Archive for the ‘Real Madrid’ Category

La Liga shaping up brilliantly

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

Catalans Vs Blavers


First up, the grandslam began in La Liga with Barcelona playing Valencia at the Mestalla on saturday night. A great game it was and Barca took the lead with a brilliant one-two between Messi and Iniesta. The game was taut with Barca hogging posession and Valencia launching lightning counters with what Guardiola called the fantastic front four: Villa,Silva,Mata and Pablo Hernandez. Valencia equalised through Maduro’s header after a blunder by Valdes a trifle short of HT and went up 2-1 after a brilliant link up between Pablo and Mata just before HT. The 2nd half saw Valencia sitting pretty at the back with the lead and Barca attacking again and again.The equaliser finally came from the 2nd half substitute Theirry Henry in the 85th minute. It was 2 points dropped and one point won at the Mestalla after a difficult game for Barcelona but they would be happy with the point as the post match comments of Guardiola suggested.

Raul,Uno,Dos,Tres

Madrid took on the Andalusians Sevilla at the Sanchez Pizjuan looking to score a win and cut down Barca’s lead to 4 points. Sevilla started using their wings pretty well and with a packed up 4-5-1 with Kanoute leading the attack. Perotti constantly troubled Sergio Ramos and Sevilla took the lead in the 16th minute through a fine header by Renato. Real Madrid sat back allowing Sevilla to attack and looking for the elusive counter attack. They managed to equalise just before HT through Raul who latched onto a Metzelder pass into the box with a characteristic poacher’s finish. Raul continued to show his maturity and talent and scored twice and thrice in the 2nd half to give Real Madrid an unassailable 3-1 lead within 65 minutes. Sevilla kept attacking and managed to pull one goal back through 2nd half substitute Diego Capel but that wasn’t enough to win them any points as Marcelo scored a late 4th goal to seal a win for Madrid.

This makes next week’s El Clasico a great match up with Real Madrid looking to win to cut Barca’s lead down to one point. Barca on the other hand will have one eye on the midweek CL semis against Chelsea in what seems to be a heart attack week for the Catalans and a mouth watering one for the neutrals.

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Posted in Barcelona, Real Madrid, Spanish Football | No Comments »

How Pepe lost his head

Sunday, April 26th, 2009

First of, let us get to the game at the Santiago Bernabaeu, a heated encounter between the bourgeouis darling Real Madrid CF and the blue collar suburbs,Getafe. Getafe being almost a feeder club of Real as Valladolid used to be in the past played with all the valour and physical effort. Higuain opened the scoring for the Merengues just before half time. Getafe played with a lot of heart after the break and managed to put two goals and take the lead in the Tie. Then started the great show.

In the 84th minute Pepe the tall Madrid defender of Brazilian roots lashed out at Getafe Skipper Casquero after the latter won a penalty after a push by Pepe. Pepe lost his head big time and started a fight with the players which included kicking Casquero twice and punching Albin in the face and also swearing at the assistant referee while being sent off.Then amidst all the chaos Iker Casillas stopped the penalty which was a stupid lob and Real Madrid scored twice in 10 mins to take home a great win which put them -3 with the league leaders Barcelona. Pepe meanwhile lost his head again after being sent off by running back onto the pitch to celebrate Higuain’s winner.In one of the biggest abuse of professional standards, Pepe Le Phew landed himself in hot soup and got himself a 10 match ban,which i find to be very minimal considering the history of punishments accorded for such violent incidents in the past. Even that fight between Diogo and Fabiano got a 6 match ban. Real Madrid get to pull some strings as always and get away with it.

Barcelona hammer Sevilla

Then Barcelona took on Sevilla at the Nou Camp and what followed was a total demolishment of a very good Sevilla side missing Palop and left winger Adriano.INiesta was the star of the show as he opened the scoring for Barca with a neat long range shot and followed it up with assists for the other three goals.The little man from Albacete ran the show running circles around the Sevilla defence and Barca quelled the Sevilla challenge running winners with a 4-0. Etoo,Xavi and Henry being the other scorers.

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Liverpool Hammer Real Madrid

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

liverpool.jpg

  On Tuesday night, Liverpool smacked seven shades of shit out of Real Madrid. Yep, Real Madrid. The 4-0 result (5-0 on aggregate) will reverberate around Europe, possibly even more so than Bayern Munich’s 7-1 massacre of a hapless Sporting Lisbon. Fernando Torres scored his first goal of the Champions League this season with a close range finish from Dirk Kuyt’s dragback, making sure that the visiting Madrelinos were well aware of who had drawn first blood in the second leg of this Last 16 tie. Steven Gerrard, appearing in his 100th Champions League game for Liverpool, scored the second from the penatly spot, after the referee and his assistant had wrongly adjudged Gabriel Heinze to have handled the ball in his own box. The third goal also came from Gerrard’s boot – a superlative finish to round off a move which he had started near the penalty spot. His first-time half-volley from Ryan Babel’s cross crashed into the back of the net, leaving iker Casillas with no chance at all. When Andrea Dossena side-footed into the net in the 88th minute to make it four (read that: four!) nil, the Spanish number one was reduced to tears of frustration.

This was Madrid’s heaviest defeat in European competition since 1989, when the Milan side of Arrigo Sacchi thwacked them 5-0. Tonight could have been far, far worse had it not been for Casillas’ heroics. Rafael Benitez must take much of the credit, showing his former employers exactly what they were missing. Whether Liverpool can go all the way to European glory under this much-maligned genius remains to be seen, but for now Liverpool fans all over the world will be basking in the warm afterglow of a superlative performance.

Man of the Match: Javier Macherano – Provided the assist for Dossena’s goal. His relentless running ensured that Madrid never had time to pause and catch their breath, while his tackling was exceptional

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Posted in Champions League, Football, Liverpool, Real Madrid | No Comments »

The Rabbit joins Real Madrid

Wednesday, July 11th, 2007
saviola pic.jpg

Transfers between Real Madrid and Barcelona usually create a lot of buzz. Figo , Luis Enrique and Laudrup earned their media’s hall of fame for defecting to the enemy. But the latest to join that line hasn’t received the same amount of publicity. Javier Saviola, the ex argentine sensation has agreed to join Real Madrid after his contract at Barcelona had expired. Much like Luis Enrique and Laudrup, the club had little to do as it was the player’s prerogative to leave the club after his contract had expired. Barcelona didn’t feel like Saviola had met their expectations after the 20 million pounds they spent on him a few years ago and they thought he was fungible. A notion that I won’t reject.

As a 20 year old, Saviola showed great potential leading the Argies to the title in the 2001 Youth World Cup . But after that it has been the case of unfulfilled promises on the part of the Argentine. He was loaned out for two seasons in his 6 years as a Barca player and it was clear that he would be getting his wish of a big payday after rejecting a transfer to Sevilla at the end of the last season. As a free agent, he could move to any club with increased incentives, since the club wouldn’t need to shell out on the transfer fee. Moves to the English Premier league were mooted but none with the pedigree of Real Madrid. What is interesting is whether this transfer by Calderon has sporting implications or if its just a psychological jab at their rivals. It is very unlikely that new Manager Schuster would use him in the starting line up. He is a substitute at best.

Calderon meanwhile has turned his attention to Cesc Fabregas of Arsenal after Milan had spurned his advances for Kaka. It does look like Calderon isn’t half as savvy as his predecessor, Florentino Perez who was an absolute whiz in the transfer market. Calderon did win his election on the back of promises to sign Kaka, Cesc and Robben- three of whom have not shown the slightest intention of joining Real Madrid anytime soon. Madrid were once the leaders of the transfer market and need a Big money signing (Robben doesn’t qualify as he is surplus to requirements at Chelsea) to satisfy fans who were spoilt by Perez’s excesses.

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Posted in Barcelona, Real Madrid | No Comments »

Schuster takes over at Madrid

Monday, July 9th, 2007
schuster.jpg

The second most tedious transfer saga of the summer has finally come to an end. After Manchester United’s signing of Owen Hargreaves, the whole ‘Schuster to Madrid’ story was being dragged endlessly. And thankfully we were spared another month of gossip and needless speculation, when Schuster was announced as the new manager of Real Madrid. Schuster is the seventh manager to be in charge of the los merengues in seven years!

Schuster comes to Madrid on the back of two successful seasons with Getafe, who he led to back to back ninth place finishes in the league. He comes to the team, with the twin tasks of winning titles and at the same time entertaining the Bernabeu. It is certainly going to be very interesting times in Madrid next season.

And Schuster’s first target? Cesc Fabregas! Whether, the young midfielder will make the move to Spain remains to be seen. I get the feeling that Fabregas wont make the move considering the amount of respect he has for the ability of Arsene Wenger. Arsenal fans will be hoping for some words of reassurance from either Fabregas or Wenger.

Good luck mate, you need it, considering you are replacing a manager who just won the league!

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Posted in Real Madrid, Spanish Football | 1 Comment »