Madridismo! And a Super Cup!

WOW! I couldt believe my eyes when I saw it. I know I have alluded to this before, but the Madridismo spirit still exists in the Bernabeu, as evident by the thrilling comeback Real staged last night. I still cant believe it myself. Our backs were against the wall after a neat finish by Silva and some shoddy officiating, but we pulled it off. Let celebrate our first trophy of the season!

For a pre-season game, it certainly was entertaining. The first leg was a poor perfomance by Real, which led me to believe the second leg would be more of the same, Schusters boys needing to find their feet still. But while we didnt play particularly well in the first half, we saw vintage Real Madrid grit in the second. As I watched Real start slowly, with some sloppy midfield play and a whole lot of space between the midfield line and the defensive line which allowed Silva the space to pick us apart, and became a bit cynical, questioning who Schuster could yet again make such an obvious mistake.

Diarra on his own is a formidable presence for anyone to come up against. Unless your insanely fast and have a bag of tricks. Then the easiest way to get around him is to play behind him, as to say never run past his backside. If you do, he will probably stop you. But, Silva played as a withdrawn striker, in front of Pepe and Heinze but still behind Diarra, exposing an enormous gap in our midfield. With Villa to contend with, Pepe and Heinze never had a chance to track Silva down and deprive him of the ball.

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Without the added help of a Gago or De la Red in the midfield to allow Diarra to play deeper and cover Silva, or alternately the deployment of Gago to cover Silva and the use of De la Red or Javi Garcia as the other central midfielder, we were cut into shreds basically. Robben, VdV and Guti on the field at the same time with two strikers? Yeah, a little to much even for us attack minded Real fans.

With Silva allowed to exploit the space and with Villa in front of him, they looked dangerous whenever they were on the ball. What was not dangerous was the threat from the wings. Joaquin was yet again subdued by Torres, who is slowly turning into a very solid, if unspectacular left back, kind of like how he plays at right back. Sergio Ramos had not trouble with Mata either, who to me doesnt look cut out to be a winger. Unlike in the first leg, where most of the buildup was on the wings and then distributed in field, Valencia had nothing going with their wingers today.

It must be said that even while Silva and Villa scampered about, Pepe and Heinze were pretty solid. Silva’s goal was more a lucky shot then anything, as it cleared some legs, fooling Casillas. Valencia may have had the better of the play up til that point, but Real did threaten, with Van de Vaart stinging the palms of Hildebrand more then once in the opening exchanges. Valencia had two DM/CMs to crowd out the attacking talents of Guti and VdV (imagine that, using two central midfield players to nullify the oppositions attack!). Guti was being closed down pretty quickly by Albelda and Baraja, while VdV was not seeing much of the ball.

Because our midfield was being choked out by Valencia’s, Raul and Van Nistelrooy. One of the main complaint people have had about Raul is that his lack of mobility and creativity severly hampers the team, especially when Ruud is the furthest player forward. But we have seen Ruud dropping deeper as of late, because with the crowding out of Guti, he is not getting the ball in good positions. Raul would be the obvious link here, but he has been poor the past two games. I fear we may see a drop in form yet again from out captain, and this time I cant defend his automatic selection.

Raul had one glimmer of hope, a great header from a corner that Hildebrand saved well. Real’s play was choppy, while Valencia were linking well with the front pairing, and in the 37th Silva danced a bit at the top of the box before putting a precise low shot into the corner of the net. It narrowly missed out on a few deflections, which fooled Casillas into not diving. 1-0 to Valencia, and 4-2 on aggregate. 5 minutes later Van de Vaart was given a straight red card by Mr. Iturralde González for a “late” and “high” tackle on Juan Mata. Watching it on replay probably 20 times, as FSC’s commentators couldnt figure out if it was a good call or not, I have to say that it was neither late nor dangerous.

Mata had barely gotten the ball away from Van de Vaart before he slide in. In his defence, even with his foot high, he bent his knee as to not striker Mata’s shin, which definately would have snapped his leg. Mata’s momentum carried himself into VdV’s foot, which he couldnt move away from Mata’s knee. Studs up that high is definately worthy of a red card, but when you analyze the situation, see the replays, then its clear there was not intent to harm, and that VdV avoided causing a serious injury the best he could. Again, it was not a red card offense, but without the aid of a replay, Mr. Gonzalez made the correct decision, even though it was a bad one.

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Down to 10 men, Real held out until half time. At this point my room mate asked if I wanted to go play some soccer at school. It was a tempting offer, and I seriously considered it because it looked like Real were done. But I said no, and I kept watching for some reason. I wasnt to be disappointed. Real’s players most likely got their asses reamed out by Bernadine at half time. And I am sure that had something to do with what would happen in the second half. A Guti free kick met the head of Ramos, who nodded it across goal. Ruud rose to meet the ball with the angle narrowing, and somehow got his header on target. The problem was Raul Albiol rose with Ruud and blocked the ball with his arm. Now I have heard people question the hand ball rule, especially as the ball went off his bicep, but this was a clear penalty. If a ball plays the hand like, it usually is not the case, but when you preven a goal scoring oppurtunity with your hand(or bicep), its a penalty. Albiol was lucky to not get a red, probably because it was not an intentional action.

Ruud smashed the ball into the left side past Hildebrand, and we were level again, down only one goal on aggregate. Real, even down a man, grew in the game and Valencia were suddenly on the back foot. Pepe had a great effort just miss, while Robben was tormenting the Valencia defence as he switched flanks freely. He had a great effort wiz just past the post as well.
Just as we were looking good for another goal, Ruud was given his second yellow for a late tackle. Looking at the tackle in real time, it seemed harmless, and it looked like harmless and mistimed, as Ruud and Baraja both went for a 50-50 ball. For some reason Iturralde González decided he would be the center of attention again by sending Ruud off. Terrible call by a terrible ref.

The 9-11 advantage that Valencia had was never evident though, as Real continued to press forward, driven on by the roaring fans. Valencia’s backline looked all out of sorts once Baraja and Albelda tired and could not shield them anymore, and Robben continued to dance around his defenders. A Guti cross was met with a desperate lunge by Diarra that crashed the ball of the crossbar. Sergio Ramos was there to swivel quickly and put the the rebounded ball past Hildebrand for the go ahead goal! Incredible, how did that just happen?!?

Schuster, realizing this stunning turnaround, sent De la Red, Drenthe and Higuain on for Raul, Torres and Guti. They would not disappoint. De la Red would stroll forward with the ball before placing a wonderful strike on Hildebrands hand. The keeper could only palm it into the side net and we were up 3-1! De la Red scored his first goal upon his return, in a magical moment that got my pulse racing even higher! Two minutes later, a poor back pass was intercepted by Higuain, who quickly side stepped Hildebrand before tapping the ball into the net.

4-1 just like that. Down two men and needed two goals, it looked helpless at half time, but this incredible Madridismo filled the players with the spirit they needed to take the trophy. A late Morientes consolation goal was no matter. I guess I shouldnt refer to this as a preseason friendly anymore should I! I will put the game highlights up when I go to class. Here is what the players had to say about the match:

MATCH REPORT:
4 – Real Madrid C.F: Casillas; Sergio Ramos, Pepe, Heinze, M. Torres (Drenthe, 63’); Robben, Guti (De la Red, 76’), Diarra, Van der Vaart; Raúl (Higuaín, 77’) & Van Nistelrooy.
2 – Valencia C.F: Hildebrant; Raúl Albiol (Morientes, 81’), Alexis, Moretti; Albelda, Joaquín (Pablo Hernández, 67’), Silva, Baraja; Mata (Vicente, 59’) & Villa.

Referee: Iturralde González. Booked Raúl Albiol (50’) and Heinze (72’). Sent off Van der Vaart (39’) with a red card and Van Nistelrooy with a double booking (53’, 72’).

Goals:
0-1, 33′. David Silva.
1-1, 50′. Van Nistelrooy.
2-1, 76′. Ramos.
3-1, 85′. De la Red.
4-1, 87′. Higuaín.
4-2, 90. Morientes.

Robben
“It was amazing. The team worked very hard, but it was difficult because Valencia are a great team. We knew how to overcome adversity because we are a quality side. We are very happy and we want to enjoy this title. I am delighted.”

Pepe

“I had never experienced such a comeback in my entire career. It shows the great sprit the team has. We knew we had to thrill our fans tonight. They were spectacular.”

“Our unity is obvious on the pitch. We had to give a good image after the defeat in Valencia. We had to satisfy our fans.”

“It’s great to start the season like this. Many of us, including the coach, were new last year and we didn’t have a great start. It’s important to begin the year with a title, especially when you win like this.”

Torres
“This has been a beautiful way to start the season and we just think about improving to do better in the league. It was important to put pressure on Valencia from the start and we managed to do that in the second half. The group’s dynamic is very good and the new players on the team have added much to our game. We made it in the end.”

“The fans’ support is very important to us. I hope they support us this way throughout the season. History is there to be rewritten and we hope to do that in Riazor. We are working on it and we’ll do even better with this hype.”

Casillas
“These comebacks are only possible at the Bernabéu. We played too far back in the first half and were too hasty in attack. We made too many long passes.”

“Ironically, both red cards played in our favour because they made us react. We must nevertheless avoid these things from happening and try to play well from the start of each game.”

“Lately, it seems like we grow more confident when we see we are one man down.”

Míchel Salgado
“We knew that the crowd would go wild if we scored after half-time. This is a very complicated venue for our opponents when that happens and we knew that.”

“The first half was very comfortable for Valencia. We hardly played and found room to manouver. Nevertheless, Valencia didn’t try any of the fast counterattacks they usually do. Their mistake was to believe they could win without running around much. We knew the game would be harder for them if we scored one goal.”

“I am very happy. The spirit and unity on the squad gives us all a good feeling. The Bernabéu always manages to help us win these games.”

“The best of all things is that the team still has the great spirit it had two years ago. Nothing can spoil this.”

Schuster

“A proper team must have a winning mentality and we have that. We overcame all adversity and always believed in our chances. The second half was beautiful and exciting. The final score was fair to the effort made by my players.”

“This rarely happens. I had never lived such an experience before, neither as a player nor as a coach. It was very surprising. I relied on the opinion that some team’s sometimes find it harder to play with one man more than their opponent. The team unites more and works even harder when it’s one man down. Concentration also improves. Our opponent tonight didn’t know how to play with their advantage and we benefitted from it.”

“Robinho’s situation naturally isn’t comfortable. It was my decision not to use him tonight. He is still on the team because we are waiting to see what happens and we hope he will finally stay with us this year.”

“I had enough with thinking about what I was goiung to do than to think about what my opponent may have done. We had to change the match, but I guess losing like that must hurt. Valencia have a young and talented coach and I think they proved they will be an important team this year.”

“This team has a very solid base that was hard to get. We will keep an eye open in case some new signing can be made, but it will be hard to improve on the quality of this squad.”

“Robinho is the same player he has always been. He is important and should be a part of this project. I think he knows he can make it big here. We must resolve the situation as best as possible, but we are all selfish and the best solution would really be for him to stay with us for many years.”

“European teams have to improve each year. We have complete faith in our team, but other sides will work hard to be at the top of their game. We hope to reach as far as possible.”

Category: Team News

Tags: Team News

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