We are lucky its not 3-0 so far... Nothing from us, ill be happy when this match is over, 0-0 sounds good :-(
is this a deserved result for madrid? save for a beckham post, from what i can get from the match tracker it seems as though villarreal dominated.
FT 0-0 top of table looks like this: 1 Barcelona 14 35 =2 Real Madrid 14 26 =2 Espanyol 14 26 4 Valencia 14 25 the league will be out of reach soon if we continue to concentrate solely on CL the team that finished: Casillas Salgado Pavon Samuel r.Bravo j.Garcia Helguera Mejia Celedes Morientes Owen its not the copa del rey is it.......??
that may be resolved come tuesday. also even if madrid advance, there are less matches after the 1st round. edit: about your copa del rey comment, it is obvious that the game on tuesday is much more important than this la liga game. tuesday's game means millions of dollars.
Tuesday is do or die.....this game doesn't mean much in comparison. If they beat Roma...there is no more CL until mid February I think. Its not like they are throwing League games every week.
Hey guys - CL game is on Wed! First half - 2 chances for RM - Owen penetrated & passed to Ronaldo, who strangely took too long to shoot, Beckham's free kick which hit the crossbar. One dangerous cross from Villarreal. 2nd half - 12 great chances for Villarreal, great saves from Casillas (of course), but also solid play from Samuel & decent play from Pavon. Nothing offensively for RM. Strange game. Only regulars at the end were Casillas & Helguerra. This is the final formation by the way: Morientes Owen Solari Helguerra Celades J Garcia R Bravo Samuel Pavon Mejia Casillas
i'm disappointed with garcia remon in this game - not so much with the starting lineup - as there were enough high quality attacking options to win the game (any team with Solari, Owen, Ronaldo, and Beckham has a great capability of scoring) and the defense kept a clean sheet without substitutions - but definitely with the approach to the latter part of the game. Taking off Ronaldo was certainly reasonable - as he seems to have been off form today and there's no reason not to give Morientes a chance - but when Morientes comes on, with his great aerial ability, why does he simultaneously take Beckham and his crossing potential (and free kicks) off to play Javi Garcia out of position? And worse, with some 10 minutes or so left to play, why take Solari off to replace him with Mejia, and finish the game playing not to lose (with Raul and Roberto Carlos sitting on the bench), instead of going for the win? Pragmatic to a fault, imo, and a bit strange from the same man who had the temerity to play Raul, Owen, and Ronaldo at once, and win doing it. I know how important the game in Rome and reaching the group stage is - in terms of prestige and in terms of money - but I really think GR has exaggerated the challenge by not playing 5 regular starters in this game (there is no way Figo and Guti's yellows against Levante were not premeditated). He's made it seem as if Real were significant underdogs against Roma, when they really have several advantages going into the game on Wednesday. I can't be upset that we got a draw - no one can win them all - but playing defensively against a team like Villarreal (no offense, I know they're not a bad team) - For f*&'s sake - it's not as if the two points might not matter at the end of the season.
Lacklustre Real lose further ground to Barca MADRID, Dec 5 (Reuters) - A lacklustre Real Madrid lost further ground to Barcelona at the top of the table when they were held to a 0-0 draw at Villarreal in the Primera Liga on Sunday. The home side, who had lost their previous three league games, dominated the encounter against Real who appeared to have their minds on next week's decisive Champions League clash against AS Roma. The result means that Real are now nine points behind Barca, easy 4-0 winners over Malaga on Saturday, and level with Espanyol, who claimed a valuable 1-0 victory away to Real Zaragoza earlier on Sunday. http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news;_y...wN0bQ--?slug=reu-spain&prov=reuters&type=lgns
I am disappointed too. Casillas & Salgado played well (what else is new) & Samuel is improving. Samuel got a stupid yellow card & almost a penalty in the box, but he was really clearing the ball last night. Samuel is playing better & better. But RM should have scored & they were completely over run in the 2nd half. Beckham did nothing special, other than the free kick. Helguerra started out alright & he is smooth on defense, but he contributes nothing to the attack. And when RM was over run he basically lined up with Samuel & Pavon. Celades showed some remarkable dribbling in the first half, I am talking Ronaldino level. But he still makes the bad passes, the bad tackles & had completely disappeared by the 2nd half. Solari was all over the field, tremendous energy, end -to -end stuff, but other than a shot on goal, not enough. J Garcia didn't do anything special either. We still need a quality mid-fielder. One willing to be on the bench when Guti & Zidane are playing, but good enough to play better than Celades.
Agreed. Samuel actually was the "good news" last night. In the 1st half, Villarreal gave RM plenty of spaces to attack, but nothing to show for.
I think it's because he was injured: "Becks, 29, injured his right foot in a challenge with Villarreal’s Argentine midfielder Juan Pablo Sorin and had to be substituted on 65 minutes."
0-0: One point, and now thinking about Rome Without Guti, Figo, Zidane, Raúl and Roberto Carlos, Real Madrid managed to get a point from their visit to Villarreal. It was a match notable for the cold and rain, and which offered no clear opportunities. Even though it was the locals who had the better options. With the draw, the distance from Barcelona stands at nine points. After thirteen matches, the yellows remain without a win over the capital´s team. Without wasting time, the Whites will be training on Monday, thinking about the momentous match against Rome. http://www.realmadrid.com/web_realm...icia.jsp?idnoticia=43700&sec=1&subsec=0&esp=2
Wasn't That the same referee that Gave Real Madrid that 94th minute penalty against Valencia last year?
unsure about whether it was that ref who made the brilliant call!! Good points by bkn0528 lets just hope the decision pays off. i think i speak for evry1 when i say id rather win the CL than la liga, and so does perez (del bosque won lge but not CL and got sacked) but was sunday's team really necessary?? we will have a lot of crucial games durning the season, knock-outs in the CL and what are we going to do the game before?? play the b team??? [sigh]
I think GRs starting lineup was ok, but the substitutions were (again) questionable. The lineup we fielded should have, simply, done the job. Riquelme is a good player, and they were playing well, but the players we had out there should have created more opportunities than they did. With that said, bringing Javi Garcia on, only out of position, doesn't make any sense when 3 points are within reach. Bringing Mejia on, only late and for Solari, doesn't make sense. I can't remember who we were playing but I think it was Bayer -- we could have gotten a win, but GRemon brings on Celades for Raul or something like that. He has done pretty well so far, (GRemon), but some of his in-game decisions are lacking. I would rather win La Liga, just slightly more than the CL. I think that if (when?) we start consistently playing as well as everyone knows we can (Ronaldo and Raul scoring, RCarlos doing his thing, Samuel not playing like a amputee, etc.) we have a good chance of winning both trophies. I realize that it's getting close to crunch time in both competitions (if we don't start playing well we will be almost too far back), but if you consider that we haven't played really well yet and are still in second in La Liga and in a position to go through in CL, I think we can do some great things once we do start playing well.