FC Barcelona Vs Real Madrid | Supercopa de España| 8.23.12

Barcelona Vs. Real Madrid​

Thursday, August 23, 2012​

22:30 CEST (Madrid)​

Camp Nou​

A win tomorrow would make a great statement starting out the season as to who is the best team in Spain. And it's not who Dani Alves says it is...​

Here are the videos from today's practice session:​

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And some photos:​

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Later I'll upload press conference and translation.​

Someone mentioned Kaka not getting any minutes in the Valencia match and Mourinho responded that having to replace Pepe made it impossible to make the last substitution which would have been Kaká or Marcelo.​

Rumors in the back room today were: Carvalho and Kaká to Liverpool, Nuri to Arsenal and Modric is already in Madrid. Mourinho said they had no offers on Kaká, as opposed to Sahin who had several and he didn't care where Sahin went, but he preferred a Premier League team to give him more of the kind of experience he needs. More later...​

Cheers !​

 

I feel like Di María is going to tear it up tomorrow. Hopefully everyone else will have a little more spark than the last game.

 

Here is the translation for today's pregame pres conference. Also check the last question on the video, which was in English, made by Rhiannon from RM TV. (She's really nice, by the way.)



(credit: Madridismrg)

How do you feel about tomorrow's game? Is it going to determine your team's results this season in any way?

I don't think it will determine anything. And if it did, and if I could choose, I would want it to determine the season the same way it did last season. I would choose to lose the Supercopa over the Liga. If losing the Supercopa was a motivation to win the Liga, I would take it. But I don't think that's the way it is. I don't think it has any influence at all. It's just the least important competition among the four we are playing and, in my opinion, it doesn't have any consequence on the rest of the season. It is a competition that we want to win, and that the opponent surely wants to win too. When you're facing a rival, it doesn't matter that it's a summer tournament. In Italy for instance, they have this summer tournament, and Inter, Juventus and Milan always want to win. So it is a competition that you want to win, but it doesn't influence the rest of the season in any way my opinion.


Regarding the national teams friendliest, and especially Spain's match in November, do you expect that Bousquet and to give you some special treatment as he did with Javi for the friendly in Puerto Rico? Do you expect something similar for the real Madrid players?

No, I don't. We are open to maintaining the best relationship possible with every national team coach. Last week, we've been talking to the new French coach, since we have several players in common. But we don't expect any special treatment from anybody since we've never had any. Experience tells us that we are not going to receive any type of help in that matter. We know that these games exist, they've been scheduled a long time ago. The federations are free to decide where and who they are playing; us coaches are free to decide who to call up or not, and that's about it, we don't expect anything.


How is Pepe doing? Is Raúl Albiol going to play instead of him tomorrow? Can you tell us the starting 11?

Pepe won't be playing. If it were up to him, he would, but we won't let him. It is not human to risk a player's life for a football match, regardless of the match. The medical department and the coach have no doubt about the fact that he won't be playing tomorrow. But he's been doing well, he's been doing his own training already. We don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but it is safe to think that Sunday's match will not mean any risk to him. Yes, tomorrow Albiol will play. And that's about it. I won't tell you the lineup.


Are you a little worried about your players' physical form? Several players, not to say half the team, have only been playing for two weeks. The substitutions you made in the last game had to do with it...

Yes, but there's no point feeling sorry about it or looking for excuses. We've known what was coming for a long time. We knew very well that our players would play the Eurocup, we expected most of them to make it to the semifinals or final, and that's what happened except for France. We knew very well that the preseason would be very short and that there would be national teams' friendlies in the middle, we knew all of this. That's why there's no point feeling sorry about it. Sure the conditions are not ideal, but let's not make a big deal out of it. We don't. We are waiting for the natural progression and evolution of our players' form, which normally translates into more confidence and better performance. And we are waiting peacefully, knowing that we are just starting and we still have 10 months of competition and matches ahead of us.


Sahin has been training today. Has his situation evolved since the last press conference you gave at Bernabeu Stadium? Is it true that the reason why he isn't playing in the Premiere League yet is because he wants to go to Arsenal and you want him to go to Liverpool?

(Smiling) I don't want anything. I want him to play, I want him to play for another club than Real Madrid. I like the option of the Premier League, because I think it can give his game a certain type of characteristics that it doesn't have, and the Premier league is expert at giving players a certain type of characteristics, but it really doesn't matter to me. It doesn't matter, it is not even remotely true what people have been saying, that I want him to go to this club and not that one. It doesn't matter which club he plays for, and all I hope is for the situation to be settled as soon as possible, for him, because it is better for him too. There are several options on the table, but it doesn't matter to me at all whether he goes to Arsenal, Liverpool or Tottenham. I don't have any preference at all.


Regarding Kaká, Milan is showing a lot of interest. What is your position? He didn't play at all in the last game...

Kaká and Sahin's situations are completely different. We have several proposals on the table for Nuri and he is analyzing them, whereas for Kaká we haven't received any official offer and therefore you cannot compare both situations. He was on the bench, he didn't play. We had to use a substitution because of Pepe's injury, and right after that I made the decision to play both Benzema and Higuaín, and immediately after that Di María had to be substituted. Therefore I didn't have the opportunity to use the third substitution to put in an attacking player. I had Kaká, I had Marcelo, but I didn't have the opportunity to use them because of Pepe's substitution at half-time.


Do you think Madrid's win in Camp Nou last season has helped to erase the memories of past defeats and will be helpful in view of tomorrow's match?
No, this win was the result of many similar matches. The last few times we went to Barcelona, we always played well and the result was always tight. In Liga for instance, we want 2-1, but we tied other matches: 2-2 in Copa, we tied in Champions, we were tied in the Supercopa up until the last minute. The matches were always balanced and the fact that we won the last one was almost normal given the series of good matches we had been playing the last few times we were there. But nobody can say whether or not we will be able to play as well and win tomorrow.


Have you noticed any change in this Barça or is it roughly the same as Guardiola's? Do you think Vilanova has brought something new?

For me, it is just Barcelona. It's not Guardiola's, it's not Vilanova's, it's nobody's. It is Barcelona and that's how we see it. Almost all the players are the same as last season, it's a team with its own style, which may change a little because there are no two people exactly the same and obviously there have to be some differences between two coaches, but for me it is the same Barcelona as the Barcelona we've known for the past few years, a team with quality and with great players. I can't see any major differences between this team and what it used to be.


In the last few years, Barça has been the hegemonic team in Europe in terms of titles. Do you feel that your team is ready to become a hegemonic team in Europe and in Spain after last season?

In Portuguese, you can't use the word hegemonic when nobody has won two Champions in a row. I don't know if I'm wrong, if your language makes a different use of the word than mine, but in mine, if nobody has ever won two Champions in a row, there is no hegemony. In Champions there is no hegemony.


Regarding Ricardo Carvalho, Sky Sport said that he could be leaving on loan to Queens Park Rangers. Can you confirm or say something about this piece of news?

No, I can't confirm. I don't know if it has anything to do and I'm not even sure that what I'm about to say is true or not, because many times information seem correct and are not, but I've been told that Michael Dawson from Tottenham had transferred to Queens Park Rangers for 9,000,000 pounds. It they get a centerback today, I doubt that Carvalho is a possibility to them. But as I said, I don't know if this is true.

 

Hahah thanks! Shweew, someone is actually paying attention to them, I wasn't sure!

I need to give credit to my wife, Gaëlle, she's the one translating what Mourinho says. If you look at the beginning of the press conference videos she's the one presenting with the mic. I usually handle the video camera and our cousin takes the pictures (but sometimes we swap). It's a lot of fun, but also a ton of work, and so far everyone we've dealt with at Real Madrid has been pretty nice. Quite the opposite of the snobby 'prepotente' badge anti-madridistas like to attribute to the club.

 

This is pretty funny, Marca deserves this:

http://www.managingmadrid.com/2012/8/21/3257867/marca-modric-real-madrid