Chapter 634
Real Madrid's Team Photo for the New Season
"It's almost time!"
Perhaps with their main lineup, Shanghai Shenhua could have held their own against Real Madrid in the first half thanks to their ample stamina and aggressive, efficient pressing.
But that's because Real Madrid wasn't taking it seriously!
In the second half, Shenhua's players quickly realized that their opponents had changed.
In the second half, Real Madrid players took the game incredibly seriously, treating this warm-up match like a Super Cup. From the start of the second half, they relentlessly attacked Shenhua's goal, giving the opponent no chance to breathe.
When Real Madrid got serious, the Shenhua players and fans at the stadium clearly felt the huge gap between the two teams!
Once Real Madrid sped up, Shenhua couldn't stop them.
Just five minutes into the second half, Lin Feng assisted Raul and Benzema to score goals.
The pressing and marking that were effective in the first half completely failed in the second half.
The opponent's passing speed and accuracy were too fast, and Shenhua's players simply couldn't keep up with the pace. Forget about pressing, they couldn't even keep up with the players they were marking. The entire defensive line was like a non-existent structure, allowing Real Madrid players to come and go as they pleased.
The Shenhua fans, who were incredibly excited and cheering for their team in the first half, fell silent after the start of the second half.
Many people are a bit confused: Who am I? Where am I? What happened?
Didn't they manage to go toe-to-toe with Real Madrid in the first half?
Why did they suddenly collapse in the second half?
Not only were the Real Madrid players on the field serious, but even head coach Mourinho showed the same attitude as in a competitive match. He stood on the sidelines watching the game from the start of the second half and gave instructions to the players from time to time, just like he would in a league or even a Champions League match.
In the 61st minute of the second half, Cristiano Ronaldo, who had been eager to play on the bench, was substituted onto the field.
Cristiano Ronaldo, who was extremely hungry for goals, received a through pass from Lin Feng just 3 minutes after coming on as a substitute and successfully broke the offside trap to score.
One minute later, Benzema broke through on the left and crossed the ball, and Ronaldo outjumped the Shenhua defender to head the ball into the net, scoring two goals in just five minutes.
The score was now 4-0, and only 20 minutes had passed since the start of the second half.
Although Real Madrid hoped to treat this warm-up match as a real game, they turned it back into a warm-up match in just 20 minutes.
Trailing by a large margin, Shenhua's morale plummeted.
Their players were overly excited in the first half and exhausted themselves in the high-intensity competition, so they could no longer keep up with Real Madrid's pace.
The situation on the field was completely one-sided, and Real Madrid didn't even get the benefit of training their players.
Seeing this, Mourinho made seven substitutions in one go, replacing key players like Lin Feng with Ronaldo and a group of substitutes to find their form on the field.
As for the key players, they were allowed to rest and recuperate in preparation for the Super Cup final against Barcelona a few days later.
Although Real Madrid's key players were substituted, it doesn't mean that Shanghai Shenhua can take a breather.
After coming on as substitutes, everyone gave their all, eager to showcase themselves in front of the head coach and earn more playing time in the new season.
As for whether Shenhua, who have already been thrashed four times, can live or die, who cares about that at this point!
A group of substitutes hungry for goals, plus a Ronaldo desperate to prove himself to the world.
Real Madrid's substitutes performed even more spectacularly than the starters. The pace of the game actually quickened after the starters were substituted. In the 67th minute, Ronaldo completed his hat-trick with a long-range shot.
Modric also created several chances through his aggressive pressing, first assisting his teammate to score, and then scoring a goal himself.
If it weren't for the outstanding performance of the Shanghai Shenhua goalkeeper, who made several saves against shots from Cristiano Ronaldo and Gonzalo Higuain, Real Madrid might have scored double-digit goals.
Even so, Shenhua still conceded seven goals to Real Madrid, all of which came in the second half.
Such a lopsided score and a completely one-sided game have once again made Chinese fans acutely aware of the huge gap between Chinese Super League powerhouses and the world's top powerhouses.
After three warm-up matches, including ticket revenue, sponsorship revenue, and invitation fees, Real Madrid netted 1500 million euros.
The money-making ability of top-tier wealthy families is truly terrifying!
However, compared to Real Madrid's spending in the transfer market, this income is nothing.
After completing three warm-up matches in Asia, the entire Real Madrid team boarded a chartered plane and departed for home.
The team had barely returned to the club when Mourinho couldn't wait to sign another player from the transfer market – Argentine youngster Di Maria from Benfica, who joined Real Madrid for €1500 million.
Judging from last season's statistics alone, Di Maria, who made 34 appearances for Benfica and only contributed 4 goals and 3 assists, doesn't seem to be of interest to Real Madrid.
But Di Maria has an advantage that no one else has – his agent is Mendes!
As one of the most sought-after agents in football today, Mendes represents two superstars: Lin Feng and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Even Real Madrid's head coach, Mourinho, is a member of Mendes' team.
This made Mendes a guest of honor at Real Madrid. After all, if the relationship with him was not good, and he let one of his players cause trouble, the consequences would be unbearable for the club.
Mendes has a keen eye for talent and is very good at facilitating players' transfers from lower leagues to top leagues.
After Cristiano Ronaldo transferred to Manchester United, under his management, Nani, Anderson, and others successively moved from the Portuguese league to the Premier League, joining the then-dominant Red Devils Manchester United.
When Mourinho was managing Chelsea and Inter Milan, Mendes also used his relationship with Mourinho to send talent to both clubs.
For example, Quaresma, the king of the outside of his foot, got into Inter Milan through connections and ripped Inter Milan off a lot of money.
On Mendes' recommendation, Mourinho assessed Di Maria's form.
To be honest, he actually looked down on this 21-year-old player.
He felt that Di Maria was too thin, weak in physical confrontation, and made little contribution to defense, which did not meet his criteria for personnel selection.
However, Di Maria is very sharp in his breakthroughs and passing on the wing, and unlike Robben, who is a winger, Di Maria is a wingman on the wing.
His strengths lie in passing and assisting, and he rarely dribbles directly into the penalty area to shoot. This aligns perfectly with Real Madrid's tactical needs, which have two core players and require more players to play supporting roles and assist the team's leaders.
So, out of respect for Mendes and to gamble on the Argentine's future, Mourinho ultimately chose to sign Di Maria.
In this way, the impact of Van der Vaart and Robben's departure on Real Madrid's flanks will be minimized.
Like Robben, Di Maria is left-footed, which means he can play on both the left and right sides.
His usage can be flexibly switched depending on the opponent and the situation.
If he needs to cut inside and shoot, then let him play as a right winger.
If all they need is for him to cross from the byline, then let him play on the left. However, Real Madrid doesn't currently need another winger to score from the wing; with Ronaldo on the roster, that position can only belong to Ronaldo.
So Di Maria can focus on being a wingman and just practice his passing.
……
On August 16, before heading to the Super Cup, Real Madrid took their new season team photo at the Valdebebas training ground.
Real Madrid's 23-man squad for the 2009-2010 season was as follows:
Goalkeepers: Casillas (Spain) (Vice-captain), Dudek (Poland), Adán (Spain)
Defender:
Arbeloa (Spain), Pepe (Portugal), Ramos (Spain), Marcelo (Brazil), Albiol (Spain), Garay (Argentina), Thiago Silva (Brazil)
Midfield:
Lin Feng (China) (Vice Captain), Xabi Alonso (Spain), Luka Modric (Croatia), Diarra (Mali), Javier Mascherano (Argentina), Carlos Canales (Spain), Granero (Spain), Lass Diarra (France).
forward:
Raul (Spain) (Captain), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Benzema (France), Higuain (Argentina), Di Maria (Argentina)
Compared to last season, Real Madrid has strengthened all three lines, especially the forward and midfield lines, which have seen a significant improvement in strength.
Therefore, the outside world is very optimistic about Real Madrid's performance in the new season. Some betting companies have even opened odds early on, betting that Real Madrid can achieve a three-peat in the Champions League.
However, it seems to confirm the old saying—extreme heat will surely kill you!
The highly anticipated and seemingly invincible Galacticos crashed in their first official game of the new season.
On August 17, in the first leg at Camp Nou, Real Madrid took the lead away from home but were overturned by Barcelona and lost the game 2-3.
Lin Feng continued his excellent performance in this match, providing two assists early in the first half to help the team take the lead.
But Messi was in no way inferior to him. With his excellent teamwork, Barcelona twice managed to equalize the score after falling behind.
After that, both sides strengthened their defenses, and neither could find a way to break the other's defense.
Just when it seemed the match was about to end in a draw, a controversial decision by the referee completely changed the course of the game.
In stoppage time, Ronaldo dribbled into the penalty area and was tripped by a Barcelona player.
Perhaps it was because his fall was a little exaggerated, or perhaps it was because his reputation as a diving champion was too great.
Without clearly seeing the defender's foul, the referee instinctively assumed that Ronaldo was diving to draw a penalty, and promptly issued him a yellow card.
This yellow card not only cost Real Madrid a penalty, but also greatly affected the mentality of the Real Madrid players, especially Cristiano Ronaldo.
Barcelona then seized the opportunity, sealing the victory with a quick counter-attack in the final minute of stoppage time.
This defeat left Real Madrid fans extremely dissatisfied. They didn't lose because of a lack of strength, but entirely because of the referee's poor judgment!
If the referee hadn't missed that penalty, Real Madrid would definitely have won in the end.
But others don't care about Real Madrid's grievances. After Real Madrid lost to Barcelona, a barrage of criticism came from the outside world.
Cristiano Ronaldo is the first to be affected!
Cristiano Ronaldo was clearly the victim of the referee's wrong decision, but no one sympathized with him. Instead, they blamed him for being targeted by the referee because he often dived in the water, just like Neymar later.
If the referee is deliberately targeting Real Madrid, then why hasn't Lin Feng, who is on the same team, been targeted by the referee in the same way?
It's all because Lin Feng has good sportsmanship, while Ronaldo has bad sportsmanship!
So the problem still lies with Ronaldo himself!
Besides that, the biggest criticism from the outside world is about Ronaldo's playing style.
Many people criticize Ronaldo for not having adjusted his playing style from his time at Manchester United after a whole summer.
Cristiano Ronaldo's style of play at Manchester United heavily relies on possession; he needs numerous one-on-one opportunities on the wings to cut inside and shoot.
Real Madrid doesn't need him to do that, because they have the best midfield in the world. They don't need to build their attacks and play around Ronaldo. They just need Ronaldo to improve his finishing and shooting ability and capitalize on the opportunities created by his teammates.
Ultimately, it's because Ronaldo brings his own system, and that system clashes with Real Madrid's existing system.
His arrival created two tactical cores for Real Madrid, resulting in two different tactical approaches on the field. Whenever his teammates passed the ball to him, Real Madrid's attacking tactics became less fluid.
Cristiano Ronaldo was aware of this problem and had considered reducing the number of times he handled the ball.
But how can a habit of several years be changed so easily?
So as he played, Ronaldo couldn't help but revert to his previous form.
This made Ronaldo play very awkwardly on the field, which in turn made Real Madrid's attack awkward as well.
Therefore, instead of arguing about the referee's decisions, it would be better to resolve the issue of the coexistence and compatibility of the team's two tactical cores as soon as possible.
The second leg of the Super Cup will be held at the Bernabéu Stadium a week later. Before that, Real Madrid must resolve the issue of Ronaldo's incompatibility with the team's tactics.
Otherwise, Ronaldo's presence would not only fail to improve the team's strength, but would also drag the team down.
On the second day of training, Mourinho called Ronaldo aside for a private moment.
"Cristiano, come to my office."
Seeing Ronaldo being called away, the Real Madrid players all stopped training and began to whisper among themselves.
"Why do you think the coach wanted to talk to him?"
"I guess they're going to criticize him. To be honest, he played terribly in the last game!"
"Didn't he score a goal? That's a good performance, isn't it?"
"You only saw that he scored, but didn't you see how many excellent attacking opportunities he wasted?"
"That's true. This guy seems to have some kind of stubbornness, insisting on going one-on-one with Barcelona's full-backs. Wouldn't it be better to pass the ball to a teammate and rush into the penalty area to shoot?"
"What do you know? How can eating easy balls show that I'm a cut above the rest? Getting the ball on the wing, dribbling past people, and then scoring a goal, isn't that cooler?"
"You should keep quiet. It's not good to talk about others behind their backs. Don't let anyone hear you!"
Hearing his teammates talking about Ronaldo behind his back, Lin Feng felt a little sorry for him and couldn't help but remind him.
Cristiano Ronaldo's social skills are really lacking. He's been with Real Madrid for a month now, and he still hasn't gotten to know his teammates well.
If he had even a slightly better relationship with his teammates, so many people wouldn't be so dissatisfied with him behind his back. (End of Chapter)