Managing Madrid

C/O Marca.com

It wasn't the dream ending that many of us Madridistas had hoped for. But it wasn't a catastrophe: Real Madrid drew 1-1 at the Nou Camp in the second leg of the Champions League, a result that allowed Barcelona to advance to the final against Manchester United.

While the aggregate score of the two legs favored Barca, 3-1, there is a lot more than that to take away from this tie: for Madrid, there is a sense of injustice, and in my mind, a vindication of Mourinho's strategy. Had los blancos escaped the Barnabéu with a 0-0 draw--which looked like the correct result after 60 minutes of play (that is, until CDM/CB Pepe was unjustly ejected)--today's 1-1 draw would have seen them through to the final.

But we're not here to talk about last week's game: we rehashed that in our last post, and don't feel like reliving it. Today's game was much more indicative of where these two teams stand--when the cards are on the metaphorical table, and when Madrid manages to finally end a match with 11 men on the pitch, these two teams are very very even. Despite the possession and shot statistics (Barcelona dominated both), the final score, the thing that counts, was 1-1. Madrid defended well, protected the goal, and executed one perfect, lethal, counter-attack.

While there was some controversy today, especially when referee Fran De Bleeckere unfairly disallowed a fair goal by Higuaín for a non-existant "foul" (and by that I mean Cristiano Ronaldo getting tripped and accidentally clipping Mascherano's back heel with his back), this isn't what we should take away from the match. What we as Madridistas should see is a team that knows how to fight, a team that can play with this so highly-lauded and FIFA-beloved Barcelona team.

So as we approach the tail end of our season, there are a lot of things to be happy about, and a lot of things to be hopeful about. We can be happy that this young, exciting team has begun to gel; that Kaká is finally looking like the player we wanted to see all along; that Karim Benzema has had such a good year; that Mesut Özil and Angel di María may have been some of the best signings the front office has made in years; that Mourinho motivated this team to fight in every match; and that the youngest team in the league fought tooth and nail with the best Barcelona side of all time, and won the Copa del Rey.

The "foul" that disallowed Higuaín's goal. Marca.com

Sure, we can feel angry that this tie was heavily influenced by the referees, that Dani Alves should get nominated for Best Supporting Actor, that out of the five games Madrid has played against Barcelona, they ended the game with 11 men only once. But that's not the point. This is the time of year for reflection, for looking to the positives, and to the things we need to improve.

In the coming days I'll do a piece or two on the season as a whole, and probably on what talent we should bring in in the off season. For now, let's all take a moment to reflect on this season, to see the good with the bad, where we went right next to where we went wrong. And let's look to the future with excitement and hope for this young team.

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One down, three to go. In the first of four highly anticipated match-ups, Real Madrid and Barcelona drew 1-1 at the Santiago Bernabéu in what was a gritty game marked mainly by players' nerves and referees. Leo Messi put Barcelona ahead 1-0 on a penalty after Raúl Albiol pulled down David Villa in the box (the Madrid defender was shown a direct red card); Cristiano Ronaldo tied the game at 1-1 for Madrid after Dani Alves mistimed a challenge on Marcelo (Alves was not shown a card, though a yellow would have been his second of the game).

Perhaps the most interesting part of the match was Mourinho's decision to include Pepe in the midfield trivot, at the expense of Mesut Özil, and to slide Albiol into Pepe's center-back role next to Carvalho. Tactically, the Portuguese defender's presence in the midfield stifled Barça's passing, relegating them to horizontal possession for most of the game.

It was a tricky move by Mourinho, one that belies a belief that we here at Managing Madrid share: possession does not win a game. By ceding possession to Barcelona, Mourinho cut off their dangerous diagonal passing lanes (that had so destroyed los blancos in the first leg), and relegated their "style" to mainly negative (that is, backwards) passes.

It also meant that Madrid played mainly on the counter-attack--which is arguably Barcelona's weak link: Ronaldo and Di Maria bombed down the flanks with Benzema in the center looking for quick passing lanes and vertical runs. While this style only gave los vikingos a small percent of the game's possession, it actually resulted in a similar number of total goal-scoring chances.

Critics of Mourinho (and of Madrid generally) will argue that this brand of counter-attacking, defense-oriented, fast-paced football is "bad" or "boring" football, that it shames Madrid to play like this. That's total bullsh*t. Seriously. There's no one brand of universal "good" football--I love watching my team defend properly, cut off angles, shut down attacks. I love watching fast-paced counters, brutal, lightening-quick finishing. That's way more beautiful, to me, than negative, horizontal, boring possession-based football. To say that one way is "better" than another is necessarily to make a totalizing universal out of a subjective opinion; and to the argument that Barça's style has resulted in trophies, I would respond that so did this style, unless Italy's 2006, 1990 (etc) World Cups, Greece's 2004 Euro Cup, and more recently Madrid's 2006-2007 Liga don't count?

I'm getting way off topic, though, because the real focus of the match was the refereeing, which has pretty much been attacked on all fronts. I'm going to try to be fair here--to both the teams and to the refs--because there have been so many biased articles about this already.

1. Barcelona wanted a penalty on Casillas for an encounter with Villa in the first half. This was a tough call: in my (in)expert opinion, Villa did himself no favors by beginning his fall before Casillas got to him. At the same time, there was some contact, but no clear indication that Villa could have gotten the ball had there not been contact--close play, could have gone either way, but the right (no-) call in my opinion. Madrid got the better end of the stick on this one.
2. The first penalty. The right call, Albiol grabbed Villa's neck and pulled him down. Would have liked to see him try for the ball at least: you're giving up a shot or a penalty in that scenario, the least you could do is swipe at the ball.
3. The second penalty. Dubious, but ultimately correct. There was contact, though Marcelo did exaggerate his fall, and Dani Alves was way behind when he went to ground. While this was much more up in the air than the first penalty, Alves has no business going to ground there--Football 101: referees are looking to make up for earlier penalties, so don't give them an excuse.
4. Alves not getting booked for his tackle. Terrible call. If the penalty call is correct (remember, if), then Alves has to be booked. Textbook yellow card: going to ground, missing the ball, preventing an attack. This is where everything unravels: the referee looked weak, and didn't back up his original call with a punishment worthy of the crime. Barça got the better end on this one.

Incidentally, the referees left everyone unhappy, which seems oddly fair. It'll be sad to see Albiol miss the Copa final (his punishment for his red card), but it was deserved; Barça will be counting their lucky stars that the same thing didn't happen to Alves.

Javier Soriano/Getty

Los blancos beat Spurs 0-1 on Wednesday to secure a spot in the Champions League semifinals that seemed preordained after their 4-0 thrashing of the London side last week. They'll move on to face arch-rival FC Barcelona for a shot at winning their record 10th European Champions League title.

But that won't be their first shot at Barcelona this month--the two giants are set to play four (that's right, FOUR) matches in the next three weeks: the Champions League semifinals, the Copa del Rey final, and have a regular-sounding Liga BBVA match this weekend. That's a lot of clásico.


A few notes from the Spurs game first:

• Madrid--and especially Raúl Albiol looked solid defensively. They'll need that in the coming weeks against Barça, so it's good to see him in such good form.
• Unfortunately, Ricardo Carvalho saw a yellow card and will miss the first leg in the Bernabéu--all the more reason for Albiol to step up.
• Cristiano's goal wasn't really his goal: Gomes, Spurs' keeper, bobbled a long-range effort that eventually squirted into the net. Bad error from a solid keeper. 
• For the second game in a row, Kaká looked good. He's running better than I've seen him run in years, playing with pace in his passing and his finishing. He had a curling effort barely blocked by Gomes on the far post that was particularly vintage Kaká. 
• While the tie was pretty much over after the first leg, CR7's really nailed it down--I kept doing the math in my head: Spurs needs to win 4-0 to force overtime, 5-0 to win outright; if Madrid score, the number jumps up to 6 goals. 

"Pulpo Iniesta" picked Madrid! C/O As.com