Spanish Football thread

[m_vaughan]

Hungary and Real Madrid legend Ferenc Puskas died on Friday at the age of 79.

He was part of the awesome Hungarian team and all conquering Real Madrid side of the 1950s. He was called the Galloping Major and had a deadly left foot.

He will be sadly missed!

 

[m_vaughan]

Big game tonight against Sevilla. After our youngsters earned a draw away from home in the Champions League (thanks to a Ronaldo brace), the main players now have to prove their worth in this game. We are already second in the league, after Sevilla lost last weekend to Espanyol.

I would expect Ramos to regain his position on the left, and Helguera is passed fit should start in centre alongside the World Footballer of the Year, Cannavaro. Ronaldo's goalscoring form could earn himself a starting spot alongside RVN, although I think the Raul-RVN combination works better for us. Unlike the other two, Raul goes back into midfield and wins possession, puts in nice passes and crosses himself, besides playing as a forward and scoring goals. His dummies are extremely tough to pick and so many of the goals scored by RVN this season have been rebounds of shots taken by Raul.

Sevilla's pace along the flanks could punish us, hence Capello will play three defensive midfielders (Diarra, Guti and Emerson) to counter that. Reyes and Robinho have shown indifferent form in recent games, and hence I expect only one of them to start. Guti in that case will play ahead of Diarra and Emerson. Capello must also try and include the youngster De la Red a lot more in these matches, probably as a substitute.

 

[m_vaughan]

Madrid and Sevilla have both won this weekend. With Barca not playing (lost 1-0 to Internazionale in the World Club Championship final), Sevilla take top spot while Madrid are third and a point behind Barca and two behind Sevilla.

It was a boring game tbh (Espanyol vs Madrid). Both teams cancelled each other out and both teams were trying to play the counter game. In the end some fine passage play between Reyes and Guti plus a top finish from Ruud Van Nistelrooy was enough for the three points.

 

[m_vaughan]

Yesterday's performance against Depor has to be one of our worst ever. Why on earth was Ramos playing on the left?? Has Capello lost it??

 

[puddleduck]

Exactly a month ago you didn't have a complaint saying "you expected to see him on the left"

 

[m_vaughan]

Exactly a month ago you didn't have a complaint saying "you expected to see him on the left"

That was a typo. Dont tell me Capello actually read that.

 

[m_vaughan]

Barca lost 1-3 to Espanyol in the big derby game. Gives Real yet another chance.

 

[m_vaughan]

Real won 1-0 in the end and should have scored 2-3 more. Higuan and Reyes were brilliant and Robinho also had a decent game on the left flank. Our defence showed an improved performance although Helguera's lack of pace is still visible and we were lucky that Zaragoza dint trouble us much.

Level on points with Barca and two points behind Sevilla who also lost this weekend!!

 

[kooljack9]

go Madrid.....u can still do it!!

 

[JamesyJames3]

Real won 1-0 in the end and should have scored 2-3 more. Higuan and Reyes were brilliant and Robinho also had a decent game on the left flank. Our defence showed an improved performance although Helguera's lack of pace is still visible and we were lucky that Zaragoza dint trouble us much.

Level on points with Barca and two points behind Sevilla who also lost this weekend!!

What game were you watching?! I was at the Bernabau on Sunday and Higuan and Reyes were Real's two worst players. They were awful, I have never seen two players give the ball away so frequently. All be it, no players in the Real team played well bar Van Nistelrooy. A very lucky win as they came up against a Zaragoza team not showing the form they have shown thus far this season.

 

[m_vaughan]

What game were you watching?! I was at the Bernabau on Sunday and Higuan and Reyes were Real's two worst players. They were awful, I have never seen two players give the ball away so frequently. All be it, no players in the Real team played well bar Van Nistelrooy. A very lucky win as they came up against a Zaragoza team not showing the form they have shown thus far this season.

You might have been at Bernabeu but were definately not watching the game. Higuain got a rating of 9 while Reyes got 8.5 (out of 10). Possession is lost in Spain a lot more frequently than in England because of the style of play there.

And it was by no means a lucky win. We could have won 4 or 5 nil.

 

[JamesyJames3]

You might have been at Bernabeu but were definately not watching the game. Higuain got a rating of 9 while Reyes got 8.5 (out of 10). Possession is lost in Spain a lot more frequently than in England because of the style of play there.

And it was by no means a lucky win. We could have won 4 or 5 nil.

If there is one thing I have learnt in the journalism world, it is not to trust ratings. They are often put together by bias views.

It may be so that the ball is lost more frequently than England, but they were pathetic on Sunday. I would add Robinho to that list when he came on. Gago and Van Nistelrooy were impressive.

And yes it was lucky. Had Zaragoza turned up on Sunday, they would have taken something away with them. They were infact unlucky not to with the performance they put in, with Pique hitting the bar late on.

 

[m_vaughan]

If there is one thing I have learnt in the journalism world, it is not to trust ratings. They are often put together by bias views.

It may be so that the ball is lost more frequently than England, but they were pathetic on Sunday. I would add Robinho to that list when he came on. Gago and Van Nistelrooy were impressive.

And yes it was lucky. Had Zaragoza turned up on Sunday, they would have taken something away with them. They were infact unlucky not to with the performance they put in, with Pique hitting the bar late on.

You should be the last person talking about biased views.

Madrid had five good chances out of which Higuain was involved in four. Gago tried hard but needs more time.

 

[JamesyJames3]

You should be the last person talking about biased views.

Madrid had five good chances out of which Higuain was involved in four. Gago tried hard but needs more time.

Erm, would you care to ellaborate?

If by good chances you mean average, then yes, you're right.

 

[m_vaughan]

Erm, would you care to ellaborate?

If by good chances you mean average, then yes, you're right.

Okay here you go.

Reyes took a free kick in the first half and put it in beautifully for Ramos but the latter went sideways for some reason. The ball was there to be put in and Ramos has an excellent record for scoring such and infact much harder goals.

Reyes had another free kick and another good ball in but Helguera made a big mess of it and hit it wide.

Another free kick from Reyes not as good as the previous two but still forced a one handed save from Cesar and RVN was unable to score from the rebound.

Then the goal, which started with Robinho's cross which found Higuain at the far post who put in a fantastic low cross right in the path of RVN who had to just tap it into the goal.

Higuain also had a shot himself but again Cesar just managed to tip it away.

There were other half chances involving Reyes and Ruben de la Red.

Another decent chance was when Robinho made a nice run and tried for the far corner but just missed. It was a brilliant run and had it gone it would have been a brilliant goal.