Liveblog: Deportivo La Coruña v Real Madrid

By: Steve | March 15th, 2008

Hala Madrid! Sorry I’m late kids, let’s get it going! Sky Sports 2 for those in the UK…

9min: Of interest in the first few minutes that I’ve seen while waiting for my laptop to boot up… Diarra is playing pretty well, Sneijder and Drenthe starting and of even more interest: Soldado is starting! Woot!
11min: Plays of note thus far… Guti took an absolutely horrid shot, Pepe made a crazy backpass half the length of the field to Casillas.
12min: Cannavaro back in the side, pairing with Pepe in the middle. Heinze and Torres at the fullback positions.
13min: Diarra and Guti hanging back in midfield, Sneijder and Drenthe on attack, with Raul and Soldado manning the forward positions.
13min: Oh! Great curling free kick by Guti that none of the Real attackers manage to pursue… it was right at the far post, there for the taking. Vamos, chicos!
14min: Finally, a good play from Drenthe cutting inside, but the pass was right at Sneijder’s feet instead of in front, so he couldn’t take a quick shot and his pass across the area was intercepted.
17min: Drenthe is looking pretty good tonight, freed from his defensive responsibilities as an attacking winger. Soldado is looking alright, but he should know that he HAS to maximize this rare start.
18min: Great moves by Pepe to evade 2 Deportivo forwards as he received a back pass, and manages to get it to Diarra to escape the pressure.
19min: Now it’s Pepe causing problems and forcing fouls and free kicks as he moves forward with the ball.
21min: It’s not a stretch to say that this is Pepe’s best stretch of form since his move last summer.
23min: Real are playing some decent possession football, and contrary to the last two matches, they look like they’re attacking the final third with more purpose, though that might be due to Deportivo’s 3-4-3 formation…
24min: Stupid giveaway then foul from Drenthe.
25min: Good clearance by Cannavaro on a high header in no-man’s land by Pepe…
26min: Nice moves by Lafita, attacking Diarra at Real’s left corner flag…
29min: Now it’s Deportivo who’s taking more initiative on the ball… Real seem to have relaxed a bit on their touch and they’re losing the ball.
32min: Ugh… Real do well, keeping the ball with short passes, but with Deportivo’s pressure defense, someone eventually tries to break the pressure with a long pass and in the last 15 minutes, they’ve always put it out of play. Just be patient, lads!
34min: Guti makes a weak attempt to draw a foul. Ugh, i hate that about Guti.
36min: Real’s set-piece defending looks better tonight, it has to be said. Twice, Deportivo corners are cleared with relative ease.
38min: Wow, it’s like someone replaced Diarra with a similar model but with WAY better touch… he just dribbled and passed out of 3-man pressuring!
40min: Great corner play by Deportivo, but the man in the right spot again is Pepe, to clear…
43min: Raul has been REAL quiet in the first half so far.
44min: Diarra is getting loads of play on the ball. I wonder if the coaches are finally seeing some sort of distributional skill that Real have lacked since Makalele left… The Malian has been excellent tonight.
45min: Great moves by Diarra on De Guzman… The Canadian is forced to foul and concede a free kick.
45+1min: only 1 minute of extra time in the first half…
HALFTIME: Well, despite the rash of positive comments from me, it still remains a problem for Real to attack the opposing goal.
HALFTIME: Even with a backline of only 3 centrebacks, Real is finding little space to attack, despite their dominant possession of the ball.
HALFTIME: 46 minutes of first half play, 0 shots on target. ZERO. That’s brutal.
HALFTIME: Guti hasn’t been bad, but he isn’t really providing the kind of service they need. I’m surprised Robinho isn’t in the side too, i wonder if he might be subbed in for Drenthe who’s been hot and cold tonight.
HALFTIME: Actually, I wonder if Raul might be subbed off. He has been totally anonymous.
HALFTIME: Best players for Real so far have easily been Pepe and Diarra.
HALFTIME: It doesn’t make sense that Deportivo could seem to be so much more dangerous on the ball, despite their lesser possession…
HALFTIME: Aren’t we the ones who are supposed to have the offensive superstars? Where is the evidence?
HALFTIME: Soldado unfortunately hasn’t really gotten a chance to show his skills… no decent service to where he can make a play, but then again, it’s clear he’s no Ruud.
HALFTIME: Sneijder hasn’t really been effective either… Sky commentators are predicting Robinho and Baptista substituted on earlier rather than later.
HALFTIME: Real will need to do a lot more, if they want to break their 15 year drought here at the Riazor.
46min: No changes after halftime.
50min: Real still don’t look like they have the ability to threaten the Depor goal. Shame.
51min: Great throughball for Raul, but alas, Aouate is on the spot to clean it up.
53min: Deportivo is showing some good patience on the ball too…
54min: Ugh, does Heinze actually think he’s that good at attacking? So much overlapping with Drenthe and actually provides nothing.
55min: Guti needs to stop feeling sorry for himself and start tracking back. Brutal.
56min: Looks like Baptista is warming up…
57min: GOAL! Pepe gives up an own goal, unfortunately putting it in after trying to clear a cross from Felipe. The Deportivo midfielder goes around Torres like a pylon (who is really the one to blame on this one) and evades Diarra’s blocking attempt before crossing dangerously. Deportivo La Coruña 1-0 Real Madrid.
60min: De Guzman gets a harsh yellow, catching Sneijder in the chest with his foot after a clearing attempt.
64min: Still no subs yet… no Robinho or Baptista…
66min: Riki on for Xisco for Deportivo.
67min: Better late than never, I suppose… looks like a double sub coming up for Real… Robinho and Higuain.
68min: A yellow card for Coloccini, conceding a foul on Soldado…
68min: Doh… Soldado and Drenthe make way for Robinho and Higuain.
68min: Good free kick by Guti, but the unsettled ball ends up within arm’s reach of Aouate.
70min: Great counterattack by Deportivo, started by De Guzman’s clearance down the side… only a lucky bounce off Cannavaro’s head prevented a possible clear shot on goal.
72min: Yellow card on Miguel Torres.
73min: Diarra is still impressing me with his passing tonight.
76min: Well, I have to say, I don’t think Robinho and Higuain have made much of a difference thus far… the anemic attack is the same.
77min: Baptista to come on…
78min: Wow, Schuster is going for it… taking off Heinze for Baptista.
78min: With no other natural left-sider, it looks like Diarra is slotting into leftback.
79min: Guardado on for Lafita.
82min: Ugh… Real are starting off an attack, with lots of movement and Sneijder takes an early attempt at goal from 35 yards out and misses completely.
83min: Why is Baptista all the way out on the left flank? How weird.
84min: Oh! What a waste of a glorious chance for Deportivo to put the match away… Wilhelmsson dances across the top of the Real penalty area and squares for Felipe, who skies the ball. That was the match right there.
84min: Another great chance for Depor. Guardado sends through Riki who misses from the left.
85min: Ugh… Real is pushing forward with everyone except the back line and they’re losing possession now, and giving up odd-number counters… Horrid.
85min: Good shot by Guardado, trying to go across Casillas, but Madrid’s brick wall makes a good stop.
87min: Tomas on for… somebody.
88min: Ugh… Real give up possession (ugly moves from Baptista) and De Guzman releases Guardado who tries an ugly attempt at a chip shot.
89min: Oh! Felipe just gets enough of the ball to get the ball away from Baptista’s powerful header attempt, and instead, the Brazilian puts it out of play.
90min: Aouate gets a yellow for wasting time… hahaha.
90+1min: 3 minutes of extra time.
90+2min: AHHH! Torres gets a great ball on the right from Robinho, but his weak squaring pass gets cleared. Pretty poor match from the rightback tonight.
90+3min: Real mount a last-second attack… and Raul can’t get a playable ball into Higuain. Ugh.
90+3min: And we’re done.
POSTGAME: Ugly. That second half was pure ugly, like Steve Buscemi.
POSTGAME: The Sky commentators seem to have watched a different match than I did… they liked those last 10 minutes, where Real abandoned any notion of defending and flooded the Deportivo half, only to give up loads of chances.
POSTGAME: Anyways, Real fail to win at the Riazor for the 16th consecutive year. That’s 5 draws and 11 losses.
POSTGAME: And Los Merengues miss the chance to go up 11 points on Barca, who now have the chance to close to 5 points in their match at Almeria tomorrow.
POSTGAME: Real’s away form this year compares terribly to last year’s, losing their 4th in the last 5 away matches.
POSTGAME: Real didn’t even dominate possession like they did in the previous few matches… It was probably even between the two teams in the second half, if not in Depor’s favour.
POSTGAME: As Apollo says in the comments, it’s a pathetic result.
POSTGAME: I don’t even know what to say. It’s difficult to figure this team out. There were a few good individual performances, but their complete inability to create anything in the opposing box is baffling.
POSTGAME: Ok, individual comments… Casillas was pretty good, wasn’t really tested until late when Real stopped defending. He had no chance on the own goal.
POSTGAME: Pepe, despite the own goal, played a great match. He was all over the place, in a good way, and almost always in the right place. I only say ‘almost’ there because on the own goal, I suppose you could say he should’ve come out further to cover for Torres, but Diarra was there first. Cannavaro had a solid match, no complaints from me. Torres was rather disappointing. He has definitely had better matches, but I shudder to think how much worse Salgado would have been. Heinze was Heinze: mediocre. His forays forward were unfulfilling and his defense was also suspect, being beaten if not nutmegged on the left flank by numerous Depor attackers.
POSTGAME: Diarra was awesome. The Sky commentators didn’t think so, said he wasn’t passing well since the African Nations Cup, which is true up until tonight. He was great tonight, no doubt. Guti was dismal. Passing was off, wasn’t tracking back, didn’t do anything productive, except maybe his set-piece delivery. But that’s what Sneijder is for, right? Except the Dutchman wasn’t much better. In fact, he was arguably just as poor. Drenthe was decent early on, making good plays and good decisions, but it fell apart for him at the 20-25 minute mark. Started getting sloppy, losing the ball…
POSTGAME: Raul was largely anonymous, didn’t really seem to do much, though at least he backtracked to help out Torres. I saw him one time playing way back on the right flank, almost like the rightback himself. Soldado wasn’t too productive, which is unfortunate, given this surprising chance to start. I don’t see this giving him any credibility as an adequate substitute for Ruud.
POSTGAME: The subs didn’t make much impact. Robinho got some good touches and generally played well, but didn’t seem to provide the spark that Real needed. Higuain didn’t do much as Soldado’s replacement, can’t really say much about that. Baptista came on for Heinze, signalling Schuster’s intent to actually try to win the match, but it was too little too late. Aside from a header that would’ve been in the back of the net if not for Felipe’s slight touch to alter the cross, Baptista was also rather ineffective, though there was a point where he was on the extreme left flank which is not his area at all.
POSTGAME: Alright, nothing really positive to take away from this match… just dismal to see this kind of showing, with such a great chance to put some real pressure on Barcelona.
POSTGAME: Aight, I’m out.