Real Madrid Club de Fútbol

[Billie]

Ronaldo sollte man bis 2050 an den Verein binden. Unglaublich, wie wichtig er für das Team ist.

[Billie]

Weil's noch niemand gepostet hat: Das Heimtrikot von Real Madrid für die nächste Saison:

Ob der Brustsponsor jedoch wieder bwin heißt, ist noch nicht ganz fix (Fly Emirates kommt auch noch infrage). Eure Meinungen zur neuen camiseta?

[Billie]

MMn ein ziemlich interessanter Artikel, der einige Aspekte unseres Spiels gegen Gijón gut erkennt und zusammenfasst. Vor allem der Teil mit Ronaldo, der zu einer Stütze geworden ist und die Abhängigkeit von Xabi gefallen mir sehr gut:

Worrying and Encouraging Signs (Real Madrid 3 – Sporting Gijon 1)

Well, we didn’t exactly wipe the floor with Sporting Gijon as I wished. We beat them nonetheless in an unglamorous remontada of sorts: the kind of remontada one dislikes watching because we went down 0-1 not really because Sporting sucker punched us or put our backs to the wall – but because we shot ourselves in the foot. Nevertheless, 3 points is 3 points and if there was ever a time in the season where we ought to display our ability to win despite the mitigating circumstances, it would be now. This is crunch time, time for the team to show how truly enormous their cojones are, time to show that they have the stomach for a full-on trench war if necessary – and the boys showed it last Saturday night.

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Worrying Sign #1 – Xabi-dependencia

As we faced Atleti in ther derby mid-week, many fans and probably the coaching staff as well were worried at the prospect of losing Xabi Alonso to suspension in the clasico. Those worries were washed away as Xabi got his booking in the derby, missing last Saturday night’s match and allowing him to start the clasico with a clean slate. Who knew however how badly we would miss Xabi Alonso last Saturday? Maybe Mou should have gone with the Sahin-Granero partnership that was suggested by some Madridistas last week?

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Nuri Sahin is clearly not yet ready to fill in for Xabi Alonso. While we’ve seen him provide countless tasty ‘exit balls’ to start an attack from deep positions while he was at Dortmund, a combination of lacking match fitness, familiarity with his teammates and the nature of the Spanish Game has seen him fall short in playing the Alonso role when needed. That is not to say however that it was a mistake to start him last Saturday. Needless to say, Real Madrid were a step slower, less coherent and clearly lacking in rhythm without Alonso. We look at Nuri Sahin and we see characteristics that make him similar to Alonso: the affinity to play deeper as a central midfielder, the fantastic ‘exit balls’, the willingness to track back and tackle, etc.

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By making that quick-fire conclusion however, we underestimate one of Alonso’s best qualities: his ability to read the game’s subtleties in terms of the positioning of players, the space around them and between them, their movement and the momentum of the game and his use of that information to inform his use his seemingly unmatchable passing skills. Alonso was never as good as he is today when we compare his Real Sociedad or even his (dare I say) Champions League-winningLiverpoolversion – he has reached this point in his game where his physical skills and his on-the-pitch intelligence are BOTH at their peak.

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Granted that we’ve seen him struggle as of late – a fact I will attribute to fatigue and also teams revolving their tactics in containing him. Having said that, on the back of last Saturday’s match, it’s very clear that we’re still a FAR better team with a tired and pressurized Xabi Alonso rather than without him. I know for a fact that the 2 duels vs. Bayern and the Clasico will have a far greater chance of seeing a more coherent Madrid with him in the team.

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Against Sporting over the weekend, with Clemente falling out with their David Barral, their leading scorer with 9 goals, it wasn’t going to take a genius to know that we were essentially going to have to bash through a parked bus (or a regular race car instead of a formula 1 car for La Liga -as he described his team). It also didn’t help that we made our lives more difficult with that silly penalty we conceded early in the game. It’s in times like that where the balls from deep become just as important to the attack as the passing in the final 3^rd: as such passes have the potential to provoke their men forward to open up their defense even more. Without Alonso, we had to do it the hard way.

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Worrying Sign #2 – Defending the Flanks

Arbeloa was terrible last Saturday. I know for a fact that I’ve been defending him from many critics who fault him for ‘giving nothing / little to the attack’ with my insistence that he’s a defensive right back. His defensive performance last Saturday however was poor. With Lass injured, Coentrao is uncomfortable there while the Ramos + Pepe partnership in the middle is best left undisturbed, I fear the prospect of facing Bayern Munich, whose attacking power comes from the flanks.

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Mourinho appears to have no choice but to go with Arbeloa at RB to face Ribery on Wednesday. Sending Khedira / Xabi Alonso to support him when in danger will only give space for the dangerous Muller to do his thing while getting Pepe or Ramos to help him on the other hand will give the powerful Mario Gomez to do his. On the other flank, Mourinho will then have to decide whether he will play the more defensively-sound Coentrao to face Robben (who will not bother to track back even with Ronaldo’s presence on his flank) or go with Marcelo to multiply our effectiveness in attack as Ronaldo’s sidekick. Jupp Heynckes (Bayern’s coach who won a CL as our coach) also has another ace in his sleeve with Philip Lahm, who combines attacking potency and defensive discipline and can play on either flank (where Henckeyes can place him where he finds suitable to counter our attacks from the flanks). I do not mind conceding an attacking advantage to an opponent on the flank if we are defensively solid: on his current form however, Alvaro Arbeloa is the reason I can’t sleep at night these days – his positioning, ball-winning, concentration and passing all need drastic improvements.

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Encouraging Sign #1 – The ‘3^rd Pivot’

In the absence of Alonso last Saturday, Mourinho built in a couple of ‘coping mechanisms’ – the most notable of which was Sergio Ramos. In a reverse of what Barcelona does (where Busquets drops off to become a 3^rd CB), Ramos last Saturday frequently stepped forward higher than the Madrid defensive line to become a ‘3^rd Pivot’. In the many instances Sahin seemed to now know where the next pass was to go, he gave it to Sergio Ramos who many times knew where to send the ball to. It was his long ball to Pipita that made it 1-1 – a pass that I find startlingly similar to those long balls Hierro would pump from deep towards the left flank for Roberto Carlos to meet. Ramos will probably finish his career as Real Madrid’s infamous all time leader in yellow cards, red cards and sending offs, I will also remember him however as the raw, physical and technical defensive marvel who has polished his game considerably since joining us: improving passing vision as well has his temper and his poise – qualities that are all becoming of a Real Madrid captain.

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Encouraging Sign #2 – Gambling Successfully with a Single Pivot

I was happy to see Mourinho say ‘Fuck it, let’s win this bloody game NOW’ at halftime: abandoning the safety of playing with 2 midfield pivots and converting his 4-2-3-1 into a diamond 4-4-2 (with Khedira as the lone pivot) to conduct a full-scale siege on Juan Pablo’s goal until that crucial winner was scored. With Marcelo joining the attack and Ramos pushing forward as well to continue his role as the other pivot, there were instances where only Pepe and Arbeloa were left manning the backline. Khedira’s hyper-active all-action game was critical to all of this. The German tank recovered balls, made tackles, made himself available for his teammates in need of a passing outlet and ran his socks off: he was the engine behind our siege. There is not a single player I can think of at the moment who can match Khedira’s abilities as a midfield ‘utility man’ – he may be gangly, awkward and difficult to watch aesthetically: but boy is he effective.

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We’ve often heard and read the irritating debates of about who should have played / started because this and that quality that player X has is more suitable against team Y and so forth. This is due to the limited number of ‘attacking slots’ available on the pitch for Madrid where we have room for Ronaldo + 3 others in attack. Mourinho’s decision to roll the dice allowed the team to enjoy Pipita’s presence in the box, Benzema’s link up play in the final 3^rd, Ozil’s vision and Di Maria’s unpredictability to combine with Ronaldo. Simply put, it was too much for Sporting to handle. And just as predictable was that when Rui Faria and Aitor Karanka were going nuts to celebrate the 2-1, Mourinho’s first reaction is for Granero to ‘get his ass in there’ for Pipita to allow us to revert to the safer 4-2-3-1. He only truly celebrated when Benzema made it 3-1. Once again the trivote strikes down a La Liga foe.

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Encouraging Sign #3 – Ronaldo: from Wallpaper to Pillar

“I have the illusion that we are going to win. It doesn’t cross my mind that we are not going to win the championship.” Ronaldo now understands the mentality he must have to deserve that badge on his shirt.

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Ronaldo spent the first part of his Manchester United career as a show pony. The next part of his Man U career would be as wallpaper for the team: where his goals, stepovers and show tricks became merely the cherry on the sundae: the real stuff of the team however was the Alex Ferguson-bred core: the Nevilles, Giggses, Scholeses, Van Der Sars and Vidics. It was the core of that Man U team that led them to victories and titles and served as the platform for the young + flamboyant Ronaldo and the young + fiery Rooney to thrive. What is left of that Man U core is the reason why they are 5 points ahead of City in England despite the petro-dollars and the Abramovich-style player-shopping sprees of their neighbors. This explains why Ronaldo has been often perceived to be a big-game choker and cry baby.

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Today however, at 27 years of age, as the most expensive player in the history of the game for the richest club in the world, Ronaldo seems to be showing signs that he is no longer merely the wallpaper but one of the pillars on the team – that go-to guy who will deliver the goods when things have gotten awry… the guy who will find a way to get the goal the team needs, the guy who shows through his play to his team mates ‘come on, let’s keep going – we can win this… or rather, we WILL win this.’ His team mates seem to be responding too: from their spiteful and unproductive whinging after conceding a late goal vs. Villarreal (where Ronaldo tried to win the game on his own as his teammates gave up in the dyng minutes) to our fightbacks in tough circumstances against Atleti and Sporting… Ronaldo has transitioned from being merely the team’s most potent offensive threat to the team’s rallying point. Ronaldo’s clutch performances for his team and his mentality are bringing his teammates to think that they will become champions not because they’re the better team – but that they will become champions, full stop: no ifs, buts, despite or because. And at this point in time during the season, there is nothing better than your team having its best player transmit this mentality and attitude to the entire team.

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Heart Attack Week Awaits

The true test comes this week. First we face ze Germans (Bavarians), then the Catalans then the Germans again. In one week, we face our 2 bitterest rivals in Europe and inSpain. Many have rightly pointed out that we’ve had a pretty easy ride getting to the Champions League Semi-finals – well, now the increase in the quality of the opposition has just gone up very steeply. The tools are all in our hands: there are no key injuries, no suspensions and so far, not even any referee issues (I consider both Howard Webb and Undiano Mallenco for the first leg of CL and El Clasico respectively to be good referees) to whine about. Winning or Losing will be all on our men’s shoulders.

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Let’s take it one game at a time though… starting withMunichon Wednesday. Hopefully, we can enjoy ourselves enough out there to be able to hang around till the final.

Quelle

bearbeitet 17. April 2012 von Billie

[RoNeX]

Was gestern nicht gut war war das viele rotieren, am Anfang als man die Positionen gehalten hat konnte man Druck aufbauen, danach hat man alles verschoben und Benzema war iwo und nicht in der Mitte, Özil iwo auf rechts usw.

zweite Hälfte hat man dann wieder mit der grundformation gespielt und war wieder besser im Spiel, danach aber wieder umgestellt und nix ging mehr.

[Billie]

Was gestern nicht gut war war das viele rotieren, am Anfang als man die Positionen gehalten hat konnte man Druck aufbauen, danach hat man alles verschoben und Benzema war iwo und nicht in der Mitte, Özil iwo auf rechts usw.

zweite Hälfte hat man dann wieder mit der grundformation gespielt und war wieder besser im Spiel, danach aber wieder umgestellt und nix ging mehr.

Mourinho hat das alles vercoacht. Wer kommt bitte auf die Idee, Di María in die Mitte zu ziehen und einen lustlosen und maroden Özil ins RM zu stellen? Lachhaft. Sollten gegen Barcelona ähnlich auftreten, werden wir mit +3 aus dem Camp Nou geschossen, darauf leg' ich mich fest. Chelsea hat heute vorgezeigt, wie man gegen die Katalanen (bzw. gegen Guardiola ) gewinnen kann. Mal sehen, welches Rezept Mourinho finden wird.

[Calleti]

Gehört mMn noch immer in diesen channel

Raul verlässt den FC Schalke 04 am Saisonende

Eine nicht nur für die Königsblauen, sondern auch für die gesamte Bundesliga bedeutsame Entscheidung ist gefallen: Raul wird den FC Schalke 04 verlassen. Der Vertrag des 34-jährigen Offensivspielers läuft zum Ende der Saison 2011/12 aus. Seine Beweggründe, seine Überlegungen zu Plänen für die Zukunft und seine Wünsche für die verbleibenden drei Spiele der Saison möchte der dreifache Champions-League-Sieger der Öffentlichkeit zeitnah erläutern. Raul war im Sommer 2010 von Real Madrid zum FC Schalke 04 gewechselt. Mit den Königsblauen hatte Raul in der vergangenen Saison den DFB-Pokal durch ein 5:0 im Endspiel gegen den MSV Duisburg gewonnen. Die Basis dafür hatte ein 1:0-Erfolg im Halbfinale beim Favoriten Bayern München gelegt Torschütze des Siegtores damals: Raul. Zudem erreichten die Königsblauen das Halbfinale der Champions League. Mit fünf Toren hatte Raul auch daran einen großen Anteil. Mit nunmehr 71 Toren ist er damit erfolgreichster Torjäger aller Zeiten in der europäischen Königsklasse. In der Bundesliga erzielte Raul in 63 Spielen 27 Tore. Bei den „Königlichen“ gewann Raul zwischen 1992 und 2010 drei Mal die Champions League (1998, 2000, 2002) und wurde sechs Mal spanischer Fußballmeister (1995, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2008). Dazu kamen zwei Weltpokalsiege (1998, 2002). In insgesamt 741 Pflichtspielen erzielte der Stürmer stolze 323 Tore und ist damit bester Torschütze der Vereinsgeschichte Rea Madrids. Darüber hinaus nahm Raul, der 102 Länderspiele (44 Tore) für Spanien absolvierte, an drei Weltmeisterschaften (1998, 2002, 2006) und zwei Europameisterschaften (2000, 2004) teil. Er wurde fünf Mal zu Spaniens Fußballer des Jahres (1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002)

http://www.schalke04.de/aktuell/news/einzelansicht/artikel/raul-verlaesst-den-fc-schalke-04-am-saisonende.html

Living legend

[Moldi]

Raul <3

Mein Hauptgrund als kleiner Bub Real Fan zu werden...

Hat es nicht geheissen das er nach Karriereende einen Posten bei uns bekommt??

[RoNeX]

Raul <3

Mein Hauptgrund als kleiner Bub Real Fan zu werden...

Hat es nicht geheissen das er nach Karriereende einen Posten bei uns bekommt??

wahrscheinlich geht er nach Dubai oder USA paar Jahre spielen.

[Calleti]

Ja, er beendet ja (voraussichtlich) seine karriere noch nicht. Aber danach kommt er sicher wieder zurück nach hause.

Von mir aus könnt er sogar jetzt noch aktiv bei uns spielen, er ist einfach ein genialer kicker. Heute wie damals. Raúl Raúl Raúl - Blanco para siempre

[Moldi]

Würde ihn auch gerne noch einmal im Real Dress sehen..

Dazu wird es aber ziemlich sicher nicht mehr kommen!

Naja egal ,hauptsache er kommt irgendwann wieder nach Hause

bearbeitet 19. April 2012 von Moldi_1902

[Billie]

http://www.realmadridfootballblog.com/2012/04/bayern-munich-2-real-madrid-1-no-pasa-nada-but/

Bayern Munich 2 Real Madrid 1 … No pasa nada, but…

For the second year in a row, Real Madrid found themselves in the semi finals of the Champions League, only this time, instead of Barcelona, our European nemesis were in our path. Labelled ‘La Bestia Negra’ which means ‘The Black Beast’, Bayern Munich have always been a tough opponent for us, one with whom we share a fierce rivalry as Corey mentioned in his preview. The odds were against us historically. Not only were Bayern a bit of historical bogey team, but our record in Germany is also one we don’t really want to look at too often. And last night, not much changed.

Thanks to the performance from the team yesterday, you will not only get one, but two reviews. Madridista Mac and I will both give you our thoughts, in one article. Gotta love RMFB’s flexibility, right? Anyway, getting back to the match, it was a game of three parts.

To start with, the lineups from both teams offered little surprise. Real chose to go in with Coentrao at left back, in an otherwise familiar looking defence. Midfield was composed of Xabi Alonso and Khedira shielding our attacking trio of Cristiano, Ozil and Di Maria, and the front line was led by Benzema. For Bayern, Neuer was in goal, and in front of him Lahm, Badstuber, Boateng, and young Alaba who many thought was a bit green for the game. Schweinsteiger was deemed fit to play, and sat alongside Brazilian Luis Gustavo. Mueller was dropped for the in form Kroos, who in my opinion was the man of the match. A familiar looking front trio of Ribery, Robben and Gomez lined up as expected. It looks like a straight forward 4-2-3-1 against another 4-2-3-1, but as we would all see, that was just on paper. For some strange reason, Mourinho chose to mix the creative three, Ozil started out on the right, and Di Maria in the hole. Truth be told, it was a weird decision, and one that would cost us big in terms of asserting control. The decision of playing Kroos instead of Muller further amplified the effect. As it is, Bayern would have the advantage of having good holding men in Bastian as well as Kroos, and to make matters worse you had a fragile winger playing in the centre for us. Real Madrid never got into control in the match because of precisely this. Occasionally Ozil came back to the centre, and you could see the effect right away. The midfield served its purpose as a link between defence and attack, but for the most part of the game, due to the mentioned double whammy, our attacks did not have any shape or purpose. The system was just plain wrong, and cost us in terms of who controlled the match.

Madridista Mac notes - It’s difficult, but somehow inevitable for me to hear the sentiments on one of Barca’s most dislikable players(Dani Alves) re: Chelsea (that they played with fear) when I think about how we played last night’s match vs. Bayern Munich.

Real Madrid started the match shaky and half-asleep and eventually conceded a goal – a clear concentration error on the part of Ramos who should know better than to allow a pack of Bayern players a snuff of the ball in the box. Corey was spot on with his predicted formation (except for Tymoshuk) where we saw Schweinstieger in a pivot role with Kroos playing as their ‘10’. It was a straight forward 4-2-3-1 vs. 4-2-3-1 battle which in my opinion favored us. The ‘Fear Factor’ Dani Alves was talking about comes in (in my opinion) when Mourinho asks Di Maria to switch places with Ozil in playing the ‘10’ role.

Stage 1: Mangling our Usual Formation and looking like incoherent drunks while doing so - Zonal Marking’s Michael Cox reasons that the switch was to give us a more active pair of legs to press and close the spaces in the midfield battle (where Kroos had no qualms dropping deep to help Schweini and Gustavo to leave Ozil behind). The move however, blunted our attack immensely. Once Real Madrid won the ball back, Di Maria’s natural winger instincts had him trying to attempt to dribble through 2 lines of CMs and CBs unsuccessfully many times - rather than make a pass as a real '10' would. In my opinion, our poor and incoherent and unstructured first half was down to this: a winger playing the ‘10’ and a ‘10’ playing as a winger. I know for a fact that Mourinho is a coach who will err on the side of caution: and this move last night was in my opinion a case of over-cautiousness being a bigger error.

Ramos’ mistake, one that a lot of personnel in our defence make often – not clearing the ball when needed, led to the first goal, at a time when I can confidently say that no team had left their imprint on the match. To start the match, Bayern seemed the more cautious team, going by body language. But with the tactical superiority, as well as the comfort of the first goal, they started to get more and more in to the game. More chances were created. Kroos’ holding up ability, coupled with the fact that Ribery, for a change decided to show up in a big game, was a big reason for a period of dominance of the Bavarians. At half-time Mourinho knew things had to be shaken up, which meant reverting to normal, from an unnecessary shake up, if that makes sense. The effect was immediate. Not too much later, we created a golden chance where Benzema played a brilliant through ball for Ronaldo who had an easy one on one against Neuer. Ronaldo missed the chance, but the rebound fell to Ozil, who played it out to Benzema who pulled several defenders to him, and crossed it wide to Ronaldo, who only had to tap it back in for Ozil to guide the ball in to the net. Bayern’s confidence level dropped a bit, and apart from the occasional chance here and there, it was a stalemate for a while.

Madridista Mac adds - Stage 2: Playing OUR game and scoring and putting them on the backfoot while doing so - In the second half, Mourinho allowed our 4-2-3-1 to go toe-to-toe with their 4-2-3-1: Ozil duly got the ball in his comfort zone areas and distributed in forward to create not only attacking chances for us, but also give Xabi Alonso a passing outlet to create much needed space and establish rhythm in our play. The result was there for all to see in our equalizer and I was thoroughly convinced that a second goal from us would come. At that point, I was telling myself ‘finally we can show them how we REALLY play!’… err… that was till Mourinho shunted Ozil to the left wing with Ronaldo and Benzema in the ‘9’ and ‘10’ position respectively and eventually sent in Marcelo to play on the left, sending Ronaldo to the right and Di Maria once again as the 10.

Yep, in came the changes. I understand the philosophy of it. You are playing a good team away from home, and you’ve just nicked the all important away goal and the score stands at 1-1 which is a brilliant score to take back to the Bernabeu. The logical thing, Mourinho thought, was to sit back and play out the rest of the minutes. Only, there were several flaws with this. First of all, that rule cannot be applied blindly. Its all very circumstantial. As mentioned above, we only just managed to regain control of the match, or at the very least did not let the settling of Bayern continue. After the goal, it would in fact be a step back trying to give them back that control and play to their strengths. Secondly, this is Real Madrid, a team that Mourinho has know for the last couple of years, and has known fully well that we are truly incapable of parking the bus and playing out a safe scoreline. The thing that makes this team so dangerous is the constant movement, constant attacking, constant mismatches created, and things of the same ilk. But to ask them to maintain a shape, knowing their volatile state should things go wrong, was a really bad move. The substitutions that followed were negative. Marcelo came on for Ozil, in a move that had a good intention, to keep the left wing in check, but at what cost? The only link in the midfield was gone, and with it, control of the game. Granero was put in later for Di Maria, but meanwhile Marcelo switched over to the right wing in a bizarre move. Higuain was brought on for Benzema, which was again a pretty daft move. Why bring on a striker if you have no intention of scoring a goal? Wouldn’t it make more sense to bring a midfielder so as to keep the ball, and accordingly, the scoreline? As Bassam mentioned on social networks last night, quite simply put, if you are looking to defend and do nothing for 20 full minutes, you will concede. And that is exactly what happened. Gomez grabbed a late winner after a flurry of chances.

Madridista Mac echoes similar thoughts - Stage 3: Giving up our advantage in the match and eventually in the tie - By then, the match had become what looked to me like a full-tilt 4-4-2 vs. 4-4-2 (or 4-4-1-1 if you like) with Muller (a natural Forward) having come on for Schweinstieger (geez! I hate typing his name it’s so bloody difficult!), sending Kroos to the middle with Gustavo. At this point, IF we had retained our 4-2-3-1 with Ozil in the middle, we would have had a 3 vs. 2 advantage in the middle and could have punished them for another goal or even more. Instead, what usually happens in a full-tilt 4-4-2 vs. 4-4-2 battle took place: a battle on the flanks. Ronaldo was on the Right with Arbeloa against Ribery and the more conservative Alaba. While on the other wing, it was Marcelo (whose defensively inadequate and is only fully effective on attack with a ‘running mate’) and Coentrao vs. Robben and Lahm – and it didn’t take long before our left flank, our usually most dangerous point of attack, capitulated. As the game neared the end, Mario Gomez (whose size makes Ramos look like his kid brother) began to get touches of the ball from deliveries into the box: a flick and poke here, a header there and so on… I tweeted that Real Madrid should stop allowing this because soon enough one of those touches will become a goal. And true enough, he scores with the back of his left knee. It was almost 5am and I there I was wiping my living room floor with my broken heart.

Fearing Fear - The circumstances involving this match and the coming clasico have a similarity: that Mourinho only needs to play for a draw. He would have been very happy to play the 2^nd leg against Bayern with a 1-1 scoreline while a draw this weekend maintains our 4-point La Liga advantage. Last season, in the CDR final, there was no draw to play for – so we played to win and won. Last January, after losing the first leg of the CDR at home, we went to the Camp Nou, played OUR game (i.e. attack) with no fear and almost won. Now I do not fear facing Barca, I fear facing them needing only a draw. No need to fear Xavi, Iniesta, Alves, Alexis or Messi – the only thing to fear is fear itself.

Great point regarding fear isn’t it? We’ve often showed that we are incapable of playing for safety, and occasionally also shown that when we are desperate for a result, and do not have this intention, like Camp Nou on two occasions this season, we have played rather well.

What Mac and I have tried to put in words, this picture posts so succinctly. Simply put, the same old devil showed up again, and we quite simply don’t learn.

This is already a lengthy post, but what’s a review without personal ratings? Especially in a loss?

Casillas – I tried an internet shutdown during the match because knee jerk reactions have been annoying as hell recently, but I could only manage it during the match, the after effects were terrible. A sizable bunch of folks decided to put the blame of the second goal on our captain, and I will never get tired of defending San Iker. He had a semi blocked vision, and typically, in such short spaces, and I am no football pro, but I believe you let the defender clear. Yes, he could have done better, but if we’re pointing fingers there are at least two others I can think of, but no good will come of that, correction is always better than blaming. As always, San Iker made a couple of good saves, and honestly, it was great to see two of the top three keepers in the world put on a show.

Arbeloa – The guy has been getting more flack than he deserves. Make no mistake, he isn’t a bad defender, but at 29, he simply can’t handle two games a week without cover, and that’s what is letting him down. Last night, he was quite good. To the best of his abilities, he did well to limit an in the zone Ribery, and that’s pretty significant.

Pepe – I don’t often have good words for Pepe, but he was excellent. Apart from the occasional hoofing of the ball, Pepe had good positioning, good imposing skills, even played the ball out of defence well most times. Great job by our resident Mortal Kombat character.

Ramos – A rather poor game from our vice captain, contrary to his defensive partner. Always a step behind the attackers, he clearly didn’t have the best of nights. Almost conceded a penalty, failed to clear the ball resulting in the first goal, and even made a pretty cynical tackle towards the end. Yes, defenders can have bad days, but our torero should at least try to limit damage by controlling his temper.

Coentrao – I don’t want to end up too harsh on him, because if I start, I’m afraid I can go on and on. I’ll just say this – For a guy who was going to wear the mantle of the ‘defensive left back’ last night, and one who cost 30 million at that, he was just awful. I’d say he has been that way for the most part of the season, but I’d rather wait and see after a couple of days whether it was a kneejerk reaction or not.

Xabi – The system was wrong, the metronome is affected, the team will obviously suffer. Xabi has been in a pretty poor run of form of late, and it has been evident. Is he tired? Is he just aging? Or have opponents really figured us out? Whatever it is, it hurts us badly, and it is no secret that he is they key to the functioning of our team and without him at the best level, we can look pretty ordinary.

Khedira – Brilliant performance by the German. If there has to be a man of the match nomination from our side, it has to be Khedira. A typical workman like performance, with key interceptions, intelligent build up plays, and an overall great central midfield performance. He did a lot in trying to bridge that gap between defence and attack but there’s only so much a player of limited technical skills like him can do.

Ozil – A game of two halves for our 10. Whenever employed in the centre, he was really effective and when on the right, not so much. Not his fault per se, but more of the system. Nice composure in the play leading up to the goal, and the finish itself. His substitution was a clear sign of saving him up for Clasico and the return leg, and if RM’s attack is to have potency he will play a key role.

Di Maria – A rather poor game from the Argentine. Out of position for the most part of the game, and quite selfish for the remainder, Di Maria has a knack of being frustrating. He also has a knack to be the difference maker, but we simply haven’t seen this side of Angel ever since he returned from injury. One really frustrating aspect of his game is to constantly look for fouls rather than just continue the attack. How that is beneficial, I do not know. Ribery was doing a lot of that for the opponents as well and its just a shameful aspect of football.

Cristiano – A so-so night for our talisman. Partly at fault for not tracking back, enough and fully out of control in terms of effectiveness due to Coentrao’s lack of the same, Cristiano could not leave the impression he would have liked to on the game. Whenever he did take on Lahm he did end up winning most duels but as mentioned, he just didn’t have enough opportunities due to Coentrao’s poor game. Thankfully his sitter of a miss didn’t end up hurting us, but Cristiano will know he needs to carry the team through these next two very crucial matches.

Benzema – Not too bad a performance from our number 9. Did the right things on most occasions, and was important in the build up of our only away goal. He would have liked to get more chances, but due to flawed tactics that wasn’t to be. He can expect to get almost a full game’s rest before taking the field again for the return leg.

Marcelo – I am not sure what his role was tactically, but there wasn’t enough time or enough control by us to rate his performance. One thing for sure though, is that his attitude is getting worse as time passes. He was lucky to have not received a red card for his woeful challenge on Muller. The logical thing when you are down 2-1 is to go forward and try to get a goal. Losing your cool and making silly lunges is not the way to go. We must learn to think, and think aptly during situations.

Higuain and Graenro – Not enough time or impact to rate.

Mourinho – Tactics, substitutions, behaviour, broken record like pressers, at the risk of being labelled many bad things, I can say that, better is expected from the self proclaimed best coach in the world.

Getting an outer perspective of things, a 2-1 is not the worst result to take back, in fact, most teams would still feel comfortable with this scoreline and having to play the second leg at home. Bayern played a fantastic match, with a pragmatic approach, and reaped dividends for it. Kroos and Ribery’s performances in particular stand out. The key takeaway for us is that its not irreparable damage like against say, Barcelona. There are learnings, and if we apply what we learn well into the second leg, we should find ourselves winning the tie. But if we don’t, and history says we typically don’t, we shouldn’t be surprised if we get knocked out. Bayern is a good team, one I consider at par, or just slightly below us on paper. But matches are not won on paper, but on the field. It all depends on the second leg, if we study and make amends we would have deservedly beaten a good rival, and if we don’t we would have been beaten by a worthy rival. Going out in the semifinals is not a bad achievement, if we give it our best shot. If we don’t, we have to look at it as a failure of not making the most of a potentially world beating squad. As the great Juanito said, 90 minutes in the Bernabeu are really long. Only this time, it will be long for us as well. Overcome our shortcomings, overcome a brilliant rival, and we will have truly deserved our place in the final. On to the Clasico for now. Hala Madrid.

[Jordi]

Euer neuer "Head of new Media" Pedro Duarte ist schon nach kurzem Gastspiel und großer Empörung mit Pauken und Trompeten zurückgetreten. Nachdem er gefordert hat die Führer der Gewerkschaft einzeln, einen nach dem anderen an die Wand zu stellen und zu erschießen, dass der 3. Weltkrieg die "Dinge" endllch bereinigen soll, dass er nicht an Streiks glaubt sondern nur an Krieg, dass Pique und Shakira Abschaum sind und der König mit seinem Botswana Ausflug doch nur für die Hungernden in Spanien Sorge wollte ist innerhalb weniger Stunden so ein Sturm losgebrochen dass der Kasper seinen Job schon wieder los ist.

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bearbeitet 20. April 2012 von Jordi

[Billie]

Was für ein Trottel...

[rahzel]

In letzter Zeit häufen sich die Gerüchte, dass Mourinho bleiben wird. Anscheinend kriegen alle seine Mitarbeiter eine Gehaltserhöhung, er plant schon für die Vorbereitungen im Sommer und führt schon Transfergespräche.

[revo]

In letzter Zeit häufen sich die Gerüchte, dass Mourinho bleiben wird. Anscheinend kriegen alle seine Mitarbeiter eine Gehaltserhöhung, er plant schon für die Vorbereitungen im Sommer und führt schon Transfergespräche.

War gestern in El Mundo, Marca hatte es auch übernommen.