Weekend wrap-up: all bad news for Los Merengues
By: Steve | August 21st, 2007Well Madrid fans, it’s not looking pretty. No apologies for the lack of blogging on the weekend, we need a break sometimes. I wish we could get a break from reality too, because the fact of the matter is, this year’s Real Madrid squad don’t look like they’re capable of retaining the La Liga crown or challenging for Champions League honours.
But first, something to get us in the mood… a depressing reminder of a narcissistic egomaniac who once led one of my favourite bands in the world, and how you can’t have a reunion with just half the band…
Ok, let’s pick the scab that was the second leg of the Spanish Super Cup. It’s the trophy that is played between the winners of La Liga and the King’s Cup from the year before, hence Madrid v Sevilla. After a tight 1-0 loss at Sevilla, Los Merengues were fully expecting to put their boots down at the Bernabeu and claim the Super Cup. But it looked more like they put their boots down in quicksand.
Not only did Sevilla play a great game, the Madrid defense looked like they were in cahoots with the Andalucians. I don’t think I’ve seen worse positioning and defensive instincts from a back four in the last 5 years, and given the state of affairs in the Spanish capital, that’s saying a lot. I didn’t get to watch the full game, just some highlights, but word on the street is that Pepe, the 30 million euro man, played more like 30 cents.
Let’s rip this scab open, shall we?
Real Madrid 0-1 Sevilla
Renato 16′
Horrible coverage by the Madrid defense after a Sevilla free kick. Casillas did well to parry the shot, but I think it was Pepe who was covering Renato and then left him to cover the extreme angled shot that never came.
Real Madrid 1-1 Sevilla
Drenthe 20′
A sweet shot by Royston Drenthe. Playing in the midfield instead of leftback for the first part of the match, Drenthe receives a nice touch pass from van Nistelrooy and unleashes a vicious shot that ricochets off the crossbar and into the Sevilla net.
Real Madrid 1-2 Sevilla
Renato 29′
Again, broken down coverage in the centre of the Madrid defense. It’s difficult to tell if it was Cannavaro or Pepe who was supposed to be in that position, but Freddie Kanoute was also on the scene as well as goalscorer Renato, so it’s difficult to absolve either of the centrebacks of blame. It’s worrying, Cannavaro has yet to recapture anything resembling his form at Juventus and for Italy in 2006.
Real Madrid 1-3 Sevilla
Kanoute 36′ pen
Kanoute gets Casillas going the wrong way by sidefooting the ball into the lower left corner of the net. Pepe gets nailed by a handball in the penalty area, though it’s quite clearly unintentional. His arms are lower than shoulder height, and he’s very obviously thrusting out his chest in order to reach the ball in front of his mark. A bit of bad luck i think.
Real Madrid 2-3 Sevilla
Cannavaro 44′
A crazy headed goal by Cannavaro, sneaking behind his marker to smash the free kick into the net by the far post. Also impressive was Sneijder’s free kick. Looks like we may have quality of delivery as we did last year with Beckham. The cause of the free kick isn’t shown, but Sergio Ramos is shown getting treatment off the pitch, so the fact that Real scored with 10 men is not too shabby.
Real Madrid 3-3 Sevilla
Ramos 79′
Another headed goal off a free kick, this time by Sergio Ramos. He manages to squeeze past all the bodies to get his head on the ball and flick it past Palop. Great delivery again, though it’s not clear if it’s Sneijder or Guti.
Real Madrid 3-4 Sevilla
Kanoute 81′
Not much you can really do about this one. Kanoute just fights off his marker, Pepe, who slightly mistimes his clearance effort. I think some blame can also be assigned to Drenthe, who doesn’t attempt to block the cross, as Roberto Carlos would have done. It also doesn’t look like Drenthe has the footspeed of the former Real leftback, meaning he will have to consider his defensive duties far more than when he’s playing in midfield.
Real Madrid 3-5 Sevilla
Kanoute 90′
The clearest example of bad positioning. I think it’s Cannavaro (could be Pepe, it’s not clear) who comes off marking Kanoute to play the attacker with the ball, but there’s absolutely no one else in the backfield. Diarra and Sergio Ramos did a terrible job of cutting off the passing routes by losing awareness of where their marks were, but it looks like general chaos back there.
Anyways, Schuster has a lot of work cut out for him, and it’s clear he won’t get very much honeymoon time as the new trainer. The fans will be howling for Schuster’s head if there aren’t some immediate results in the first few Liga matches, if not Calderon and Mijatovic also. At least Capello is still available…
Other notes from the match: Guti came on in the second half in place of Miguel Torres, with Drenthe moving to leftback from left winger. It was supposed to create offense, and while Madrid did have better opportunities at goal, they were far more exposed on the counterattack, resulting in those 2 late Sevilla goals. Saviola was on for Raul at 63 minutes, both seemingly ineffectual. Baptista came on for Sneijder at 83 minutes, the Dutchman one of the few bright spots of the match.
ok, in other bad news, first choice keeper Casillas was injured during training for international duty, leaving his status for this weekend’s La Liga start against Atletico in doubt. He is definitely ruled out of tomorrow’s friendly against Greece. Few people have faith in Dudek as his deputy, so we really really really hope Casillas gets well soon!
The rumoured transfer of rightback Cicinho to AS Roma has been reported both on and off, depending on your sources. According to Italian media, Cicinho’s deal with Roma was done and dusted, but Spanish media have suggested the Brazilian will stay in Madrid. At this point, I don’t really care either way.
There were also rumours of Sevilla’s outstanding rightback, Daniel Alves, suggesting a move to Real Madrid instead of Chelsea. I think it’s just a bargaining ploy to get Chelsea to pony up the right amount for his move.
Finally, former galactico Zinedine Zidane has been somewhat vindicated for his headbutt on Marco Materazzi during the 2006 World Cup final, after it was revealed that the Italy defender had in fact insulted Zidane’s sister. After Zidane responded to Materazzi’s marking by saying the Italian could have his shirt after the match, the defender replied “I prefer the whore that is your sister.” The rest is history. You can hardly blame Zidane for what he did, but it’s obvious that Materazzi said that as a provocation (and quite a typical example of their arrogance towards football), and the Frenchman fell for it.
Ok, I know Corey’s got a few posts lined up, so I’ll stop here.
Category: Team News
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A truly awful match.
I think you’re being harsh with Cannavaro, though. He had some good clearances and positioning plus the goal and was the only defender (and I include Casillas) who had a halfway decent night–Torres didn’t have the pace necessary on the left, Pepe was simply horrible, Ramos is still having a mental block when it comes to Sevilla (and has had a bad preseason overall), and Casillas not only is still incredibly weak on penalties, but it is obvious in that 4th Sevilla goal that his communication with Pepe isn’t nearly at the level it needs to be.
On the 5th goal, that’s Canna (who had just picked himself off the pitch after twisting his ankle and wasn’t moving well) who was marking the man with the ball because Pepe had already been thrown out with his second yellow and RM was down to 10 men. Horrible lack of defending by Ramos and Diarra.
I was really disappointed with the midfield and the lack of width caused by Drenthe and Robinho drifting into the middle too often and Sneijder hardly touching the ball other than a few decent free kicks. It was a horror show all around.
Oh, and don’t really want to get into the Zidane thing, but I will mark my objection to you letting him off the hook because of what Materazzi said.
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I think it’s a bit early to rule Madrid out of the running for any silverware yet - but I certainly understand the concern. The defense truly is woeful, but I think it will begin to gel once the players grow accustomed to each other. I would like to see more of Metzelder at the center.
All in all, I’m still looking at Schuster, who just doesn’t seem to be providing the team with any direction. One of the Terrible Two (Calderon) has already issued a warning that Schuster could be out as early as Christmas if he doesn’t get the team to perform. This before even seeing a regular season game. Schuster replied by saying that he’s not worried, and “Something can happen if we find a player who can improve us. Something is happening and the player will be a welcome addition.”
So, in other words: “It’s not my fault. It’s the team’s fault. We need to buy more players.”
Okay, Soldado and Baptista back from loans. Balboa up from Castilla. Saviola, Drenthe, Sneijder, Metzelder and Pepe new transfers.
We have last years world player of the year. We have Copa America’s Golden Boot Winner. We have last season’s Pichichi winner. We’ve got Talent, with a capital T! They just don’t know how to play together, because their trainer is a moron! So should we get a new coach? YES!! But pick one and stick with it for once. I’m sick of watching what is consistantly one of the best squads in the world trying to adjust, readjust and adjust again under constently changing leadership. SIGH!
But, despite all that, I’m really looking forward to this weekend’s game. Hopefully Los Blancos will rally together for, or during, the derby. We’ll see.
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And hey - I’ve hear rumors that Inter are after Emerson, and might be willing to throw one Adriano into the bargain. Schuster is still looking for another striker (for some fucking reason he continues to overlook and under-estimate Soldado), so what says all to this proposition?
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Steve, is it really understandable what Zidane did? I mean, come on. Saying Materazzi is a dick is sort of an understatement certainly underscored by this, but really, Zidane did an idiotic thing that is pretty inexcusable. If someone insults my mother (I don’t have a sister) while I’m playing in a World Cup final about to go to penalty kicks and I’m not only a member of the penalty-kick-taking 5, I’m the best PK taker in my nation, I don’t think it’s “understandable” to react insanely to such an innocuous statement like “your mom is a whore.” Really? She’s a prostitute? God, why didn’t anyone ever tell me.
Can’t imagine worse hasn’t been said to him and he hasn’t done anything about it. Zidane reacted violently to something offensive and that was dumb. I can hardly blame Zidane for blowing his country’s WC hopes…but mostly because I loved every minute of that ending thanks to his antics. Is it because he’s an ex-RM player that you don’t blame him?
Also, what does this line mean: “it’s obvious that Materazzi said that as a provocation (and quite a typical example of their arrogance towards football)…”? I actually don’t understand it, not like I’m saying “is this offensive?” cause I just cannot pull enough information from it to make assumptions about what it means. How is getting your opponent to attack you by calling his sister a whore arrogance? Maybe I’m having a slow moment…
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Regarding the first goal. it’s Casillas’s fault too.. his lazy parry. I think he was expecting Ramos to head it away and was surprised when it came to him. it was a very weak parry. and the amount of space Renato had in front of the goal! it’s just believable.
I’m suprised that you havn’t said anything about Raul, except that he was ineffective.
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Good stuff steve-o. Ill have a grapevine up tomorrow, i moved back in at school and i have been doing on the job training for all the new kids and I have to move freshmen in soon, but ill get a post up tomorrow.
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Louise: I’m not exactly letting Zidane off the hook. I merely said he was “somewhat vindicated” for his actions because of Materazzi’s provovation. I’m not exactly condoning what he did, but it’s not like any of these guys are angels, so let’s not think that they’re above losing control.
Isaiah: How is it not understandable? These guys play at the highest level of the game, and thus carry some type of self-confidence that usually borders on arrogance and cockiness, and manifests itself in machismo. Insulting someone’s mom, sister, daughter, etc. is tantamount to a real slap in the face, so I don’t see why everyone is up in arms about it. He got punished for it, right? He knew the rules, and in the heat of the moment, he overstepped them. I’m not saying he shouldn’t have been punished or anything, I’m just saying that there’s a bit of logic to what he did, it’s not like it was completely random.
As for the line about Materazzi, I see it as a comeback for Zidane’s first remark about trading shirts after the match. He’s not only denigrating Zidane’s sister, but also the worthiness of Zidane himself in suggesting that he’s above Zidane. This is very typical of Italian football, well, at least their football fans. I was in Siena in 2006 for the semifinal vs Germany (with some German friends I might add) and you would not believe the poor sportsmanship. There are sore losers… they were sore winners.
Haran: There’s nothing left to be said about Raul aside from the fact that not only is he ineffectual, but his shadow hangs over the team like a ball and chain. We won’t really be able to shore up the side unless Raul is willing to accept a demotion to the bench where he might be able to provide a late spark, but it’s clear he’s lost whatever instincts that made him an automatic 20-25 goal scorer less than 5 years ago.
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