Wednesday 5 September 2007

This is no time for euphoria


Coming back from a week's holiday to find that your team is the best thing since sliced bread (which, let's face it, was never that great an invention) always brings out the cynical side in my nature. Granted, winning 5-0 away from home doesn't happen every week (last time was over 11 years ago, on 24th January 1996 against Athletic Bilbao), and Villareal had not lost in 18 games.

Perhaps Bernd Schuster has it right, calling for an attitude balanced between joy and caution: "I'm not worried about the feeling of euphoria because there's a 10-day gap until the next game and in that time nobody will remember what happened here. That's why we're going to enjoy the result, which is a thing that happens only rarely. What I liked the most was the team's attitude; they're all working together at the highest level. We can undoubtedly improve on certain things because not everything was that great." Real Madrid looked good, balanced and playing more exciting football than under Capello, but let's not forget the 120 million euros that have been spent building this squad and all the jogo bonito in the world will not save Schuster from the chop if the trophies don't come his way.

There are some positives to take away, of course. Guti and Sneijder seem to be complementing each other in midfield better than could be expected (though of course it's still early days and Guti has a propensity for 'disappearing' from a number of games every season). Phil Ball argues that Drenthe and Sneijder have given the side the balance they sorely needed and Diarra is doing all the dirty work behind Guti and the little Dutchman. Heinze debuted at left back, coming in for Raúl(!), and freeing up Drenthe to roam further up the pitch, where he prefers to play. Cannavaro and Metzelder were solid in the centre of defence all evening, especially in the first half when Villareal had most of the possession and the attacking play. Ramos continues to impress on the right wing and his tribute to the late, lamented Antonio Puerta, who collapsed during Sevilla's opening game of the season, suffered a number of cardiac arrests and finally passed away a few days later, was spoiled by an officious yellow card from the otherwise fine refereeing of Medina Cantalejo. In a rare display of humanity, the Spanish Federation annulled the yellow card as they considered the tribute to be "sincere" and made in "exceptional circumstances".

However, some of the other news of the past week have not been so positive. Schuster took six canteranos with him to Austria for preseason training: Granero, Balboa, De la Red, Adrián, Codina and Bueno. None have any room in the current squad, given the influx of players, and in the hours before the closing of the transfer window on August 31st, De la Red and Granero moved to Getafe (transfer and loan, respectively) and Adrián was loaned to Celta for a year. Soldado does not seem to feature highly on Schuster striker list and may opt for a move at Christmas.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I love your blog, but sometimes I wish there were more frequent posts. Like Pt. 2 of the Capello interview. Anyways great work, a big fan of it!

TheAuthor said...

Sanchopinky,

Believe me, Part 2 of the interview was nowhere near as interesting as the first, so you didn't miss much.

Unfortunately, time does not allow me to post any more frequently than I do, but thanks for the comments. Without comments, sometimes you think you're the only one reading it!

Unknown said...

Alright thanks for the warning on Pt. 2

I check it everyday before school and after, it's quality stuff! If it's only you posting at the moment maybe you should consider getting a friend to help post and such so the format change won't be too drastic.

Anonymous said...

Good work Gonzalo i've been reading your blog for a while, a round up for AS & Marca in English

i agree its too early to pass the judgment on Real i still don't trust Schuster at all. if we were planning to get an ex-player i would go for Laudrup not Schuster.. however a win is a win & the team looks good so far.

Pretty sad that both Granero & De La Red left while people like Salgado is still holding their place (even as sub) i guess having a wife who happen to be the daughter of the ex-President have its privileges