i am a true madridistas

i have been supporting real madrid club de futbol since i was fifteen when raul was still with his boyish short haircut. when hierro and fernando redondo were still around. real was just another second seeded club during that time when they won the champions league back in '98.

i have seen their ups and downs, but i never left them unsupported as my heart is already carved with an embroidery and it says "real madrid". only girls and real madrid had made me cried. i cried last year when barcelona trashed real 6-2 at the santiago bernabeu, real's own castle.

now it is all different when real are opted as the richest club in the whole planet with star studded line up in the likes of kaka, cristiano ronaldo and karim benzema. now, real madrid or informally known as "los merengues or the whites for their famous white strips or "los blancos" in spanish are tipped by sports pundits across the globe as the new galactic or "los nouvous galacticos" after the end of zidane, figo, beckham and ronaldo era.

last week, real again failed to see themselves advance to the last eight phase when they drew at home to olympique lyonnais, a french club. another disappointing champions league night. for 6 consecutive years, real failed to pass the last sixteen phase, the first knockout round.

what actually went wrong? they spend 260 million euros in total during last summer when they landed kaka, xabi alonso, cristiano ronaldo, karim benzema, raul albiol and others. they were so excited about the new project, and so do i. i was so desperate to see my club to clinch the treble title especially the champions league since their last win back in 2002 when zidane brought glasgow into haywire when he volleyed home the winner. i still remember that night. with the amount of money spent for the summer transfer fees, somehow the whole family put themselves in an immense pressure, burdens on their shoulder.

i don't want to recap and dwell what went wrong in the previous years. i want to specifically discuss what went wrong in their last match against lyon. as everybody know, xabi alonso the holding midfielder cum deep lying playmaker was suspended for that match. instead of replacing with similar kind of player, for example, fernando gago, manuel pellegrini the manager lined up jose maria guti and esteban granero in the middle of the park. so it was 3 of them in midfield, guti, granero and lassana diarra. guti and granero are similar kind of players. they have similar attacking mentality, more like a passer rather than to win the ball.

so it was only diarra alone in midfield to win the ball. that was the biggest mistake before the match was even started. with that, it was easy for lyon to dominate the possession the game when their have a larger percentage of ball possessions through out the match. when you fail to control the middle park of the pitch, it is simply as you are losing the game. this is somehow similar to what happened last year's match against juventus, and losing to arsenal somewhere in 2005, i think.

other than that, gonzalo higuain (my favorite star after aging raul has lost his touch) had a bad game. he was selfish in few occasions. he should have pass the ball to ronaldo who was in a better position to score. he simply blew up the chances and let the team down. but the real culprit that caused the team to lose the match was, the individuality plays. they were not playing as a team. everybody were so busy to prove their price tag. especially during the second half as they failed to response to lyon tactical reshuffled after the break which was, to cut the ball supply to the fowards by holding guti and granero down. simple but effective. they let lyon played their game as they wanted to like what they did in the previous leg three weeks ago in lyon.

but true football supporter backs his club no matter what condition the club goes. indeed, real madrid is having bad streaks in champions league. i have seen worst than this. like we didn't win anything in a season. bad times, frictions in the dressing room, speculations, you name it. but that's normal in football. people critics when you play badly and you don't perform. but as time progresses, real will prevail. i know it. patience to all madridistas out there. we still have la liga left to compete and to win. we will bring the trophies back in our estadio santiago bernabeu's gala room. next year. but i guess, money can't buy a team, a success, a legacy. ain't it dandy?

hala madrid~