It is not only about football, at least not anymore
Its no longer about football alone.
Real Madrid lost 3-2 on the night and 5-4 on aggregate to eternal rivals Barcelona, ergo the Supercopa de España. Lionel Messi, as always, was the chief architect behind the Catalan success scoring two goals out of almost nothing, the second coming in the dying moments of the game, all this after setting up Andrés Iniesta for the first. Real came twice from behind through Cristiano and Benzema respectively but were unable to grab the third goal that would have turned the tie towards the better team on the night with barely anytime left. The match ended on a bitter note with two of our players sent off in Mesut Özil (who was not on the pitch at the time) and Marcelo (for a tackle on new boy Cesc Fàbregas). David Villa, who too was on the bench, was sent of as well with the game ending in a melee.
José Mourinho decided to field the same line up that lost 5-0 here in La Liga last season but for one change. New signing Coentrão started at left back, replacing Marcelo. Pep Guardiola, meanwhile, made a host of changes to his side as Xavi, Busquets, Pedro and Pique replaced Thiago, Keita, Aléxis Sánchez and Adriano from the first leg, thereby reverting back to his best starting XI available. Cesc Fàbregas was on the bench. The initial stages of the game saw both teams share equal possession and the ball sticking within 25 yards of either side of the half way line. Neither team was able to break through the opposite defense when Messi sublimely put Andrés Iniesta through on goal 1v1 with Casillas. The midfielder chipped in the ball to give Barça a 1-0 lead. Real now had to score two. But that would change within 5 minutes. Mesut Özil swung in a corner from the right which ultimately fell to Karim Benzema on the far post. The on-song Frenchman squeezed in a ball through a crowded area which was tucked into goal by Cristiano Ronaldo. There were doubts about Ronaldo being offside but replays acquitted him of such claims. It was CR7′s 100th goal for Real Madrid and his first at the Nou Camp. But for the goal and a shot that Valdes could only deflect on to the crossbar, the overall performance of Ronaldo last night was below par. He was trying too hard to flatter the Catalan crowd with his dazzling step overs only to hinder the attack of his own team. Real had the better chances of the game throughout the night but Lionel Messi was more efficient. Just before half time the little Argentine played a clever one-two with the demented Gerard Piqué to beat Iker Casillas yet again and give Barça the lead after 45 minutes of play. Messi was simply sublime last night one has to admit. Every run of his troubled our defense. One other sight which worried me especially was Coentrão’s defensive credibilities. The Portuguese at left-back was totally out of sorts and was found AWOL most of the times. Fortunately, since it was Pedro who played on the right, Barça failed to capitalize.
The second half began in similar fashion with Barça unable to play their normal tiki-taka thanks to the incredible pressure that they were under. Marcelo replaced Khedira and Coentrão moved to midfield alongside Xabi Alonso. Unlike previous encounters Madrid was not rough on them but made sure that the pressure they applied on those Catalans was immense. Xavi of all people stuttered. Piqué, Abidal, Alves were all forced to clear the ball and thus were taken out of possession. Messi hardly saw the ball. Madrid were better than any side that has ever faced this team. Özil almost pegged us level when he was put through with only Valdes to beat. The German tested the keeper but definitely should have done better. I felt there was too little sting in the shot. The game crossed the 80th minute mark. Kaká and Higuaín had come on for Özil and an out-of-sort Angel Di María. It was the Brazilian’s corner that ultimately fell to Karim Benzema through Pepe and Real were back on level terms and the match was going into extra time. Barça panicked. The fans were silent as Cesc Fàbregas came on to make his debut. Just two minutes was left for normal time to end. Fàbregas played Adriano through on the left and his cross was volleyed in by Lionel Messi to hand Barcelona the lead and an inevitable victory. The volley was too good even for someone like St. Iker.
Özil and Villa, both in the picture, were sent off from the bench.
The game ended but match didn’t end there. Marcelo made a completely unnecessary challenge on new boy Cesc which the catalans made too much out of. This invoked the Catalans and finally the inevitable brawl began. Marcelo was sent off but so were Özil, who was completely furious about some incident, and David Villa were sent off. Mourinho too was involved having a go at Tito Villanova in his usually cheeky manner capping off what has been one of the best two legged games that I have ever seen.
This defeat, as sour as it is, definitely is a sign of improvement. We were the better team over two legs and if we had been a little more efficient in front of goal we would have definitely walked out winners. The rivalry between the two sides is turning out be more bitter than ever. Piqué has had a few harsh words to say about José. The latter belittled the Supercopa by calling it a tiny little trophy. Its no longer only about football and that’s what is making this whole affair even more special.
Para Siempre Blanco!
Hala Madrid!!
A Three Goal Draw or a Win
Come on you whites!
With the first title of the season at stake and with the odds favoring the opponent, Real Madrid travel to the Nou Camp to face Barcelona in the second leg of the Supercopa knowing that only a win or a high scoring draw is capable of changing its fortune. Despite being the better of the two sides, Real were only able to manage a 2-2 draw earlier this week at the Bernabéu thus handing Barça the advantage of having two away goals.
History though favors Real, who have a 4-0 advantage over Barça in the Supercopa head-to-head tally but all that will mean nothing tonight. In all of the previous 4 encounters Real have always won at home and have won away only once and that coming a couple of decades ago. Also, yet again historically speaking, this Barça side is much superior to any of the other sides that they have had. The odds are definitely well stacked against us. That said, it is emerging victorious from a tight spot like this that marks a champion. At the end of the day we will know how far away we are from becoming the champion ten months later.
A win tonight will definitely do wonders to the confidence of our players. If they can be as promising as they were on Sunday I cannot see why they can’t stop the Barça juggernaut. Attack is the best form of defense they say and more so in this case as Barça’s weakest link is their defense and with their best defender and captain, Carles Puyol, unavailable we can certainly make use of this opportunity to sneak in a goal or two which would definitely turn the tide against the home team. And by scoring first, both the morale of the players as well as the balance of the game would favor us. Whether we decide to park the team bus in front of goal or play without a change in the mentality is up to the manager. Personally, I wouldn’t mind doing the former. To me its all about winning.
Karanka, who attended the pre-match press conference, also concurred with my opinion, saying:
We know a title is at stake and that the first leg score forces us to win. We really want to win in Barcelona, especially after Sunday’s match. We’re only thinking about our game, about the our work and about how we played the other day. We can win the Super Cup if we play like we did in the first leg.
Real Madrid traveled to Barcelona yesterday with 22 men tabbed for duty. Granero, Morata and Tomás Mejías were the inclusions from the side that was picked to play the first leg. I don’t see too many changes in the starting line up from the first leg. Mourinho played his strongest side on Sunday and I don’t think that fact has changed since. Coentrão might just get a start ahead of Di Maria probably but I highly doubt it as Di María is more of an established player on the side. The Portuguese would definitely play a part in the game though. And if all goes well, Morata too would.
Barça on the other hand have decided to not reveal their squad until an hour before the game. Pique, Busquets, Xavi and Pedro are all expected to play the game after missing out on the first leg. Cesc Fàbregas, who finally signed for Barça after a zillion years of speculation, has been training with the squad and might even get to make his debut. The Catalans cite that former Arsenal captain is undefeated against Real Madrid (a club against which he has played only two games in the whole of his career) and that he can’t do anything but dazzle against the Whites. I suspect if he’d make any sort of an impact tonight. Even if he does come on it would just be to show him off to the home crowd. €26 million worth Alexis Sánchez might also feature for the same reason.
As always I will be rooting for a Real Madrid victory tonight. 2-1 to Los Blancos!
Until after the game,
Para Siempre Blanco!
Hala Madrid!!
The season so far
This current crop of players are probably the best that we have had in a decade.
The season so far has been fantastic so to speak. Starting in an extremely positive manner, with an undefeated pre-season campaign and a confidence boosting stalemate against Barça, this season has all the indications of becoming the special second season that the special one enjoys no matter which club he manages. Even though a rejuvenated Karim Benzema is the highlight of the season so far, we must also grace the fact that the team seems to be in a much better shape (if that’s even possible) than it was last season.
The Squad
José has made five new additions to the squad that he had at his disposal a year ago by acquiring the signatures of Nuri Sahin, Hamit Altintop, former Castilla player José Callejon, Raphäel Varane and last but not the least Fábio Coentrão with the latter coming at 30 million Euros from Benfica. Pepe and Sergio Ramos signed five year deals keeping them at the club till 2016 and 2017 respectively. Zidane took over from Valdano as the Director of Football. Garay, Adebayor, Drenthe, Pedro León, Lass and Gago were seen as excess baggage by the newly appointed Sporting Manager of Football, José Mourinho. Garay left to Benfica, Adebayor went back to Manchester City. Mateos and Canales were loaned out to Zaragoza and Valencia respectively. Jerzy Dudek too is no longer a part of the first team following his retirement from football at the end of last season. Mourinho’s new designation saw him gain complete authority over who comes and who goes from the squad following Jorge Valdano’s departure last season. Mourinho’s authority extended over affairs of the youth team as well with the highly talented Pablo Sarabia loaned out to our neighbors Getafe in order to gain exposure to La Liga. Jesé, Joselu, Jesus, Nacho, Casado, Tomas Mejias all accompanied the first team players throughout the pre-season campaign and Antonio Adan as promoted to the first team where he will serve as St.Iker’s deputy. Notable absentees from Castilla were Morata and Sarabia who both were out representing Spain in the UEFA U-19 European Championship. They both made significant contributions to the side, with Sarabia captaining it and Morata being the top scorer of the tournament, and thus helping Spain regain the trophy that they had lost to France last year. Sahin and Altintop though were injured throughout the pre-season and still are and thus have to wait till they make their bow for us Blancos.
Pre-season
José Mourinho’s second season at Real Madrid, following a victorious Copa Del Rey campaign and a relatively less successful La Liga and Champions League campaigns, kicked off in style in the city of Los Angeles just like last season. The Whites would play the World Football Challenge which included games against David Beckham’s LA Galaxy, the Mexican side Chivas Guadalajara and Philadelphia Union before leaving the US of A. Following that would be trips to Germany, England and as far as China before returning to Spain for the Supercopa clash against our dearest Catalan rivals – FC Barcelona – in a two legged affair. Also, Galatasaray had agreed to play this year’s edition of the Santiago Bernabeu trophy.
Karim Benzema dropped 7 kilos, scored 8 goals and provided 4 assists in the magnificent pre-season that he had.
The first game of the pre-season was against the Lost Angeles Galaxy at the Home Depot Center and like last season we emerged victorious with an even better result compared to the 3-2 win a year ago. A goal from the debutant Callejón, Castilla’s Joselu, the ever-scoring Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema made Galaxy’s only goal just a consolation, thereby sealing a 4-1 victory. Callejón, Coentrão and of course Benzema all impressed in a game that saw Real dominate their opponent as expected. The French striker had finally started impressing the manager with the boss himself saying that Benzema was finally the striker he wants him to be. Followed by that good showing was a game against the Mexican side Guadalajara that saw our best player show us and the Mexicans why he is what he is. Cristiano Ronaldo scored a magnificent second half hat-trick to help Real notch its second win in as many games in the pre-season. Real Madrid 3 Chivas 0 read the final score. The final game on American soil would be the toughest. Real struggled to beat Philadelphia Union 2-1 thanks to early goals from Ozil and Callejon in the first half. Ultimately, Real Madrid topped the table of the World Football Challenge on goal difference. A win is a win they say.
Real then returned to Spain only to leave to Berlin, Germany where they would play Hertha in what would be yet another friendly. Despite going down to the home team by a goal a Karim Benzema inspired Real came out victors 3-1. The best goal of the game came from a trademark Cristiano Ronaldo free-kick. Benzema’s performance though was the biggest gain for us considering the fact that the first team has only two #9s in the side.
Next up was a game against Sven Goran Erikkson’s Leicester City, a game that apparently won us 1.5 million euros. The English crowd was as hostile as ever and, I better get used to saying this, yet again it was Karim Benzema who saved us the blushes with a goal and an assist to overcome them in a hard fought 2-1 win. Higuain was back for the game and Di Maria would join us in our trip to Asia.
China was our next destination. Guangzhou Evergrande and Tianjin Teda were our respective opponents in the two friendlies that the Whites would play there. Generally teams have known to struggle against Asian opponents on Asian soil as the conditions were hard and the opponents are perfectly used to playing in such surfaces and climates. But that was not the case here as the games turned out to be cakewalks. The former lost 7-1 whereas the latter lost by the same margin except that they couldn’t beat our defense with the game ending 6-0 and the pre-season ending in emphatic fashion. Los Blancos would return to Madrid to get the new season up and running.
Transfer speculations
Transfer speculations are never too far off from Real Madrid and this window was no different. Real were linked with several top strikers in the world none more so than Kun Agüero who had announced that he would leave Atletico for better football and a better future. Adebayor too was touted to return on a permanent deal with the special one himself admitting that a deal was possible. But Mourinho was quick to quash all rumors as soon as he was sure that Benzema would carry the burden of the striker role along with the ever-reliable Pipita. Real had bought all their signings very early in order to get things set by the time pre-season had started. Apparently, Mourinho wanted two quality players for every position on the field and once that was accomplished all that Florentino Perez had to do was close his cheque book. Gago, Lass and Pedro León are yet to be sold or sent out on loan.
I personally thought we would go on to buy a striker but then again with Benzema, Higuaín, Ronaldo and Callejón we have enough goals from the first team alone part from the ones that the likes of Jesé, Joselu and Morata could provide. I will not say that I am entirely happy with the composition of the squad. We do seem to be a quality striker shy of a great squad, but its Mourinho who calls the shots. If he is happy, then I am happy. I am happy.
Supercopa – first leg
And then the season started. What better way to get started than getting a go at a couple of Clasicós one would say but then I do not agree and Mourinho doesn’t either. The intensity of a clasicó is too much to have right at the beginning of the season when players are just getting ready to play and might be vulnerable to a niggle. But what has to happen, has to happen. The first game of the season actual, was the first leg against Barça at the Bernabéu against Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona. It was the fifth clasicó of 2011 with the teams sharing a couple of draws and a win apiece. Real Madrid played their strongest line up with Casillas between the sticks, Sergio Ramos, Pepe, Carvalho and Marcelo playing at the back behind Alonso and Khedira. The front four consisted of Ronaldo, Ozil, Di Maria and Karim Benzema. Barça were without the services of Puyol while Pique, Busquets, Pedro and Xavi were relegated to the bench. €26 million signing Aléxis Sanchéz won a place in the starting line up along with Messi and Villa. New sensation Thiago Alcantâra along with Iniesta and Keita made up the midfield while Alves, Mascherano, Abidal, Adriano and Valdés made up the rest of the line up. Özil opened the scoring for us in a half that saw us dominate Barça more than any other team has done in the past three years. Signs were good for us when Barça leveled through an extraordinary goal from David Villa which would have defeated any goalkeeper in the world. Barça’s luck continued when Messi made the best out of Khedira’s unlucky touch which led to a 2-1 scoreline in favor of Barça at the stroke of half-time. This didn’t deter us and we came out as strong as we had done in the first half and continued to dominate the game and we deservedly pegged back level when Xabi Alonso’s drive from the edge of the box beat Valdés after fifty three minutes. Guardiola was made to make changes with both Pique and Xavi coming in despite not being completely fit. Benzema, yet again, proved inspirational by not only setting up Özil for the first goal and but also by keeping a check on Barça’s defense continuously throughout the game. The scoreline does not reflect the way the game was played and Real have a lot of work to do still as we travel to Camp Nou for the second leg. All signs indicate a positive result for Real but with Clásicós you never know.
Until next time,
Para Siempre Blanco!
Hala Madrid!!
A new season, a new beginning and a new everything
Hola!
Instead of making yet another wannabe comeback speech let me just make it official. I am reopening this blog. I am going to blog again, maybe not as much as I used to, but definitely enough to keep up with the latest happenings of the club that we all love. Thank you all for not letting this blog go down while I haven’t been there. I shall make sure that I keep up my word this time around at least.
Para Siempre Blanco!
Hala Madrid!!
Just another Madridista
Junta speak