The team held their final session before tomorrow’s Copa del Rey quarterfinal vuelta game against Atleti, with 22 players from the first team participating in the session, as well as Fernando Pacheco. Jerzy Dudek was back with the team after recovering from the broken jaw suffered in the Auxerre game on Dec. 8, although he trained alone. The absences were Higuaín, Pepe and Diarra.
José Mourinho called up 20 footballers for the game, the same 20 he called up for the team’s last game, against Almería. This means that out of the available players, Lass and Mateos didn’t make the cut.
Goalkeepers: Casillas, Adán, Pacheco.
Defenders: Carvalho, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, Arbeloa, Albiol, Garay.
Midfielders: Gago, Khedira, Granero, Xabi Alonso, Pedro León, Di María, Canales, Kaká, Özil.
Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema.
Look at Sergio C.! He really looks like a baby there!
The other news of the day was the “official communique” from the club, sent in response to a report on the RFEF web site. The report had announced a change in the referee for the game, and ended with “the referee Turienzo Álvarez will be in charge of the second leg quarterfinal game, under the watchful gaze of Mourinho, who has considered himself maligned by the referees in the last few matchdays of the Liga.” The report was later taken off the web site. Madrid’s response was to “express indignation,” “demand liability” and “lament the publication of such official bulletins,” among other things.
Update: the RFEF’s spokesperson said an intern wrote the report and that “it does not reflect the opinion of the federation.”
Sometimes I really have doubts that this league and the clubs are run by grown-ups. Madrid’s response was the correct one in this case, because that line in the report was really uncalled for, and it will probably add fuel to the fire that the RFEF has a vendetta against Real Madrid, which means this whole issue will blow up once again. I for one am so tired of it.
In his press conference, Mou – is that his new ego collection watch? – showed that he too was tired of mindless controversies and fed up with the press.
In response to the issue of another forward, Mou said: “I’m not the one who has to talk about it because I haven’t said anything. I talked about another forward in the pre-season, and in November, when everyone knew that Higuaín was not going to recover for a while, and then I didn’t say anything after that. In the last few days, the one who talked about the ‘9’ hasn’t been me [he’s referring to Jorge Valdano]. I’m not the one sending messages via the press. I’m too old to be doing that. I’m a dinosaur in that way.” When asked whether the tension was increasing between him and FP, Mou responded, “you all see ghosts, and suspense and terror movies.”
On the refereeing as of late, Mou’s take was: “if you’re honest and you analyze what happened in Almería, you’ll see that there’s no controversy, just penalties that weren’t called. You have to be humble and say, ‘there were two penalties and I made a mistake.’ I’m not against the referees. Against Atlético, they scored an offside goal against us and I asked for this referee for every game because he’s fantastic and I liked him.” As for the formal complaint made by the referees committee in response to his words on Pérez Lasa, Mou commented, “I already said that there is a set of rules for me and one for everyone else. History repeats itself.”
Then he was asked about the chants of “Mourinho, die!” at the Calderón: “I can’t say much more. What can I do? Not go to the game?” In response to whether he felt persecuted, he said, “why don’t you all answer that for me.”
Good one, Mou. Indeed, he is not afraid of the consequences of his decisions.
Real Madrid is really more like a circus than a football club at times, no?