Phil Ball: Alpha Real & ZZ Top can enjoy Japan

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  • Phil Ball's take on Spanish football's big talking points.

    Up there in the Bernabéu VIP Lounge, with his designer specs and his jacket and tie, Cristiano Ronaldo sat out the Deportivo game in the presence of his apparent new girlfriend, Georgina Rodriguez. Since recent events suggest he needs a new accountant, she might actually be the new one, but they didn’t seem too rapt in conversation for the 90 minutes of the game, and the phrase ‘tax haven’ failed to appear on any of the lip-reads regarding their occasional chit-chat. Neither did Ronaldo seem over-excited when Alvaro Morata finally put Madrid ahead, at which point he took to reading some publication or other – possibly the Rough Guide to Japan, his destination after the game. He took more notice when substitute Joselu subsequently scored twice in the space of three minutes to put Deportivo ahead, prompting nervous grimaces and angst from CR7, none of which won him any comforting gestures or words from Rodriguez. Instead, she stared into space with an icy look on her face, with a definite shade of ‘I wonder if it’s worth it?’ written on her expression.

    Real Madrid wanted to get Saturday’s game over as soon as possible for several reasons. The principal objective was to win the game (it usually is) but also to avoid defeat, since this would set a new record for the club of 35 consecutive matches garnering a result. To achieve this, ‘ZZ Top’, Zidane’s new moniker courtesy of the Madrid tabloids, decided to play without the BBC, Gareth Bale being injured anyway. He rested the full-backs Marcelo and Dani Carvajal, and paired Toni Kroos and Casemiro in the centre, two players with very few minutes on the clock of late. Add to that the underwhelming James Rodriguez instead of Luka Modric, and respectable though Zidane’s rotating might appear to be, the underlying sense of ‘It’s only Deportivo, it doesn’t matter’ was difficult to avoid. Trouble was, Deportivo had put five past Real Sociedad last Monday, an opponent in a rich vein of form, and with their tails decidedly up, the mix-and-match look of the Madrid line-up rather invited them to spoil the party. They’d done that once before, winning 2-1 back in 2002 in the Final of the King’s Cup, in Madrid’s centenary year in the Bernabéu. Madridistas far and wide took a long time to forgive them, and with 1-2 on the scoreboard, Madrid’s perfect Christmas party was looking in distinct danger of being pooped.

    Real-Madrid-Club-World-Cup

    Real Madrid have arrived in Japan for the Club World Cup.

    Of course, just after midnight (or 90 minutes) along comes Santa Claus Ramos to distribute the presents and keep everyone happy. Ramos is making something of a habit of this, after his recent heroics in the Camp Nou and previous late appearances against Atlético Madrid in the final of the Champions League and against Sevilla in the Supercopa. His was to be the winning goal, substitute Mariano having equalised in the 83rd minute. Deportivo’s coach, Gaizka Garitano, commented rather drily in the post-match press conference that Ramos might have been sent off before the winner, after his push on Depor’s Sidnei, and that the concept of added-time in the Bernabéu tends to be that ‘it lasts until Madrid score’. Then again, you could argue that the best thing to do, if you don’t want Santa to come down your chimney, is to block it with something – the metaphor being that it’s not a good idea to concede a corner to the hosts after the 90 minutes have transpired. And if you do, put about five guys on Ramos. It ain’t rocket science.

    Now Real Madrid can relax in Japan and will not return to league action until January 7th, at home to the mighty Granada. They will still be leaders then, although Barcelona will probably have cut the gap to three points if they can beat improving neighbours Espanyol in the Camp Nou next Sunday. Madrid’s game at Valencia will be postponed to some later date, which may come as some relief for Los Che, a good example of the way that the arrival of the Christmas break puts the alpha-omega aspect of La Liga into focus. And whilst it is true that this season has thrown up an entertaining and more competitive league in Spain for some time, there are still some guys who will be having a miserable Christmas.

    Valencia lost 3-2 at Real Sociedad, and although the score made it look a close-run thing, it was in truth a demonstration by the home aside that the 5-1 defeat last Monday was simply a freak result. Valencia’s rather volatile Italian coach Cesare Prandelli had provided the sound-bites of the week last Thursday when he announced that any players lacking ‘carácter’ (personality) would subsequently be shown the door, and that any player who was not ‘prepared to suffer’ could leave. Prandelli hasn’t been there long – since the end of September to be precise – and such desperate public calls to roll up sleeves and swab the decks represent a risky strategy, especially at a place like Valencia. If the players react, your actions are endorsed, but if they don’t, they’ll still be around when you’ve been shown the door. Valencia, on a run of seven league games without a win, are seemingly immersed in a crisis that has been running since the dawn of time – or the last time they won the league back in 2004. The Valencia fans are big on nostalgia, since that’s about all they have these days. It’s a club on the edge, forever unstable and unable. There used to be sympathy for their plight, but in the end the self-inflicted wounds, the managerial merry-go-rounds, the permanent promise of a new stadium with a new dawn and the impatience of a fan-base that was impatient even when times were happier….it’s all becoming a bit irritating. They now lie one place above the relegation spots, but only on goal difference from Sporting.

    They were one goal down on Saturday after two minutes, and two goals down after 22. Both goals were from corners, and were highly avoidable. Prandelli marched up and down like a man possessed, as if livid that his warnings had fallen on deaf ears. Luckily, referee Estrada Fernandez invented a penalty against Iñigo Martinez just before the break, and hope was restored. Valencia continued to kick lumps out of Sociedad in the second half, encouraged by the referee’s leniency and Prandelli’s warnings but Sociedad finally scored a third after Diego Alves had saved yet another penalty – the first Carlos Vela has missed in the top flight. Alves has now saved 22 of the 45 he has faced in his career, an unusually high percentage and about the only thing Valencia have to smile about. To make matters worse, their coach was attacked by Valencia ‘ultras’ when they got back on Saturday night, protesting at the players and their recent performances. It can’t be much fun playing for them these days. Poetically, their next fixture will be on Monday January 9th at bottom club Osasuna. As they say, there’s always someone worse off than you – for now.

    Gran trabajo de todos 💪💪💪Visca Barça !!!! Great team work 💪💪💪 Visca Barça !!!

    A photo posted by Luis Suarez (@luissuarez9) on

    Indeed, in stark contrast with ZZ Top and his stable of stallions, Osasuna’s newish coach, Joaquin Caparros, has now gone 19 games without eating from the sweet plate of victory. This run includes 14 with Granada, a run that saw him sacked, and his first five with Osasuna, who now lie heavily on the sea bed with the oxygen running out. They work hard, and their tightly-packed ground can still theoretically intimidate but Barcelona had a fairly placid afternoon on Saturday in Pamplona, and had no need to run any bulls. Their 3-0 win saw another wonderful goal from Leo Messi to add to his art collection. His second and Barcelona’s third seemed to involve the Argentine beating the entire home defence, bemusing them with his almost impossible stops, starts and lethal intent. His first wasn’t bad either, flicking Jordi Alba’s cross into the net in a single movement, calculating in a split-second the force and angle required to loop the ball over poor Nauzet’s head. Fantastic stuff. It will have soothed the recent wounds somewhat, and led them to keep believing that the title is far from decided yet, which is true. Real Madrid won’t want to let the alpha stuff go to their heads just yet, and the omega guys at the other end can still dream of a fresh start after Christmas.

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