four moments

Well, there’s nothing good that can be said about Saturday’s game, because everything is along the lines of “Granada won without taking a single shot between the goalposts” or “Madrid’s 39-year winning streak against Granada has been snapped.”  Nothing good happened at all during the game, so here are a few moments before and after the game.

We had everyone confused about which bench to sit at, as Granada’s new coach Lucas Alcaraz is superstitious and decided to start sitting his team on the bench on the right side (facing the field) when his predecessor had chosen the left one.  For Calleti and Chori, that meant heading towards what they thought would be their bench, getting directed towards the other, and then having to return to the original one.  They got settled in, only to find out they were still at the wrong one.

The warm-up exercises looked a bit like a dance, especially when performed by Xabi Alonso.  Over on the bench, another episode of The Marcelo Show, starring Marcelo and co-starring Karim Benzema, Michael Essien and José Callejón, was airing.

After the game, one kid rushed up to Cristiano.  Cris held out his arm in welcome, hugged him and then told the security guards to go easy on him.  I love that!  Seeing how easy that was, another kid ran across the field to get to Cris, and was rewarded with a pat on the head.  The first kid then ran up again, apparently because he just couldn’t get enough of our Cristiano.

I love that attitude, especially because Cris had to be really upset in that moment with how the game had turned out.  He didn’t petulantly kick the ball into the stands or spit at anyone.  Instead, he hugged children.

During the Copa del Rey game last week, there was even a fan who had come to the Bernabéu dressed in a Barcelona shirt to cheer on her team.  However, when she saw Cris flying towards her, she completely forgot about her loyalties and could not resist trying to grab him.  That’s the kind of adoration Cristiano Ronaldo inspires.