After being drubbed by Barcelona 2 weeks ago, Atletico would have been the more eager of the two capital city teams in the first edition of the Madrid derby of the season. The international break gave Atletico the time to forget about their miserable performance and to bounce back. Apart from the Barca game they have been in splendid form driven by one Sergio Kun Aguero. They have put together some really strong attacking displays in the La Liga and the Champions League. For once they were coming up to the same league and their big brother neighbors.
Madrid had their fair share of injury problems coming into the Vicente Calderon. With Diarra and Guti injured, it was De la Red, Gago and Sneijder in the midfield. The Argentine link man and the Madrid #10 for this season have just returned from injury. Schuster had one change in defense and that was to bring Marcelo at LB. With Robben injured Schuster used 3 strikers in Raul, Van Nistelrooy and Higuain.
Historically, the Madrid Derby has seen some really fast goals and this was no different, just 34 seconds on the clock and Ruud Van Nistelrooy getting receiving a ball on the left side outside the box, with a defender right in front of him, still beat Franko with a superb finish from a long way out. He joins a special 1 minute club, a total of 6 players who have scored within the first minute in the Madrid derby. Another interesting detail to this statistic is that two derby games last season saw Raul and Aguero score in the opening minutes respectively and with Van Nistelrooy's goal it makes it 3 in a row. You have a ticker for a Madrid Derby, you got to be in the stand before the first kick of the ball. I may sound biased now when i say that Van Nistelrooy is one of the best strikers of our generation, but even before he joined Madrid i had the same opinion. Each week you see the Dutchman score all kinds of goals. I pulled his goal scoring stats for the notable three clubs he played for in the last 10 years. 3 season at PSV he scored 62 goals in 67 appearances, 5 seasons at Man U he scored an astounding 162 goals in 189 appearances. He showed that it was no fluke in just his third season at Madrid he has already scored 57 goals in 82 matches. If a striker can boast of a record of 281 goals in 338 matches at the big stage in club level at almost 0.8 goals/match ratio, can anyone say i am wrong?
It was a dream start for Madrid with the goal in already they knew they would have to face a big attack tide from Atletico and it was exactly not the case. Both Aguero and Forlan were getting into shooting positions but could not create any fluid movement into the Madrid box and their shooting was awful. Madrid created moves of their own, though Sneijder was relatively silent on the night, Gago and De La Red were controlling midfield well. Higuain had his shot blocked by the keeper and also the follow up shot from De La Red. From a corner just past minute 20 Cannavaro took a shot on goal, Van Nistelrooy was on hand to tap in from close range. The goal was disallowed as the Dutchman was deemed to be in a offside position. The replays showed that at the time Cannavaro was taking the shot, Van Nistelrooy was clearly onside and it was not even a close call. I seriously think the assistant referee missed the defender who was playing him onside.
Perea was sent off for clearly a second bookable offense when his flaying elbow hit Sneijder on the face, resulting in a bloody nose for the Dutchman. Tempers were flaring and living up to the derby environment which usually is not the case. Fans and players play fair and with 10 men for Atletico and Madrid a goal up, it was going to be tough times for them. Then came a decision from the referee which almost justifies nothing else but the term "balancing out". For a neutral observer it was a disastrous performance by the referee to say the least.
After the half time Higuain had the chance to have Madrid go one or two up when he was denied by the Atletico keeper again once from a point blank range. Atletico finally started looking dangerous when former Barca and Portuguese winger Simao came in. Sergio Ramos who was having a disappointing match, was to have things going worse for him with the winger giving him trouble. But i should say there was a lot of diving going on as well and again there was pushing and shoving between the players. Again a counter attack hit by Higuain when he tried a shot, laid off the re bound for Van der vaart but, the keeper denied him as well. In the 89 the minute Simao won a free kick a little outside the Madrid box about 30 metres or so and he finished off with a superb finish over the wall with Casillas not even moving.
But as in the past couple of seasons Madrid, there is no way we can write off this team until the final whistle is born. Drenthe who was on as a substitute was brought down by Heitinga and the referee pointed to the spot. If this penalty was not given, referee in a different part of the world would have been shot dead. Drenthe makes all these surging runs, but is easily muscled off and hardly creates any chances, but this was a night where he was the hero. With no regular penalty takers in the team, it was the young 2o year old Higuain to take the kick. He hit a sweet spot kick, the keeper guessed right and i think he even got his finger tips on it, but it was Madrid who walked away with 3 points with a 2-1 score. The referee played 7 minutes and 51 seconds of stoppage time maybe to also accommodate the time he himself was getting treatment. I agree this time with Schuster, people looking at the score line think that it was a struggle for Madrid and they were lucky for the win. In a game when their goal was disallowed and a poor red card decision, i think Schuster is right here that they would have won 5-1. It was tactically a good game for Schuster as he got everything including the substitutions almost bang on the money. Incidentally the German tactician got into the record books. He coached Madrid for the 45th league outing against Atletico and notched up 100 points. The earlier record was held by Rijkaard at Barca in 49 games.
Tuesday is one of the biggest matches of this years Champions League, a match which would have had the hype of a final a few years back. Italy's biggest play Spain's biggest and the result could be Claudio Ranieri's job on the line. Madrid make the trip to Turin to play Juventus in the third game of the Champions League group stage. Madrid are sitting on top of the group with 6 points and if Schuster's men can get the 3 points which i seriously doubt, then they could go easy on the remaining games. Good thing to note that the 12 times these two teams have played each other, there never has been a draw. Lot of things have happened including the troubles in Italy, their performance this season and at Madrid as well in terms of teams. I still remember Hierro struggling for pace against Nedved in the 2002/2003 season. Since 2000 i think Madrid has had serious trouble getting past Juventus and Bayern Munich, the problem being the away fixture.
Player Ratings(starting rating 6):
Casillas: 7
Decent game for the Spaniard, who is now in the shortlist for the Balon d Or and considered by many as one of the fore runners for the award. Honestly it was an easy game for him. Considering the fact that Atletico boasted talents like Aguero, Forlan, Manish, their shooting was pathetic to say the least. He was helpless in the Simao free-kick.
Pepe: 8
Marking strikers, small, and quick could be very tricky and the Portuguese defender seems to be back to his best. He was up to the task and kept Aguero kept quiet for most of the day and cut off most of his attempts to connect with Forlan. I would give him the Man of the Match ahead of Higuain. A little tough one.
Cannavaro: 8
I honestly was thinking of a 7 for the Italian, but i thought he deserved a point more for a few headers he won and a couple of desperate tackles putting his body on the line at the end of the match.
Marcelo: 7
The young Brazilian getting the nod ahead of Heinze and he showed the difference between the two. He was just excellent going forward, but was found lacking with the final ball and also his positioning at the back. Heinze maybe got a reprimand for the poor challenge and the penalty that he conceded.
Sergio Ramos: 6
The International games have probably taken the toll on the RB as it was for sure not his best game. He struggled going forward was ineffective, and also struggled once Simao came on.
Sneijder: 7
Was relatively a quiet night for the Dutchman. He got some valuable minutes under his belt coming from injury.
De la Red: 7.5
Was good going forward on the counter attack with Higuain and also had a few shots on goal. He also assisted Gago well in going back to cover.
Gago: 7.5
Considering it was his first game after the first match of the Champions League, it was a decent outing for the Argentine holding player. His tackling and covering skills are good and was never threatened by the Atletico midfield and was also good going forward and link up play.
Raul: 6.5
Rightly substituted in the second half as the Captain went invisible in the second half, not a night to remember individually for him.
Van Nistelrooy: 7
I would have given him an 8 or more if he was given a chance to complete the game by the referee. An absolutely stunning goal out of nothing within the first minute and though he played only a little over 30 minutes, it was in my opinion 2 goals for him in that period.
Higuain: 7.5
Good match again for the youngster. He has just been one of the most improved young players in the La Liga. Maybe not heralded like most of the new footballers coming up, but has definitely become a fan and coach favorite this season. At his age showed a cool head, when he finished the penalty in a big time pressure situation.
Substitutes:
Van der Vaart: 6.5
Came in for Sneijder in the second half, but could do nothing much except for a shot on goal.
Drenthe: 7
Replacing the captain made a few dribbles, and won the crucial penalty.
Javi Garcia: 6
Apart from a note worthy stupid tackle on Aguero, he did what he was asked to do.
Here is a video with highlights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU9C3vx0IoM
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