest scorer was Carlos Tevez with just 14 goals. United won both the League and the Champions League by just building everything around Cristiano. Even the omnipresent Wayne Rooney was made to play second fiddle to the Portuguese ace and the Englishman seemed quite happy to do so. The next season saw Ronaldo score 18 and Rooney 12 as United won the league yet again and managed to reach the finals of the Champions League where they lost to Barça in a men versus boys game of football. The only United player to shine in the final was indeed Cristiano Ronaldo.
Do you remember the Champions League final in Moscow when Ronaldo missed a penalty against Chelsea in the shootout? The moment United won all that Ronaldo did was weep. It could’ve been tears of joy but what I interpreted was that Ronaldo couldn’t digest the fact that United won the trophy despite his miss. His contribution was deemed insignificant by the end of the day and that itched him. But hell United got so far only because of him. It was his goal that was equalized by Lampard for Chelsea. United depended on him and he loved it. He wanted to carry them on his shoulders and did so successfully when given the chance. Legendary players like Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes didn’t mind it. Equally talented ones like Rooney and Tevez didn’t bother either. And the end result – three premier league titles, a club world cup, a champions league winners medal and a runner-up medal and a league cup. That is what doing stuff the Cristiano way did to Manchester United.
If that is the case with Cristiano then Higuaín’s isn’t any different, except for the silverware part of course. Higuaín has been doing things on his own for us ever since he became a permanent fixture in Real’s line up. In the absence of Van Nistelrooy he was partnered mostly by Raúl in attack the whole of last season who isn’t someone who would fight with you for goals. Raúl is more of a center forward than a central striker and hence there was never a problem as such. Higuaín got all the help that he needed and went on to become our top scorer and one of the positives of last season in what was a very poor season for us otherwise. But with Ronaldo’s arrival it all turned around.
Pipita finally had some competition within the team. He had to earn his place in the line up all over again. Both he and Ronaldo like to be at the end of every assist made. They like to create goals for themselves more than for others. Both of them are greedy by nature – an attribute that almost every great goal scorer has possessed. Also, both are more than talented to score a lot of goals. And thus they often find themselves following the same trail as the other. Isn’t that something that can cause a misunderstanding?
But that is not what the press says is the reason behind this so called misunderstanding. All these rumors kicked off immediately after Higuaín wasted a couple of decent chances to put us ahead against Lyon in the second leg. Ronaldo reacted on the pitch to one of them which any other human would’ve done considering the open space he was in when Pipita chose to take a shot. And that is rubbish. As someone who has played and seen a fair amount of football I can confidently assert that even the calmest of players would beat themselves to react in such a situation. And that is to be branded as a misunderstanding in general then I believe that it is just plain stupidity.
On the other hand, if the press had some theory behind their claims like I have today then maybe I if not the rest of the World would’ve bought it. I say so because there is nothing wrong in such things happening. When you put together a new team these things are bound to happen. The only thing that should be blamed is human nature. And I am totally with Manuel Pellegrini on this issue. I don’t know how true it is but to me it looks as though he has done absolutely nothing about it. The competition between Higuaín and Ronaldo is as healthy as any competition that I’ve seen between two players at Real. These two are fighting it out against each other to prove who is the better goal scorer and who gets more goals for the team. Irrespective of who scores Real end up piling goals which is the only thing that matters. A more clever approach would be to use each other to get to the top. That way people don’t talk ill about you and there is still stuff to fight about. That is exactly what the two are doing now.
And as far as we and the press are concerned instead of cribbing about it we should relish the fact that two of the best players in this World are fighting to score goals for us.
Para Siempre Blanco!
Hala Madrid!!
Just another Madridista
Hazardous Friday
Eden Hazard: "If I do leave Lille then to progress maybe my destiny will be to go to Real Madrid or Arsenal."
It has been a fairly silent week compared to the standards set by Real and the Spanish press. There hasn’t been too much to talk about like there generally is void for a rumor or two here and there linking Real to some good player or the other. The build up for the Clasico too has been played down by both teams considering the fact that both the players and the managers from both teams have reiterated the fact that the league will not be decided come April 11 at the Santiago Bernabéu. So it has been a very dull week from a blogger’s point of view as well. Well, not exactly, but yeah when they say nothing what can I possibly say?
Hundreds of fans attended Real Madrid’s open-door training earlier today. Kaka, Drenthe and Guti stayed indoors while their teammates fine-tuned their ball skills. Castilla’s Ruben Ramos, Juanfran and Luis Hernandez were also too participated in the session. According to the home page, there were quite a few special goals scored in the evening. Pre-planned?
In what would be a very lame attempt if it was meant to be a cheap shot at Barca,Cristiano Ronaldo in an interview to TVE said this:
But more than that, what I like about the interview was the part in which he said that he’d rather see us play poor and win the game unlike at the Camp Nou where we played some brilliant football in vain. I can see the Alex Ferguson that is inside him.
Sticking with the Clasico, Real and Barça are both making some transfer news and its mostly mind games that is being played by them. While Real Madrid have signed 16-year old John Neeskens, son of legendary Barcelona footballer Johan Neeskens from Catalan club CF Damm to the Blanco youth team, according to Marca, Barcelona are after very very highly rated Castilla midfielder Pablo Sarabia. Sarabia, who is a Spanish international at U-17 level, is out of contract from June 30 and has apparently already been contacted by Barcelona to test the waters over a possible deal. You better not lose him Valdano!
Karim Benzema’s agent Karim Djaziri has made it clear his client will not turn his back on Real for the lure of Milan. He told Tuttomercatoweb.com, whatever that is that Benzema intends to stay in Madrid because as he is very happy in Spain and that he has not heard from anyone especially Milan.
And the news of the day is from Lille’s Liverpool-target Eden Hazard. The 19-year-old Belgian is one of the most highly-rated youngsters in European football at the moment and has been strongly linked with a move to Anfield. However, it seems that he would prefer the Emirates or the Bernabeu as a destination should he decide to leave Ligue 1.
With Zidane having praised Hazard this week, Hazard has admitted that he was flattered by such praise and hinted that he could follow Zizou’s footsteps to Real Madrid. He told Foot Mercato:
You better get him Valdano!
Lastly, Pepe could be fit for the final three games of the season as he is recovering faster than usual.
Para Siempre Blanco!
Hala Madrid!!
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April 2, 2010 | Categories: Comments, News, Transfer Rumours | Tags: Cristiano Ronaldo, Eden Hazard, John Neeskens, Karim Benzema, Pablo Sarabia | Leave A Comment »