news bits

Let’s go Madrid!  I can’t wait to see you come back with a win!

ONE. The team traveled to Sevilla last night, and the thing that caught my eye was that Sergio and Karim have the same headphones.  Plus, Sergio’s addiction to designer luggage.  No other interesting thing happened.

And here’s Tomy Mejías with the big boys.

TWO. Sergio, due to his status as a former Sevilla player, talked to RMTV yesterday about today’s game.  During the interview, he said some things that were quite obvious (I blame it on the questions asked) such as that the entire team wants to win the Copa, and that they’re going to Sevilla to try and get a good result and above all, score (¿En serio? ¡No me digas!).

The more interesting parts came when he talked about the team Sevilla, saying that it was always special to return to the place where he played his first games and where he has very nice memories.  Sergio added that the team has a special “corner” in his heart because his entire family is sevillista (supporters of Sevilla).  He also praised the “great” fans that the team has and the “good” team.

Déjà vu.

THREE. And one player who took the opposite road as Sergio, Álvaro Negredo, talked about his former team with La Sexta.  The canterano had this to say about Real Madrid and its cantera:  “they don’t have confidence in those who come out of the youth system.  In addition, they demand more from a canterano than they do from a player who comes from the outside.  They’re making a mistake.  A canterano can bear the same responsibilities as a foreign player.  It makes you angry, because there are players who have shown that they’re worth it on other teams, and then they come back and they only play 20 minutes a week or in the Copa del Rey.  You see where they’re placing their bets, and it’s not good for the youth system.”  Agreed, Álavro.

FOUR. Over in Turkey, Guti (weah!) talked with Marca TV’s Tiramillas program, where he analyzed the current state of affairs.  Regarding the effects of Mourinho’s presence on the bench, his take was, “the club signed a great coach but what happened is that he’s overshadowing certain people inside the club.”  Guti also advised the club to “have more confidence in Benzema, who is one of the best forwards in Europe.”  He also criticized the club’s handling of affairs in recent years: “they didn’t respect the work of the coach.  Pellegrino or Del Bosque, to give some examples, did things very well.  The fans knew that, it was obvious and we can’t deny it.”  Have a listen here.

FIVE. On the subject of Guti, check out this hilarious tribute to Guti from the latest episode of Crackòvia, on the occasion of his 550th club visit (it’s styled along the lines of the TV3 documentary tribute to Xavi for his 550 games with Barcelona).  ¡Pim pam pim pam disco viene disco va! and 7,840 copas!

Here is the other Madrid skit of the week, which pokes fun at the supposed fight between Valdano and Mou.  Somehow, I can really imagine certain people at this club being this immature.

(No time to translate this week).

SIX. And in response to Sevilla clown president José María del Nido’s statements that the club was going to reinforce the security in the locker rooms to prevent “another” incident of Jorge Valdano ambushing the referees back in 2004 to yell at them for expelling Zidane from the game (wow, that’s a long start to the sentence, no?), former assistant referee Rafa Guerrero (of Rafa, no me jodas fame), who had participated in the game, denied that that had ever happened.  He told TVE that “Jorge Valdano never came down to the locker room, and he never entered.  He was in the tunnel, but at the end of it, near Real Madrid’s access point.  He came up to Iturralde (the head official) and me and asked us if we were certain that Zidane should have been sent off.  We replied yes.”

Rafa went on to say, “I don’t understand how the president of Sevilla can have such a horrible memory or be so badly advised about things.  I repeat, Valdano never went into the locker room.  The game is already difficult enough, why would you want to stir things up even more with that video, and talk about how you’re going to put a security guard in the referees’ locker room when no one has ever gone in there?  This generates violence.”

(I didn’t want to talk about the video since I thought it was crap, but since Rafa mentioned it, I’m going to say that even the players don’t look really comfortable in the video, and it couldn’t have been a pleasant experience to shoot it.  And I would be very embarrassed for the club, the team and the players had Madrid done the same thing, because it’s not classy and it’s also kind of cheesy.)