Madrid arrived in Valencia yesterday evening, and were greeted by several hundred fans at Manises. In the end, only the 19 footballers called up for this game traveled to the city; Raúl Albiol is already there, no doubt spending some time in his hometown, while Sergio Canales, Peter Lion, Lass and Gago will fly in today to join the team, and possibily Juanfran as well (MFC is on national team duty). Zinedine Zidane also accompanied the team, despite this not being a Champions League game.
From Cristiano’s hose to Iker and Mesut’s mismatched knee socks to Sergio’s leggings… our boys need HELP even with their official team wear (who knew there could be so many variations on the same outfit?) If we didn’t have Xabi on this team to balance things out, I don’t know what I would do.
From the airport, the group boarded the team bus to their “headquarters” for this match, the Palau de la Mar hotel. Upon arrival at the team hotel, Cristiano was the only player to stop to speak with fans, and that’s because he saw a fan in a wheelchair. He posed for pictures and gave out hugs!
Meanwhile, Mou headed to the Mestalla to give a press conference. The first thing he did when he arrived at the stadium – with Aitor Karanka in tow – was check out the state of the field. He then headed to the press room, and proceeded to give the press conference with Karanka at his side, the first time we’ve seen that situation (when Mou is talking, I mean). During the press conference, he was quite calm, and answered all questions.
on Alfredo di Stéfano’s words: Alfredo is one of the most important persons in Madrid’s history. I’m no one in the history of Real Madrid, so I have to respect what he says and not comment. But the coach is the one who makes decisions, the one that decides on the teams, and I’m the coach and nothing else.
on the starting XI: Pep said Pinto and 10 more, no? Well, I’ll… (long pause, looks at Karanka) To be different from him, I won’t say Casillas and 10 more. So, Sergio Ramos and 10 more.
on the reports of the incident in the tunnel between Piqué and several of Madrid’s players: obviously I heard about it, but I didn’t see anything because I’m the first one to leave. If I had seen it, I would say the same thing. It’s not a problem for me. I’m Portuguese, from a small country that has many problems and now needs European funding, but a country where everyone is very proud to be Portuguese and we don’t have this problem that you all have here. I wouldn’t want to deal with this type of problem.
on the press of Madrid: we can win the Copa and the Champions, because everyone is working. And for many of you, that’s a problem, because, as Messina (the former coach of Madrid’s basketball team) said, we have doubts whether the press of Madrid wants the team to win or lose, but the fans are opening their eyes, they’re not blind towards this situation.
The schedule for today looks like this:
09:30h – breakfast
12:30h – technical chat, Mou reveals starting XI
13:00h – lunch, and then siesta
17:30h – pre-game snack
19:45 – departure for the Mestalla
21:30 – kick off
Other things:
The city of Madrid has made preparations if the club Madrid brings home the Copa del Rey tonight. If the team is victorious, they should arrive in Madrid between two and three in the morning on a chartered flight from Valencia. From the airport, they’ll board an open air bus and go directly to Cibeles, via the Plaza de Colón, accompanied by the national police. There will be a double barrier around the Plaza de Cibeles.
Shortly before Madrid left for Valencia, Xabi lent a hand to his beloved Donosti (he is the Tambor de Oro after all) when he headed to the Ministry of Culture in the the Plaza del Rey in Madrid to support to the candidacy of the city to become the European Capital of Culture. There, he told the press, “I’m from Gipuzkoa, I want the best for my land and I know this is it. I lived in Liverpool when it was the European Capital of Culture and I saw that it brought a lot to the city.” Some journalists pestered him with questions about the Copa del Rey final, but our Xabi diplomatically said he would only speak about San Sebastián. Xabi was greeted by a round of applause from all those gathered in the plaza when he arrived, and then he had to pose for photos with everyone, including politician María Jesús Aranburu, who said, “this is for my grandchildren” (sure, sure – but we won’t judge, since it’s Xabi Alonso).
Looking ahead, we have another Saturday game at 18h, this one is jornada 34 of the Liga against Zaragoza on April 30 at the Bernabéu.
And Madrid posted this great video of the Madrid-Barcelona Liga game from the 2001-02 season. Things to watch (and listen) out for: Puyi’s short hair; coaches Vicente del Bosque and Toni Grande; toddler Froilán (the king’s grandson); the magic of Zidane; EL MORO!!!; el capitán getting all fired up; the sighs of disappointment from the crowd each time a shot missed the target; Iker will a full head of hair stopping everything; young Raúl in a Madrid shirt kissing the ball.