Twenty-three footballers joined Mou and the coaching staff on Friday afternoon at Valdebebas in the last session before today’s game against Valencia (18h). Lass rejoined his teammates after missing the last several days with an injury, two canteranos, Juanfran and Nacho, were called up to join the first team, and Aitor Karanka also participated in the session.
Xabi being mischievous? And so that’s what Cris’ natural hair looks like!
Sami Khedira, Fernando Gago and Ángel di María were the absences. Sami is in Munich to see doctors regarding his torn right adductor, which he further injured during the Copa del Rey final. He’ll return to Madrid on Sunday. A German radio program has said that he’ll be out for the rest of the season. Ángel di María (bruised right knee) and Emmanuel Adebayor (problems with his adductor) were the other “casualties” of this game. On Friday, Manu trained apart from the rest of the team, doing recovery exercises with Carlos Lalín.
Can you identify those legs?
Twenty footballers were called up for this game. Lass made his return from injury, Esteban Granero from suspension and Sergio C. and Peter Lion probably due more to necessity than anything else (sadly). The two Castilla boys also made the cut. Four players – Gago, Khedira, Di María and Adebayor – are out due to injury, Arbeloa is suspended and Sergio Ramos is getting a rest.
Goalkeepers: Iker, Adán,Dudek.
Defenders: Albiol, Garay, Pepe, Carvalho, Marcelo, Nacho Fernández.
Midfielders: Lass, Özil, Xabi Alonso, Kaká, Pedro León, Canales, Granero, Juanfran.
Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema, Higuaín.
Once again, a lack of originality from Madrid’s photographers.
In his press conference, Mou warned that the celebrations are over and it’s time to get back to work: “we won a historical trophy, but that happiness is over.”
Mou also spoke about Khedira’s injury, saying, “we’re sad for him and sad for us. He’s injured. He won’t play in the Mestalla, and most likely not on Wednesday either. But to say that he won’t play for the rest of the season is absurd. We expect him back soon… His substitute could be Lass or Granero, who played 20 very good minutes in the final of the Copa and who always responds positively.”
He also criticized the press that usually covers Madrid, saying, “I’m a bit different than all of you, from the press of Madrid which is fantastic in trying to destroy people and teams, and then later gets drunk on water. I’m the opposite, I’m all equilibrium, I know the quality that I have in both negative and positive moments. No one is going to kill me or get me drunk.” Mou also denied that he will return to Inter next season and that Madrid is interested in signing Drogba, saying, “it’s completely false that next season I’m going to be with Inter.”
Following the training session and the press conference, Madrid traveled back to Valencia four days after their last trip, for Saturday’s Liga game against Valencia, arriving at 21h in the evening at Manises.
The natural choice Raúl Albiol and Karim Benzema signed autographs and posed for pictures with thousand or so fans who came to the team hotel.
Meanwhile, this is the line yesterday to enter Madrid’s museum to see the (replica of the) newest addition, the Copa del Rey!
Other things:
– footage here of Barcelona’s own broken Copa del Rey (plus other instances of “copacidios” – a combination of the word “copa” with “suicidio” (suicide)) from 1998, the work of Luis Enrique and possibly Luis Figo, it appears.
– Rafa Nadal thinks that José Mourinho is producing a “temporadón” with Real Madrid, and said that the final of the Copa del Rey was “spectacular from the point of view of the spectator… as a madridista, I’m happy.”
– Madrid won’t celebrate the winning of their Copa del Rey with the Madrid city hall and the community of Madrid until a later point, because they want to focus on the season, which hasn’t ended yet, concretely the Champions League. Teams from Madrid are usually honored by the city and the community whenever they win a title.
– an interesting read – an interview with Rulo. Regarding his departure from Madrid, Raúl says, “Playing for Madrid for so long outweighs that. But I did reach a point at which I felt that chapter had closed. If I wanted to carry on enjoying football, I had to leave. I could have stayed there but it wouldn’t have been what I wanted. I wouldn’t be enjoying it. It’s not just about the success…. The years spent at Madrid were wonderful, it’s my club, and I’ll always be a Madridista. Madrid changed my life. But I reached the point where I needed to escape.” He also says Manuel Neuer might be better than Iker (???).
– and an excerpt from the open letter Sandro Rosell sent to Barcelona’s fans yesterday via their web site: “Despite not winning the title, the Barcelona fans have shown, once again, an example of civilised support for their team… FC Barcelona fans have shown how to win and celebrate our trophies, then on Wednesday we showed that, in defeat, we are also champions.”
The key word I want to highlight here is “civilized” which I think several (of course not all) Barcelona fans need to heed. Anyway, there’s now no need for them to complain about Madrid winning the Copa del Rey and how they didn’t care anyway because the Liga is more important, because Barcelona, according to Rosell, are also the champions despite being defeated!
– and I also wanted to translate parts of this article, a lovely read.
“The triumph and intensity of Real Madrid began after the 5-0 in the Camp Nou and from the advertisement done by the players of Barcelona.” The person who said these words wasn’t just anyone, it was Luis Suárez, who played for Barcelona for many years. The results of the now legendary “manita” have been harmful. It started on the field of the Camp Nou and ended with that employee of Barcelona (Rosell needs to be included here) that gave the green light to the “Assistencia sanitaria” campaign on the city buses of Barcelona in which five Barcelona players posed with their hands out.
Real Madrid has been accused many times of being arrogant, but the facts and the data show that on this occasion, it has been Barcelona who hasn’t handled things correctly. The image of Piqué and Busquets displaying the “manita” to the Camp Nou and Puyol shouting at them to stop was the first warning sign that something was wrong. The second example was when Sandro Rosell predicted a 5-0 win for the next clásico [very civilized, right?], which was disputed last Saturday at the Bernabéu. His own coach said later during a press conference that he would never say this and he didn’t like what the president had said. Joan Gaspart, ex-president and the man responsible for some of the most ridiculous moments in Barcelona’s history, then made a 14-0 prediction.
The aforementioned ad campaign was the culminating point of a wrongly understood superiority, achieved on the field and abused off of it. Once more, Guardiola had to reproach the attitude shown by the club, which had given the go-ahead to this campaign.
Despite being defeated in the Copa del Rey, little has changed. Xavi said, “the only team that wanted to play football (that night) was Barcelona.” However, Piqué and Guardiola did congratulate the new champions of the Copa.