Game Blog :: Real Madrid 3-0 Marseille

By: Dancy | September 30th, 2009

I’m starting to forget that most football matches end in 1-0 (Is Milan really that bad?). Man, are we being spoiled by Real Madrid’s run this season! 7 wins on the trot, 24 goals scored and only 4 allowed. Not as stylish as Barca yet, but behold our own patent-pending formula: let the opponent think they have a fighting chance in the first half, let them get all hot and bothered trying to score, then slowly warm ourselves up before unleashing all hell in the second half. This formula works only against normal competition though. What will happen when we take it to Sevilla?

Marseille game first:

Sergio – Pepe – Albiol – Marcelo
Gago – Xabi – Guti
Kaka – Benzema – CR9

FSC Pregame is decent, they show a shot of the armband and white kit neatly folded and waiting for the lucky chap who gets to be captain today. GUTI!!! OHAI Rafa Nadal! With adorable scruffy hair. LOL at Morientes’ hooded eyes in the starting lineup.

6:45 Marseille is attacking with gusto. Far more gusto than us, as we cannot keep any meaningful possession at all. And there’s the first shot of the game, just over Iker’s crossbar!!

14:00 Much better from us! Though the ref seems to be swallowing his whistle a lot and letting somewhat rough play go on, no? Kaka got stepped on, Sergio with a dangerous challenge a while back, but the ref seems to be immune to the gasps from the crowd.

20:00 How come only Sergio was in the box for that corner kick? It was fantastic, dropping right into the center! LOL at Heinze lunging out at Marcelo as he deftly cut across the parameter of the box and Marcelo dancing away neatly.

22:00 A boatload of chances! If only we could support each other more?? It just seems to be Kaka running and running, annihilating their left side only to arrive in the box with no option to give the ball to, unless he shoots it himself. Or Ronaldo steaming up the right side, but then crossing in for nobody at all? C’mon, guys – talk to each other!

26:00 IKEEEEEEEERRRRR!!! Saves us from certain doom with his mitt and wonderful positioning on that runaway Niang! Pepe sliding in and failing to tackle – and for a split second it looked like Marseille would take the lead. A bullet dodged!

28:00 Ronaldo is pissed. He’s all alone on the right side, miles and miles of grass all around him as far as the eye can see – and Benzema gives it to Kaka on the congested left side who then lost it? HEY! He says to Benz. Who shrugs and wears the same expression he gives to all matters not concerning a goal – quoi?

29:00 Guti with a cutting-edge ball forward to Benzema in perfect shooting position – but it rolls right past him!! Now its Guti’s turn to be pissed.

32:30 Finally a decent shot at goal! A trademark Cristiano strike, the ball hit so clean it doesn’t even rotate as it sails through the air.

34:00 Holy GOD, here it comes, here it comes! The onslaught by Madrid! Sergio with a wicked cross in, just barely missing Benzema’s toe and parried in the nick of time by the keeper! It was thisclose! Then Guti with the gunner’s effort BLOCKED and out for a corner! And it all started with who else, Cristiano, another laser-like shot. Awesome. Xabi, though, decides to throw cold water on the party by tossing another bad corner kick. Meh.

36:00 Who is this ref?? I swear, an elephant can fall right in front of him and he will simply step over it and walk on by! Here is Xabi and a Marseille player clashing with such force that I’m sure the ref could feel the ground shake, yet he pretends nothing at all happened until its obvious the players are hurt and not getting up? C’mon!

38:35 WHAT A GOAL if that had come off!!! Benzema with a stunning bicycle kick, so so close that it just sails over the bar!! WOW! And there is Guti, who gave him that pass, pinpoint as always, flashing him a thumbs up for the attempt.

45:00 WHAT A SAVE!!!!!!! Was it Albiol who gave Benzema that gift of a pass, a through-ball straight through the entire midfield onto his running feet? It looked like a goal for sure, only for the keeper to somehow, magically, impossibly, block it! Someone bloody score something, PLZ!

Second Half:

55:00 Ten minutes in and its all bluster, nothing more. We’re creating chances, its just that – there’s no real danger to them, no real excitement. To be honest, I don’t see any defining characteristics of this team that separates it from last year’s team. What do we do better than the others? What is our trademark? Is it our passing? No. Our counter-attacking? No. Our wing play? Our strong midfield? Our creativity? Cuz right now, we’re none of those things. Not yet.

57:35 GOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Holy cow, is that boy fast! Finally a longball to our center forward in a perfect position to shoot, not too far away and not too close for the keeper to come out – and its RONALDO! Who maybe could’ve made it prettier, but hey, it’s a goal! And he runs to the crowd and blows kisses to them, then nods playfully with a smirk to Pepe, who provided the beautiful assist. And what an assist! Dead aim by the Portuguese, who brings so much to the table. How can Portugal be on the brink of WC2010 elimination with those two on their team? 1-0.

59:00 UUGGGGHHHH! Cristiano DOWN! Ref reaches for a card – flips over the yellow searching for the red – then raises them both high to dismiss the culprit, Diawara. That was a horrifying challenge, the defender flying in at the last minute to sweep the ball out of bounds, taking Ronaldo’s legs out with him. Did he get the ball or the man first? It was that quick!

I’m amazed that the ref could make the call that decisively. I had to rewind and watch twice before determining that he got man first, and that’s from the reverse camera angle from the endline! Maybe he’s pretty good after all?

PENALTY. Kaka to take – not Ronaldo? A buzz of anticipation goes up as Kaka coolly sends the keeper the wrong way, making it 2-0. And finally Benzema does something cute, boxing Kaka’s ear! LOL, while Pellegrini uses this time to grab Guti for a chat.

62:20 Great round of applause from the crowd as local boy Morientes comes off the pitch.

63:30 GOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There’s some beautiful football!!! Ronaldo finishes it, but it was the buildup that has me in awe.

Guti on the right with a spellbinding ball forward for Benzema, the crowd gasps with delight as he rounds the corner into the box! But he’s cut off and smartly plays it back to Sergio, who gives it back to him – and then Kaka puts his mark on it, a one-two so sublime it leaves the defenders in awe. How else to explain the amount of space Benzema gets to tee up Ronaldo across the goalmouth, Ronaldo who had his hand raised the whole time silently begging “me, me, me!”? So yes, Ronaldo gets to finish it. But this was a true team goal, my favorite of them all. 3-0 in what, 7 minutes??? INSANE!

66:00 LOL, six players converge onto Benzema and collapse on him, bullying him off the ball. He’s that good, huh?

67:55 Pipita on for CR9, who limps off, still hurting from that penalty box tackle.

69:30 Pipita bowls over Heinze in his eagerness to the ball.

70:10 WTF? You can’t just bowl over Guti and get away with it! If Pipita’s action was a foul then what do you call this?

71:00 Kaka with an amazing solo run! Makes it all the way into the box! Then they make a legal tackle this time, sandwiching Kaka between two dark shirts, and Pipita pouts as they steal the ball off Kaka.

71:45 Sergio off, Garay on. Albiol shifts to RB. Niang comes off too, temporarily – fab design on his hairline! Like the flicks of a bonfire on those hot-wheelers; ah, those stylish French.

72:45 GUTI NICKS A BALL AND PIPITA WASTES IT!!!!!! From what looked like a routine pass between two Marseille defenders – Guti guns in to steal it, then gallops forth – he could’ve gone for goal! But no. Higuain had said Guti was the best in welcoming him to Madrid, and Guti shows it, so unselfishly crossing the ball across the box for Pipita rather than take it himself. Pipita has to fight off Heinze though who does well to force a hurried shot from him that goes over the bar.

74:30 Guti protests that he was impeded. Ref waves play on. Haven’t you learned yet that this ref has someplace to go after this match, like a hot date? But we win the ball back, Albiol makes an appearance up the right wing to show he can be Sergio-like too, and Higuain shows beautiful ball control evading challenges from one defender and then from Heinze, only to send the shot once again over the crossbar. Is he perhaps too anxious for a goal and its bothering his shots? A nice round of applause though from the satisfied fans.

77:00 Raul on for Kaka. For once, the sub-par English commentator nails it: “Not bad if you can withdraw one of the world’s greatest players for, one of the world’s greatest players.”

79:00 Priceless shot of Kaka on the bench next to Ronaldo, and you think they’ll just stoically watch the game, but no! Kaka suddenly breaks out laughing! Haha! He flashes his neat white teeth and schoolboy smile and I’m wondering if Ronaldo made a joke but maybe Kaka is just randomly like that?

81:00 GONZO GONZO GONZO!!!!!!! HOW COULD YOU MISS??? That was given to you on a silver plate by Benzema, all you had to do is aim and kick! UGH!

Guti forces a throw-in on the left wing – gives it to Benzema who so cleverly evades a sliding tackle to wiggle free into the left of the box, running parallel to the endline. He rolls the ball across for an oncoming Higuain, who all he has to do is tuck it in!! But NOOOOOO!!!!!!! His touch lets him down yet again! Shoots it straight ahead of him and wide, Benz must be fuming over this lost assist.

81:45 Someone goes down in the box?? Who? Hey you ref, do you not care about the players at all?!

82:20 JESUS CHRIST! That was close, I thought Brandao had scored!! But Iker, San San Iker, pulls off one mother of a save. That shot was rising, and it was struck so hard, on the run – !!! Wow, wow, wow.

It was Higuain. It was Higuain who went down in the box just seconds before, when it looked like he would break away and score. Ouch.

89:45 RAFA!

89:55 OMFG! The ball just rolls to the smack center of the goalmouth, unattended??? Thank god our defender is alert enough to punt that outta there before the Marseille player, who was just an inch off from tapping that in. PHEW, THAT WAS CLOSE! (Ah, it was Garay!)

90:00+1:00 What happened???? Why the f*ck is nothing being called?! Higuain again goes down in the box, somebody tripped him, I swear to god! Yet the ref says play on! Ok! So we play on, Raul comes away with it, lays it back for Guti who should’ve scored!!! ACK, BLOCKED! I WANT MORE GOALS!!!!!!! >_<

Replay: Yep. Heinze tripped Higuain up, stuck out his leg and barely got any ball. So there.

End: 3-0 but shoulda, coulda been 5-2.

MOTM: Ronaldo

He opened up the game for us, scoring 2 goals and earning the penalty for the 3rd, which I was surprised that Kaka took, but perhaps CR9 is just nice like that (or he was hurting). Once Marseille went down to 10 men the game really opened up for us, so thank you Ronaldo. I wonder, as I watch you wince coming off the pitch – what will we ever do without you? 9 goals now in 7 games, we rely so much on you that I fear we’ll go straight back to last year’s form if you’re ever injured. Thank god you’re not like Robben!

Update from RM.com:
“The bad news of the Real Madrid-Olympique Marseille match was that both Cristiano Ronaldo and Fernando Gago were injured during the clash. The Portuguese winger suffers from a strong bruise and sprain on his right ankle, while the Argentine has a strain on his left femoral biceps. Both men will undergo medical examinations on Thursday.”

Post-game Thoughts:

I will say this. When Madrid goes up 3-0 or 4-0 they want more – they keep attacking. When Sevilla goes up 4-0, they relax – they sit back and play stallball. Hence their 4-1 score at Ibrox on Tuesday. Madrid’s philosophy demands 90 minutes of attack, which I do admire. (or did they amend that to just the last 45 minutes? Note to self: when busy, watch just the last 45 min – and maybe the first 5, when Ronaldo’s on)

Seeing Heinze defend in this game was pretty fun – brings back a lot of memories, no? C: Not necessarily good memories, just – memories.

Poor Higuain was trying his darnest to score and had a hatful of chances, but fluffed them all! Not that the ref helped in any way shape or form. Well, at least he got them – Raul looked very lost out there. Did Pellegrini actually mean to field 3 strikers, or was it because Raul had to play? It could’ve been weird, but I must say they did work it out, Benzema taking the left wing and Raul working the right. I can see how Negredo will say Madrid only has 1 central forward (RVN?) while Sevilla has 3.

Marca has this poll:
¿Crees, como Del Nido, que el Sevilla tiene la mejor delantera de España?
Do you believe, like Del Nido, that Sevilla has the best strike force in Spain?

2,296 votes so far, I would imagine most of them Madrid residents since Marca is Madrid-based – and 65% says SI. That’s amazingly high! I agree Sevilla’s got an amazing strike force, but nobody can beat Madrid in terms of attacking power. For comparison:

Sevilla: Fabiano, Kanoute, Negredo, Kone
Madrid: Benzema, Higuain, Raul, Van Nistelrooy
Barca: Ibra, Messi, Henry, Bojan

The voters are obviously biased, as they may be anti-Madrid (Atletico supporters), or anti-Barca. I think if you look at all four strikers, you HAVE to say hands down its Madrid. CR9 should arguably be in that mix too, if Messi is. Yeah, Ruud’s injured again, but he’s got a goal whereas Kone has barely played.

My opinion is Madrid > Barca > Sevilla. I do think Negredo is better than Pipita or Raul though.

Can’t wait for D-Day this Sunday!!