Don't waste your time.Most of so called fans here came along with Ronaldo and Beckham.There is no reason to take them seriously.
Raúl? A tourist attraction? The only world class player who not being a crack in any sense everyone wanted to have by his side for his mental strength, his winner attitude and his outstanding performance and regularity, not only in easy local games but appearing and leading in the crucial international ones. He has given every bit of his blood for this team.We are still astonished of how the hell he's been able to run every game he's played like a freshman for 10 years, game after game, defending and attacking, just amazing how he never stops running, mostly when being a forward. For the rest, I'm one who's suggesting to bench him for a very long time. He looks definetely finished, obvioulsy (unless miracle recovery), but forgetting what he's done is silly. His numbers speak enough. We value him for something more than for his looks, don't worry. You must be new.
I'm sorry guyz. I don't really agree with you all. Raul is a great player. He just needs time. It was only after Makelele left and beckham entered that he became out of form. It was Real Madrid's fault that they decided to let Makelele go. So Real's midfield sucks. That is why Raul couldn't get good balls leads to goal tally drops. If you guys notice this season, even Ronaldo is not doing so well. And Raul is also suffering from injury from time to time. I don't think the problem is with Raul here. I think the whole thing is because of Madrid deciding to let good players go and buying players that they do not need. Up to you guys though. This is just my opinion.
Nothing makes sense in the article, what am I going to say. It is just simple immature nonsense. His main focus on the article is to say that Raul became overrated by having a great team behind him "how is he not going to score goals", but this is the same that you can say ALWAYS about any striker in decay or out of form. Strikers are always depending on their team mates to drive the ball forward so they can score, so what do you do to critiquize a striker, ANY striker when they are not doing well?: to blame their past success on having a good team behind them. This type of argumentation on a sports article is so childish that is just unprofessional. Besides this, he mentions the team he had before...Seedorf, Redondo, Makelele, Panucci....who are those people compared to Zidane, Figo, Ronaldo, Beckham, the "galacticos" team?. On paper, a good team but nothing by comparison. I said this before, with the others Raul had a different positioning in the field, further up, and had the full responsabilities to take on. When these responsabilities became shared, he had to drop down to the midfield to work for them, not them for him, and everything changed. It turns out that Real was doing better before, with Raul actually scoring goals? the answer is obvious. Raul is the leading scorer in the Champions League. We won 3 CLs because of his goals, just like an Intercontinental (yes, he did score a great goal there, one that is in the best goals video compilations you can get), and at 27 he is the all time top goal scorer of a national team that has not won anything, and that has a very long history with 40 goals. Add being Pichichi in La Liga, constantly for many years the top goal scorer in Spain in all competitions, and tell me that he is the "most overrated player in history". Going through bad times, perphaps completely on his way down, maybe. Overrated my X$%##.
Raul is one of the most influential players real madrid had ever had. Remember he was the one of the most instrumental player in bringing Champions League to real madrid after so many years of gap and making them one of the most dreaded force once again. And I agree that Raul is not as spectacular as he was in his young days but it happens to most of the players as age increases. Ronaldo isnt able to do dribbling as nicely as he used to do in his Barca days. He needs rest according to me. He's been playing top flight football from very young age and after his first bad season he's not got good rest because of the Euro 2004 now he'll rest in this summer and surely be as effective as he was and we shouldnt ignore the fact that after departure of Claude Makalele Raul was pushed into much deeper role that has certainly reduced his scoring opportunities
Yea Ronaldo needs rest Y'all are so freaking full of it it ain't even funny Who has consistently been one of Madrid's top players in recent games against teams such as: Juve [second leg] Valencia Barca When was the last game Raul out-performed Ronie? All y'all do is find excuses for Raul and dig up criticisms for Ronie.
Exactly. I don't know why other people can't see this. My big fear for next season is that if we get Robinho or Adriano and Ronaldo sticks around, Raul will be relegated to this forward-midfield position for good and be: a) wasting his talent and b) alienated if/when fans/people start criticizing him for not scoring as many goals as he used to, which could lead to Real losing their captain and heart + soul of the club.
I just read an article in Goal.com saying Raul is an over-rated Galactico. As a Raul fan, that sort of hurt but I admit the writer made some good points about Raul's recent playing form. However, it must be emphasized Raul has not exactly been playing his usual position, and had to make adjustments that do not necessarily translate to him having goal opportunities. The guy actually said he was okay with leaving Real Madrid if it's better for the club...a true caballero. That endeared him more to club fans I think.
As far as numbers go, he has the most international caps for a non-goalie, the most international goals, the most champions league goals, he has played and won 3 champions league finals, scoring in two of them, and, as a former regular of Madrid's home games, I've never seen ANYONE run as much as he does. That should earn him respect and a certain credit. If he has two bad seasons, or five, or he retires tomorrow, that is still no reason to say he has sucked all his life. If there is one sport more popular than soccer, it is throwing stones at people you've helped put on a pedestal.
Right on, Brother. Us fans were surely out for blood when we were playing subpar but I don't view Raul as the worst of all. Raul has not performed any worse or any less consistently than anyone else over the past 2 seasons. You can't deny that he hasn't scored as many goals this season or last season as Ronaldo but they are very different players. Who was the player to drop back more often when our defense was hurting? How much money did we splash out for Ronaldo... and has he had an "on" season? I think everyone needs to chill. What is the point anyways? Does anyone think that Perez will sell Raul? No. So, what's the point of talking about Raul's performance? Talk about all the other vulnerable pawns in Perez's idiotic puzzle. And, again, I would put Ronaldo as much more likely to leave... so, let's talk about that and where he might end up.
It is a complicated situation. Ronaldo + Robihno + Adriano is the entire offense of Brazil, an spectacular show of strenght that Real Madrid could not live without, keep Owen around as well and Raul is going to have a lot of trouble getting minutes in his current form, plus the fact that even if he starts is going to be behind these players and not in the position he does best at. Robihno is still very young and not tried in La Liga which could give Raul some lead, but if he is as good as everybody says he is Raul will either have to find his old form somewhere or be relegated to the bench. I did see a Santos game recently in which they got thrashed by Liga de Quito (Ecuador), and I wasn't very impressed by Robihno, even though his quality is obvious, so Raul will get a few chances against him. However, what if Raul does find his form?. Raul is not just anyone in spite of what the usual hyenas from the press make a career in saying only when the timing is unfortunately right. I remember a Raul that when Rivaldo was on his way to be chosen as Fifa World Player did win La Liga and was the Pichichi is the best hand to hand combat with him that I remember to be the top scorer. For the last 4 or 5 games of the season they just kept on switching positions at the top of the score board game after game (Rivaldo would score 2, Raul 1, then Raul 2, Rivaldo 1..) until the very last game of the season in which Raul needed to score 2 goals to take the price, he wanted it and he did. Not only that, Raul was also the top scorer in the Champions League, and the Champion. The price, of course, would end up going to Rivaldo just a little later, but that was Raul at his best, if not proving to be better than the Fifa World Player, getting much better results and well deserving of the prize. I remember Owen taking the Golden Ball after winning the UEFA Cup being it's top goal scorer, while Raul was winning the Champions League as the top goal scorer, and La Liga, plus being the top goal scorer in Europe at National team level for the year, all in the same year. Raul was the best player in Europe that season, not Owen. However, the birds of prey of the press that now so conveniently go after Raul to be in the spotlight were very conveniently silent then, either going for the exotic Brazilian or the cute blond british boy instead of for the real best player in the world and in Europe, proven by all of the stats that you could find, simply because they were better sellers than the quiet, professional team leader that Raul was and is. They failed to recognize Raul and award him with the prizes that he deserved in the past. They have no right to go and bury him now that he is not performing up to his past level. However I still have hope. Raul is the real deal, not an absolete and overrated piece of equipment, and he does come back to his level he will compete with anyone. He has already done it and won.
The best Spanish player since Gento??? Uh, no. Raul never played especially well for Spain, even when at the height of his powers.
All time top scorer with 40 goals? do you know how many decades it's taken to break that record?. One thing is that Spain has never been a predominant power in soccer at NT level (which also opens the question as to who the hell do you think has played well for Spain better than Raul, doing, winning what & when), another one is to just join the mainstream media like cattle blinded to the obvious.
Code: Goalscoring for Spain National Team Goals Caps 1. RAÚL González Blanco 41 83 2. Fernando Ruiz HIERRO 29 89 3. Emilio BUTRAGUEÑO 26 69 4. Fernando MORIENTES 24 38 5. Alfredo DI STÉFANO 23 31 EL Moro is the most underate Spanish player.......ever....
I'll assume that made some sense, but will instead say that I think others have played better for Spain in that time, yes. Say, members of the 80 side that reached the Euro finals. Say, Santillana. Also, if anyone has Raul's scoring breakdown for Spain (opponents and friendlies/competitive matches) I'd be much obliged. Raul was, until two years ago, an absolutely phenomenal player for Real Madrid. But he was never great for Spain.
Santillana was my childhood idol. He had the best header that I have ever seen, but he was not a true prolific striker and the stats are there to show it. I think he was pichichi one time with less goals than Raul. Raul has past Santillana's all time scoring numbers a long time ago in the league and in the NT, which should say something as to who is better. As for Raul's performances in the NT, he is our all time goal scorer so therefore he is the best striker and the best player we have ever had. Period. Oh, wait. We had the great Di Stefano. True, but he did not play most official games with our NT and did not play in the EC we won, our only throphy. You are asking for a list of Raul's goals in the NT? who are you going to compare it with? You can't even take Di Stefano's, who I still consider the #1 player in the world ever (and much better than Raul, no question). The list is irrelevant. Spain has not been playing finals or even semifinals in any competition, not with Raul and not in the last 40 years (with one exception in 84). Raul's 41 goals are as good as anybody else's in our mediocre history as an NT, so the list that you are asking for won't get you anywhere. Everybody in our top scorer's list has scored goals against small and bigger teams alike. Perphaps only Hierro's list is the only one that is not to be considered, as most of his goals came from penalty kicks (yes, it was him kicking them, you won't find many from Raul). Raul is our best ever and that's all there is to it. He has not been "great" for Spain?. Nobody is better in our current generation of players and nobody has done better than him side to side. It is the Spanish NT that has not been "great" and, in our mediocrity, Raul is our best. Still, scoring 41 goals at the level we play on says a lot about him. It says more about him than about anybody else we've ever had, and perphaps he is the only one that has really shown to be at a different level than the rest, much, much higher and sometimes deserving of better luck. In Real Madrid, a much different team with much better players, he has all the numbers in each and every title that we have won since he has been playing, always being the player with the highest scoring, always being if not the #1 responsible for our success at least in the top 3 players in the team. Real Madrid has not been winning anything in the past two years in spite of assembling a formidable team. Raul has been in his lowest form exactly for these past two years. Let's add 2 and 2 together and figure the rest out. Raul is not just taking 80% of the critiquism in spite of being surrounded by FIFA World Players for the hell of it. He is the heart and soul of Real Madrid, and cutting off the last two has been our most valuable player for the 8 years prior. His goals, play and performance made a name for everybody else, the "galacticos", even though this was never fully recognized. As proof of this all you have to do is look at our current state and Raul's current state. As I said, add 2 and 2 together. Nothing justifies the beating he is taking from everyone these days.
Give him some time. He is a slow adjuster, but once he settles in (and for this he has to play every game to find his form), he always scores in high numbers. You shouldn't expect of him to be the top goal scorer, but there are not many strikers that guarantee 15-20 goals a season, and there are many of those rated much higher than Morientes for no reason. Whenever he played full seasons he always did very well. A constant flow of 15-20 goals a year win you titles and give you stability. The problem is that sending him to the bench for 3 months to have somebody else do less or the same as him does not help. Morientes came to Real this season in top form, being the top goal scorer in the CL, scoring in the NT....he was a machine. We put him in the bench after four games though, so what can you expect, we made him lose his form. He is the best striker you got, and with games and time he will prove it. He is not a striker for Liverpool this season, coming in the half after several months in the bench, but he will be your target man for next season which I hope can send him back to the NT.
Here´s the breakdown. I´m not sure which games were qualifiers or friendlies. Austria 5 Belgium 1 Bosnia 1 Cyprus 1 Dinmark 1 Germany 4 Greece 1 Isreal 2 Italy 1 Liechtenstein 2 Mexico 1 Nigeria 1 Northern Ireland 2 Norway 2 Poland 1 San Morino 5 Scotland 1 Slovenia 2 South Africa 2 Sweden 1 Ukraine 3 Yugoslavia 1 http://rfef.sportec.es/main.htm Raul scored the most goals against Austria and San Morino at 5, followed by Germany at 4. I would say going down the list his statistics are not overly padded by weak teams. As far as Raul being the best Spanish player since Gento, I couldn´t really say. But I do know over the last 10 years I´ve felt much better with Raul in the lineup then with him out of it. You might not rate him great for Spain, but I sure do.