everything but the game

The best moments from the game against Espanyol all occurred off of the pitch!  To kick things off, an episode of The Fábio Coentrão Show.  The game was about to start, and Fábio, dressed in his boots and game shorts and a shirt, and with his jersey in hand, emerged from the tunnel and sat down next to Iker on the bench.  This earned him a look from Iker, and then laughter, as he explained to Fábio, with Karim Benzema (who couldn’t stop laughing!) and Casemiro cracking up beside him, that he had not made the list of 18 players for the game.

What happened next?

Well, Fábio then went to ask Aitor Karanka if Iker had been telling the truth (you can’t blame him for not trusting Iker).  Aitor confirmed that he was not on the list of players for the game, and so Fábio left.  Mou had a good laugh at his expense, while Cristiano indicated that something was wrong with Fábio’s head for this moment of absent-mindedness.  Shortly after, Fábio joined the rest of the players who didn’t make the game day list in their palco.

Prior to the game, the players had hung out together on the field and on the bench.

Marcelo was being Marcelo, while Cris, Sergio and Pepe were having a great time (Mesut kept looking back and forth between them; I’m not sure he knew what was going on)…

… and Pepe even took on the role of photographer to take this photo of Cris and Sergio, which Sergio then shared on twitter.

Iker, meanwhile, was warming up, and made a boy cry (in a good way) when he rewarded him for his support with his shirt.  Later on, Perico and another mascot greeted Iker.

Iker was also seen exchanging confidences with Cristiano on the bench.

There was also time to chat with old friends, as was the case of Iker, Sergio and Xabi with Joan Capdevila.  I had no doubt that after one second around Joan, they would begin cracking up…

I love Xabi’s tiny little coffee.

The game was not that interesting, so can you blame Iker for playing with the ball and not watching the game?  Meanwhile, the players in the palco completely missed Pipa’s goal because they had their backs to the game as they were busy eating!  Jajaja!!!

Here’s a photo shared by the descartados.  I adore Marcelo.

The Xabi Alonso pose section.™  Here we have Xabi’s “what the hell are you asking?” face and his “I can’t wait for this interview to end so I’m going to try and make a run for it” face.

Early on in the game, Rafa Varane injured his right knee during a play, and had to be helped off of the field.  During his post-game press conference, Mou hinted at the seriousness of the injury when he said that Rafa had been ruled out for the Copa del Rey final.  Rafa returned to Madrid with his knee bandaged and on crutches.  According to various media reports, he suffered a torn meniscus and will need surgery, which will effectively rule him for a period of a month to two months.  On his Facebook, he wrote, “I’m sad!  The tests showed an injury of the meniscus.  I will have to be operated on as soon as possible…”  ¡Ánimo Rafa!

Other things.  Sunday was a good day for madridista athletes, as Rafa Nadal – with the support of Pepe, Cris and Sergio, who were in the stands – beat Stanislas Wawrinka to win the Mutua Madrid Open.  Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso made a comeback to win the Spanish GP at Montmeló.  It only wasn’t a good day for the basketball team, which finished second in the Euroleague.

And our Benjamín A team has become the sixth team in the cantera to be crowned champions!  It did so by beating Barrio del Pilar 12-0, with Carlos López scoring five goals and Hugo chipping in a hat trick!  This team has won all of the 22 games it has played.  Juvenil A, Juvenil B, Cadete B, Alevín B and the Prebenjamín team are the other champions so far.