in case you missed it – the 11-year streak edition

In case you missed it – Real Madrid. vs. Atlético [2010-11-07].

We might have been missing Raúl, but two of our signings this year – Ricardo Carvalho and Mesut Özil – more than made up for it, in this, their first derbi.  Plus, of course, José Mourinho.  So, the streak (for Madrid) or nightmare (for Atleti) continues for another year.  As El Mundo put it (warning: not PC at all), “we’ll end with the same joke from the past 11 years – the derby is almost always like a movie about (American) Indians: after a lot of shots, the blancos (white men, or Madrid, in this case) always end up winning.”

One. The sign displayed by the Ultras Sur before the game read, “This is Madrid” and had illustrations of some of the most emblematic buildings of the city (including the Torre Picasso, El Pirulí, Torres de Colón, Torres KIO, a couple from the Cuatro Torres Business Area), including of course, the Santiago Bernabéu front and center.  I guess the point was to show Atleti who’s the boss of the city?  And that Madrid is Real Madrid, not Atlético de Madrid.

Two. The goals.  Both were beautiful.  Ricardo Carvalho was looking more like a forward than a defender on his run towards the goal, and I think Lass summed up Mesut’s goal the best.  When Özil scored, Lass gave a shout and turned to Dudek in the players’ box where they were sitting, saying, “this is pure technique, you don’t know how difficult it is to do this!”  Canales and Garay were also in the box.

Three. The celebrations.  Both group goal celebrations once again involved a lot of hugging, jumping on top and head rubbing.  Look at Cris try to avoid having people touched his perfectly styled hair!  He’s obviously thinking that there’s still a lot of time until the half, and so his super gel has to hold out until then.

Both individual celebrations focused on the chest.  Ricardo thumped his (or maybe he was patting the escudo) while Mesut definitely kissed the escudo of Madrid on his jersey, endearing himself even more to millions of madridistas.  He also arranged his hair.  That’s all he did; he went straight from the kiss to his hair.  Nothing else.  Nada.

This was also a cute moment – what are Pepe and Marcelo whispering, and more importantly, what language are they using?

The cameras showed FP’s reaction after Özil’s goal (Mesut is basically FP’s pet, since he signed him, and he recently said he could be the best player in the world).  First, he patted the neck of Miguel Sebastián, Spain’s minister of industry and Atleti fan, then rubbed it in further by aiming a sly smile at Enrique Cerezo, Atleti’s president.  Well, when you’re a billionaire twice over (his net worth is almost US$2 billion), you can get away with things like this.  FP also held out his hand to get high fives from wife Pitina and Nuria González, socialite and wife of Madrid VP Fefé.

Also at the game: José Mercé and Toni Grande.  And ZZ sat with Valdano, El Buitre and Miguel Pardeza.

Four. One of the last goal occasions, where Cris passed the ball off his back, ending in the how-could-Sergio-miss-that??? moment.  Well, at least we got to see him do a backwards roll.

Five. Sami Khedira and Sergio Ramos’ Baywatch audition tapes.

They’re really starting to look alike.

Six. Atleti was the team that tested Iker the most this season, but he ended up not conceding a goal, thanks to his own prowess and the excellent defense in front of him.  He made a great save in the 35th minute against Reyes – Iker can fly.

Another improvement: he didn’t go matchy-matchy with the lime green sneakers!  And the moment when Carvalho went down reminds me of the moment in the World Cup when Sergio got kicked in the head against Paraguay, because Iker had the exact same reaction (i.e. waving his arms around and shouting).

Right after the final whistle, Iker made a beeline for David de Gea, to congratulate him for the game he had (and for his birthday, presumably – felicidades David!) and to give him a hug.  How sweet of Iker!

David didn’t have the greatest night, but Atleti would have lost by a much bigger margin if it weren’t for him.  It’s almost embarrassing how rich Spain is at the goalkeeper position, no?

I’m hoping captain Iker will be around and playing for La Roja for many, many more years, but the future is in very capable gloves.

Seven. A new bromance.  Marcelo loves his Portuguese, because he’s also shown that he’s thisclose to Pepe and Cristiano as well.

Bonus bromance: Ángel di María and Raúl Albiol, entering the stadium earlier in the evening.

Eight. Cris seems frustrated at how tightly he was being defended by Atleti’s players (look at him feinting there!), but he ran onto the field for the second half with a big smile on his face.

Cristiano showed off his new CR Mercurial Vapor SuperFly II boots, aka the leopard ones.  I must say that they don’t look bad, since you can hardly see the pattern, and since Cris is always in motion, they’re just a blur at times.

The front and back of Cris.  Both are attention-getters.

Nine. More front and back, this time of Sergio Ramos.  Equally as fascinating.

And Pipita.  Not bad either.

Maybe this can become a new feature?

Ten. Continuing with footballer body parts, Marcelo and Mesut both revealed their tummies.  Click on the picture of Marcelo to see the tattoo he has on his stomach (I’d like to study it in more detail, along with Sergio’s).

And continuing with Marcelo and Mesut, how cute are they here?  Look at Marcelo pleading with those puppy dog eyes.  How can anyone refuse him?  And Mesut leans over to talk to Mou – in English?

Eleven. More Sergio.  He’s really a fan of using his hands/arms to express himself.  Other ways he showed frustration: glaring, shaking the head, sighing, and, I’m betting, a little pouting.

Sergio spoke to El Larguero after the game.  He didn’t say anything too interesting; the only thing of note is that he texted Manuel Pellegrini to congratulate him on his new job (as coach of Málaga) because he’s still in touch with him and says he is a great coach and a great person.  He also added that Mou is the same.

Twelve. The Xabi Alonso pose section.™

Thirteen. The crowd was very vocal last night, and they could be heard chanting José Mourinho’s name at some points during the game.

In his postgame presser, Mou said that Carvalho and Khedira were the best players in this game, and that Benzema would start Wednesday’s Copa del Rey game against Murcia.  Mou also managed to compliment Iker (he made some important saves), Cris (he’s a team player, he’s a great player and I’m happy with him), Higuaín/Benzema (I like both of them) and also Lass (he’s a great player).  Mou added that he was satisfied with the outcome.

I love the faces TSO made during the game!

Fourteen. The locker room before the game.  Is that whole pile of jerseys on top of Kaká’s locker there because he hasn’t played a single game this year?  On the same vein then, should Lass be worried that he has no jerseys in the locker room?  And Cris’ new shoes were stored under his seat.  I bet he couldn’t wait to wear them, and he was like a kid on Christmas Eve, eagerly anticipating the big event!

I’m glad that realmadrid.com included these pictures, but couldn’t they also take (and post) some of the locker room immediately after the game?

Fifteen. Other notes:

Ricardo Carvalho ended up with a cut and a bruise to his lower left eyelid after an elbow from Diego Costa.  As you all know, he had to be taken out after he started bleeding, but I’m glad he’s ok.

Castilla lost 0-1 to Leganés yesterday.

Meanwhile, Madrid began preparing for Wednesday’s Copa del Rey game today with a closed training session at 11h.

Plus, they also get their Audis today, after it was postponed from last week.  The cars arrived at the stadium last night, after the game.

And Mesut Özil celebrated the win and his goal by heading to the Retiro for the closing party of the MTV Music awards.  He cleans up nicely, no?  I like the outfit!

Sixteen. And, a super cute bonus video to finish this post with.  Go here to see what this game means to Álvaro Arbeloa and Filipe Luis, who are good friends from their playing days together with Real Madrid B and Depor.  Here’s a brief transcript.

FL: we’re good friends who are always in touch, he’s (Álvaro) a great person who has helped me a lot ever since I arrived in Spain.

AA: Filipe is a really fun guy, he’s very peculiar and we’ve spent a lot of time together… friendship will be impossible on the field.

Result of the game? FL – 0-1.  AA – 2-0 (very good, Álvaro!).

Who’s going to win the Liga?  FL – Atleti.  AA – Real Madrid.

What is your friend like? FL – intelligent, honest, and a hard worker.  AA – a loyal friend, very fun, and very peculiar as well.

AA: I wish you all the luck you deserve, starting on Monday.

FL: Of course we’ll exchange shirts after the game, like we’ve always done.

Of note: Arbeloa’s change in hairstyle (it was extra spiky when he did the interview, no?), and Filipe Luis’ shirt.  Too bad Álvaro didn’t wear his James Dean shirt, so that they could match, but he did wear his second favorite brand, DSquared.

As for me, now I can get back to all the work I’ve neglected in order to rush out this post!