mid-week catch-up post

What’s been going on as we count down to the Copa del Rey final?

Training.

The team has been training for the past three days, but since that’s not very exciting or new, I’ll just leave it at that.

Rafa Varane.

It appears that Madrid only issues injury reports for serious injuries (i.e. those that need surgery) now, and unfortunately, we got one for Rafa Varane stating that he was operated on his right knee on Monday by an orthopedic surgeon in France who specializes in knees.  The next day, Rafa posted on his Facebook that the knee surgery was successful, and shared a photo.  Get well soon Rafa!

The team lunch.

The entire team, except for Rafa Varane, and including Chendo, fisios and other staff (but not the coaching staff), had lunch together at Filandón, which specializes in traditional cuisine (the name refers to a tradition most commonly practiced in Galicia, Asturias and León where people would gather after dinner to tell stories while doing manual labor, usually related to textiles).  As per team tradition, the new players – Luka Modrić, Michael Essien and Diego López – footed the bill and treated their teammates.  Here are some of the photos the boys shared from the lunch.

This was also an opportunity to see what the boys come up with when they dress themselves.  Here, we have the ones who took the classic route.  That’s completely expected for Xabi, but not so much for Iker, who was dressed quite tame and even a bit boring by his (low) standards.

On the other end of the spectrum was our favorite fashionista, Cristiano Ronaldo, who sported a very tight and quite low cut v-neck t-shirt and cardigan.  The huge belt buckle is an eyesore.  I yearn to throw out his entire collection of belts.

Then we had those boys who were not very original, as they all showed up sporting t-shirts featuring pop culture icons, such as Muhammad Ali, Madonna or Marilyn Monroe, which we have seen millions of times before on them and their teammates.  Surprisingly enough, this time around Álvaro Arbeloa wasn’t one of them.

Then we had the members of The Mickey Mouse Club!  As we can see above, luckily the pink Minnie Mouse umbrella doesn’t seem to belong to Mesut – he just picked it up to stay dry!  I think Sami and Michael preferred to get wet over standing under that thing.  Ángel wasn’t; maybe he’s just getting practice in for Mia.  It kind of suits Mesut though, no?

And then we had Kaká, who sometimes dresses too old for his age.  I mean, we can all picture José Mourinho in that jacket, no?  Even the other Ricky looked younger than him.

I hope someone was kind enough to give Karim and Marcelo rides home!

Videos.

Futgolf is back!  This time, we had Pipa Higuaín, Mesut “Usi,” Fabinho Coentrão and “Tiger” Varane trying their hand, or rather their feet, at this fusion sport for bwin.  Some of the shots were completely off target, others were made with the assistance of teammates…

… and some did not go in despite Mesut’s best efforts to blow the ball in the right direction.  At the end of the day, it appeared that everyone was a winner except for Mesut, as Pipa rubbed in again and again.  ¡Pobrecito!  (Although I wouldn’t mind having Pipita tease me.)

Watch the video, it is hilarious, especially the interaction between the boys and how much Gonzalo likes to talk.  I think the other three said 10 words combined at the most, with Pipa doing the rest of the talking.

H&S has released a series of videos showing “experiments” with Iker Casillas.  They’re amusing enough, although quite fake.  In the first video, Iker is tested on memory and mental agility.  He’s asked a series of questions with answers within 30 seconds, such as the number of games he’s played in the first division (476), the number of official titles he’s won in his career (18), the number of times he’s won with La Roja (105), how many minutes are in a day (1440), the capital of Paraguay (Asunción), what seven times eight is (56).

The second video measures his visual agility.   He matches up against a guy doing the three cups, one ball routine, and has to guess where the ball is.  Of course, Iker is not fooled (otherwise what would be the point of the video?) even when the ball ends up in the guy’s pocket.

The last one tests Iker’s concentration and stamina by bombarding him with a horde of fans seeking autographs and photos for “90 minutes.”  He makes it through, although he ends up a bit more disheveled than when he started.  After that, they ask if he’s tired, and Iker says he’s quite tired.  They then trick him by telling him they need to film the entire segment again, and Iker said he wouldn’t mind but appears to be relieved that he doesn’t have to do it.

We also had José Mourinho, Mesut and Luka promoting Michael Essien’s Game of Hope.  Mesut needs directions on what to say (I love his “bad” English) and makes Luka go ahead of him, while Mou confirms that he has to call it the Game of Hope instead of “Mikey’s game” and is happy to be done.  Adorable all around!

Other things.

Since we can always use a dose of Xabi Alonso, here he is on Sunday walking his dog with Jon (of note: apparently he chose to walk his dog at the halftime of the Atleti-Barcelona game).  I love his outfit.  Earlier in the day, he and friends had helped to celebrate the birthday of the luckiest woman in the world, Nagore.

And here is a print ad for the Nivea Men campaign!

I hope you all are having a good week, and getting ready to cheer Madrid on to victory in the Copa del Rey!  Two more days!