Heynckes’ Cool Aid in the German Forest (Bayern Munich 4 – Barcelona 0)

It may look as simple as players covering their equivalents while on defense, but to have Robben and Ribery effectively negate the impacts of Alves and Alba is a remarkable sacrifice for the 2 attacking players and accomplishment for Heynckes to successfully implement. With Bayern's fullbacks covering Alexis + Pedro and Martinez + Schweinsteiger imposing themselves on Xavi + Iniesta - the partially-fit Messi was effectively lost and trapped in the 'German Forest'

It’s been a long time since I’ve written anything, so I suppose I will be excused for not writing about Real Madrid right now. Call it a ‘warm up’ I guess for tonight’s game, but here are some thoughts on what I saw last night during the first semi-final between Bayern and Barca.

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What a performance by Bayern Munich! Real Madrid have indeed shown repeatedly this season that we already have the ‘formula’ to beat Barca. Last night, Bayern took that formula and multiplied the dose 10x.

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The match kicked off at 2:45am Singapore time but I was so zonked out from the office yesterday I had forgotten to set my alarm clock. I ‘instinctively’ woke up at 3:05am, cursed myself for forgetting to set the alarm and rushed out to the Living Room to catch the match. I opened the TV to see a dead silent Allianz Arena watching Barca keep possession, pinging the ball about, looking for their openings.

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The German Forest

Messi played his usual ‘false 9’ role, sandwiched between Bayern’s 4 hulks: CBs Dante and Boateng + DMs Schweinsteiger and Martinez. Was Messi going to get lost in this ‘German Forest of Hulks’? Or was he going to get the ball in a sweet spot and slalom his way through these 4 supposedly slow-footed giants?

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The relevant question however was: how was he going to get the ball in the first place? Schweinsteiger and Martinez were superb in forcing Iniesta and Xavi’s passes diagonally to Alves / Alba / Pedro / Sanchez, who suffered the same problem of penetrating the ‘German Forest’. Heynckes’ 2 holding midfield bulldogs kept away passes both vertical (from Iniesta / Xavi) and horizontal (from the flanks) from reaching Messi. Messi’s lack of mobility made things even worse for Barca.

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Heynckes’ Cool Aid

The success of keeping Messi lost in the ‘German Forest’ is cannot be accredited simply down to Bayern’s 2 hulking pivots (Schweini + Martinez), CBs and fullbacks (who thwarted the threat of Pedro and the useless Alexis)… credit must also be given to Arjen Robben and Frank Ribery for putting in impressive shifts to track Barca’s fullbacks. Both are famous for being allergic to defensive duties – so I can only wonder what kind of magic potion / Cool Aid Jupp Heynckes has made the 2 drink to make them so willing to sacrifice and work on the defensive end.

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At 4-0, Robben was still flying out, attempting sliding tackles to intercept balls. This was not the Real Madrid Robben who stood around waiting for an outlet ball for him to dribble up and attempt an individual move (which earned him the monicker ‘the soloist’ amongst German football fans).

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Tempo + Tactics

Jupp Heynckes wasn’t lying when he openly declared that he ‘knew Barca very well’. As he had clearly anticipated, Barca not only started with their usual attempt at possession, but they also used their early domination of possession to slow the tempo of the game to take the sting off. They then planned to gather momentum with their passing maneuvers in an attempt to get Messi the ball in his ‘sweet spots’. With Martinez and Schweinsteiger physically overwhelming Xavi and Iniesta with their size and stamina, finding Messi ‘in the German Forest’ would be down to players on the flanks: it was here ‘Robbery’s’ (Robben +Ribery) willingness to run and deny passing lanes to Messi that turned Barca’s possession completely stale. And this allowed Bayern to do what we all now remember from last night’s game: to use their Strength, Size, and Speed to completely physically dominate Barcelona.

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How fitting was it that my Man of the Match was Thomas Muller? Not quick, not technically brilliant, not particularly impressive yet he was all action, all cunning, all guile, all industry. 2 goals, 1 ‘assist’ (his basketball-style ‘pick’ / screen on Alba).

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Speedy Counter attacks resulted in opportunities for corners and free kicks… and corners and free kicks allowed Bayern to dominate Barca in aerial duels to score goals. Bayern’s achievement last night was not only the product of magnificent tactics. It was also the product of tactics applied magnificently.

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Whiners, Moaners and Losers

I scoff at those who insist that Barca were hard done by the referee over their clamors re: Gomez being offside and Muller’s bodycheck on Alba for the 2^nd and 3^rd goals. They seem to forget that Pique and Xavi were both guilty of handballs in the box which merited penalties.

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And what about Jordi Alba throwing the ball at Arjen Robben’s face and earning himself a yellow to rule him out of the 2^nd leg? It was to me another classless act to verify the fact that he is a loser with no regard or concern to the fact that his team are short of defenders.

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Throwing Down the Gauntlet

Last night’s performance was validation to the world that Bayern was throwing down the gauntlet to proclaim themselves the best club side in Europe. Strong in every department (attack, midfield, defense), physically powerful, technically brilliant and tactically astute: Bayern can play based on possession, based on the counter and are lethal in the air.

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If there is no collapse in the 2^nd leg, like their 2^nd leg vs. Arsenal (to allow Barca to repeat what they did to Milan) then last night, they might have also proved that they have the mentality individually and as a team, to win it all. Last night, every member of their team had their mojo on, and the collective team unit played with absolute magic.

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And what about Barca? Where did all their magic go? I can only guess that was all gone just like Pique’s hair.

The Boogie Man Cometh (Real Madrid 2 - Barcelona 1)

In our painful 2-6 loss at the Bernabeu some years back, the image of Puyol kissing his captain's armband became a lasting image of the match. Last night, Sergio Ramos erased all that.

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Another Clasico, another win. If the world had any doubts on whether Jose Mourinho or Real Madrid had figured Barcelona out, I’m now pretty sure that all those doubts have now been laid to rest. To make things worse for the cules, last night’s win wasn’t just a display that saw Real Madrid ‘repeat the formula’ of past successes. Because apart from the defense, the side that was fielded last night was essentially a second choice selection – with key players (e.g. Xabi Alonso & Ozil) rested for Tuesday’s clash at Old Trafford. Last night's match was a demonstration that Mourinho's mastery of Barcelona was so complete and so thorough that even his 'B-Side' can get to them. Before the match began, we all pretty much knew that neither team wanted to win for merely 3 points. Barca were playing for redemption and Real Madrid were playing to establish their undoubted supremacy and dominance. The post-match scenes will be remembered for Victor Valdes' furious rant at the referee that saw him get 2 yellows (i.e. a red card, for verbal abuse - which can result in a Sergio Ramos-esque 4 game ban) - what that underscores however is the meaning of the match for Real Madrid. Not only has Real Madrid finally managed to erase the psychological advantage that Barca used to have over them - but they now have in fact turned it around full circle: Real Madrid have now become Barcelona's boogie man.

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Mourinho's game plan turned out to work better than expected: the plan was to keep Barca at bay, to frustrate them and keep them contained... and then to unleash the ultimate Boogie Man (more like monster), Cristiano Ronaldo, to tear up a tired and frustrated Barcelona late in the game. Having scored the early goal delivered a massive blow to Barcelona. Messi's single moment of brilliance equalized it for Barca, yet their impotence for the rest of the match was there for all to see. And when Ronaldo stepped onto the pitch at the hour mark, someone had clearly pressed the panic button for Barcelona as they turned into a hot mess. Ronaldo didn't score despite the many close-chances he had, but his presence clearly frazzled Barcelona as their supposedly beautiful tiki-taka was used instead to mindlessly keep the ball for the sake of it - very obviously afraid that a foiled attack on the Madrid goal could lead to a fatal counterattack.

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Power in the midfield

Without his Bullyboy tactics, Pepe's strength, pace and power are amazing weapons to have in your midfield with him playing as a 'pivot' man.

A look at the listing of the starting XI would have fooled you into thinking that Mourinho had installed a Coentrao-Pepe-Varane-Ramos defensive line with Essien and Modric playing as pivots. Instead, Mourinho opted to retain his recent first-choice defensive line (Coentrao-Ramos-Varane) with Essien playing at Right Back. Pepe was instead asked to reprise his role as a midfield destroyer (he actually created A LOT in the game including a great ball for Morata to have a shot at goal). The thinking was to perhaps track Messi whenever he went deep, but to also physically compensate for the light-weight-looking Modric at midfield. The decision paid off as Pepe, Modric and Essien all had great nights in their respective roles. One would have thought that having 'second choice' players in a critical zone such as the midfield would have affected Real Madrid greatly. Instead, Pepe's pace and power proved to be a great weapon with his tackling raids from deep turning into counter attacking opportunities. Modric looked very much at home during the game was as well while Kaka played neatly and offered verticality in Madrid's play. . 

Undoing Barca's Attempt to Create Width

Callejon was all over Alba last night. While Morata gave did the same to Alves on the other flank.

Last night's clasico was the first time in a long time that saw the match scheduled during a digestible timeslot (11pm). As such, the local sports channels finally gave it the sort of attention a Premier League match gets. Doing a pre-match analysis for Singapore's Star Sports was former Liverpool midfielder Steve McMahon. He cleverly analyzed and likened Madrid's defensive line to a series of soldiers attached to a string - perpetually coordinated in their movements, and most importantly, attached close to each other to deny any midfield runs between the defenders. Real Madrid openly ceded space on the flanks, daring them to raid the flanks and send crosses into the box - who was gonna get to them? The 5'9 Messi? Roura's adjustment prior the match was the use of David Villa for the match - more comfortable to make diagonal runs from the flanks rather than re-create the midfield clusterfuck from last week's midweek match at the Camp Nou. With Pedro + Alves on the Right and Alba + Villa on the Left, Roura's adjustment from the CDR semi-final was to give his team width on both sides in a a bid to force Madrid's defense to open wide for his midfield runners and Messi to knife through.

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It was in this instance where Mourinho's decision to choose a 'B-side' worked to its absolute perfect advantage. In the place of Di Maria and Ronaldo were Jose Callejon and Alvaro Morata respectively. Unlike their first-choice counterparts,  both canteranos were not expected to dazzle in attack (to merely contribute was enough), but were in fact, expected to follow Mou's instructions to the letter - and that's exactly what they did. Roura's supposed 'improvement' to the team (the inclusion of David Villa) failed to bear fruit as Villa's diagonal runs from deep brought the asturian right into Michael Essien's realm, while any support offered by Jordi Alba to provide Barca with additional width was thwarted by Callejon who was on him all game long like a virus. I can only suppose that Alba's disgusting behavior to celebrate Messi's goal (giving the Bernabeu crown the middle finger) was borne of his frustration. On the left side, it was business as usual with Pedro unable to make a nuisance of himself against Coentrao while his fullback support Alves was tracked by a much bigger and defensively committed Alvaro Morata. Both canteranos showed the world the sort of effort and determined play that we Madridistas want to see from them. They were tireless both in attack and in defense. You can't fault Barcelona in this game for being too narrow - they did try to spread the pitch open, it just didn't work because of our 2 boys who bleed white.

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Target Man #11 

Morata assisted the opening goal and had some great chances to score last night. I will remember his performance however largely for his role as a 'Target Man-Winger'

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Alvaro Morata deserves special mention. There will be those who irritatingly sneer at him for failing to score on 2 great chances that fell to him (Pepe's great forward pass and Modric's perfectly placed looping cross) - but those critics forget that he's only 19 and that he hasn't been given a lot of playing time this season. What I found particularly interesting in the way that he plays as a left-sided winger (a role, as I understand, that he plays now and again apart from his usual striking role) is how he actually uses his height and physical build to intepret his role as a left winger and fuse it with aspects of Center Forward play such as being a target man. Over and over throughout last night's match, Diego Lopez and a variety of Real Madrid's outfield players would send long looping balls to Morata for the youngster to, with his back to the goal and his defender, chest down and hold up the ball and created lop-sided attacking opportunities. CBs are of course trained to  deal with Center Forwards playing with their back to the goal and functioning as a Target Man. Fullbacks however are not - and Morata's ability / knack / tendency to do this proved to be disturbing for Barcelona's defenders. All in all, I felt that Morata played a heck of a game: his pace impressed me, his crossing ability impressed me, his ball control impressed me, his work rate impressed me and his confidence level amazed me.

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Look who concedes a headed goal late in the game yet again.

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Pissing into the Fruit Punch

Despite this loss, it's almost a complete certainty that Barcelona will go on to win La Liga. Their lead over us is at 13 points and even if other teams manage to replicate Mourinho and Allegri's tactics to blunt Barcelona and perhaps even grab a couple of points here and there, they will still likely win La Liga. If that's a foregone conclusion, then let it be so, their chances of getting themselves out of the bind they created for themselves vs. Milan seems unlikely whilst their Copa Del Rey campaign (no matter how much they like to dismiss it as 'unimportant') is over. Come the end of May, Barcelona will be celebrating their La Liga title... but by beating them in this manner for 2 consecutive matches, it is as if we will be pissing into their victory party's fruit punch. And boy does that feel good.

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For Jose Mourinho, who was hired not just to win silverware, but also to destroy Barca's hegemony, whether you like him or hate him, you can't deny it's mission accomplished in that sense. Not only is the Barca air of supremacy gone, it has also now been replaced by Madrid's brooding and intimidating presence looming above them. We are back to becing their Boogie Men. And boy does that feel really good.

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p.s. Re: Their Penalty claim at the end of the match: my take on it is that Sergio Ramos DID stick his leg out.... but Adriano (who was clearly looking for a penalty) leaped ABOVE Ramos' leg, avoiding contact in the process... thus no penalty.

A Display of Dominance (Barcelona 1 - Real Madrid 3)

Wow. What a performance. The last time I saw Real Madrid dominate Barcelona like this was way back in the 'Pasillo' Match. That match however was played at the Bernabeu, not at the 98,000+ capacity Camp Nou (the largest football stadium in Europe). The last time I saw Real Madrid dominate Barcelona like that at the Camp Nou? I honestly don't remember - heck, it probably never even happened in all the years I have watched football and supported Real Madrid. "Dominate" is indeed a strong word to use, and it is a word that the Tiki Taka Taliban will be up in arms over. They will say that  they thoroughly dominated possession (62%). Many answer to that is "so f%cking what? - where did that get you?". Real Madrid did as Real Madrid pleased and Barca were only allowed to do what Real Madrid pleased - which was to mindlessly keep the ball with no end product (well except that consolation goal). Prior to last week's shock defeat at the San Siro, Max Allegri had a pretty good term to describe it: "Sterile Possession." Across the pitch, I argue that Real Madrid were completely dominant. Dominant in attack, Dominant in midfield, Dominant in defense.

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Twitter Users exposing the kind of mindless Twat Barca's President is.

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The match essentially took place as if Mourinho wrote a script on how each event of the match was to take place and in what sequence - and our boys executed it to perfection: Score an early goal, let them have the ball, press their midfield, keep them aware that we can hit them with a counter at any time, score at around the hour mark (not too early for them to still believe in a comeback) and then put them through the sword shortly after. The 'executioners' also seemed to have been cast hollywood style. The first scorer was our flashy, pretty boy super hero Cristiano Ronaldo scoring a brace (that's 6 consecutive goalscoring clasicos now for him) - testament to how brilliantly effective Mourinho's counterattacking tactics were. The second goal scorer was wonderkid Raphael Varane (his second consecutive clasico goal, not bad for a 19-year old DEFENDER) - as a tribute to the job well done by our defense and midfield who showcased tactical awareness, discipline, compactness and extraordinary workrate.

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Barcelona's Terrible Defending and Tactical Clusterfuck

Sky Sports' Terry Gibson concurs with the observation that Barca's defending last night was awful.

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Barcelona have now conceded goals in their last 12 games, stretching all the way to mid-January. The teams who have found the back of Barca's net are not necessarily the who's who of World / European football - it's actually a list that includes humble La Liga teams like Getafe, Osasuna and Real Sociedad. It doesn't take a tactical genius to figure it out: they're terrible without possession, especially on defense and extremely vulnerable along the flanks because this season, they now play with attacking fullbacks on BOTH sides (Alves & Alba). Every team has sought to expose the same weaknesses in the same way: long balls behind their fullbacks on the counter to force the vulnerable Pique and Puyol to turn and run backwards. I'm not keen to speculate on whether Pique is a world class defender having a poor run of form, or a mediocre one whose passing ability in Barca's tiki taka system has masked his true defensive frailties. Puyol on the other hand is on the wrong side of 30 age-wise and is beginning to show his age. In all Real Madrid goals, last night, the 2 Barca CBs were ruthlessly humiliated. Perhaps Pique would have been better off dancing Gangnam Style to unnerve Ronaldo as the Portuguese winger executed his stepover maneuvers rather than sticking his leg out foolishly to concede such an obvious penalty (what was he and Puyol arguing with the ref for on that one anyway?). For Real's second goal, Di Maria's 'crossover' move saw Puyol almost break his ankles and need hip replacement surgery. Di Maria's abusive gambetta on Puyol reminded me of Kyrie Irving's humiliation of Brandon Knight during the past NBA-All-Star weekend. You could almost admit that it was cruel for Barcelona to set themselves up in a manner that would subject their great captain to such abusive treatment by an opposing attacking player. Barca's defensive strategy was awful one which was made worse by even more awful execution. Ditto for Real Madrid's third goal which saw the 19-year-old Varane once again beat the taller and more experienced Pique to the ball for the second consecutive game.

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End of the match for both legs of the tie: Dead Ball situation and a goal conceded from a Rafa Varane header... and look who was supposed to be marking him in the first place.

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Barca look to me like they have reached a point where they believe in their tiki taka so much that they appear to believe that it makes them exempt from needing to apply basic fundamentals in defending.  To be fair, they are currently without a coach and their current acting coach (Roura) is on his first stint as an assistant. Organizationally, Barcelona football club only have themselves to blame for this (if Pep had an assistant capable of handling the reins immediately even if it's temporary in the form of Villanova, then why is Tito not given the same?). League matches are a different animal compared to cup ties - and at the highest level, the innocence and inexperience of the likes of Roura will see them get chewed up and spat out when faced with more seasoned tactical minds like Allegri and Mourinho.

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Iniesta and Fagregas seemed to make each other redundant because they both wanted to play in the same space (yellow circle). Meanwhile, Alonso was fabulous in his positioning to deny Messi space in receiving the ball in his preferred area.

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The second component to Barca's own undoing was the tactical clusterfuck they somehow got themselves into. Cesc Fabregas and Iniesta (who was named to a left sided role but  generally drifted inwards into his comfort zone as an attacking midfielder) seem to be playing too much in the same space. This redundancy not only constricted Barca's operating space and made them narrow, but it also denied them the possibility of having a wide man on the left (apart from Alba) to spread the play wide or be a secondary goal threat (e.g. David Villa). It must be noted that by the time Villa was introduced to the game, Barca needed 3 goals (i.e. too late).

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The Madrid Monster

 Varane celebrating his goal with Mourinho made us remember that there was a time when players and the coach shared a close bond. Perhaps victory will build the necessary bridges to form those bonds again.

Barca's shortcomings as discussed above may have been glaring, but this is not to say that Real Madrid played brilliantly.

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In attack, the decision to go with Gonzalo Higuain proved to be an inspired choice for a team looking to play on the counter. Playing a 4-2-3-1 without the ball, and a 4-4-2 with it (Ronaldo would charge up and become a forward), having a striker who would instinctively make an attacking run to a goalscoring position (Pipita) rather than one who is keen to drop deep and participate in build up play (Benzema) proved to be the right choice. Every Cristiano Ronaldo surge from deep would need to be tracked and defended in context to the fact that there was another forward making a run towards a goalscoring position. Turning backwards to chase after Ronaldo wasn't so simple when you had to worry about Higuain too. Yes - he didn't score last night, but he played a pretty important role out there too.

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Behind Pipita, the line of 3 (Ronaldo, Ozil and Di Maria) would have to be the source of Alex Ferguson's (who in the stadium) anxieties. Ronaldo's goalscoring and Man of the Match heroics aside, Ozil and Di Maria played very well too. Ozil is clearly no longer spooked by the sight of 2-3 Barca players swarming him, partly because of confidence, partly because of his increased awareness through familiarity as to his teammates' positions on the pitch, the google-eyed German looked incredibly comfortable dribbling, wiggling and passing his way out of  Barca's pressing. As for Di Maria, who has been the subject of much discussion both positive and negative, he wasn't wasteful with his touches of the ball and did not make any Madridista feel like tearing their own hair out of frustration. Maybe its the big occasion, maybe it's the sight of Kaka slowly getting his mojo back (and thus threatening El Fideo's starting XI spot) - either way, it's great to see the Angel Di Maria we expected once again.

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In the 'Engine Room', Alonso was superb in performing his function to deny Messi the ball and to force Xavi into back and sideways passes. Khedira on the other hand, whom most will remember for what initially looked like a speculative longball clearance (which would created the second goal), worked brilliantly with Arbeloa in controlling the space which Iniesta and Fabregas were 'competing' for. While on defense, Coentrao gave a measured performance, balancing his roles in attack and defense (he had one shot on goal).

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Tonight however, apart from Cristiano's brilliance, we are also celebrating the fact that we have unearthed a jewel for our defense: Raphael Varane. We've seen him perform at home, last night, we all discovered that even in a place like Camp Nou, he  doesn't flinch and is capable of performing at the highest level. In a night whose only blemish for Real Madrid were Pepe's antics, I say that the just-turned-30 trouble-magnet better watch out. Pepe said that Varane will be one of the best CBs in 2 years - which means that it won't be very long before circumstances will mean that the club will no longer consider it worth the trouble to keep him and his antics around especially if he's getting in the way of Varane's development.

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What I Meant

Sometime before, perhaps after last season's semifinal clasico of the Copa Del Rey, (where Barca won but left us with the sensation that we were thoroughly capable of beating them) or perhaps after the SuperCup, I made the comment that all the fear and hesitation within me on Barca's 'superiority' has totally washed away - that I believed completely and fully that Real Madrid had exceeded Barcelona's level already. I was of course sneered at, criticized and told off by many Cules for such sentiments. It is for this reason that the satisfaction of seeing us prevail is so great - because it was not just about winning, but doing so with complete mastery and dominance.

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Today, those who thought I had lost it when i said that Madrid are better than Barca now know fully what I meant.

Real Madrid vs. Rayo Vallecano - A Match Preview

From a European Derby with one of the Club Football’s biggest teams then back down to a local derby with Madrid’s scrappiest and most unapologetically ragtag club.

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With the memories from last Wednesday’s big Champions League match with Manchester United still fresh on everyone’s minds – The Bernabeu now looks set to receive the 2012-2013 La Liga Cinderella team: Rayo Vallecano. A team whose club members, fans and players all relish the fact that they are the absolute polar opposite of Madrid: the David to Madrid's perennial Goliath reputation, rugged, scruffy and unglamorous - and the comparison if true of course. 

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Rayo Vallecano - La Liga's Ray of Light this Season

Much like how lowly Levante (who went on to qualify for the Europa League) last season - capturing the hearts and minds of many La Liga followers, Rayo are blazing a trail in La Liga this season that is catching everyone's attention. They're surprisingly at 6th place this season and having just beaten 2nd-placed Atletico Madrid, would love nothing more than to move down to the 3rd placed team and successfully run the gauntlet against their 2nd consecutive Madrid team.

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Rayo's chief goal threat for the match will be Piti (10 goals). The man to watch however is the 20-year old Leo Baptistao. Starting his career as a 16-year old alongside Neymar at Sao Paolo, the young Brazilian instead chose a path to Europe early on, ending up in Valladolid, where illness and injuries hampered his progress. Now at Rayo, the young Brazilian seems to be finding his feet finally and is currently one of the bright spots behind Rayo's success for the season. In 20 appearances for Rayo this season, the youngster has managed an impressive 7 goals and 5 assists thus far.

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Real Madrid - Asleep in La Liga

Jose Mourinho has already openly admitted that his team has no more hopes to winning La Liga this season. Fresh off their Champions League draw against Manchester United, it is largely believed that he will field a team featuring a combination of his backup or second choice players (Modric, Albiol, Essien, Higuain) and possibly injury recoverees (Pepe, Marcelo). A 'second-choice' Madrid with Ronaldo (who will surely play) with nevertheless remain a world-class XI capable of flattening most teams. A tired, uninterested, unmotivated and unfocused side however, will surely be still vulnerable. 

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Advantage: Madrid

La Liga form / focus aside, the odds will remain greatly in Madrid's favor (1.15) with Rayo the clear underdogs (14.00). Those who fancy an online wager can check out: https://sports.bwin.com/en/sports/4/betting/football. Though it is true that Rayo have been over achieving this season, we must not discount the fact that they've only managed a paltry 12 points in 11 away matches (they got 25 in 12 matches at home - the 4th best home record in La Liga). Real Madrid, with a superior squad and heavy firepower are heavy favorites. 

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But If there's one thing we can tell about Real Madrid this season however - is that if there was ever a 'Goliath' for a 'David' to slay in La Liga this season: it's them.

Conversations / Back and Forth (Real Madrid 1 - Manchester United 1)

En El Aire - Up In The Air. Yup. The Outcome of this tie is still up in the air

It was the match everyone was waiting for - the duel of the biggest clubs in world football. Those of us who have been fans for long enough still cherish the memories of our past 2 duels with Manchester United: with both encounters resulting in Madrid advancing on. Both encounters produced moments that are now forever enshrined in football folklore...

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...The memory of Fernando Redondo using a backheel to nutmeg his way out of a dragnet of 3 Manchester United defenders at Old Trafford

...The 'champagne football' played out in the Bernabeu some years later. A certain Roman Abramovich was the guest of Florentino Perez at the VIP box that night. And mesmerized by what he saw that day, he decided to buy his own football club to pursue his own quest for the trophy 'with the big ears'

...Ronaldo's hat trick at Old Trafford. When he was subbed off, the world collectively saw the moment where English Football's fans had realized that there was a far more truly superior being to 'their football', and that they had just seen it and had nothing else to do but to stand and applaud it.

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The relationship between the 2 clubs has been generally a good one. Last Tuesday, I read about the heartwarming story about how Santiago Bernabeu, offered more than a helping hand to Man U in the wake of the tragic events of the Munich air disaster. It spoke of the nature of the club and it seemed so far removed from Ramon Calderon's disgusting behaviour in his shameless pursuit for Cristiano Ronaldo some years back after falling flat on his face with his promises for (Kaka and Cesc - Robben came later). Calderon's behavior resulted in Alex Fergusons' now-famous 'I wouldn't sell them a virus' retort and it seemed then that the 2 clubs' relationships had reached an all-time low. Today, with a savvy Boardroom diplomat (Perez) at the helm and a coach + star player who has an open admiration for Ferguson (Mou + CR), the relationship between the 2 biggest clubs in world football is in much better shape. And so the stage was set for what was supposed to be another encounter made for memories that were to be tatooed into the mind.

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But it wasn't to be.

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'Weird' Manchester United

Before the match, during this week's Guardian's Football Weekly Podcast, Sid Lowe made a very thoughtful description of United. 'They're weird', he called them... because they seemed to defy logic and analysis in many ways. He remarked something along the lines of:

'They bought Van Persie though they didn't really need him, but he's been brilliant... If you look at their team, they're not really very good, but they've been winning the league have been making the CL final these past few years'

I totally agree with the assessment. Rooney, Van Persie and Carrick aside (plus ageing CBs like Ferdinand and Vidic), everyone is pretty much in-and-out of the squad and in various positions:

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-30-60 minutes for Giggs in almost every match as a Winger, CM, or AM

-Guys like Jonny Evans and Phil Jones are freely assigned as either RB, LB or a DM, Antonio Valencia plays as a RM, a defensive RM or even as a fullback. Tom Cleverly plays on the wing, as the '10' in a 4-2-3-1 or as a pivot in a 4-4-2.

-Ditto for Rooney / Welbeck who will play as a striker, AM, or winger

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Every lineup - Rooney and Van Persie aside, looks mediocre on paper and is tactically very different from the last match or the next one. The only constant is that in almost every match, Ferguson is able to use each 'piece' to maximum effect. This is achieved through discipline, focus and mental fortitude which are trademarks of all Ferguson teams.

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Conversations

Watching Champions League matches usually means doing so in a dark living room at 3:45 am. Last night however, I had company: having invited a Manchester United-supporting friend from work to come over. My football conversations with him previously had revealed to me that he knew very little beyond the Premier League and his beloved Manchester United. Being considerably younger than me, last night might probably have been the first time he had seen Real Madrid in a 90 minute match 'live' (not just highlights). We had previously talked about common threads between Spanish and English football including Ronaldo and Mourinho. On the former, he was one of the more enlightened (not myopic) fans who despite his lack of La Liga exposure has openly acknowledged that Ronaldo has become a monster far greater and more powerful than when he was at United. "

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He's much bigger, more dominant and clearly more confident" he said - it was apparently a sentiment shared by Fergie himself.

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"Well, it was Fergie who put him on course to develop into the (positively) monstrous footballer that he is now. It was just Real Madrid who reaped the greatest benefits of Sir Alex's creation" was my reply. I also gave my friend a little 'warning'  before the match: "You guys can win this but it depends on how you choose to play. If they put their ego aside and wait for Madrid rather than naively choose to attack us, Man U can win. But if your guys decide to pretend to be Barca, to stroke the ball around, try to keep possession and attack us - y'all are getting murdered." He was unconvinced and replied:  "When we sit back and defend and let the other team have the ball like what you say - some of our guys tend to fall asleep and we end up conceding like that." he said.

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When the match kicked off, it was clear he was unaware of Real Madrid's players beyond the usual suspects (ex-Premier League players Ronaldo, Alonso, Arbeloa + Sergio Ramos, he had superficial impressions from the WC and Euros for other players like Ozil, Khedira, Benzema, etc.). As Fabio Coentrao unleashed a Kaka-esque curling shot with his right boot that needed a finger tip save from De Gea, he jumped out of his seat: "Shiiiit!" he squealed. The blood drained from his face when I told him smilingly "that's our left back". He must have been thinking: If that's what their Left Back can do, what unspeakably horrible things can their actual attacking players do? The night / morning would end with my friend mesmerized by Angel Di Maria. I enjoyed those minutes watching this 'foreigner' to Spanish football come to grips with the arsenal at the disposal of my beloved Real Madrid.

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Back and Forth Part 1

I never imagined myself having a gloating session towards a Man U fan when I invited him to catch the game - but I confess that I really enjoyed it while it lasted. Danny Welbeck wiped the cheeky grin off my face with his header after I warned my friend that "we usually score off the OTHER teams' corners and free kicks".

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You didn't need a professional scout to realize where the chinks in Real Madrid's armor was - and Fergie duly acted with a simple 2-fold plan that was applied by the many teams who have beaten Real Madrid this season:

1.) Dead Balls

2.) Sit Deep, Deny Real Madrid's attackers to space run into and force to penetrate with slow build-up passing (a weakness)

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Real Madrid's frustrating habit of conceding set piece goals reared its ugly head once again with Ramos dozing off on Welbeck. Replays show Varane in the same territory too. By conceding that first goal, Real Madrid not only debunked their danger of being able to score off their opponents' corners, they also intensified their own anxiety levels with regards to being vulnerable to set pieces. Every Man U dead ball situation for the rest of the game would go on to be a clear source of anxiety for Real Madrid.

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Manchester United fielded a deceptive-looking team last night: with 3 of their 4 attackers being natural strikers (Van Persie, Rooney & Welbeck) with Kagawa playing the 'Ozil role'. Rooney and Welbeck however would be deployed as 'defensive wingers' to track Ronaldo and Di Maria respectively (and in the case of Ronaldo's wing, there was Coentrao as well). The midfield would also feature Phil Jones (a natural CB who plays RB every now and then) beside Carrick, also tasked to track Ronaldo in much the same manner he successfully neutralized Gareth Bale in the Premier League.

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Michael Jordan would be proud of Cristiano's 'hangtime' in that header last night

Ronaldo however was not going to be stopped. He has ended all doubts of being a diver, he has ended all doubts of being a big game choker... and now it seems that he is also ending all discussions of being 'classifiable' in terms of his playing position. Ronaldo has broken the mold - he is neither striker, nor winger, nor trequartista, nor false 9 nor whatever. I won't elaborate further on how majestic his Michael Jordan-eque (hang time and all...) header was (Evra head was aligned to his crotch when he was mid air) - that's been done by every football writer on the planet already. What I will say though is that it was wonderful to watch Ronaldo change his tact in attacking United.

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Make no mistake about it: Man U's tactical plan was executed to near perfection (a Ven Persie goal would have made it so) - after scoring the all-important away goal, it didn't matter that Madrid had equalized not much longer after it. After the goals, they did what every successful team against Real Madrid did: sit back, form 2 banks of 4 and force Madrid to carve you open without space to run to. Man U's attacks would be marked by caution as their players would shuffle very quickly back and forth from attack to defense once the ball was lost - to make properly sure that their shape was formed up neatly to receive a Madrid attack. Alonso would have no spaces to send the balls to for his 'runners' to latch onto.

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Enter Ronaldo with sidekicks Di Maria and Ozil. Madrid's attacking 3 behind the striker (both of whom were direly and disappointingly  quiet last night) all looked bright in their attempts to open Man U's defense. Everything however was started by Ronaldo. Dragging Phil Jones and a slew of defenders with him as he made his runs and switched positions from left flank, right flank, midfield and into the box, Ronaldo would leave a trail of unmarked spaces for Di Maria and Ozil to run to and pass to - creating chances to get around Man U's defenses (Ozil) and openings to take shots on goal (Di Maria). Ronaldo has now combined his characteristics as a speed merchant with a bag of tricks, as a dominating and powerful physical presence in the box and finally as an intelligent creator of space: ghosting into spaces for scoring chances or creating those spaces for his fellow teammates. Even as Man U's 2 bankssank deeper and deeper, closer to De Gea's goal (monster game from him btw), Real Madrid would continue creating danger from a combination of Ronaldo's sudden bursts of speed, or stealthy runs into space. In the end however, it was to send 1-1.

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Back and Forth Part 2

I've said it before and I'll say it again - I consider it a good thing that the second leg of this tie is played away. I still hold the opinion that Mourinho's fear of conceding an away goal against Bayern cost us a place in the final last season. On March 5, Manchester United will fancy their chances of scoring and 'securing' the tie against us at Old Trafford - the stage will be set there for us to hit them on the counter in what can be a more open game. This time however, it will be us who will enjoy the fact that every goal we score is an away goal. it will be United who be placed in the conundrum that we were in last season against Bayern.  The return leg promises more stretches of open play, end-to-end stuff or back-and-forth attacking between the 2 teams (whatever you wanna call it). Either way, it promises to be the sort of game whose chances Mou and his boys would fancy.

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Another Conversation

My Liverpool-supporting wife (who wants to see United get eliminated really badly) asked me my thoughts about the match yesterday. "I'm confident we'll win the match tonight, but I have a deep fear that we might lose the tie" was my reply. With an even result that slightly favors United and removes every ounce of complacency from us, I can now feel that deep fear ebbing away.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to Everyone out there!

How NOT to be a Champion (Real Madrid 2 – Espanyol 2)

If my memory serves me correctly, this is the first time I’ve seen my beloved Real Madrid pretty much lose La Liga in December (or even before that). There have been worse Real Madrid sides in the past – that’s for sure… but there hasn’t been a better Barca side than this one. And when you put the 2 side-by-side each other in a league competition, the chasm between the 2 just grows larger and larger. This is not just because of Barca’s greatness (see how they replied ‘tsss… come on’ to those who asked if Tiger Falcao’s Atleti could even put a dent on them), but also because of Real Madrid’s hemorrhaging. Real Madrid are not just hemorrhaging points and goals, more importantly, our beloved team’s championship material is also bleeding out.

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Sure, there were plenty of bright spots last night:

-Ronaldo scored playing as a pseudo-striker. Though he was listed on paper as the striker for the night, he interchanged positions to with Callejon and Ozil to play as a winger for many stretches of the match. Real Madrid, ended up shifting back and forth from a 4-2-3-1, to a 4-4-2, to a 4-2-2-2 because of this.  He was wrestled Greco-Roman Style during pretty much every corner, had his shirt tugged every time he tried to run with the ball but still managed a goal and an assist. He now ties Puksas’ Real Madrid goalscoring record.

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-Callejon was listed as a winger at the start of the game but played a lot of minutes up front as a striker and as mentioned in discussing Ronaldo above, often found himself playing alongside the Portuguese winger upfront as a striker duo. The stints of Callejon up front however reveal that he's really not suited for this position. His pace is useful when attempting to play off the shoulder of the last defender but that's pretty much the only trick in his book when playing that position. Vanilla Joe can finish, he's got pace and he's unselfish, but I just find that he's incapable of providing that all-important reference point which a striker needs to do.

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-Coentrao played quite well in my opinion. It was for me, the first time that Coentrao has managed to bring his play for his national team into his club. Last Sunday, he showcased his acceleration and aggressiveness on attack almost to a Marcelo level (which we don't normally see when he plays for Madrid) and his efforts were duly rewarded with a goal.

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Xabi Alonso and Khedira had plenty of good moments in the game too. Khedira looks to be showing more and more of the role he plays for the National Team into Madrid (just like Coentrao): he takes the ball forward more comfortably when receiving those 'exit balls' from teammates in a bind and links play forward. For Xabi, I found myself speaking to the television frequently last Sunday: "Wow!" "Nice Pass!" "What a pass" at Xabi's lovely raking vertical passes which seamlessly travel through the tiniest gaps between opposing players and onto our front 4.

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Ozil and Modric played well too if you  think about it. Ozil was his usual tricky, wily self: his crouching posture with that slightly lowered head (like a viper about to strike) with the ball is now very familiar - but still unreadable, as to whether he'll go left, right and as to where to who he will thread the ball to.  The Croatian on the other hand reminds me of Bayern's Toni Kroos in many ways: playing between the pivots and behind the striker but many times, sitting deeper than your usual #10, giving the midfield a stronger presence and often drawing one of the opposing pivots with him. Modric doesn't hesitate to go forward though and just like Ozil, he's an assist (or a shot) waiting to happen when between the lines.

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Mourinho's decision to sub Modric for the out-of-form Di Maria baffled me at first initially (I thought Modric was playing well and deserved his place on the pitch). But DI Maria's performance (he wasn't bad) and his added tactical function (width) clearly improved the team in the second half and was instrumental in creating many chances.

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It is here where I find myself puzzled. The tactics were ok, The player performances were generally good. But here we are needlessly dropping points again. It is because of this that I find the simplistic tendency of pointing fingers at specific players or at the manager's tactics to be a very superficial way of perceiving the situation, nevermind mindlessly calling for the signing / sale of certain players. It's a team problem.  It is a problem with the team's mental / psychological mindset that has, as mentioned above, resulted in the hemorrhaging of the team's championship character: the team has forgotten how to be a champion. Last Sunday's performance was a display of all the symptoms that the team had UNLEARNED the necessary lessons on being a Champion.

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SYMPTOM #1 - Fail to win at home vs. an out-of-form bottom side

Imperfection is a human quality. As such, it's understandable to see hiccups. Football teams are no different... even champion football sides. As such, though it's disappointing to drop points to places like the Ciutat De Valencia (Levante), Sanchez Pizjuan (Sevilla) or the Reyno De Navarre (Osasuna), there remains an iota of 'understandable-ness' to it. Certain grounds are really tough places to play in. Heck, even the pre-relegation Riazor (Depor) was deemed to be a cursed ground for Real Madrid. Playing at home however against such sides is a totally different thing altogether. Espanyol are a struggling team: they sell their best players every year and rely on loan opportunities and are now starting to prematurely promote youth teamers just to make up squad numbers.  They are struggling to the point where they have had to sack their coach and are now just learning the ropes under ex-Atleti coach Aguirre. We didn't play them at their home base at the heart of Catalunya (Barcelona) - we played them on our turf. Champion teams will occasionally struggle against spirited bottom sides when playing away in front of their voracious crowd support... but Champion teams are supposed to beat such teams when playing at home, if not wipe the floor with these bottom teams.

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SYMPTOM #2 - Amateur Night on Defense

I watched the first half of Liverpool vs. Aston Villa on Saturday Night. Liverpool started the match dominating it, keeping possession on the ball and going forward with dangerous intent only to be sucker punched on the counter against the run of play thanks to the brilliance of Benteke (who score the first and assisted Villa's second). For Real Madrid on Sunday, it was the pony-tailed ex-La Roja striker Sergio Garcia who would torment us, always looking for the slightest drop in concentration or error to exploit. our defenders and midfielders are particularly guilty of this. Liverpool are a side with a new manager learning a brand new system languishing in 12th place in the Premier League. Real Madrid have been under Mourinho for 3 seasons now, won the league title last season and is not a side 'under construction'. It's embarrassing to be comparing ourselves to them but look at us! The comparison (which is an insult) is clearly deserved! Let's not even talk about Espanyol's second goal - sides who concede goals like that normally get relegated.

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SYMPTOM #3 - Fail to Capitalize on Chances Created

Call it luck, call it form. Call it whatever you want. Real Madrid created enough chances to win last Saturday Night but didn't capitalize on enough of them to win. I will insult Real Madrid once again by making yet another comparison to Liverpool: apart from the #7 (Suarez for Liverpool and Ronaldo for us), there aren't enough alternative goal scorers on the team. Part of what made us La Liga champions last season was that our 'tridente' of Ronaldo, Benzema and Higuain were all amongst the top scorers in La Liga (in contrast to Barca's Messi-dependencia).  This season, Barca solved their goalscoring problem by having Messi score even more (at least twice in every game), while on our side, while Ronaldo's scoring numbers are still great, Higuain and Benzema are injured and we are relying on defenders (e,.g. Coentrao) to score. Except if he's Messi, a team with only one legitimate reliable goal-scorer is not going to win you a league title.

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SYMPTOM #4 - Downshift while the Opponent is on the Back Foot

For a while there, I genuinely thought that the team was going to showcase its championship credentials last Saturday night. After getting sucker-punched early in the first half, Real Madrid equalized just at the stroke of halftime, dealing a massive psychological blow to Espanyol. Then at 48' we take the 2-1 lead, completely shattering Espanyol - undoing all the great work they did so far. What followed was an exciting sequence of Real Madrid's brand of Formula 1 football - dazzling wing play, one touch vertical attacking sequences and so forth. For a while, you thought that last season's Real Madrid was going to turn up with their message to the opponent under such circumstances: "So, you dare to score on us!? F%ck You!" Then Bam! 5 goals right down their throat and game over. That wasn't what happened last Saturday though - Real Madrid said their line, threatened Espanyol with a host of goalscoring chances... and then.... they downshifted, allowed the fast pace of the game (that favored them SO MUCH) to ebb away and complacently allowed time to tick away, contented with a one goal lead. Everyone knows what followed.

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SYMPTOM #5 - Put a Remontada to Waste

What followed was that we put a Remontada to waste. There's a sense of inevitability that comes with Championship-winning sides (like how we were last season), that makes opponents feel like there is no way to stop you once you've turned it on and you're going for your opponents' throat. Real Madrid are a team who boasts that 'remontada legacy'. We're supposed to be the team that makes other sides feel powerless once we decide that we want to take something from them... that even after taking a few (or many) hits, it is still never a guarantee for an opponent that they can walk away with what they've taken from us. Last Saturday, we didn't live up to that. Last Real Madrid's performance was that of a poser's: a display of muscle-flexing, posturing, but without the ability to follow through on the threat that we made.

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AS' Alfredo Relano preferred to look at Mourinho's decision to turn up at the post-match press conference as an act of discourtesy. Having read what he said after the match however, I found Mourinho's statements revealing of how deflated he felt ("I have never been in a situation like this, to lose so many points and take the team so far from their objectives"). Let's call it what it is already: Real Madrid's objectives now will be to try to finish 2nd (to avoid having to go through early qualification rounds for CL), and go for the 2 cups: (CDR and CL). Many have mentioned that our last 2 Champions League triumphs came on the back of failed La Liga seasons. Last season's winners Chelsea also had a miserable League campaign last season. I personally consider such matters to be circumstantial: because the key to all of this is the team's mental edge which is clearly bleeding away. I am not keen go into conspiracy theories about the Portuguese vs. Spanish faction soap opera theory, or Ronaldo's sadness or even speculation on Mourinho's future (he after all received a very strong show of public support from Florentino last week). We do all know however (as I'm sure he also knows himself) that an issue such as mental edge is well and truly part of his job scope. Maybe he should sell someone, maybe he should take them for a BBQ again, maybe he needs to take the boys to Vegas, maybe he needs to lock them all into a torture chamber.

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Whatever he does, the key to all this is very simple: to teach the boys individually and collectively what they've clearly all forgotten... how to be Champions again.