Rafael Van der vaart orchestrates Real 7 * assault

With a week lost in International duty, La Liga had mid week games this week. Both Barca and Real have come off victories last weekend in away games. Wednesday night it was first Barca who entertained Real Betis at the Nou Camp. Barca were seemingly in control at half time when Eto converted twice from Messi passes. In a superb turn around Betis fought back to level the match in the second half at a 2 a piece. Just as when it was looking that Barca were to drop 2 points at home Guardiola's introduction of Gudjohnson into the game on 70 minutes worked. Just 10 minutes after the Iceland international made a start he scored converting a Dani Alves pass. It was a difficult goal at a difficult angle. The funny part of the celebration was when Eto came charging out of the Barca dug out and pushed Guardiola who was standing by the side line from the back-in joy of course. Pep looked back at the Cameroonian and then finally hug him. Of course Eto is a Player and Guardiola is a Manager, he has all the right not to have such extensive celebrations with his players. After all Barca were not scoring the crucial winner in a Champions league final. Barca held on to win the match 3-2.

Real Madrid entertained Sporting Gijon at the Bernabeu. Real coming off a difficult but well earned victory away at Racing and Sporting got drubbed by Barca the same 6-1. Schuster had made some changes again to his starting line up. Real were playing at home and against a team in the bottom of La Liga, squad rotation was not a bad idea, unless it came back to haunt him. The first 10 minutes looked as though Sporting had learned from their mistakes 3 days back in their match against Barca and were playing a compact defensive formation. Madrid took their time in passing the ball around mostly between the defenders and the midfield, rarely connecting with the strikers. Schuster rested Ramos and gave the youngster Torres a start, alongside Pepe, Cannavaro and Marcelo. It was Diarra, Van der vaart and de la Red in midfield, Robben on the right wing, Raul and Higuain as strikers. The youngsters who were superb against Racing almost immediately combined when 3 minutes into the game de la Red fed a neat ball to Higuain in the box but was not able to finish.

Just as when Sporting looked a little bit more comfortable on the ball and were stringing their attacks, a fine counter attacking move with de la Red chipping the ball to Raul, who headed the ball through into the path of Van der vaart who finished it off with a graceful left footed half volley. 1-0 Real Madrid on 18 minutes.

This almost immediately rattled Sporting who were trying to be organized. Raul and Higuain seemed to combine really well. The only part missing was the finishing. The young Argentine as i have mentioned numerous times before, has an excellent eye for hitting the counter attack and has the pace and dribbling skills to execute it. On the 33 minute mark a well executed play and a touch of brilliance got Real two up. de la Red inside the box squared a fine ball to VDV, who showed all signs of finishing with his preferred left, but with the goalkeeper charging and cutting down the angle he turned 360 and finished with a superlative back heel to make it 2-0.


Robben was getting too much space to run into, though his first touch and control let him down a couple of times, he was adequately supported by Torres. On one such run Robben cut inside the Sporting LB and with white shirts lining up inside the box, instead played a delightful ball across the penalty box for Higuain to finish off unmarked. 3-0 on the 36th minute and it was to stay so at half time.


As in the match against BATE in the Champions League Schuster did not want his team to sit on the lead. They did follow his instructions to the word as Madrid scored just a minute from game restart. A long ground ball into the box found Raul who probably was looking to pass back to Robben with the 1-2, but it was VDV again who finished with a sweet left footed shot leaving the goalkeeper stranded. It was 4-0 on 46 minutes and a superb hattrick for the Dutchman who is fast winning the Bernabeu fans over and also giving a strong answer to critics who doubted his ability to add quality to the Madrid midfield.


Just a few minutes later it was a switch of roles. VDV fed in a delightful through ball to Robben who tip toed and beat the center backs and the keeper for pace and scored with a well placed shot from a long way out. 5-0 Madrid on 50 minutes.


Schuster seeing a good stage for the young Madrid players to get some playing time brought in Javi Garcia to replace Diarra. Garcia has been used as a CB in pre-season but he played well in his natural position the rest of the game. On minute 53 the traveling Sporting fans had something to cheer for when Marcelo found himself a bit out of position and David Barral passed from the right for Mateo finish off avoiding the dive from Cannavaro. It was 5-1 on 53 minutes.

The press has been relentless about how Raul has lost his scoring touch and how he is now a liability for Madrid. I agree partially to the point that Schuster should not be scared to bench Raul especially in away games and give the likes of Higuain and Saviola more playing time. When the Manager points out that he did want Raul to play withdrawn in an away game similar to Racing, we cannot expect him to bag a lot of goals. Press is probably looking at stats only, but Raul definitely brings a lot more to the plate. Is he a negative influence and does not want to see other players succeed at Madrid? I don't think so, we have to understand that Raul has been wearing the Captain's arm band regularly for the last 5-6 years, even at a time when there were players such as Figo, Zidane, Beckham and Roberto Carlos.

Well Raul decided to take center stage amidst all the goals that Real were scoring. First Robben cut inside again on the right and seemingly with minimum back lift got a powerful shot. Sporting goalkeeper desperately punched it up and Raul was there and finished off with a difficult high tap in. 6-1 Madrid on 59 minutes.


Schuster introduced Saviola for Higuain and almost immediately the forgotten Argentine made a surge down the left, dribbled and side footed two defenders but could not find the final ball to Raul. Couple of minutes later it was Saviola receiving a ball, fed Raul and with the keeper charging would have expected the Captain to pass back to him, but Raul made a superb lob which was so perfect that it could be used for lessons to kids. 7-1 Real Madrid on 64 minutes.


Robben after a good night was replaced by Drenthe, but now Madrid as though providing a favor to Sporting decided to step of the gas. I am pretty sure if they had attacked more they would have scored another 3-4 goals. Madrid seemingly have grown in confidence after their poor showing on Match Day one against Deportivo. Schuster would be one happy man, seeing that his squad rotation worked out excellently. But is this game a fair assessment? Certainly not!! Madrid have scored 14 goals in 4 league games but have shipped in 6 goals with only 2 clean sheets for Casillas in all competitions. 7 goals against Sporting for many may not be a big deal, because they let 6 goals in the week before against Barca at their ground. Having lost all 4 games conceding a total of 19 goals Sporting are in bad shape. Well i have a reason for this, the scheduling for a team like Sporting has been absolutely cruel. Having played Barca and Madrid in the space of 3 days, they welcome Vilarreal over the weekend.

Real Madrid travel to face Real Betis on Saturday, though Betis are struggling they did give a scare to Barca. David Villa inspired Valencia got back to top spot in La Liga thanks to two goals from the Spaniard.

Here are my player ratings:

Casillas- 7.5
Though he had limited saves to make as most of the action was at the other end of the pitch, he maintained high concentration and was good. Cannot blame him for the goal he let in also.

Miguel Torres- 7
Getting a full game ahead of regular Sergio Ramos, the young Madrid defender held his ground and also joined Robben in attack in the first half. His positioning with the rest of the defenders was noticeable when Cannavaro was barking out instructions asking him to maintain the high line.

Pepe- 7.5
Much improved performance from the big Portuguese. He did not have a lot of defend, but still controlled the ball and looked sharp and quick.

Cannavaro- 7
The General at the back was good organizing the Madrid defense. In the beginning of the match he held on to the ball with Pepe with some neat passing with midfield. I am not giving a higher rating because if he was a bit quicker maybe he could have blocked the shot that let to Sporting's goal.

Marcelo- 7.5
He made one mistake which led to the goal, when the young Brazilian was found too high in defense. With Robben playing on the right, Marcelo did well going up and joining the attack.

Diarra- 7
Another player who did his part, but was never under any pressure. Also only played 50 minutes when he was substituted by Javi Garcia.

de la Red- 7.5
It was a composed performance from the young player and a lot of running. He provided the assist for VDV to score his second of the night. de la Red could be a serious competitor for Guti and Gago.

Van der vaart- 10- Man of the Match
I was split on a 9.5 for VDV. But I don't think he could have had a better game. I don't agree with people who say it is Sporting Gijon who is 20th in La liga so its no big deal. A hat trick from midfield is a really great feat to achieve. VDV had to prove that he was worth the money Madrid spent on him, or rather he is now proving that Madrid made one of the deals of the decade. He was involved in the game from start to finish, was tracking back to help in defense as well as going back to collect passes from the defenders. He set up Robben with a delightful through ball. The goal he back heeled into the net was just phenomenal presence of mind and flair.

Robben- 8
Switched wings and was predominantly on the right the entire game. He cut inside the Sporting LB with ease on more than one occasion. It was his delightful pass that set up Higuain. It was also his shot saved by the keeper that Raul tapped in. He was also involved in the third goal scored by VDV. Though his first touch from some long balls did let him down, it was a busy day in the office for the flying Dutchman.

Higuain- 8
Did what he is there on the pitch for. Hard running, good link up play with Raul and also scored a goal.

Raul(c)- 9
Real Madrid's official website says Raul is the Man of the Match. I disagree in this aspect, but i do give him 9. He was involved in almost all of Madrid's attacking play. If the first goal was his pure poacher instinct, the second was pure genius.

Substitutes:

Gavi Garcia- 7.5
He looked solid and got some quality playing time under his belt. Playing in his natural position of defensive midfield, he recovered balls and was pretty good in his ball distribution as well.

Saviola- 7
First real quality minutes for the Argentine. He showed bits and pieces of the Saviola he was famous for. Good triangular 1-2 passing with Raul led to the Captain's second goal. He was getting in to too many offside positions and looked a bit rusty.

Drenthe- 7
With Real taking the gas of the pedal on terms of attacking play, the Dutchman was just having a jog in the park with no positive play.

Here are the goals with some exciting English commentary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_XRg3WQ_kE

I am putting this second video too because the first one seems to be missing Raul's second goal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OigErfASMnw