Liveblog: Almeria v Real Madrid
By: Steve | November 2nd, 2008Hala Madrid! What’s up folks? Ok, i need to keep this quick: basically, i have a dilemma about the liveblog tonight. I can do it, except it’s only on tape-delay here in the UK on Sky Sports 1, because they need to shown Bolton v Man City beforehand. That means I won’t be watching it until 19h00 GMT, or 2pm EST.
I can still write the liveblog, but it won’t exactly be live, cuz if y’all are following it on streaming feeds or whatever, you’ll be an hour ahead of me. So i’m kinda not sure what to do. Lemme know in the comments what you think.
UPDATE: Muchas gracias to reader James for posting live comments, but I’m watching the match now and I’ve unfortunately read ahead to find out that Raul scores a goal that hasn’t happened on my TV yet! hahaha… Doh. I shall refrain from reading or commenting now for fear of taking the pleasure out of my own experience. I’ll be back after the broadcast finishes here for my take.
UPDATE: alright, it’s halftime where I’m watching, and I’m not reading any more of the comments, so please forgive me if this all seems a bit odd… Madrid are, quite frankly, playing a pretty shitty match, even though they’re up a goal thanks to a classic Raul header. Higuain is playing well, but watching this team… i dunno.
They don’t show the type of dominance this team should have. We should be outplaying, outperforming, out-chancing (that might be a North American term) Almeria, but we show no evidence that we can do that. With the talent we have on the pitch, I really have to wonder why teams like Chelsea, Barcelona and Manchester United look so much better than we do.
There’s so many times we’re playing incredibly static football. For example, I think it was Heinze who was isolated on the left, inside the Real half, and there’s no one running around trying to give him an option to pass to. Meanwhile, he’s getting closed down by at least 3 defenders, so he tries to outlet to Diarra, but he’s standing flat-footed so the ball gets nicked. Ugh. It’s like we want to play ball possession type of football, but we’re doing a really bad job at it. Where is the flow?
UPDATE: Ok, game over. And given that the return matches of the Champions League group stage starts this week, it really might be game over for Real Madrid in Europe. That piss-poor excuse of a defence will not cut it, plain and simple.
Reader losblancos was completely right – compared to the second half, the first half was indeed heavenly. I fail to see how a team like ours can look so good on paper and yet look so bad on the pitch. Almeria definitely deserved a point from this match, if not the win. Real didn’t look like they were playing to win. They toyed around with the ball, gave up possession too easily, settled for long-distance shots that didn’t hit the target. Weak. Almeria, on the other hand, played to win. They moved around with purpose, and after Metzelder came in for Pepe, they attacked his space with gusto and caused havoc in the Madrid backline.
Our lack of width again haunted us. With no one to threaten the flanks except the Glass Man, Almeria could keep one of the fullbacks in tight to help out whenever we attacked up the middle, which was almost always. Ramos was also nominated to attack on the wings, but he will almost always cut into the middle rather than trying to burst to the corner flag.
I dunno… I don’t see help around the corner. We don’t have anyone on the bench who can solve this. Maybe Guti can get more flow into the game, but he’s not the poster child for consistency. Drenthe is still too raw, Saviola is crap, and any of the other central midfielders who aren’t starting a given match only duplicate whoever is on the pitch.
Alright, I’m done analyzing and thinking about this… it’s making me depressed.
Category: 
Subscribe
|
Print
|
Share
      |
Comments
-
Might as well, some people probably have the same dilemma as you. I wont be watching the match as I have an NFL game to watch at the same time.
Posted from
United States
-
Yeah, don’t worry, there’s no reason to bother yourself for a “live blog”, that won’t be live, so enjoy your sunday
Posted from
United States -
I’ll be posting my insights on the comments section of this entry during the game so if anyone needs to keep up with it or can’t see it, you can try to piece it together through my comments (as well as others). It’s not going to be extensive like Steve’s liveblog, just a few insights here or there. I’m kinda hoping that there will be a few of us on here checking periodically throughout the match so we can talk about things as they happen. Anyways, HALA MADRID let’s tie Barca up top!
Posted from
United States -
Here’s the starting lineup, sparse crowd tonight, but they’ll make a lot of noise if the game starts going their way…
—-Casillas—-
Heinze-Pepe-Canna-Ramos
Sneidjer-Diarra-Gago-Robben
—–Raul-Higs—–Posted from
United States -
Playing very flat footed, sloppy football in the first 10 minutes…no cohesion, decent defense, but no upfield passing. Lots of fouls on Almeria, lots of Glass Man whining…
Posted from
United States -
OH MY GOODNESS WHAT A GOAL BY THE CAPTAIN!!! HIGUAIN WITH A BEAUTIFUL CROSS FROM NEAR THE ENDLINE TO A DIVING HEADER FROM RAUL.
Posted from
United States -
we’re not playing well we look like a team that’s playing together for the first time EVER the last 5 minutes was better than the first 40 tho
Posted from
United States -
BILLS, corey. My roommate is sadly a Jets fan.
Posted from
United States -
Not one to rub it in but, OH YEAH, U DROPPED POINTS. Where was ur offence guys? Ahead by 2 points now, perfect weekend for barca.
VAMOS BARCA!!!
Posted from
Kuwait -
A truly pathetic result, a match that should have been over in the first 45 mins.
puzzling substitutions from Schuster. why did he leave Raul on n sub Higuain? Doesn’t he trust Higuain’s finishing??! Sneijder is so much better when he plays in the center. He hardly sees the ball when he plays on the left, and keeps drifting in. Almeria’s goal again came from the right side, but nobody dare blame Ramos for it. One man cannot run the whole of right side!! In hindsight, the decision to allow Balboa n Soldado seems silly.
Still early in the season, we’re only 2 points behind. But is the sign of things to come?
Posted from
United States -
Well Steve, I read your halftime update. Wait till you watch the second half… first half would seem heavenly.
Posted from
United States -
2 points up and this jack ass thinks they won the league already stop talking shit and start applauding me and my fellow madridistas AGAIN ….barcelona = madrid’s bitch
as for today’s game we were lucky to get a single point out of it they played way better than we did , having to sub pepe really hurt us because metzelder is SHIT , as someone else mentioned higuain should have been the one to play the full 90 while raul should have came out , everytime we score first we automatically start dropping our performance kinda like the barcelona of last year and being like barcelona is NEVER a good thing we really need to step our game up when we play away from home or else we can kiss la liga good bye HALA MADRID!!!!
Posted from
United States -
Horrible match…but what can we expect when Schuster chooses to place diarra and gago together, they are both defensive midfielders, there should be one in front of the defensive line unless you are capello. Real lacked quality passes to obtain enough occasions, it just didnt look good, robben didnt have his best day but at least i can spot schuster’s mistake, which is a relief, now the question is if he’ll rectify..? Higuain has a better finish than Raul but that is if the argentinian recieves enough quality passes, if it isnt the case…then Raul will work harder in order for the ball to get where it needs to be. In my opinion Schuster should have subbed guti for gago or diarra, not sneieder.
Posted from
Spain -
Sneijder played poor most of the match, he wouldn’t have changed much, maybe Schuster should have played Drenthe and align more of a defensive mentality and hoped to spark something on the counter. The Guti substitution could have proved useful on a good counter also. There wasn’t much Schuster could have done. I may have kept on Pipita.
I’m concerned at how we have been lacking a bit of creativity lately. This game also lacked a more ruthless reference point in Ruud. It must be said that Robben has been annoying me lately. All our problems have been from the Heart of the midfield. This year we don’t really have a reference point for creativity, last year it was Guti more or less, he played all the defense splitting through balls amd was our creative engine, but Guti hasn’t feature much at all this year. I suppose Vd.Vaart was purchased to take the mantel of creativity, imagination and vision but he hasn’t really shown up ar all so far.
Im also a bit concenred about our midfields defensive play but thats another story.
Posted from
United States -
i missed the match as i was watching the F1 grand prix at interlagos. and it seems by the sound of the match that it was indeed a better thing to do. gave excitement a new name. last lap. hamilton in 6th place , massa in 1st and winning the title and on the final straight timo glock slows down to let hamilton pass into 5th and win the title. fucking awesome.
a gago-diarra double pivot is good for attacking if the third player is on form because gago can shoulder some of the attacking duties. remember the destruction of valencia at the mestalla last season. that had gago nd diarra playing in the middle.
Posted from
India -
robinho is the dude that used to win this sort of games for us , I MISS ROBI calderon is an idiot
Posted from
United States -
Andres, Indeed thats true. I’ve always said that Real will pay for getting rid of their best, if not second best player.
Posted from
Kuwait -
Robinho was our best player? Since when? He may have been the flashiest player on the Madrid side, but as any Real fan will tell you, his performance was extremely spotty and unreliable. There’s no denying Robinho has loads of footballing ability, and the style to go with it. It’s his heart, mental focus, and intensity which have always been in question. Let’s be honest: there were nights where it seemed Robinho could take over a game on his own, but there were just as many matches where the Brazilian took the night off. He’s no Kaka, CRon, or even Ronaldinho. Robinho hasn’t even come close to establishing himself on that level! He might have a nice rating on FIFA video games, but he’s not the kind of player you can build a team around. He plays pretty football, but he doesn’t play all out. He’s extremely selfish, always looking to shoot even if it’s from 35-40 yards out and there are options closer to the box. You saying we’ll be punished for letting Robinho go is similar to saying Barca will be punished for letting Ronaldinho go. Was Ronaldinho the best player on Barca? This is arguable, but so is your assertion that Robinho was our best or even 2nd best player. In my opinion, he wasn’t either of the two, and why? Probably for the same reason why you’d say Ronnie wasn’t the best player on your side. There are other players on Barca (or Madrid) who want it more and bring it every time they’re on the pitch.
You might argue that Robinho’s leaving resulted in a lack of creativity in the attacking midfield, but even so, we have plenty of players who we can feed to ball to in midfield. Robben, Van Der Vaart, Guti, Sneidjer…I don’t think the problem is a lack of creating mids. If Robinho was a striker or a true winger, I might agree that we’re “paying”, but he played nearly the same role Robben plays now. I just don’t see how we’re “paying” for it by not having the crybaby in there. The problems of this team are with the fullbacks and the lack of a wide player and striking options, of which Robinho is none (He was never a striker here in any form, he played the center of the pitch behind Ruud and usually Raul.). We’ve got plenty of creativity, but you can’t throw all of it out there in the middle part of the pitch.
Andres, I wholeheartedly agree that Calderon is an idiot, and that Robinho COULD have won a game like this for us. All things considered though, it COULD have been just another one of Robinho’s games where he just goes through the motions. To me, the guy who wins you games like this is Ruud Van Nistelrooy, much like he did against Atletico where he just “steals” a goal.
And yes, sorry Barca4Life, we still have 31 La Liga crowns and 9 champions league titles. So no matter what the table says right now…you’ll always be chasing us. Go hump one of your Copa del Rey trophies and be happy you chose Barca for life.
Posted from
United States -
I love it how some will rub the robinho case in when he wasn’t even in the starting eleven for the love of god!
Posted from
Spain -
James, don’t try to spin the issue by mentioning Barca* and Ronaldinho. Im talking about Robinho, we can discuss ronaldinho later.
Quit living in the past. I know how much titles u have, but I’m more concerned with the present. I just can’t see Madrid winnning the league this year.
Robinho singlehandedly won u games last season, the games against mallorca. zaragoza, and olympiacos are just quick examples I came up with.
Like I said, quit living in the past and get to the bottom line, which is that Robinho was a key player last year in so many games and u got rid of him because of stupidity.
U even admit that Robinho could have won u this game, so if ur dropping points already because Robinho isn’t here, arent u already paying?
If u aren’t paying right now, u will be if Robben gets a serious injury. Who will play on the left if both Robben and Robinho are absent? Higuain, probably, but he is more of a striker than a winger.
BTW, Ronaldinho was our best player 3 seasons ago, and even 2 seasons ago, he was. But last year, what did he do? Popped up with a couple freekucks in one game, provided rare, rare moments of magic. But thats it, did not do much for us. He did not win us games. Robinho however, did win u games and was more important for ur side than Ronaldinho was for us(last year). Don’t even try to argue that Ronaldinho was our best, 2nd best, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, or even 7th best last year.Posted from
Kuwait -
9 champion leagues, most of the time he was in the starting lineup, and only when he was coming back from injury did he not start.
Doesn’t matter anyway, there is no denying that Robinho won u games last year.
Tell me, just tell me. What are Real gonna do if robben gets injured, which he often does. U can put higuain there, but that means RVN and Raul will have to play up front. Raul is really inconsistent these days, and RVN also gets injured. U guys really need Higuain up front, not on the wing.Posted from
Kuwait -
I think you have a point on a couple of things you said – I think we _would_ be screwed if Robben were injured, because we lack players that can play down the sides (Drenthe?). I think this is a screw up by the president and sporting director beccsue they put all their eggs in one basket to sign a single player.
Since Robinho has gone to City he’s played so much better than he did for us – just goes to show how this kind of player needs to be happy to play (also interestingly he has played as a striker for city so far rather than the winger we desperately need). Fundamentally there was no way we could keep Robinho, he was determined to leave and given his relatively poor performances for Madrid over the years clearly he was never happy with his place in the team. I think we were lucky to get good money out of it.So I’m sad to see the back of an exciting player, but also glad because both parties needed to move on. I will follow his career with interest despite my regret and distaste for the way he left.
James is also correct though – overall I really dont think he has been that great for Madrid except for some wow moments – especially when you look at how much better he has been in a team where he is the ‘main man’. In this respect Robben is a more direct and faster winger. Don’t get me wrong Robinho is quality and probably could challenge Robben for the starting spot, but most significantly we will miss Robinho because we have few wide options, not because Robinho was really that able to bring a significantly new dimension to the starting squad – at least when played out there on the wing.
Out of curiosity I would have liked to see Robinho play as a second striker for Madrid, but now that will never happen.Ronaldinho : My opinion: (which may not be welcome) Ronaldinho should have been sold or disciplined from Barca even though he still had more to offer as a player. Someone who doesn’t train with the rest of the squad and doesn’t turn up should be sorted out. Team spirit is alway more important than individuals. This year Barca is way stronger than last, simply because the work ethic has returned – not because the squad is any better.
BTW: Raul is just getting older and slower now – he still works as hard as he ever did and does more work off the ball that even most Madrid fans credit him for. Unlike Ronaldinho, his attitude is an example to the rest of the team. I know I’m biased because he’s my hero, but he is the spirt of Real Madrid, even if his body can’t quite cash the cheques he’s writing anymore.
Posted from
China
Comments are closed
Home 
