another news round-up

It was a relatively quiet day in the world of Real Madrid yesterday, but there were still some interesting bits of news that surfaced.

ONE. More moments from the Sevilla game, from the videos here and here.  The saint and Jesús embrace after the game, as do Jesús and TSO during the game.  These types of moments are my favorite kinds.

We also get to see Mou congratulating Raúl Albiol on his save, and Mou smiling – that’s SMILING – before the game with Aitor Karanka.

TWO. Real Madrid has transferred Mahamadou Diarra to Monaco.  He’ll have to pass a medical exam and sign a contract before the deal is officially closed.  Diarra spent four and a half seasons at Real Madrid (he arrived in the 2006-07 season… and yet another player not signed by FP departs), and was the third captain, playing in 87 encounters, including nine this season.  Mahamadou traveled to Monaco yesterday to undergo the physical exam.  Suerte.

The new order of captains is as follows:  Iker (first), Sergio (second), Marcelo (third) and Gonzalo Higuaín (fourth).

In terms of jersey numbers, now that the “6” is vacant, it looks like the club, for marketing purposes, wants Lass to take over that number, and for Mesut Özil to wear the “10.”  This means that Emmanuel Adebayor will inherit the “23.”  The other option is for Sami Khedira to take the “6” and Adebayor to receive the “24.”

THREE. The second leg of the Copa del Rey semifinal against Sevilla at the Bernabéu will be played on Feb. 2, at 22h, following the Almería-Barcelona match.

FOUR. In an interview with magazine “Champions,” Ángel di María said that signing for Madrid was “the best thing” that has happened in his career because “the club is simply incredible.  Everything exceeds the imagination.”  He also revealed that Mourinho calls everyone by their last names and that they never repeat the same exercises in the training sessions.  We also find out that it was Fernando Gago who started him thinking about Real Madrid, because during the 2008 Olympic Games, Gago always told Di María, “come with me, come to Madrid.  I thought he was joking, since I never thought I could go to a club as big as Madrid.  At the age of 19, I was already playing one of the great clubs of Europe, Benfica, and that was already a dream come true.”

FIVE. Marca reports in today’s edition that Mou has promised his players that he’ll stick it out for the duration of his contract, which is for four years.  I hope in the end that it will be his decision and no one else’s.

SIX. Remember Cristobal Soria?  He’s Sevilla’s team delegate.  Well, the cameras of Canal + captured him talking to the man in charge of the ball boys during Wednesday’s Sevilla-Madrid game.  That man then in turn communicated the instructions to the ball boys, meaning that they weren’t acting on their own, but following orders.  And we all know what happened later on.

Wednesday was not the first time that Sevilla’s ball boys have “misbehaved.”  On Jan. 2, against Osasuna, the ball boys refused to collect and pass balls to Osasuna’s goalkeeper Ricardo, meaning that for every ball that went out, he had to go chase it down himself.  And whenever he returned to the goal with it, he found another there, meaning he had to waste more time to kick one of them out.  Sevilla won that game 1-0.  There are other incidents as well.

SEVEN. No light fare for Xabi Alonso – he spent last night watching Full Metal Jacket.  This is the plot synopsis from IMDB:  A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the Vietnam War has on his fellow Marine recruits from their brutal basic training to the bloody street fighting set in 1968 Hue, Vietnam.

Vintage Xabi Alonso, no?