So, “training” now apparently consists of five-minute hugs and practicing moves for a new goal celebration? If so, I love it! I’m sure they got down to more serious things once the doors were closed to the press.
Training and the list: the team held their last training session Tuesday morning before tomorrow’s game at White Hart Lane. José Mourinho had 22 footballers under his orders, 21 from the first team (Lass, Gago and Peter Lion were the injured absences; Lass has problems with his left hip) and one from Castilla, Nacho Fernández.
Cris is all like, look Karim, we match! And Pipita shows that three months of inactivity hasn’t affected him at all, at least in that area! Are they running in order of nationality?
The call-up list looks like this, with the absences of the injured players. Pepe is suspended for the match, but will travel with the team to London. And for the first time, we have all four forwards available!
Goalkeepers: Iker, Adán, Dudek.
Defenders: Carvalho, Ramos, Marcelo, Albiol, Arbeloa, Garay, Nacho Fernández.
Midfielders: Kaká, Granero, Alonso, Canales, Di María, Özil, Khedira.
Forwards: Adebayor, Cristiano, Higuaín, Benzema.
What kind of torture was poor Ricky subjected to? They better not do the same with Iker! And I love how Cris and Pepe both hiked their shorts way up! Why can’t they make Speedo-like shorts for Cris?
Los hermanos Fernández: hopefully Nacho will have a chance to debut, as his younger brother Álex already has! If he does, he’ll be the seventh canterano to debut in the Mou era. He said yesterday that “sharing a locker room with my younger brother, being called up for the U-21 team and training with Mou are the most special things that have happened to me this year.” With regards to Álex, “when we were small, I beat him in everything but now we’re equally strong and I’m very happy for and proud of him.” And MFC tweeted this, saying he was very happy for Nacho for getting called up!
To London! The team left Valdebebas at 14:30 for Barajas (I love the blue color of these shirts!), accompanied by their special Champions League cheerleader, Zinedine Zidane. It looks like that lucky chaval José Mourinho Jr. also made the trip! And his dad was looking quite dapper, no? Once in London, the team headed towards their hotel, with the exceptions of José Mourinho, Xabi Alonso and Zizou, who went to White Hart Lane instead to speak to the press.
From Valdebebas… to Stansted! I really hope Cris is wearing those tights for medical purposes, and it’s not because they’re Gucci or in “fashion”. And we finally get a picture of The Five Musketeers, but it’s not exactly as I had hoped for.
The special ones: I’m surprised the room didn’t spontaneously combust, from the sheer amount and possible overload of elegance that these three men possess amongst themselves. It definitely would have happened had Xabi and Mou been wearing suits like Zinedine, instead of their CL warmups.
Anyway, Mou told the press that those habitual starters rested for the game against Athletic will start tonight against Tottenham, or in other words, Marcelo, Carvalho, Xabi, Özil and Cristiano. He also refused to talk about this weekend’s Liga game against Barcelona, because “for me, the games against Barça don’t mean anything because in this moment they mean nothing. The most important game is the one tomorrow. I don’t know how many years it’s been since Madrid played in a Champions League semifinal.” He also called for respect for the opponents.
Meanwhile, Xabi called for concentration during the game, since “we have to play for 90 minutes and not believe all the work is already done. If we’re not focused, they could give us a scare, but if we maintain concentration, we shouldn’t have any problems.” He also said the most important thing is to have “equilibrium between the defense and the attack.” And, I love seeing and hearing Xabi speak English!
Not Iker, but not bad!
And Zidane made several comments as well, including this piece of advice: “the best piece of advice I can give is to respect Tottenham and to come out to win the game. We played a very good first leg, but we have to play tomorrow and try and win the match.”
More from London: Sergio got into the spirit of being in the UK and tweeted a bit – just a bit – in English (is some help going on?), and he also gave us this picture from the team dinner. I wonder what is on that sheet with the Real Madrid letterhead on it? And when was Sergio last in London?
It looks like Sergio has found himself a new way to pose, no? At least he’s not forcing his teammates to do anything! Not that they would, because they all have their phones clutched in their little hands.
Macca! And go here to have a listen to Steve McManaman, who gave COPE his view on the Tottenham-Madrid game, as well as the clásicos. He still speaks Spanish pretty well probably because, as he mentioned in the interview, in six weeks he was going to go to Mallorca for four months. He also teaches the program’s hosts the difference between “good evening” and “good night.” People in Madrid, including me, still have a lot of affection for him, and he says he and his wife both miss it, because they have a lot of friends there. Macca of course scored one of the goals that brought us La Octava, and scored a goal in the semifinals against Barcelona in the Camp Nou on the road to La Novena.
Summer plans: Madrid also announced yesterday that they will tour China this summer during the first week of August. On Aug. 3, they’ll play Guangzhou Evergrande in the southern Chinese city, and then travel north to dispute a match against Tianjin Teda in Tianjin. The last time Madrid toured in China was in 2005, at the height of the Beckham craze.
Before that, they will play three friendlies in the U.S., the first one against Chivas in San Diego on July 20. The other two games are being negotiated.
Internationals: and four of our Castilla boys and one Juvenil A boy have been called up by the RFEF to participate in the U-19 Porto International Tournament, which will be disputed from April 18-22. If you live around there, they’ll be staying at the Axis Vermar Conference and Beach Resort, and will play Portugal on April 19, France on April 20 and Russia on April 22. The five players are Dani Carvajal, Álex Fernández, Pablo Sarabia, MFC Álvaro Borja Morata Martín (juntos para siempre – jajaja!!!) and Fernando Pacheco.