algunas cositas…

… all the things that interested me since the last time I wrote a post.

ONE.  Marcelo and his brother-in-law Caio Alves (Clarisse’s brother) have been tearing Madrid up for the past week, as we can see through Marcelo’s Instagram photos.  Marcelo also posted a photo of him in the dentist’s chair, and in subsequent photos, he seemed to be sans braces!

TWO.  They went to see Real Madrid Basketball play twice, and sat with José Callejón and Marta.

The fifth and deciding game to determine the winner of the Liga Endesa will take place on Saturday at the Palau Blaugrana (19h).  Go Madrid!  Beat Barcelona!

Caio’s cute!

THREE.  Esteban Granero appears to be still in Madrid as well (how come he didn’t go to the games?) as he posted this photo of himself in the Madrid store.  Hmmm, I wonder which one he’s going to get (hopefully it’s the one behind him!).

FOUR.  José Mourinho is currently on a goodwill trip in southeast Asia, but before he left, he participated in a pachanga pitting the players of Canillas against their fathers (June 11), to close out the season.  Mou spent the game joking around, including going up to the kids’ team and trying to listen in on the tactics.  The fathers were required to play with white shirts, and while many of them wore the shirt of Real Madrid (naturally), Mou sported a UCLA t-shirt.

FIVE.  According to Marca, Sergio Ramos’ missed penalty in the Champions League semifinal against Bayern Munich has made it onto a third-year, university physics exam.  The exam question goes: “Sergio Ramos, due to the pressure he felt, miscalculates the parameters of a penalty, and the ball, with mass m, is shot forming an angle Pi / 4 with the vertical and with a speed equal to half of the escape velocity.  The ball did not make it into the goal.  If the radius and the mass of the Earth, Rt and M, respectively, are given, and discounting the rotation of the Earth and the friction of the air:

a) calculate the constants of the movement of the ball.

b) if the International Space Station rotates in a circular orbit with the radius 3Rt, should its occupants be worried about a possible collision with the ball?

SIX.  Gonazlo Higuaín was interviewed by Fox Sports earlier this week.  Here are some highlights (compiled by AS, I hope to get around to watching the full interview later).

on how he’s spending his vacation: I try to do things because if not, then you get lazy.  That’s why I play light games with my friends.  When you don’t have a schedule, you can enjoy spending time with people you never see, friends, families, nephews and nieces… today I got up at noon.  And I have a fleece blanket from my mother to take a siesta on the couch if I want.

on his preference for keeping a low profile: I’m very happy with the way I am.  I don’t need to change.  I’m not a model, I play football.  My passion is football and I’m good like that.  I try to be the person I’ve always been, although football changes you indirectly.  I went to Europe when I was very young, and I matured a lot in these five years in Madrid, away from my country.  In Madrid, I did a ton of things that I never even dreamed about and I still have some more dreams to realize.

on what he misses about Argentina and what he likes about Madrid: the mate with my teammates from River, Argentine music in the locker room, the beef, the accent, many things.  But I’m in Madrid, which is a fantastic city.  I’m happy and grateful.  In Madrid, everything is more fluid, there are less people when you go shopping, and they’re very respectful.  I’m very comfortable there.  I know that when you agree to take a photo with someone, you make them happy, but people should also know that we’re not robots and we can have bad days like everyone else.  If I had a bad training session, I don’t want to speak with anyone.  I have lived in my house in Spain for one year and a half and I don’t know my neighbors.

on twitter: I’m not a fanatic and I don’t write about everything I’m doing.  I don’t like to write things such as “I’m eating chocolate bars with cocoa.”  And what you write can be misinterpreted.

on bad days: when I’m in a bad mood and I get home and my parents are there, I close myself off, I don’t express how I’m feeling.  And perhaps our paths won’t cross the entire day at home.  I don’t easily express myself outwardly.

on the most outgoing Madrid player: Sergio Ramos is the funnest one on the team and the one that is most like how we Argentines are.  I have a great relationship with him.

on music: I listen to Sabina a lot, I’m a fanatic.  I also like El Canto del Loco, and some cumbia.  Marcelo chooses the music for the locker room, and he puts reggaeton.  Then there’s Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso, who likes music from the ’80s.  He also listens to a lot of Calamaro.

SEVEN.  In an interview with SIC, Cristiano said some interesting things.  As I don’t understand Portuguese, these are the parts that the Spanish press translated.  He said the worst moment of his life was leaving his family when he was 11 to go to the continent; that he will never forget his father, an extremely important person in his life and that he feels that his father is watching him from above; and that the last time he cried (and a lot) was when Madrid was eliminated by Bayern Munich and he missed the penalty.  He also said what he notices about a woman is “her heart, which is the most important thing out of all the attributes,” and that he can speak a few basic phrases in Russian.  The interviewer then asks Cris what he prefers, for his woman to be wearing clothes or lingerie, and Cris laughs and says, “I don’t want to fall into that trap… I like lingerie.  A lot.”

As for the first time that he saw his son, “a lot of emotion.  It was a beautiful thing… there was an umbilical cord!  I don’t know how to explain it.  I have the whole thing recorded.  It’s an experience where you feel many things in just one moment.”  As for Junior, Cris says he’s learning how to talk now, and already says many things – ball, car, papá, and that he’s always going “ai, ai, ai” because he’s singing the Michel Teló song!  Jajaja!!!!  Cris also reveals that his specialty is not changing diapers, but giving baths.  He also says he’ll support his son 100 percent if he decides to become a footballer, and that he would love for his son to be better than him.

EIGHT.  Carlos Carbajosa, a former journalist with El Mundo, has replaced Óscar Ribot as the head of press for the first team.  Also joining the communications department of Madrid is Jesús Alcaide, Carbajosa’s former colleague at El Mundo (both of them covered Real Madrid).  It appears that Óscar is moving onto representing, managing and marketing players, as it has been reported that he’s joining The Best of You agency, which represents Iker Casillas, Esteban Granero, Xabi Alonso and Marcelo, among other players (Esteban’s brother Pedro works for the company as well).  So, starting next season, Carbajosa will be the link between the players of the first team and journalists (except in the cases of Iker-Sara and Sergio-Lara, I’m sure) and we’ll also be seeing him at the press conferences with Mou or Aitor.  I wonder who will do the Real… interviews then?

NINE.  Castilla ended their perfect season by winning the Segunda División B!  Our second team beat Mirandés 3-0 in the Anduva, with Joselu scoring two goals and MFC Álvaro Borja Morata Martín chipping in another.  In this championship series, Castilla scored a total of six goals and allowed none.  As for RMC, last weekend they beat Marbella 2-0 to advance to the finals of the battle for a spot in the Segunda División B.  The final result of this playoff series was 4-1.  RMC will face Club Deportivo Binissalem in the final, with the first game taking place this Sunday in Madrid at 12h, and the return game at the Miguel Pons next week.