Well, it was a dreary day without a new episode of The Marcelo Show, even Iker was bored…
(check out his new gloves!)
… but luckily we had José and Pep (since everyone is on an informal, first name basis now) to keep us entertained.
But first, the training session. Yesterday afternoon, the team held their last practice session before facing Barcelona tonight at the Bernabéu (20:45h). Twenty-one players took part, with Manu Adebayor and Ángel di María returning to the fold. Absent were the injured Sami Khedira and Fer Gago, while Ricardo Carvalho is still enjoying a mini-vacation, as he is suspended from this game.
Look at Iker judging Mou! He’s thinking, I could get my shirt off quicker and more gracefully…
Kaká also rejoined the team, after missing out on the last two sessions as he had traveled to Brazil to be with his wife and newborn daughter. He arrived in Madrid two hours late, but still in time to make the training session – he went directly to Valdebebas from Barajas (they’re not too far apart anyway). A little anecdote from his arrival: when Ricky tried to pay his €54.90 parking ticket, the machine wouldn’t accept his credit card, and so he had to pay cash to the attendant. After he left, the cashier, a girl, asked, “who was that man?” This reminds me of the time that Kaká took a taxi to the Bernabéu for the concentración but didn’t have any money to pay the taxi driver, so he had to borrow money from Diarra!
Out of those 21 players who trained, 19 were called up for this game. The two odd men out were – no surprises here – Peter Lion and Sergio Canales.
Goalkeepers: Iker, Adán, Dudek.
Defenders: Pepe, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, Arbeloa, Albiol, Garay.
Midfielders: Lass, Granero, Xabi Alonso, Kaká, Di María, Özil.
Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema, Higuaín, Adebayor.
At the training session, Cris also practiced his super jump (he got really high, no?)…
… as did Manu, with Marcelo as well. They even did a celebratory dance after it. Cris should try jumping over Adebayor next! That would be a real challenge! Meanwhile, the Portuguese speakers stood around plotting… it looks like Cris is the ringleader!
Prior to the training session, Mou spoke with the press (Marcelo was there too, but everyone was more interested in what Mou had to say). Before the session, Mou was in a joking mood, winking and gesturing at a journalist. And during the session, there was a small change, in that he used the words “Barça” and “Pep Guardiola” for the first time ever, instead of “them” and “he.” When asked what he thought about the referee assigned to the game, Mou said, “more important that the assignment of the referee and the pressure (on UEFA) not to assign Provença is that we’ve started a new cycle. Until now, we had two groups of coaches, a small one, a very small one, that doesn’t speak about referees, and a larger one, which I belong to, that criticizes referees when they make important mistakes. It’s made up of a group of people like me who can’t control their frustrations, but who are also happy to praise the work of a referee if he did well. Now, with Pep’s declarations the other day, a new era has started, with a third group, made up of only Pep Guardiola: a group that criticizes the correct decisions of the referee, which is something I’ve never seen in my life… this is a group that criticized a linesman for making a correct and difficult decision” [Pep had spoken about the offside call against Pedro in the Copa del Rey final during a press conference].
Later on, Mou said, “for Pep to be happy, it appears that the referee will have to make a mistake.”
He also said that “I don’t have a magic potion to help beat Barça. The only thing I can do is work hard and honestly to help my players. I don’t want to be viewed as someone who has a magic potion.” He was then asked what he said to his players in order to motivate them, if he didn’t have a magic potion. The response was, “first of all, I have to motivate myself, because when I’m motivated, it’s easier to motivate my people. I’m the same motivator that lost 5-0 in November. The words that I spoke to play players weren’t mine, they were from a guy named “Alberto,” Alberto Einstein. He said one day, ‘There is a driving force more powerful than steam, electricity and atomic energy: the will.’ This guy Alberto wasn’t stupid; with will you can do things.”
Mou answered questions in Spanish, English, Italian and Portuguese. Marcelo also spoke to the press, but what he said was not interesting at all compared to the two coaches. He also took questions in Portuguese, and was so much more talkative than he was in Spanish! He looked adorable – look at those big eyes! You can also see that his face is healing.
In response, during his press conference, Pep Guardiola began with the following: “Since Señor Mourinho got informal with me (by using the “tú” form), I’m going to get informal with him as well. He called me Pep, so I’m going to call him José. I don’t know which of these cameras belongs to Señor José… I suppose all of them here. Tomorrow at 20:45 we’re going to see each other on the field. Off of it, he’s already won. He’s won during the entire year, during this entire season and in the future as well. I will give him his personal Champions League off the field. He can go home and enjoy that… In this room (Madrid’s press room), he’s the fucking boss, the fucking man, the one that knows the most in this world. I don’t want to compete even a single instant with him. I just want to remind him that we spent four years together, he knows me and I know him. Then later on, if he wants to judge based solely on the declarations made after the Copa del Rey, by what the print press wrote and what Florentino Pérez’s friends wrote, if he wants to pay more attention to all of them than to our friendship, well not friendship, the relationship we had, he has every right to do so. He can continue reading Alberto, or continue reading what the friends of Don Florentino Pérez write, the press of Madrid. He can decide what he wants. The only thing I did was congratulate Madrid, but he only believes what Florentino’s friends said.” (Read more here if you want.)
Pep also claimed Sergio is incapable of thinking for himself, because he believes Mou had instructed Sergio to say that he expects a clean game: “six years ago, he convinced those of Chelsea to say that and now those from Madrid… I know it was the club that told Sergio Ramos what he had to say. I try to learn a lot from Mourinho on the field and nothing off of it.”
It looks like Mou has really gotten into Pep’s head and messed it up a bit!
At 20:45 last night, the players called up for the game gathered at the Bernabéu to change clothes and board the team bus to take them to the Mirasierra Suites to begin the concentración. Once again, I have to say I love the blue shirts on the boys! Everyone looks great, no? And are they all taught to salute like that?
As Madrid’s arrival at the stadium coincided with the end of Barcelona’s training session there, we got to see a few scenes of the La Roja players greeting each other. It appears that no one can hate El Chori! And unlike some other players, he’s friends with more than one player on the opposite team. Here, he’s saying hi to Pedrito and Piqué.
The colors of his top and jeans make him look like a doctor in partial scrubs.
Meanwhile, 1,700 police, security guards and health workers will be watching over the security related to the game, which is considered “high risk” by the government of Madrid. Each of the entrances to the stadium will be guarded in order to prevent illegal objects from entering, while the goddess Cibeles will have her own personal security detail, to prevent any damage to her from fans wanting to celebrate the victory of their team at the plaza.