in case you missed it – the Iker & I are bored together edition

In case you missed it – Levante vs. Real Madrid [2010-09-25].

This was the first time ever that Madrid had not won at the Ciutat de Valencia, after going 5-0 there in the five seasons that Levante was in the first division, and scoring a total of 10 goals against Levante’s one.  Oh, by the way, Levante is also the team in the first division with the smallest budget, €17 million, against Real Madrid’s quite vulgar €450 million.  Before this game, Levante was also the most scored against team in the first division.  And all Madrid could do was eke out a 0-0 draw.  Fantastic.

One. Before the game, the four Madrid players who had won the World Cup with Spain were honored by Levante with commemorative plaques.  Is Levante going to do this each time a World Cup winner visits?  And yes, when the best moment of the game occurs before the game has actually started, it’s bad.

Two. This sums up the game nicely.  Team doctor – yes doctor – Juan Carlos Hernández (not pictured, for obvious reasons) got himself ejected in the 79th minute for – according to the ref’s match report – “leaving the bench area while protesting a decision (by the ref), and entering the rival bench area to yell at a member of the rival coaching staff.”  He’s my new idol.  And good thing none of the players injured themselves in the last 15 minutes then.  Although it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that Mourinho can act as a doctor as well.

Three. Iker was bored.  And so was I.  Except I didn’t have any socks or gloves to play with.  Iker ended the game with only one intervention.  That’s good, at least.

Four. The Valencian sky was a nice color shortly after kickoff.  I could have spent my whole time staring at it instead of the play on the field.

Five. Here we have Cristiano doing his part to make sure that the team will have the possibility of having more children in the future, in case evil dictator coach Mourinho really decides to make them start training at 10h.

Six. Hey, look!  For once Mesut is not the guy with the biggest eyes on the field!  Yes, the game was so hopeless that even this normal moment was more interesting than the game itself.

Seven. Benzema really loves that water bottle.  He clutched it the entire time.  Or, he’s just doing his part to protect it from Mourinho.

Eight. A concentrating Cris.  He also debuted new boots.  What do you think of the pink boots?  I like them!

Nine. Peter Lion, his thighs and his thick fluffy hair returned to Levante, the team he played for during the 2007-08 season.  He got a nice round of applause when he checked in at the 62-minute mark.  It was nice of Mou to let him play.

Ten. The obligatory Sergio Ramos moment.

What a lovely ass he has.

Eleven. And of course, no ‘in case you missed it’ post this season is complete without Xabi’s posing.

And yes Xabi, I will call you after the game!

Twelve. The Mou corner.  Mou spent lots of time sitting, and even waited until the half was OVER before heading to the locker room.  That must mean that Madrid wasn’t playing that bad (it was still boring though).  Iker made a point of saying that Mou didn’t yell at them after the game.  Rather, he “encouraged us and ordered us to improve.”

The fans also had fun with Mou.  One gave him a thumbs up, and a delusional Barcelona fan displayed this sign behind the Madrid bench.  Way to erase your own history there.

The Mourinho quote of the day: “It seemed like a minimum of 10 of them were dead, and then they weren’t.  Luckily, no one ended up in the hospital.”  This was said in response to Levante’s players exaggerating their pain a bit during the game.