figo suspended for nxt match after getting cautioned earlier on this means for that match we have no him or zizou!
lovin your sig about gerrard ha! btw wher bouts in merseydide u from?? just watchin a re-run of the game now
nice game. it's hard to complain about a 5-0 scoreline. in the end GR didn't start Owen, but it didn't make a difference today as Ronaldo had his finishing boots on. The first goal came off a good medium-range pass over the top from Beckham (from a position in the middle, not on the right) which he controlled superbly with his chest to earn a little space between the defender and goalie and then beat the goalie near post. Excellent goal. The second was a blast by Figo 10 meters or so outside of the box as he roamed into the middle - the defenders layed off him a bit as they tried to cover Raul and Ronaldo who were making runs ahead of him and it was right into the roof of the net. Another excellent goal. The third was a pass from near midfield by Celades that sprang Ronaldo from the offside trap - great pass and good run that left him all alone with the keeper. Third excellent goal. The fourth, by Beckham, was somewhat similar to Figo's goal, from about the same area. He jinked the ball past an onrushing defender to give himself space and, with time on the ball, sent a nice hard curler away from the goalie. Fourth excellent goal. I was distracted in the bar and didn't get to see Owen's goal. Anybody see it? Was it excellent? As for the lineup - I think it's definitely a step in the right direction. Figo on the left provides just as much as on the right, imo. Quite frankly I don't see any drop off in his contribution when he plays on the left - he's exactly the same. Beckham tended to drift into the middle a great deal, as he seems to do when he plays on the right for England, but it's hard to criticise him for that when by doing so he scored a goal and had an assist today. I hope when Zidane comes back GR will stick with this and slot him into the middle.
don't recall what beckham did for his yellow. maybe he was just trying to get in on the fun with figo and guti.
Beckhams drifting can become a problem, it happens all the time for England leaving Neville exposed. Hopefully if he continues playing right or club and country he'll stop sneaking into the middle.
Great collection of goals!!!! Levante, one of the best teams in this beggining of season, made a very good pressure in the first half, but,they couldn't maintain the same level in the second half. Figo played good in the left. I think that he is a little better at the right, but at the left, he can make very good diagonals like in his goal, taking advantage of his great shot. Great goals of Figo and Beckham, sometimes we try to make the things very difficult, we shoul try to shot more time from outside the goal area, we have very good players for that, Figo, Beckham, Zidane, Roberto Carlos, even Guti, Solari or helguera have a really good shot. Guti and Figo forced clearly the five yellow card to not play the next weekend against Villareal. All the people in the stadium knows that. Guti didn't stop to protest, make fouls, lose time in the last 15 minutes to force his five yellow card. Real Madrid intention is to reserve the most important players for the tremendously important game agaisnt Roma. Guti and Figo wasn't going to play against Villareal, the force the yellow to be empty of yellow cards. Probably we play against Villareal with: Casilllas Salgado - Mejia - Samuel - Roberto Carlos Beckham - Celades - Javi Garcia - Solari Morientes - Owen Or other team very similar. It is a risk because Villareal is a very good team. But the game against Roma is really important. Another good thing about the game was to see the first game of Javi Garcia in Bernabeu. He is 17 years old, and he is one of the players that has debuted younger in the last years with RM. I like this player, although he still have to improve many things. He is tall, and strong for his age, very good in the air play, he has scored a lot of goals with his head with RM B. He is elegant with the ball, good touch, he has a good dribbling (he isn't Figo), he try to make the things easy making fast short passes (Redondo style), maybe he should improve his vision of play, at this moment he isn't a last pass player like can be Guti. But he has a stronger constitution than Guti to play as midfielder. He played as forward in his first year the club, but he is playing as midfielder (OM and DM) in the last years. He has a good shot. Play good with both legs. He still isn't a build player, but he is very complete,maybe not great in anything, but good in a lot of things. He can be a really interesting player if he continue with his progresion.
> You could see Owen's anxiety even before he was on the pitch...Owen scored...and thats a call for starting in Madrid's next match . <
The first half was torturous to watch. Eiither Raul or Becks should have had that corner. Ronaldo looked pissed that he didn't get the third. Figo looked like he took a knock, I thought he'd go off sooner. I'm more impressed with Guti's run than the goal it resulted in. I'm really happy for the win, though. A decisive win ahead of Roma can only help. Edit: A couple nice saves by Iker, as well.
Beckham did better on the right today, then he has in the middle. It wasnt a great performance from him, but he did get in some nice crosses as well as the nice ball to ronaldo for the goal, and the sensational one he had.
Well I certainly liked to see Beckham on the right. And Figo on the left worked great. Everyone in RM played well, even the usual suspects Samuel & Celades. Great to see Javi Garcia get a chance. RM did struggle in the first half, but following the first goal, the confidence rose significantly. 5 - 0 is quite a thrashing of Levante. My man of the match: Salgado. He made great tackles, runs and won the ball well all night. One of the Skysports guys said at halftime, GR should just point at Salgado & say if you all play as hard as him, you would be up 3 - 0. Hell, maybe that is what GR said. I also saw security remove a guy from the stands & didn't hear any of the monkey chants - I hope that situation continues.
That's 'cause they were going on at Getafe, directed again at Eto'o. Some people are just hell-bent on making Madrid appear to be as racially hostile as they possibly can. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=317791&cc=5901
I didn't know he was that young, but you could tell it was his first game. The look in his eyes when he came onto the pitch said everything. Thanks for the background on him, MadridForever. It's always encouraging to see a young prospect from the cantera.
I thought it was a schizophrenic performance, from the team and from the players. Only Salgado and Helguera played a consistent 90 minutes. In the first half, almost every single other player was utter rubbish. But the 2nd half performance was much better, and much as I loved the goals by Beckham and Figo, the moment I liked best was Guti’s run to set up Owen, especially the nutmeg on the final pass. I think the defence may have kept a clean sheet but it wasn’t a very convincing performance. Too many open shots and one shocking piece of marking off a corner… if it had been players like Montella, Totti, Cassano or to’o, I’m sure we would have given up a goal or two. Samuel was often dragged to the left because RC went walkabout, and I think that Samuel works best when he is in the middle. But it was a better performance by the Argentine, none of the sloppy errors that have characterised the last few performances. Raul didn’t have a particularly strong game, Celades gave the ball away often and Ronaldo looked frustrated at the lack of support and service in the first half. Beckham again had done very little till the first goal. But as soon as the goal happened, it’s like someone switched on a light. Ronaldo, Beckham and Guti in particularly really improved as the game went on, and I hope that this isn’t another false dawn for Ronaldo like the game against Albacete, but an actual turnaround. Anyway, I am increasingly start to feel that a large part of the problem with Ronaldo has been the lack of support and the lack of service, rather than just poor play on his part. Solari looked good when he came on, as he always does, and it was good to see a cantera boy get the chance to play. Would have to agree with Salgado as the MOM. And I think we had better buy a real left-back in the winter-break, RC is playing astonishingly poorly, even if he did have a goalmouth save.