Live Blog: El Clasico, The White Side
By: Corey | May 2nd, 2009Its here, and as the boy band N’Sync once famously (ehh, kinda) sang “its tearing up my heart when im with you”. See, because I am so excited, and nervous etc. etc. Liveblog is live so stop on in an give your match comments, and also check out Isaiah’s page which will have a live blog for the red and blue side of the affair. Gonna be a great game. HALA MADRID!!!!!
And if that mention of N’Sync got you humming, here is the song to satisfy your needs:
No video, just music, because N’Sync is still such a big force in the music industry and they need to disable embedding of their videos? Oh well…
Category: Team News
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Comments
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as for the game itself, I now think junade is pretty much to blame for pushing the defesive line so high up. barca had a whole country to run into behind our fullbacks. It’s especially pissing off as we scored first and I strongly believed barca would have broken down should they have not been able to response immediately. but they did, and after the equiliser, we broke down instead.
Today, for the fisrt time I think juande is maybe not the right coach for us. he played 4 big games with madrid and in each of them, the opponent got exactly what they wanted (2X barca + 2X liverpool). out of these four, three times our coach had little time to set the team and he rather was putting out the fire that bernd had set. but this time, the team was playing under him for many months, with only 1 game a week, and the morale was great. maybe he isn’t the coach for teams from the very top.thus said, the yesterday’s defeat is also to blame on individual errors. sergio ramos got us two goals but gave away two as well. it’s frustrating, cause he’s so good in the offence and potentially he’s the best on the RB position, but his lack of concentration is terrible. great players can’t blow big games.
second one was lass, whose play in the midfield I like, but sometimes the risk he’s taking scares me. the 3rd goal for cules is enough illustration.
but apart from 6 goals conceded, think we didn’t play that bad
let’s get 3 cracks (eg. winger, playmaker and LB) and work our way up the european football.Posted from
Poland
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Gregorio, I agree, part of the whole problem is the knee jerk reaction to patching up patches.
Let´s get 3 first class players, get rid of the tat, and try to build a squad, it´s clear a lot of the players can get by when the competition is weak, ie La liga.
Although we have lost the league, it might be a good thing, winning the last two years, masked the reality of the situation.Posted from
Spain -
Have flicked through Marca and As and was surprised to see no comments on the high defensive line, I was expecting to see headlines of ´suicide in the Bernabeu´but they seem to just focus on the glaring difference in quality, the inability of Lass and Gago to cope, the lack of support to the midfield from Higaín and Raúl and the whistling off of Sergio from the Bernabeú. Perhaps more detailed analysis was contained in the actual papers
I thought it was madness to play the back line practically halfway up the field and not to defend the goal advantage and try and get the ball to Robben or Higuaín for a fast counter.
I don´t think that Juande can cope strategically with the tough matches and perhaps that is confirmed in that Spurs fared so badly in the PL which is glaringly faster and of higher standard than the Liga.We´ll see against Chelsea I guess, who will exploit Barça´s weekness in aerial crosses and be able to shut down the midfield better. RM will have to watch and maybe learn
Posted from
Spain -
I agree fully with your transfers Sombra. I’d like to see Palanca given a chance at right wing. He looked decent in his debut. I want to say give Opare and/or Anton a chance at left back but I would rather see Torres given that chance. Torres is a less attacking winger which would work well with Robben on the left who doesnt track back and give Ramos more room on the right to attack if Robben wasnt on his side. I think Granero or Palanca would work well on the same side as Ramos making overlaps. We arent going to make up 7 points on Barca now. Give some younger players a chance to show what they have. We have 2nd place secured anyways. This is the perfect opportunity for them to get some much needed experience and see which ones have potential and who needs to go.
Posted from
United States -
Hey i too agree with sombra…this big loss has shown the reality…if it would had been close than their would have been no actions taken but now the boards eyes must have opened…hoping they act this summer and not just creating the rumours but actually buying…
Posted from
United States -
Hi all, this is my first comment here and I’m not sure why I waited this long…
Sometimes you have to admit another team is stronger. As a Dutchman, I am not infected with historical, cultural or political issues in the Spanish Liga. I love football and have a soft spot for Barca (Cruyff, Neeskens, Cocu, Van Gaal) and Real (Hiddink, Beenhakker, Sneijder, Van the Man). I say: may the best team win and this season it’s Barcelona, hands down.
I do get annoyed with Mr Ramos. I don’t get his cowardly tactics against Liverpool in the Cl and against Barca this weekend. You don’t play two holding midfielders at home when you have everything to win! Why Huntelaar on the bench, why Van der Vaart on the bench?
Real has made a mess of things over the last years and the main thing lacking there today is a consistent football vision, like Barca has. And Arsenal. And AZ. And many other successful clubs. The “idea” behind it all. The philosophy. That is your framework for youth development, for scouting, for new signings, for coaches to be selected, etc etc.
I guess Mr Mijatovic is responsible for that (or the lack there of)… Until they get that clear, it’s a graveyard for great players. I’m sorry to say…
Posted from
United States -
Great comments everyone. I dont think a review of the match is really needed, we all know we were well beaten today, and that our season is now over. So lets start discussing what we want to see for the future then! I am working on an ins and outs post, should be up soon.
Posted from
United States -
We NEED KAKA because we lack a true midfield orchestrator just like Casillas said they have xavi and iniesta and we dont we need KAKA,Ribery,Tevez,Lahm, and Bruno Alves
Posted from
United States -
so kaka’s father says that his son will be playing for florentino’s madrid next season and drenthe claims that ibrahimovic has agreed a deal with us also , ill beat your ass drenthe if you’re lying about this
Posted from
United States -
Something I posted elsewhere, hope it gives some sort of insight. This is from various people’s analysis:
Guardiola had a huge part in winning the game with an amazing tactical decision.
Juande put Heinze as left back and Marcelo, a natural fullback, as a “left winger” but actually he was playing two left backs to attempt to contain that vaunted Messi/Alves wing. On Madrid’s right was the underperforming Sergio Ramos and the allergic to defense Robben, leaving Diarra and Gago in the middle of the park with the assignment to mark Xavi and Iniesta out of the game.
What Guardiola did was move Messi to the center as a “false 9″, switching him with Eto, thus leaving Heinze and Marcelo with nothing to do. Eto took one for the team, making runs and being a nuisance but essentially being a decoy, keeping two Madrid players out of the game. Meanwhile Messi, Xavi and Iniesta formed a triangle in the middle of Madrid’s half, outnumbering Gago and Diarra and driving them crazy. Messi settled in between Gago and the Madrid CB’s (think Gerrard 09) and got looks in space against the Madrid CB’s. Messi vs Cannavaro and Metzelder in space = no contest. Meanwhile, Gago and Diarra were busy trying unsuccessfully to mark Iniesta and Xavi who were able to pass the ball around them since they (with Messi and Yaya) outnumbered them.
This also left Sergio Ramos isolated against Henry because we all know defending is below Robben, a matchup that in theory should have been a toss-up but ended up with Henry victimizing Ramos. While this was going on, Higuain and Raul were isolated and starved for service up top.
Shitty tactical response by Juande. THAT’s why you sacrifice attack, flood the center of the field, and park the bus against Barca. You play 2 or 3 attackers instead of just one (like Chelsea did with Drogba) and you will get killed. EVERYBODY must defend against Barca to have a chance to win. Robben, Higuain, and yes, Raul, did not. A problem with this is that if RM parked the bus in its own stadium, they would have been booed off their own turf. This is typical of the Spanish game were style and beauty count. I doubt the pragmatist Brits will mind parking the bus at the Bridge. The problem if they do so is that one gritty scrappy goal by Barca and they will have to open up and attack with a line-up not best suited to do so, leaving space for the Barca magicians to work their magic.
Posted from
United States -
as a cule commentator, josh youre a dick. shut up and stop making a bad name for proper sports fans. rubbing shit in each others faces is not what sport is about. moron
Posted from
United States -
impale heinze and mijatovic. vlad the impaler style. heinze was directly responsible for completely screwing up the defensive line and playing players on-side atleast 3 times.resulting in goals 2 times. and how did henry get away from ramos 4 dat 2nd clanger???
we do need a major rehaul. not a complete revolution sort of but throwing out the trash and sending a message to the others that this kind of shitty performances will ensure that they are out on their asses. we need a lb,cb,two midfielders(one dmf and one playmaker) and a winger.
one thing is sure.we are going to be spending big this summer.
Posted from
India -
It’s very popular to go Hienze bashing on this blog – sometimes it’s fair but often it isn’t.
I thought Hienze kept Eto in his box the whole game – it’s completely unfair to blame Hienze for the poor performance of all the back 4. Personally I thought Ramos should have kept Henry under control – a task he should be capable of and clearly wasn’t on this occasion.don’t get me wrong I agree we need a left back, but if it were up to me (bearing mind I don’t expect Garay to be up to speed and Cana will leave) I would keep Henize for backup centre back duty where i think he has played OK in the past. I think we should be looking for left backs in the next window (Fillipe from depor?)
Posted from
United States -
The Florentino press machine had kicked up again, promising mega buck signings, so it looks like the whole charade will start again.
We need a sporting director who can balance the team, and a top class negotiator who can try to retrieve some of the money squandered on mediocre players, when we could have had the same level of quality from the cantera.
Juande I think has showed himself inept for big games, he could have at least tried to adjust for the Etoo/Messi switch at half time.
The space behind defence (and Casillas gutted expressions) reminded me of Schuster´s start to the season.
Would Dela Red, V nistelrooy and Diarra have made a difference? Who knows.Posted from
Spain -
I think Juande has been unbelieveably good for Real Madrid this season and should be given a chance again.
Look at the achievement he has managed to pull off – he inherited a team in turmoil, president resignation, got the dressing room sorted and won a crazy number of games and kept (probably the ‘worst’ Madrid side (on paper) for some years) in touch with the best Barca side ever.Posted from
United States -
juande is not getting an extension.he only lost four matches,drew 1and won 18 or sumthing.but its those four losses that hurt,man. 5-0 liverpool.6-2 barca. wtf ??? are we reduced to sporting gijon status or what ??
he hasn’t had a stellar record against the big ones in the past. and not for us either. and although he has done a superb job for us this half-season after the clusterfuck job done by schuster and mijatobitch, those 4 losses are gonna get him thrown out.
Posted from
India -
you’re probably right that he won’t get another chance – and to be honest i think that the reason why we can’t ccompete with the top clubs as well – there’s no continuity.
We should get a manager in and keep him, as far as I’m concerned my favourite in recent times was Capello, but Juande will do.
Who exactly are you suggesting would be better?Posted from
United States -
ancelotti seems to be the favorite to take juande’s seat
Posted from
United States -
Yes, I realise that, but will he be better than Ramos? He’s not likely to be a big improvement.
The point is that fans like us on this site fuel the fires and keep Madrid managers in constant rotation. Sure its not our decision, but we have an influence. Everytime our team does badly we demand the head of the manager or sporting director or president. Its these changes that do the damage in my opinion.Posted from
United Kingdom -
why not go for someone white ??? the cules got one of their own,steeped in their own philosophy and he has turned things on their head.maybe we should do that too. jorge valdano,hierro,michel ???
ancelotti has made a hash of things at milan in the last 2-3 seasons.but he has pedigree. and galliani and the italian hugh hefner are to blame too.who knows, maybe carletto would do the trick for us.
Posted from
India -
You guys better buck up for this beating Valencia is about to hand you.
Posted from
United States -
From the cule worldview, realrock has the right idea. It wasn’t that Rijkaard was a bad coach. It was that he didn’t have a coach’s mentality. You can “let boys be boys” for only so long. It worked for two years, then the wheels came off as things caught up with him, and suddenly the locker room was lost. Guardiola came in with essentially the same starting XI, and worked magic.
Ramos has worked similar magic, I think. I wouldn’t say that this is one of the worst sides you all have had, but others can speak more eloquently to that matter. I will say that Ramos put backbone into the side, of the type that makes that Getafe win possible. That’s what Guardiola did with us, as well. If there is someone in the family that can do that with your lads, give it a shot.
But the pressure is HUGE. Know that. Cules were ranting about Guardiola being wrong, wrong, wrong, too young, not enough experience, blah, blah, blah. Laporta decided to roll the die and it came up good (so far). I’m just not sure that whoever comes out of your elections will have that kind of testicular fortitude. You have to be the guy going out with no chance of re-election to have those kinds of cocoanuts, I daresay.
Posted from
United States -
As you suggested – who’s to say that Pep won’t have made a big mess of thing in one or 2 seasons time?
I honestly think we should stick with Ramos, it’s continuity we need.Posted from
United States -
i wish i would have found this site earlier. at least before this match.
I hope that Juande is given at least another season. I believe he has definitely earned that much. I think he would make some good choices in the transfer window for next season.
Posted from
United States -
apart from the coach , the team needs a bit of reminding too as to the value of the shirt they pull on every week. does anyone remember the last time sergio ramos gave a commendable defensive performance ??? not in this season atleast.
and in the midfield ,although i am a gago supporter, he has been overrun in each and every big match.he has given some superlative performances,yes, but has been found lacking on almost all the big occasions.same can be said for almost all of our team.
while everyone points out that its a team mentality now instead of the galacticos one under perez for the past 3 seasons ,we have been winning due to super performances from one or two players. under capello , it was RVN , then robinho for half a season , and higuain in this one.along with san iker in all 3.
Posted from
India
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