ICYMI – the 34th, 35th & 36th edition*

In case you missed it – Madrid vs. Getafe [2011-05-10, Liga jornada 36, 4-0].

This was a fun game, no?  It seemed like everyone just wanted to have fun out there, as the team was free of all the tensions and pressures of the last few weeks.  It was so entertaining that I even kind of forgot that Iker wasn’t out there, and he’s usually the one I’m looking at when everyone else is looking in the opposite direction.  And mucha suerte for Getafe during the rest of the season – I hope they won’t be relegated!

ONE.  Two wall moments.  Xabi – who else – tries to order his deputies to form the perfect – and classy – wall, while later on, Mesut Özil grabbed a hold of Lass to line up in a two-man wall.  The way Mesut held on to Lass made it look like they were going to walk down the aisle or something.  Meanwhile, behind them, Antonio Adán was shouting, “Ozi, Ozi!!!”

TWO.  Several of the goal celebrations.  As Marcelo sported the captain’s armband in this game (see below), his celebration with Cris was a bit more restrained than usual.  Pepe, however, didn’t hold back at all, leaping into Cris’ arms and wrapping his legs around Cris’ waist.  And everyone wanted to rub Karim’s head as they celebrated his fantastic goal with him.  And not only were the goals fantastic, but also the passes that led to them!  So pretty.

Cris dedicated his goals to his son (what gesture will he come up with once Cris Jr. is a bit older?) and of course, did the dance move with Manu.  I hope someone else will step in if Manu is gone at the end of this season.

THREE.  A little Getafe/Madrid section.  There was a bunch of our canteranos playing for Getafe – Miguel Torres and Dani Parejo started the game, and Pedro Mosquera and Borja Fernández came in as subs.  Getafe’s coach Míchel is also of course a product of La Fábrica.  Prior to the game, Miguel and Dani hugged Marcelo and several of their other former teammates, and Cata Díaz did the same with his fellow Argentine Higuaín, as did Arbeloa with Arizmendi (they played a year together in Depor).

Plus, Miguel Torres is so good looking that I just have to include at least one picture of him.

FOUR.  The two teams held a moment of silence for Severiano Ballesteros prior to the game (though Álvaro and his tongue, and Xabi and his piercing gaze did their best to distract us), and Madrid also wore black armbands.

FIVE.  A couple of Cristiano moments.  On the left, it looks like he’s telling the referee, give me a moment, I just want to rest here.  And on the right, despite Madrid having a three-goal lead and there being only a couple of minutes left in the game, Cris expressed frustration after missing a goal opportunity.  I love how competitive he is (and he must really want to break some records too, I assume).

SIX.  Tomás Mejías became the eighth canterano to debut this season (though he didn’t do anything during the game), which is probably more than the last several seasons combined.  But as Iker said, it’s easier to get to the first team than to stay there, so we’ll see what happens.  Anyway, Tomás said after the game, “they told me to go warm up and I was surprised.  Everything happened quickly, I was warming up and then all of a sudden I was playing, which is what I like the most.”  I like how Silvino was hovering over him, making sure that his pupil would be okay.

Tomy added that in the moment he went in, he thought of his entire family, from his grandfather to his parents.  As for the guys on the first team, Tomy said, “I’ve trained many times with them and I get along very well with all of them.  They’ve always treated me very well and I have no complaints about them.”

And when asked whether he saw himself on the first team next year, “Meji” said, “tomorrow I’ll train with Castilla and what I’m thinking about is the last game with Castilla on Sunday.”

Fun fact: Tomás is the tallest player in the cantera at 1.94m.  We also found out that he’s studying phys ed (he’s in his fourth year) and journalism (second).

SEVEN.  Meanwhile, Antonio Adán had this take on Tomás’ debut: “he’s really lucky!  I spent three years being called up, trying to play, and he, in his first call-up, got to debut and play in the game.”  AA also revealed that he had spoken with Mou about the debut.

In the absence of Iker (meaning no profile appreciation in this post), here’s Antonio’s profile, which is nice, but not as perfect as Iker’s, of course.  And we see that Antonio takes after Iker in wearing a lot of layers too.  Boooooo.

Adán said of Mejías, “I’ve known him for a long time, we were teammates last year at Castilla, we’re from the same town (Mejorada del Campo), and I watched him grow up.”  Adán is 23 (he turns 24 on Friday) and Mejías is 22.

Poor Peter Lion!  He looks like he really wanted to get in the game!  But at least he got to sit on the bench – Sergio Canales and Jesús were the descartados, so they had to watch from the stands.

EIGHT.  Marcelo was the captain of this game, the first official one where he started as captain (he had taken over captain duties against Espanyol on Feb. 13 after Iker was expelled two minutes into the game).  Marcelino knew the weight that wearing that armband carries, and was quite serious throughout the game.

His captain duties included leading the team out on to the field, doing the coin toss…

… adjusting the arm band, and giving Ricky Carvalho a long hug.

That navy armband just reminds me of Raúl.  Since Iker wears a white armband, the connection to Raúl is not immediate, but when I see this one, I instantly think of Raúl wearing it.

NINE.  Meanwhile, over on the sidelines, The Luckiest Kid in the World, José Mourinho Jr., made his debut as a ballboy for Madrid.  His position was right next to the Madrid bench.  So it’s not enough for him to have a seat right behind the bench (as we found out in the Villarreal game), he gets to move even closer to the field?

TEN.  And a nice gesture from Cris and Madrid after the game.  In the 16th minute, Cris sent a ball into the stands (accidentally, not intentionally, like Leo Messi, Cris was trying to clear the ball).  It hit a spectator in the nose, causing him to bleed (medical personnel at the game attended to him).

As the game was ending, one of the security personnel went up to the gentleman and told him to stick around.  The reason became apparent after the game.  Cris stripped off his shirt, and headed for the stands, intending to give his game shirt to the man.

Agustín Herrerín intercepted him on the way, gave him a new shirt, and Cris presented this to the guy and apologized.  He also posed for some pictures and shook a few hands.  As you can see, the club obviously though that this would be good press, because Óscar Ribot is behind Cris directing him the entire way.

Just a couple more gratuitous pictures of Cristiano not wearing a shirt.

ELEVEN.  After the game, Cris had words of gratitude towards his teammates for helping him score the goals in this game, which brings his Liga total to 36/37, two/one short of the record 38.  Cheers to Cris for not putting on the shirt during the interview, and just tossing it over his shoulder.  I also like that he sort of struck a few poses to show off his biceps.

Cris also revealed later that he doesn’t remember meeting Nuri Sahin: “Karanka told me about it but I don’t remember.  He’s a great signing and he’ll be well-received by us.”

TWELVE.  Random flashes of skin during the game – Antonio’s thigh and Álvaro’s abs.

THIRTEEN.  The Xabi Alonso pose section.™

¡¡¡Think!!!  And – gasp – has Xabi been taking lessons at the Barcelona School of Diving?  The contact was real, but he tumbled and rolled just like Dani Alves would!  But I think we can all agree that if Xabi reacts like this, it’s because the situation really merits it, and not because he has sly and dirty intentions.

More Xabier.

FOURTEEN.  The Mou/Karanka corner.

Interesting note: Aitor changed out of his track suit for the press conference.

Aitor Karanka had positive things to say about his players after the game, saying that it was nice that Cristiano’s teammates had tried to find him to give him more goal opportunities, although he once again denied that there was a pact to help Cristiano surpass the 38-goal record.  He said, “there’s no pact.  What there is on this team is team spirit and a good atmosphere, and when a team is like this, I think that these things are almost done unconsciously, that of helping teammates reach individual goals.”

Regarding the debut of Tomás Mejías, Karanka said, “it was decided before the game that he would debut.  It was important for him to play today and to show that the players from the cantera have the opportunity to play on the first team.”

File this one under “only at Real Madrid”: after the game, Jorge Valdano remarked that “Mourinho decided to stay low-key until the noise around him dies down a bit.”  Minutes later, Mou’s spokesperson responded with, “Valdano is the spokesperson of this club, but he’s not the spokesperson of Mourinho.  He made a huge mistake saying that Mourinho took a step aside to allow things to calm down.  Mourinho will speak and make noise in the moment he considers opportune and without mincing his words.”  Ouch.

And thoughts on Mou’s haircut?  He should have brought Rui Faria to the barbershop with him, because that facial hair is awful.

FIFTEEN.  Other things, brought to you by this wonderful Madrid fan:

Lass will miss next week’s game against Villarreal, after receiving his fifth yellow of a cycle.

Over in Germany, Nuri Sahin watched this game on TV.  He’ll be in Madrid next week to look for a house (I bet he ends up as neighbors with Ozi).  He’ll also start taking Spanish lessons as soon as he arrives for good.

According to Marca, Real Madrid will close out the season in Angola, where they’ll play a friendly on May 25 against the national team of that country.

Castilla captain Fran Rico is now on twitter!  You can tell he’s a novice because he’s responding to everyone right now.  And, I love how supportive all the Castilla guys are of each other – for example, MFC was excited for Tomás – and how they tease each other as well – after MFC tweeted a photo of him and Alberto Toril (be sure to check out how messy MFC’s hair is), Denis tweeted back, “with your father!”  Those are just a few of the many examples!

And of course, Madrid presented the Copa del Rey to the city, the community and the patron saint of Madrid today.  I probably won’t get around to posting on that today, but look for it tomorrow!

* unless you’re Marca, in which case it would be “the 35th, 36th and 37th edition.”  Maybe it should be, since they’re the ones that hand out the Pichichi award.