all set for Deportivo!

Real Madrid takes on Deportivo (I’m excited not only to watch my team, but also a player I have always admired, Juan Carlos Valerón) today at 20h at the Riazor!  That happens to be the only stadium in Spain where Cristiano has not yet scored.  It also happens to be the field where Madrid has only won once in the last 20 years.  But I’m confident we’ll pass with flying colors!

On the subject of Cristiano, you might remember seeing him with Amancio in the video Madrid prepared several weeks ago with five of the club’s legendary forwards.  What you might not know is that he is a native of A Coruña and came to Madrid from Deportivo.  And he gave us this anecdote, in a recent interview.  He was asked about his first game with Madrid, and his response was, “it was in Ghana.  It bothered me that I had the only shirt without the escudo on it.  I asked Alfredo di Stéfano about it.  I will never forget his response: ‘you first have to sweat to earn this escudo, chico.'”  Amén.

Sergio Ramos at El Hormiguero 3.0

Sergio Ramos was the special guest on Thursday night’s El Hormiguero 3.0, and as Pablo Motos said, the first active Real Madrid player to appear on the talk show. I had a great time watching Sergio, and he seemed to be enjoying himself too! The two talk about his hair, the dropped Copa del Rey, the penalties against Bayern Munich and Portugal, plus many other things! And if we look at his tweets about his appearance, it appears that the help has finally gone on!

I have no faith in Iker’s aesthetic abilities…

… but there’s no doubting that this spot for the newly renovated Adidas store in the Bernabéu is seriously adorable.

It was filmed last Friday, and stars Iker, Xabi, José Callejón and MFC Álvaro Borja Morata Martín from the football team, and Felipe Reyes, Sergio Rodríguez and Carlos Suárez from the basketball team.  It starts with Iker arriving, toolkit in hand.  He then tells the rest that the store lacks their special touch.

ICYMI – the Goya Awards edition

In case you missed it – Real Madrid vs. Rayo Vallecano [2013-02-17, Liga jornada 24, 2-0].

It was fitting that the Goya Awards (Spain’s equivalent of the Oscars) were taking place at the same time as this game in Madrid, because the way this game developed seemed to be the work of a creative screenwriter and not real life.  First, there was the euphoria from MFC Álvaro Borja Morata Martín scoring the first goal in the third minute (he celebrated by kissing the escudo; I love him!) and Sergio Ramos chipping one in 10 minutes after that.

Then came the plot twist: Sergio got himself sent off by the 17th minute (making him both the hero and the villain of this particular film), and shortly thereafter Madrid was left without both goalscorers, as MFC had to come out so that another defender could go in.  Only in Madrid.

ICYMI – the Superman edition

In case you missed it – Real Madrid vs. Sevilla [2013-02-09, Liga jornada 23, 4-1].

AS’ cover screamed “SUPERMÁN” and La Sexta followed suit.

We can’t seem to beat teams from Andalucía in Andalucía, but over at the Bernabéu, it’s a whole other story, as our home stadium remains a fortress.  And hopefully that will extend to Wednesday’s game against Manchester United!

an assortment of random things

It is what the title says, an assortment of random things…

¡Feliz año nuevo chino!: for all their fans in China, Madrid prepared a “Happy Chinese New Year” video, with Iker, Xabi and Kaká brave enough to try speaking Mandarin.

nostalgia overload

I miss Raúl, I miss Sergio even though he’ll be back in a few days because he’s been absent lately, I miss Vicente del Bosque, who is hiding back there…

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.