This match refers to an older Villareal-Madrid game. Visit the most recent Real Madrid v Villareal match page.

Real Madrid travelled to El Madrigal to face the form team of 2007, Villarreal, who had not lost in their previous 18 official matches and had just come from an opening season 0-3 victory against Valencia. Most pundits expected a good match, with no clear favorite, including Schuster’s new project being put to the test by a very solid side. This happened for 38 minutes.

Villarreal started brightly with good movement, creating chances that while not extremely dangerous, forced Iker Casillas to have some early involvement in the match. Madrid slowly entered the fray and in the 14′ Robinho hit the post on a Madrid counter. As the pace of the match slowed chances became fewer and farther between until Sneijder looked up from the left side of the pitch and found Raul with a 30 meter pass over the head of Cygan. All that needed doing was Raul to stick out his foot and it was 0-1.

In the second half Villarreal again started well, causing problems, and Tomasson had a good shot deflected away by Casillas. But almost immediately, Madrid won a free kick near the Villarreal area and Sneijder scored the second goal of the evening with a perfectly executed free kick, which Villarreal keeper Sebastian Viera could do nothing to stop. This goal seemed to leave Villarreal a bit groggy, and 2 minutes later a sweeping counterattack ended with a Sergio Ramos pass to Van Nistelrooy, who, with his customary cold blood, calmly picked his spot for the 3rd goal.

At this point the match was effectively over, and Villarreal became a team split in two, with 5 defending and 5 attacking. Two more goals came from well-executed counterattacks courtesy of Sneijder and Guti.

Perhaps the 0-5 result was a bit unfair to Villarreal, as they did not play poorly, and in fact Rossi had a standout game, always looking dangerous with his movement and insightful passing. But the few times they were able to get themselves in dangerous goalscoring territory the Madrid defense was there to block them, with both Metzelder and Cannavaro having very good displays. Cannavaro in particular everyday looks more and more like the player we saw in WC2006.

Madrid suffered, and Villarreal found its best way forward, via the right flank, where Drenthe again looked extremely uncomfortable at left back. In the 60th minute Schuster gave Heinze his debut as he went on in place of Raul, with Drenthe moving to midfield, where he seems a completely different player. Heinze also looked solid, and what was seen as a lack of pace in England may not hamper him as much in the more paused game that is played in La Liga.

Other good performances were put in by Guti, whose distribution was fundamental for the speed with which Madrid mounted its attacks. Last season Guti was the only transitional element in the Madrid midfield, and (as often happened) when other sides easily identified him as Madrid’s sole creative outlet, he would spend as much time on the ground from the constant stream of fouls as he would directing Madrid’s play. This then left Madrid with only two options for scoring goals: the long ball, taking the midfield out of the equation, or dead-ball situations, where Madrid excelled. This season Guti has a new partner in the creation and the benefits of his new found freedom are already being felt.

Which brings me the yesterday’s man of the match, Wesley Sneijder. 2 goals, the pass that set up Raul’s opener, skill on the ball, vision and distribution, ball recovery, excellent movement and dead-ball delivery – the press today is singing his praises, while simultaneously lambasting Valencia’s Quique Sanchez Flores for rejecting the chance to sign him for 15m euros earlier in the summer. He has been a very positive surprise, the closest thing many here have seen to a truly “complete” midfielder in a long time.

Many questions still remain, however; what will happen once Robben is fit? Metzelder has looked impressive in the 135′ he’s played so far – what will happen to Pepe? And most importantly, what will Madrid do once teams stop trying to control the ball? So far, Madrid has simply been playing a much improved version of what Capello did last season. 8 of the 11 starters were players Capello had. The main difference so far, is the replacement of Sneijder for Emerson, giving the team a much more offensive profile, but sooner or later teams will simply put 9 men behind the ball when they play Madrid, and the onus on creation and posession will be a good test of Madrid’s title credentials this season. Credentials which so far are even drawing praise from the Catalan sports papers.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

I was up near the 2000 or so Atletico away fans for this match, which was a real treat to watch. Too bad there were some issues over TV rights which deprived many of seeing it live because it was, from a neutral’s perspective, the best match of the round I’m sure.

Real Madrid looked very bright at times and had the better of the game overall, hitting the woodwork twice, and with Robinho (twice) and Diarra leaving great chances unfinished. But Atletico also had its chances, and the game was generally open and flowing.

Raul will get a lot of credit, he scored a nice goal and worked hard, though I don’t think he should have stayed on all 90′. Saviola eventually came on, but to replace RVN, who while winning a lot of balls in the air and looking better than last week, is still a bit shy of 100%. Saviola looked sharp and quick when he was on.

Guti helped with the transition from defense to attack but aside from the free kicks, was a bit quiet throughout. Pepe will always have that 30m Euros price tag attached but he looked fairly solid, cutting off some attacks nicely. The main problems for Real Madrid came from Atletico taking advantage of the forward runs our fullbacks made. Drenthe in particular was guilty of losing his position. He is fast, strong, and has a good amount of skill, but you can see he is tactically green and will have to improve this aspect.

Sneijder, what can I say. I think we have a real jewel here. Vision, movement, pinpoint long passes and creative short passes, good going forward or with his back to goal, gets into the tackle, quick and able to beat his marker, amazing deliveries on set pieces and a great shot in both feet.

Metzelder looked very solid coming on in the 2nd half for an injured Cannavaro, Sergio Ramos gave his typically great display of hard work combined with skill, although he was caught out a couple times by Simao, and Diarra put in a decent display in the center. His passing still leaves a bit to be desired. He’s no Redondo, after all.

Casillas again came up with the big saves when needed. I wish someone who do an exhaustive study to see how many points this guy has saved for us over the years.

Atletico looked good, Simao and Aguero very dangerous. I do not understand why Aguirre replaced Simao. Forlan was well controlled by Pepe and this was a big reason why Atletico were unable to score more. Aguero dived a lot, but he has a lot of skill, compared to some of the big names he is one of the more under-rated players in La Liga but he won’t be for long.

Where Atletico were really soft was in he center of defense. Pablo was so slow and poorly positioned that sometimes it seemed as if Perea was the only centerhalf. Sooner or later Madrid would score.

Very good sensations from Madrid, considering we had 3 new players in the starting 11 and another 2 who made their league debuts for us. Higuain, Robben, Heinze and Torres all missed the match and Baptista was unable to come on because we used a sub for Cannavaro’s injury. Also it should be mentioned that the squad is very young, with 16 players (Torres, Gago, Diarra, Higuain, Pepe, Sergio Ramos, Casillas, Drenthe, Marcelo, Baptista, Sneijder, Robben, Robinho, Soldado, Saviola, Metzelder) 26 years old and under.

The feeling is that Madrid should still be able to improve a lot more as the team gels, especially once Robben gets going, and we have a very strong bench, one of the best in Europe. If things click we could put up strong challenges both in Spain and Europe this season.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

The club vs country debate

The ongoing dispute between Brazil and Real Madrid (the two most successful sides at international and club level), recently resolved in Real Madrid’s favor, has once again brought this issue into the spotlight.

With the G14 suing the organizing bodies, and clubs in several countries demanding compensation for players severely injured while on international duty, sooner or later steps will be taken, either jointly or unilaterally to resolve this once and for all.

Real Madrid will play Real Mallorca on Sunday, June 17th needing a win to secure the 2006-2007 Spanish 1st Division title. Brazil will begin playing the Copa America on June 26th. The problem arose because of FIFA statutes saying that players called up to participate in officially sanctioned tournaments must report to their national teams 14 days before the competition begins.

Who is in the right here? On the one hand FIFA statutes have been in place for a long time, and there is the age old argument that clubs shouldn’t complain about players being called up by their national teams as this raises their caches and profiles (and subsequently, their price tags).

On the other hand, however, it is the clubs, and not the federations, who pay the players. When a player is injured while on international duty, the national team can simply replace him, sooner or later, by selecting another, while the club sees it’s asset – unfortunately, what players are – fall in value, and pay his wages while injured not working for the company that pays him. In any other profession a situation like this would be so absurd that it would only cause laughter.

Do FIFA and federations abuse their position? And if so, what should be done about it? In my opinion they do, and I’d like to hear what others think.

Ed’s note: This article suggests (rather, it reports that Robinho’s agent suggests) that Robinho may defy the wishes of the Brazilian Football Conferation (CFB) and stick around Madrid to beat Mallorca and celebrate winning La Liga with his Real Madrid club mates (oh, how biased can we be? ).

From Soccerlens.com - Football News