looking ahead to the Copa del Rey

The team held a closed training session yesterday, and will train at 11h (first 15 minutes open to the press) today before traveling to Murcia.

José Mourinho really is taking this game seriously, which is a nice change, as Madrid has treated the Copa del Rey competition very lightly over the past decade.  As mentioned before, only Xabi, Carvalho and Özil will be rested for this game.  Cristiano will play the first half and be subbed out for Higuaín in the second, with Benzema as the other starting forward (Cris didn’t play in last year’s Copa del Rey due to his right ankle injury).  It looks like Pedro León will also get a starting nod, which is good, as he’ll be extra-motivated for this game since it’s against his former team and in his home province.  Mou is also thinking about using Albiol for Carvalho, which would be his return after injuring his right ankle in mid-August.  He was reactivated several weeks ago, but has not yet seen any playing time.  And of course, he’s also motivated for the game as he could face off against his brother Miguel.  Will Iker also play at this early point in the Copa del Rey? Iker will also start, marking his return to this competition after four years (his last appearance was in February 2006, in a semifinal game against Zaragoza).

The team will travel to Murcia today, and stay at the Sercotel Juan Carlos hotel.  This is also a change from previous years – in 2007, Madrid traveled to Alicante on the day of their game against Alicante, and only managed a 1-1 tie.  In 2008, the team traveled to Irún on the day of the game, and lost that one 2-3 to Real Unión (but I’m sure no one really cared, since we were all too concerned about Rubén de la Red that day.  Speaking of which, thank goodness that Miguel García is doing all right!  Watching what happened to him brought back awful memories of that day in 2008).  In 2009, Madrid also traveled to Mallorca on the day of the game and lost 1-2.

And you know the tradition of Madrid having two of its players sign autographs and pose for pictures at the hotel during away games?  Well, they’ll continue it during this trip.  Pedro León will be one of the players, a logical choice, given his ties to Murcia.  The other will be… José Mourinho himself, according to AS!  Which just proves he’s as big a star as Cristiano or Iker Casillas to el madridismo.  And hopefully the presence of Peter Lion and Mou together will further help to put to rest the rumors that they don’t get along.