in case you missed it – the 10>11 edition

In case you missed it – Real Madrid vs. Barcelona [2011-04-16, Liga jornada 32, 1-1].

There’s not much to say about the game, since I don’t like to write about tactical details, so I’ll just go on to the momentazos during the game, since we’ve already covered the pre-game.

THIRTEEN.  With that said, I of course have to cover the goal, Cristiano’s penalty that tied the game 1-1, and all the celebrating that went on before and after it.

FOURTEEN.  Raúl Albiol was sent off with a direct red card, which means that he will miss the Copa del Rey final.  I feel bad for him, because the game is being held at his old stadium, the Mestalla, but he is the only one on the team who has already won a Copa del Rey, the 2008 edition with Valencia.  Meanwhile, Álvaro Arbeloa received a yellow card during the match, his fifth of the cycle, meaning that he’ll miss the next Liga game against Valencia.

Raúl couldn’t believe the call.  But Madrid really rallied after the expulsion, and ended up playing better despite being short (figuratively, of course, since Albiol is El Chori) one man.

FIFTEEN.  Cheers to Pepe not only for his fantastic game, lifting up his shirt and falling into the net, but also for scolding Leo Messi when the latter unnecessarily punted the ball hard into the crowd out of frustration.  Plus, what was up with Carles Puyol and the stretcher, because as soon as he got off the field, he was back on his own feet and walking again (I’m glad to see that he’s okay though).  Or Sergio Busquets rubbing his head after a fight for the ball in which nothing touched his head.  And I had to add the Barcelona goalkeeper shirt to the list of shirts that I don’t like.

SIXTEEN.  The obligatory Sergio Ramos moments, since I’m sure there are some of you who wouldn’t bother to read this post if you didn’t see the “Sergio” tag.  And how many of you would considering studying medicine/a career change if it could get you this close to Sergio?

SEVENTEEN.  Álvaro didn’t look too happy to have Pep Guardiola shouting instructions at his players right next to his ear as he was trying to throw the ball in.  He glanced at Pep out of the corner of his eye several times.

EIGHTEEN.  Iker was a fortress last night against the Barcelona front line.  And regardless of whether or not he committed a penalty against David Villa (there’s no use rehashing it because the game is over), his ass looked great as he launched himself at the ball.

Iker also showed off an original armband, which looked to be made out of gold velvet (okay, he probably chose it himself – now I’m imagining a drawer full of armbands made of different textiles/colors for the captain to choose from).  If this one was worn for a regular Liga game, are they going to use one where the escudo is made out of diamonds and other gemstones for a game as important as the Copa del Rey final?

A couple of Iker’s great saves.

NINETEEN.  And a couple of moments involving Cristiano Ronaldo, his tongue and my big eyes.

TWENTY.  As the two teams walked to the locker room for the halftime, Eric Abidal and Manu Adebayor continued their conversation, which had ended at this exact spot some 45-50 minutes earlier.  In the beginning, they were hovering just out of the camera’s range as all their teammates filed past them – that round black thing in the lower right corner is Manu’s hair – but then they could no longer delay things anymore.

Fifteen minutes later, the players returned, with Cristiano touching himself and then chatting with Raúl Albiol, while Ángel took a mini-break in the back and Sami fiddled with his hair.

TWENTY ONE.  I love this moment when Marcelo took down the linesman, because I love the way his hair moved.  It was also nice of Marcelo to help the guy up after.

More Marcelo (¡puta!).  Anyone know what “M12M” and “Mars,” which is what he has embroidered on his boot, mean?

TWENTY TWO.  Both the Germans looked much tanner than usual.  Maybe they’ve been taking turns visiting Cristiano’s tanning bed (you just know he has one at his house)?

TWENTY THREE.  A couple of guys being boss.

TWENTY FOUR.  Sergio Busquets and Mou had a little friendly exchange of words (I wonder what they talked about!), while everyone in the background imitated Xabi.

TWENTY FIVE.  The Xabi Alonso pose section.™

TWENTY SIX.  Stats from Mr. Chip:

– the “invictus” par excellence of the clásico is someone I just mentioned a few days ago, Steve McManaman.  He played seven of these games between 2000 and 2002 and didn’t lose a single one (and as mentioned before, he even scored).

– it’s been 35 years since a clásico was disputed without any cards handed out.

– the average ages of the starting line-ups were 26 years and 154 days for Madrid and 27 years and 55 days for Barcelona.

– the starting XI of Madrid has played a total of 55 clásicos, compared to 97 for that of Barcelona.

– this was the first Liga game in which Cristiano scored and Madrid didn’t win (until last night, they had won 32).

– and my favorite:  there were 12 world champion players starting last night, the first time ever in a Liga game.

TWENTY SEVEN.  Other notes:

– the city of Madrid put up a protective fence around Cibeles yesterday morning, in the event that Madrid would win and fans would celebrate there (fans had previously snapped her arm off).  I can’t wait to see Iker put a bufanda around the goddess!  I remember seeing him climbing the statue during his first celebration there, for La Octava, and that he was wearing a suit, but with his jersey as the shirt, so he looked a bit funny (and young).  And now I see he’s been true to his style since.

– quite a few number of well-known people were at the game, including former Brazilian president Lula, former Madrid coaches Bernd Schuster, Fabio Capello and John Toshack (the latter two were working as TV commentators), Luis Aragonés, José Mercé and Chad Ochocinco, who showed up at the palco presidencial in a Cristiano jersey (a purple CL one), telling everyone that he was here to see his “good friend.”  He would end up sitting in Cristiano’s palco.  I’m glad to see that after “wavering” between these two teams, he went with Madrid.  Also at the game was Rubén de la Red, as he said via his twitter.

ALL THE POST-GAME THINGS.

TWENTY EIGHT.  Iker was quite upset with several of his teammates after the game, because some of them went directly to the locker room instead of gathering at the center circle with the rest of the team to salute the fans, as Iker had wanted.  Only Pepe, Adebayor, Cavalho, Sergio Ramos and Marcelo joined Iker at the center of the field, causing Iker to gesture madly and shout at the backs of those teammates who were heading into the tunnel.  He looked really upset!  But what a gran capitán we have, no?

TWENTY NINE.  Pep once again had a spot of trouble opening up his water bottle at the post-game press conference.  He started off using his left hand, switched to his right, and when neither worked, and about a minute had passed of him simultaneously scratching at the bottle and answering questions, he used his teeth.  Solán de Cabras really should find a way to package their bottles to make them easier to open, after Marcelo and Pep both had “incidents” with them.

When Mou replaced him, he found an already open bottle there waiting for him.

THIRTY.  The Mou corner.

José Mourinho did speak to the press after the game, but he refused to answer questions from those journalists who had walked out on Aitor Karanka on Friday.  He did answer all the questions from everyone else, including those from Barcelona.

The exchanges went something like this:

First journalist: I’m from Diario AS (remember, Mou requires all journalists to state their publication/channel before asking the question), I would like to know what you thought of the performance of the referee today.

Mou: Are you (he used the formal “usted”) the director of AS?

First journalist: No.

Mou: Well then, I don’t have to respond.  According to your (he went back to the informal “vosotros”) philosophy, if you all refuse to speak to my assistant, then I should only speak your directors [Mou was wrong, because AS didn’t walk out on Karanka – they were one of the three media outlets that stayed – Punto Pelota and Catalunya Radio were the other two, as you can see below].

Second journalist: I’m Nacho Peña live with Punto Pelota, I want to ask you if you think you were able to condition the refereeing of the game, and your thoughts on your previous comment that you always end with 10 players when playing Barça.

Mou: I’m answering you because Punto Pelota had respect yesterday for someone who deserves respect, for someone who won three European Cups with this club, who has all the credentials to be my representative during press conferences and represent Real Madrid.  That’s why I’m responding to you, even though you’re not the director, because you’re a true professional just like Karanka, just like all those who do their jobs with honesty.  All of them deserve the respect that some didn’t have with the man named Aitor Karanka yesterday.  Since Punto Pelota respected my assistant yesterday, it’s the same to me whether you or your director asks the question, so I’m responding.  [Response to the question.]

(More questions)

Third journalist: I’m from Diario Marca, I would like to ask you about Pepe, but since I see you’re angry with what happened yesterday…

Mou: I’ll only speak with Inda (Eduardo Inda, director of Marca).

Third journalist: Well, I’m not Inda, but I would like to ask you if what happened yesterday can be interpreted as a protest against you, not as a lack of respect towards Karanka.

Mou: Only with Inda.

Fourth journalist: Good evening, I’m from Cadena SER, I would like to ask the míster why you decided not to speak to the press yesterday, and why you are speaking to the press today.

Mou: I’ll only respond to your director.

The correspondent from Cadena SER then decided to (once again) leave in the middle of the press conference.  Mou’s press conferences are always interesting!

If you remember, Mou said after the Tottenham second leg game that the key to winning these games against Barcelona is to finish the game with 10 players, since “for some reason, someone always ends up getting expelled against them” (Chelsea twice, Inter, the clásico of the primera vuelta).  That of course once again happened last night, prompting this reaction: “11 against 10 is almost a mission impossible because in ball possession, Barcelona is the best in the world.  Eleven against 11 was already difficult.  Once more, my team had to play with 10 for a long time… I don’t understand why Daniel Alves didn’t receive a card in the penalty.  I asked the fourth official why he didn’t show him a card and he told me it was “because he’s a fullback.”  I’m tired of playing 10 against 11 and preparing for games against Barcelona with 10.  I would like to play with 11 against their 10, but in Spain and Europe that’s impossible.”  Mou also expressed his hope that his team would end the Copa del Rey final with 11 players on the field.

THIRTY ONE.  Post-game comments:

Iker preferred to be optimistic, saying that “we were able to end with a tie despite playing with 10, which is not bad, and we knew that this game was the least important one out of all of them.”  His hair is looking quite lush again, no?

Meanwhile Álvaro Arbeloa was satisfied because of “the attitude of the team,” saying that “the sensations were good.”  He also once again rose to Aitor Karanka’s defense (I didn’t think I could like Álvaro more, but…): “I still think the same.  The press wasn’t very nice to Karanka… respect is important.”

And Sergio expressed his gratitude to the fans: “if there’s anything to highlight, it’s the union between the public and the team, and if they left happy, it was because they saw how their team responded, the good attitude of the players.”

THIRTY TWO.  La cantera: over in the Canary Islands, Castilla tied Vecindario 0-0 for their 15th straight non-loss.  The one point from the tie keeps them in playoff position, so yay for our little ones!  I wonder if we will ever see the first team in shirts and shorts of different colors?

THIRTY THREE.  Looking ahead to the next clásico, a cute Adidas ad previewing the Copa del Rey, starring Xabi Alonso, Álvaro Arbeloa, Sergio Canales, Esteban Granero and Ángel di María, along with several of their Barcelona counterparts.

And of course Xabi pulled his signature pose!