CBC Sports Online's soccer expert, John Molinaro, takes you inside the world of soccer and offers his insights about the action on the pitch and in the front office.
Seven-star Real Madrid knows how to entertain
Comments (3)
Monday, February 11, 2008 | 09:24 AM ET
Inter Milan might be the best club in Europe, Arsenal the most promising and Chelsea the most expensive, but when it comes to being the most entertaining, Real Madrid wins hands down.
Coming off a disappointing 2-0 loss away to Almeria last week, los Blancos responded in style on Sunday, trouncing la liga pretenders Valladolid 7-0 at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.
The win, the biggest in Spain this season, was an important one because it stretched Madrid's advantage to eight points over second-place FC Barcelona with 15 games remaining. It also maintained the defending champion's perfect home record: amazingly, Madrid has won all 11 wins of its games in the league at the Bernabeu this season.
"We saw from videos that [Valladolid] play far up the field in order to pressure opponents. It's surprising for a team to play like that at the Bernabeu. It helped us," Madrid coach Bernd Schuster said.
It certainly did.
Valladolid looked the better team in the opening minutes, but it was the Spanish champions who scored first, Julio Baptista finding the back of the net after eight minutes on a gorgeous passing play engineered by Guti.
Valladolid pressed on and came very close to beating Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas, but los Blancos held firm and put the game away when they exploded for four goals in a 13-minute span just before the break.
Not content with a 5-0 lead at halftime, Madrid continued to carve open the beleaguered Valladolid defence with ease, as the champions added two more goals to complete the annihilation.
It's never been enough to just win for Real Madrid, because fans and club management demand that the club wins in style - witness the firing of Fabio Capello after the Italian led the team to its first Spanish league title in four years last season. Capello won the championship, but he did so by employing a work-manlike and efficient style of soccer that put the fans to sleep.
Nobody could accuse the Madristas of playing boring soccer this year. Sunday's game was a sight to behold, an exhibition in scoring and a textbook example of attacking soccer played at the highest level.
With crisp passes, darting runs and displaying deadly accuracy in front of goal, Madrid ripped Valladolid to shreds. What a pleasure it was to watch Raul, the ultimate symbol of the club, score with such grace, Arjen Robben immaculately distribute the ball, Guti control the midfield with his poise, and Fabio Cannavaro anchor the defence with his sound positional play.
Inter Milan is currently being touted as the best club in Europe, but I give the nod to Madrid because los Blancos are just as dominant, but unlike the Nerazzurri, the Spaniards win in style.
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About the Author
John F. Molinaro is a reporter for CBC Sport Online whose chief love is international soccer. John served as senior editor of Sports Online's Euro 2004 website, which helped him win a CBC.ca Award of Excellence, and was the driving force behind our coverage of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He holds an honours BA in sociology from York University and a print journalism diploma from Sheridan College, and is also the author of The Top 100 Pro Wrestlers of All Time (Stewart House, 2002).
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Comments (3)
abdul hye
Dear John Molinaro
Watching a team lose 7-0 isn’t my idea of “entertaining” unless it’s my team. I didn’t see that match but if Real Madrid scored 7 without reply then Valladolid can’t have been much of a challenge for Real Madrid. It’s just shows how unbalanced the Spanish league is. There are only really two teams in Spain that can win the title.
I’d rather see two teams that are equally matched playing good football; attacking and defending well. I don’t like to see one team giving another team a “trouncing”. If one team can beat another team 7-0 then they shouldn’t be in the same league.
Posted February 12, 2008 07:48 PM
Anup
Calgary
This game was a rout, no doubt about that, but one can't blame the lack of competitiveness in Spain. Routs happen. they happen in football the same way as they happen in hockey. However, in spain, there are only 4, maybe 5 teams in any given season who can compete for top spot, but ultimately, either Real Madrid or Barcelona will win it. La Liga needs an Abramovich to buy up a mid-table team, and turn that league competitive.
Posted February 13, 2008 11:10 PM
Colton
Brampton
How is Inter Milan Europe's best team? Who are they competing against besides Roma? AC Milan have once again proven they don't give a damn about the league.
Posted February 18, 2008 06:53 PM