Jornada 1a: RMCF v Espanyol, 2 Sept [R]

[HalaMadrid]

Comment on the first match of the season here...

[DragonFly]

------------------Casillas
Salgado---Hiero--Helguera---R. Carlos
Figo--Cambiasso--Zidane--Solari
-----------Raul----Guti-----

(tho on realmadrid.com they list Figo as
the attacker and Guti as the MF).

Subs
--------
Macca
Morientes
Minambres
Bravo
Portillo
Cesar
Pavon

Supposedly, if you have a hi speed connection,
you can watch it over the internet @
http://www.crtvg.es/ingles/tvg/pritvendirectoflash.htm

If not, you can go to realmadrid.com for the en
directo flash pbp, etc. (in multiple languages).

So far, in min 16, Espanyol is dominating play.
4-1 in shots for Espanyol, only one one goal.
Hiero with a yellow card in Min 15 and early
sub for Espanyol (Posse on for the injured
Crusat in min 5).

[DragonFly]

Gooooaaaal!

Helguera header off a Figo corner
in min. 34. RM had started pressuring
with Zizou getting a shot off, and Raul
with their first scoring opportunity in
Min 30.

[DragonFly]

Half Time. 1-0 Real Madrid on Helguera's header
1st half stats from realmadrid.com:

---------Real Madrid---Espanyol
Shots---------7--------------7
On Goal -----1--------------2
Fouls ---------7--------------8
Y. Cards-----1--------------0
Corners-----11-------------3

And few more stats I'm not used to seeing:

Centers to the penalty area:
-----------------27-------------9

Carrying ball into penalty area:
---------------- 3---------------0

Attack Moves(?):
----------------64-------------51

Number of ball possesions:
----------------38-------------37

Lost Balls---33-------------34

[dmar]

Great play by Real Madrid... but pretty lame scoring.

Guti missed 2 good chances and sent a header to the crossbar, a pity because that spoiled a good game by him. Raul didn't appear much and missed too one of the clearest chances.
Cambiasso was huge and was applaused a lot when he left the pitch. Zidane was great, too. Figo, Helguera and Roberto Carlos were other important players.
Morientes substituted Guti and was applaused, too.
Macca was the most important sub, he scored well the 2nd.

[DragonFly]

2-0 Final. 2nd goal by Macca in
min 88 on a great pass from Raul.

As for subs:

Solari on for Cambiasso in min 89
McManaman on for Figo in min 82
Morientes on for Guti in min 80.

20-12 in shots for RM (7-3 on goal).
15-3 in corners. 68% possesion time in
favor of Real Madrid, tho both teams had
the ball 80 times (81-80).

134-102 ?attack moves? (what exactly
they are, I don't know). 62-15 centers
into the area (Figo with 27 of those), and
9-2 carries into the are (4 for Cambiasso).

Commentators say RM dominated the
2nd half, and had many chances to score,
with Raul ?missing? many, before giving
"un gran pase" for the McManaman goal.

Also, apparently, El Moro got a huge ovation
when he entered onto the pitch.

Reports also say that Munitis was loaned
to Racing de Santander for the year.

Until the next game...

-- Colin

[MadridForever]

Expectacular second half. One of the best soccer moments that i have seen in the bernabeu in the last times.

Figo played great. Cambiasso and Zidane even better. Roberto Carlos great too. And the rest of the team a very high level.

As dmar have said, we only had the problem of miss many goal occasions. I think that the result could have been 4-0 or 5-0 whithout problems.

Del Bosque made a variation for this game and Zidane played in the left with liberty of movements. The defenders of this band will dream this night with Zidane and Roberto Carlos. I think that this variation worked very well and may be a good solution at least for the home games.

All the players got a huge ovations when they left the pith because as i said before today we have had a lot of fun.

Ah, Good comments dragonfly.

[Qdog]

It looked to me like Cambiasso and Makelele really took a lot of pressure off Helguera and Hierro. Espanyol seemed to have a hard time getting the ball far past the mid-field line. Awesome performance by Real Madrid.