I have been a keen follower of the La liga for over a decade now, but the last couple of months have been dull to say the least. If you asked me whether the Liga is a foregone conclusion with Barca maintaining a 6 point lead, i would have said yes two months back. Since Juande Ramos took charge of the defending champions a few days before the El Classico at the Camp Nou, Real have brought upon some real shame on themselves. Two months back everyone said that Madrid should focus on the Champions League and the Spanish League is over with Barca seemingly unbeatable. The experts claimed that Juande Ramos had the experience and the grit to take Madrid through a knock out competition, but unfortunately as though to prove everyone wrong Real just put up two embarrassing performances home and away to Liverpool.
Last Sunday Barca overcame Getafe with the help of the superb Messi. Getafe usually has a good record against Barcelona at home, but the midfield did not show any inventive angle and almost were dumbfounded by the passing and the vision of Xavi and Iniesta. Madrid on the other hand went to Recreativo and labored to a win by the same margin. The strikers in Huntelaar and Higuain were no were to be seen. Some of the better players in Gago and Diarra saved the grace with some solid holding and passing play. Finally it was a superb through ball from Gago that let Marcelo free and he made a cool finish one on one with the keeper. Ramos is doing the right thing by taking Heinze out and moving Marcelo back to his normal LB position. Heinze's agents must surely be looking around for other suitable clubs, but Madrid need to identify a replacement wing back first who defends better than Marcelo and Heinze. 10 rounds of matches left, with both Barca and Real Madrid winning their games, it does not matter if you dominate a match and win it. I have always felt that 3 points is the result whether you win in style or ugly. There was more problems for Ramos as Sneijder had to be stretchered off with seemingly a hamstring injury.
Midweek game saw Real Madrid hosting Getafe today at the Bernabeu. Ramos had to make adjustments to his midfield, as Diarra was suspended. Gago took the responsibility of being the holding player. After a lot of speculation that Guti fell out with the coach after being put on the bench, the veteran took charge of the creative role in midfield. Rafael van der Vaart got the start ahead of Robben. It was 9 minutes in and former Madrid youth team stars Granero and Soldado combined to give the striker a free header to make it 1-0 to Getafe. With no Diarra, there was no positive movement, and Madrid lacked the teeth in their passing. They were hardly able to put a few passes together at a stretch. Cata Diaz paused for one split second inside his penalty box which let Higuain get around him and then round off the keeper to tap in from a difficult angle with seconds remaining in the first half. The young Argentine showed a lot of composure for the goal.
Midweek game saw Real Madrid hosting Getafe today at the Bernabeu. Ramos had to make adjustments to his midfield, as Diarra was suspended. Gago took the responsibility of being the holding player. After a lot of speculation that Guti fell out with the coach after being put on the bench, the veteran took charge of the creative role in midfield. Rafael van der Vaart got the start ahead of Robben. It was 9 minutes in and former Madrid youth team stars Granero and Soldado combined to give the striker a free header to make it 1-0 to Getafe. With no Diarra, there was no positive movement, and Madrid lacked the teeth in their passing. They were hardly able to put a few passes together at a stretch. Cata Diaz paused for one split second inside his penalty box which let Higuain get around him and then round off the keeper to tap in from a difficult angle with seconds remaining in the first half. The young Argentine showed a lot of composure for the goal.
Madrid came out in the second half with Robben replacing Van der vaart and with a lot more precision and purpose. Things were getting heated with a lot of strong tackles and a lot of play acting from Getafe. Each time Madrid were making a move forward, Getafe had everyone defending. The midfield was packed, which cut out all through balls from Guti and Gago. Getafe keeper Stoijkov who put up a world class performance last week against the rampant Barca was on hand again to deny Sergio Ramos. The action was getting heated, it was 15 minutes of miss after miss from both teams. Albin mis controlled a ball when he was clear leaving Pepe trip over his own feet. Sergio Ramos again was denied from the line by the Getafe defence from a corner after Stoijkov came up with a spectacular save to deny Higuain. 17 minutes on and Robben had to be replaced by Drenthe due to injury. Surprisingly Juande Ramos replaced Cannavaro with Javi Garcia.
Meanwhile Stoijkov again came up with a superb save when Huntelaar was set free by Guti. Even if Getafe drop down from the La Liga the keeper is for sure going to have some suiters. The misses continued, now this time it was Soldado who had a free header again going wide. With all the misses, the substitute Uche crossed in a long high ball for Gavilan, whose cushioned header was finished off superbly by Albin leaving Pepe looking left and right as though he was watching a tennis match. 2-1 to Getafe.
The drama was only starting to unfold. Madrid still looked to be struggling getting their attacking moves going with the final ball missing, but a free-kick just outside the box was perfectly placed for Guti who showed his sweet left foot with a superbly placed finish. I just love the sight of a left footed free kick sailing in to the top corner of the net. 2-2 was the scoreline which still was not perfect news for Madrid as this would mean that they would see their grip loosening on the La liga chase.
With just 5 minutes or so left Pepe seemingly having too much to do in the back had to make a lot of effort to track back and chase Casquero, the slightest of pushes saw the Getafe player fall down quiet dramatically, the Portuguese stopper went crazy by first kicking the ball away and kicking the player lying on the floor. In the scuffle that followed he punched Albin and it looked as though the referee showed the red card almost three times. It required a calm head on the shoulders in the form of keeper Casillas who escorted his fellow team mate from the pitch. Casquero tried to be a little too cheeky when he tried to chip from the penalty spot, which was so soft that Casillas almost made the dive, got up and still had time to gather the ball.
Higuain seemingly was fouled by Cata in the box but the referee pulled out the card on Higuain for diving. This was but not the last action from the Argentine as he dribbled and dribbled, and let of a superb shot from outside the box for an extra ordinary finish. There was more ugly scenes as Marcelo taunted Cata as a follow up to some earlier arguments they had, and I think Marcelo probably quit when Cata almost twice his size called him out for a fight.
Though this superb result will keep Madrid just 3 points adrift Barca for atleast 24 hrs (Barca play Sevilla tomorrow), there are some real problems for Juande Ramos. He made the mistake of not having Robben on the pitch in the first half when Madrid really wanted some extra width and dimension in a packed Getafe midfield. Guti may have saved face with his free-kick which in the end turned out to be crucial but almost all of 93 minutes saw poor pass after another from him. Higuain now has 19 goals to his credit but the leading Madrid scorer is suspended for the next game against Sevilla. Injury concerns now for their seemingly best Madrid player in Robben. More importantly the mistake in taking Cannavaro out and bringing in Javi Garcia could be the worst.
Javi Garcia was not slotted in to the center back role, i dint see him having a clue of what he was doing except his stare down contest with Soldado. If Ramos wanted someone to do a man marking on the Spanish striker, he got it wrong when the striker was taken out. This meant that there was Pepe having to do a whole lot on his own as Garcia was not able to hold the line with him. With Sergio Ramos constantly joining the attack and Marcelo neither forward nor back was no acceptable reason for Pepe to lose his mind. His horrific violent conduct is totally not one that befits a professional football player, but more importantly he could be suspended for atleast 3 matches including Sevilla and the crucial El Classico. This would mean Cannavaro paired with Metzelder or the ever so non dependable Heinze for these important games.
For me this match is for sure one of the best of the season in la Liga. It had all the ingredients of a great encounter, with the goals, the brawls, the red card, a penalty save and a stoppage time winner. Madrid has this uncanny ability to get into situations where they should not be in the first place and then having to fight out of it with great difficulty. Mathematically, every team all the way to 10th placed Valladolid have a chance to win the La liga, but it for sure has been a two horse race for almost the entire season. Madrid would have to win their remaining 9 games, and hope Barca lose two or lose one and draw one of their remaining 8 games( assuming Madrid win El Classico). On May 3rd if Juande Ramos is able to push his team to score a win over their eternal rivals, the Spanish league is going to come alive and progress to a dramatic climax.
