Madrid held their last training session in Valdebebas yesterday afternoon before today’s game against Espanyol. Aitor Karanka oversaw the session, as his boss was in France watching or spying (depending on who you ask) the game between Saint Étienne and Lyon, since the latter is Madrid’s next Champions League opponent. All 23 of the players available from the first team (only Pipita is still in the sick bay) trained, meaning that Pepe and Jerzy Dudek are healthy and fit again.
So, the call-up looks like this. Pepe and Dudek are back, as is Sergio Ramos after serving a one-game suspension. Pedro León and Sergio Canales were left out due to the coach’s decision.
Goalkeepers: Casillas, Adán, Dudek.
Defenders: Carvalho, Pepe, Marcelo, Arbeloa, Ramos, Albiol, Garay.
Midfielders: Khedira, Alonso, Lass, Granero, Gago, Kaká, Özil, Di María.
Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo, Adebayor, Benzema.
In the absence of José Mourinho, Aitor Karanka spoke to the press (as much as I like Mou, it’s good to have a little variety in the press room, no?). He didn’t reveal who would start tomorrow (he said it has been decided for some time, but not even the players were to know until tomorrow), but said Karim is well after the brutal kick he received while playing for France, and that Pepe is 100 percent again. He also expressed his happiness that everyone came back healthy from the international break, with the arrival of Emmanuel Adebayor, and that the competition he brings is good for Benzema.
Karanka also made sure to stress that the presence of Mou in France did not mean that Madrid values the Champions League more than the Liga, as “the míster has a different way of working than everyone else. He’s used to doing things like this. It’s something normal for him. Today he went to see that game but he knows that the most important one is the one we have tomorrow and he’ll be there.”
As stated earlier, Mou was absent from the training session – although he had prepared with Karanka beforehand what he wanted the players to work on – because he had flown by private plane with José Morais to Saint Étienne to watch them take on Lyon in a game where the visiting team ended up winning 4-1. José Morais (sitting to Mou’s right) is responsible for studying rivals and gathering information on them. They were also accompanied by Óscar Ribot, the head of press. After the game, they flew directly to Barcelona to meet up with the rest of the team, arriving at the team hotel around one in the morning.
The team had traveled to Barcelona after the training session, arriving in El Prat around 20h. As you can see, Iker’s purse made the trip. Minus that, everyone looked great in their team suits.
The players headed to the Juan Carlos I hotel, where Emmanuel Adebayor and Cristiano Ronaldo were tasked with signing autographs and posing for pictures with the fans.
Let’s hope Madrid takes advantage of Barcelona’s tie yesterday against Sporting (finally, we have something good to say about Manuel Preciado, no?)!
Fun fact: Esteban Granero scored the first-ever official goal in the Cornellà-El Prat, which he did back on jornada 2 of last season (Sept. 12, 2009), when Madrid beat Espanyol 3-0 behind goals from El Pirata, Guti and Cristiano.
And in other club news, Real Madrid will be taking on Barcelona in the Copa del Rey final. But I’m not talking about football here, but basketball! The final of the basketball Copa del Rey will take place tonight at 18h in the Palacio de los Deportes (giving Madrid a home court advantage), after Sergio Rodríguez helped Madrid to make a huge comeback to beat Power Electronics Valencia 69 to 59. Madrid had been trailing 19-42 at one point in the second half. In the other semifinal, Barcelona defeated Caja Laboral 92-73 to set up everyone’s favorite match-up. If Madrid wins tonight, it will be their first Copa del Rey title in 18 years. ¡Suerte!
Meanwhile, Castilla will be looking for their sixth straight victory when they take on Deportivo B this afternoon at 17h in the Alfredo di Stéfano and to maintain their playoff position with 14 jornadas left. Good luck to the little ones too!
And in case there were people still thinking the Mesut Özil twitter account was real (meaning you don’t believe Álvaro Arbeloa), Kaká tweeted yesterday that it’s definitely fake, which Álvaro reiterated, as he couldn’t resist saying, “I told you so…”
And Sergio is now responding to tweets in English, though he hasn’t tried tweeting a message on his own in English yet. I wonder how he’s learning English?
