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The word crisis, whispered in the last few weeks, has now reached a crescendo at the Bernabéu, as Real Madrid were knocked out of the Copa del Rey by a third division side. A repeat of the 4-3 weekend scoreline was not enough to subdue a Real Unión de Irún squad that ran rampant for large stretches of the game, as if the venue or their opponents were of no consequence. Not even a hat-trick from captain Raúl was enough to bring his half-dead team back to life.
The first half was symptomatic of everything that ails Real Madrid at the moment. This is a side split in half to such an extent that they seemed at times to have completely abandoned the midfield to the opposition. It's not just that the defenders are sometimes slow to react and badly positioned, there is just no support from most of their team-mates.
But the lack of players tracking back to defend was also in evidence when the team had the ball. It's not in Real's genetic make-up to play long-ball football, but that is exactly what the local crowd were treated to for most of the first forty-five minutes.
Raúl, the busiest player by far on the night, acted as link-up man, even though he was nominally one of the two strikers, the other being Saviola. This seemed to change in the second half as Sneijder dropped back more often, but just exactly what are Schuster's tactical instructions at the beginning of the game? Asking Metzelder to make runs on the left wing was a first, and what Real gained in attack they more than lost on defence.
The visitors went ahead through Abasolo after 13 minutes, after Salgado failed to deal with a cross on his wing and left Dudek with little chance of making the save. It took a mistake from Eduard, the Irún goalkeeper, to allow Real to equalise, with Raúl easily heading the ball over the advancing goalie after a cross from Marcelo.
Saviola could then have put his side ahead but his goal was disallowed on the stroke of half-time when he was clearly on-side. That was the linesman's fault, but someone needs to take the referee aside and explain to him how to apply the advantage rule, though his failures in this respect affected both sides equally.
Schuster swapped Cannavaro for Javi García during the break for no apparent reason, other than the Italy captain was not having a very good night - but then, neither were any of his colleagues in the back four. Three minutes in, García and Metzelder were not fast enough to catch Salcedo,though it must be said, they had precious little support from any of the midfield players, who were all far too far upfield.
Fortunately for Real, Irún's lead lasted just over a minute, as Raúl got his second after Saviola's pass had found him free in the area.
With the game at 2-2 fifteen minutes into the second half, Schuster brought Alberto Bueno on for Drenthe. The player from the Castilla reserve side only had two minutes on his debut in the first leg in Irún. The promising youngster impressed with his energy and talent and went on to score the goal of the night to put his side ahead and even the tie.
Raúl then thought he had put his side through five minutes from time with his third of the night from a free kick intended as a cross which none of the other players got a touch on. It was the first time all night that the home side was mathematically in the last 16 round of the Copa del Rey.
In a heart-stopping finish to the game, Real Unión took advantage of yet another defensive blunder to score their third in the 89th minute and put Real out of the competition on away goals.
Real Madrid have shown all season that they have the talent up front and the self-belief to enable them to claw their way out of adverse scorelines. However, this is a side so unbalanced on the pitch that any team with a modicum of tactical nous can control the game at their leisure. We haven't seen Bernd Schuster do anything to remedy this over the last few weeks and, as he admitted in the post-match press conference, it's now looking like he doesn't know how to.
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
Irún puts Real Madrid in intensive care
Thursday, 3 January 2008
Reserves fail to impress
A last-gasp goal by Guti spared Real Madrid's blushes and prevented the indignity of extra time at the Bernabéu against a side currently playing two divisions lower. In a devalued competition where the odds are stacked in favour of the bigger sides with the return legs of ties being staged on their turf, there are question marks about the depth of Real Madrid's squad.
Coming so soon after certain triumphalist statements in the press about aiming for the "treble" (League, Cup and Champions League), it highlights that one good game does not make a season, and one bad game can help ruin it. This is not the same side that played against Barcelona. It featured precious few of the same players. As in the first leg in Alicante, Schuster provided an opportunity to some of those players getting less minutes in the league to show that they are a valid alternative to the starting eleven. Given their performances at Madrid and Alicante, the manager will have to reconsider if he truly wants to give this competition a chance.
The headlines should have all been about Arjen Robben's first goal for Real Madrid. His technical qualities have been overshadowed by his physical fragility and he has been threatening to turn into an expensive mistake on the scale of Jonathan Woodgate (whose time at Middlesbrough has been recently hampered by mysterious bouts of cramp). The goal came from a delicate chip from Higuaín over a defender to set up Robben for a good finish.
Instead, it was a catalogue of missed opportunities (Soldado was clearly trying too hard to impress; we know he can put those kinds of chances away) and a lack of commitment and focus once they'd scored, that allowed Alicante to fight their way back into a game they should never have had a hope of winning. The usual headlong rush in the last half-hour to get a winner almost let the visitors maintain their hitherto unbeaten record against Real Madrid, but Guti's touch of class 10 seconds from extra time served to paper over the cracks. As would have you believe that the reserves did their job well. It must be said that a couple (Balboa, Higuaín) had decent performances, but, as for the rest... well, As must have been watching a different game.
The draw for the next two rounds is on Friday [Update: Real will face Mallorca, first away and then at home], and the ties will be played in mid-week for the next 4 weeks to determine the semi-finalists before January is out. The treble is on... but only just.
Wednesday, 19 December 2007
Nothing in reserve
Real Madrid's second-string side failed to impress after being given a run-out in the competition that time forgot. Their opponents, Alicante, have never lost against the Madrid side, although their win in their only previous encounter, a friendly in 1956, is hardly the stuff of legends. A collection of the marginalised (Dudek, Drenthe, Soldado), the out-of-favour (Guti, Saviola, Salgado) and those coming back from injury (Metzelder, Heinze) did little to convince their manager to consider them for the upcoming Clásico at Barcelona.
The manager publicly defended his players, claiming in the face of all the evidence that Alicante's goal came from a "gift" penalty from the referee that should never have been given and that it's unfair to judge the players on this performance, as they were not used to playing together (there's no minnows any more, eh Bernd?). Schuster hinted that some of those who played today would also play on Sunday (Guti, perhaps?) but he said nothing about whether they would be starting.
In the end Balboa saved the team's blushes with a header off a corner kick in the last minute of the game. The return leg will be played at the Bernabéu on January 2nd.
Monday, 17 December 2007
The forgotten Cup
It was the trophy the galácticos could not win. The Copa del Rey, the oldest football trophy in Spain, has seen its status increasingly devalued over the years. Whenit was originally conceived in 1902, it was the only national football competition; this remained the case until the creation of the league championship in 1928. Winning it now "merely" grants access to the UEFA cup, which is presumably why most top clubs, Real Madrid included, field an under-strength side until the semifinal stages. More recently, Michel Platini, now UEFA president, had to postpone his plans to persuade national federations to nominate cup winners for entry to the Champions League, a move which could have helped to revive ailing cup competitions around Europe.
More importantly, unlike the FA Cup in England, the rounds involving top flight sides are played over two legs, with the second leg always played at the home ground of the team in the higher division. This clearly tilts the balance in favour of the bigger clubs and diminishes the chances of an upset, one of the beauties of any cup competitions as opposed to the league championship, which rewards consistency.
None of the current members of the Real Madrid squad have ever won the Copa del Rey. You have to go back to the 26th June 1993, nearly 15 years ago, for the last time the club won this competition. The squad list for Real Madrid that night is like delving into the history books: Buyo, Chendo, Nando, Sanchis, Lasa, Míchel, Hierro, Milla, Villarroya, Butragueño, Alfonso. Ramis and Esnáider came on as substitutes in the second half and Butragueño and Lasa were the scorers in the 2-0 win against Zaragoza. Curiously, Real's starting eleven was composed exclusively of Spanish players, unthinkable these days (it was pretty rare even then). Only after Argentine Esnáider came on for Alfonso in the second half was the symmetry "broken".
Real have reached the final twice since that day. In 2002, the club somehow managed to persuade the federation to stage the final at the Bernabéu to celebrate Real's centenary. Deportivo played party poopers that night in the infamous centenariazo where they came off 2-1 winners. More recently, in 2004, a galáctico-laden side (including Roberto Carlos, Figo, Beckham and Zidane) lost out to revenge-fuelled Zaragoza after an extra-time winner put them 3-2 ahead. That 17th March game marked perhaps the beginning of the end for the galáctico era, as Real Madrid was up until then on course to win three competitions (they were leading the league championship and still in the Champions League) and ended up 4th in the league and knocked out of the CL by a Morientes-led Monaco a mere three weeks later.
On Wednesday, Real will play Alicante, a side who have never played in the top division and who have spent most of their 90-year history in the lowly Tercera División (actually the fourth tier of divisions in Spain). They currently play one step above that, so are expected to pose little trouble to Real's reserve side. But then again, it is the beauty of cup football that a "lesser" highly motivated side can always upset a more skillful side who does not take them or the competition seriously.
