Spanish Primera: Real Madrid anyone?

[PontifexMaximus]

Ever since Davor Suker (he comes from my home town) started playing for Real Madrid, I fell in love with this club. Always going for the top honors and playing attractive football. But, as you all know, the last couple of years have been a disaster.

I think this is going to be the year of come back. Finally a trully great manager with authority (Capello), a strong centre back (Cannavaro), there's Emerson and van Nistelrooy, Robinho is 1 year more experienced...

So I wanna know what you guys think? Is Real going to be a match for Barca, or is the league gonna be one-sided like last season? Are the newcomers going to help the team, or is it going to be the same old Real with a bunch of stars underachieving?

P.S. And how about Lyon in the same Champions league group AGAIN???

 

[MCdread]

The team and staff look better and the galacticos era is over. However the pre-season didn't gp that great from what I understood, and I seriously doubt that Capello's devotion for tactical discipline is going to be enough to overcome Barça's machine, which also looks stronger this season, with the signings of Zambrotta, Thuram and Gudjohnson as well as having a more experienced Messi and the mexican kid Giovanni dos Santos ready to fire in. In the CL they should qualify for the second round with more or less difficulty.

However, the past 10 years have shown that Capello owns the domestic leagues but is missing something in Europe...

 

[classical_hero]

Barca should win La Liga.

 

[willemvanoranje]

I don't even want to think about Real Madrid. I'd rather have them relegated hehe. But well, as MCdread points out, the Galacticos-era has come or at least is coming to an end.. and with players like Robinho and Cannavaro, they should be able to pose a threat. In a lesser extend also Van Nistelrooy of course, but I am not convinced Emerson will be a great succes. I do not deny that he can be, but I'm not sure he will be.

 

[PontifexMaximus]

Yeah, Emerson is getting old, he was really disappointing during the World Cup. But I think Cannavaro is just what the team needed, because they always had problems in defence, he has loads of experience in Serie A and should really help the younger players like Ramos.

I also think that after Morientes, Real was short of a strong post player, and they finally got one with van Nistelrooy. He'll just have to adept to the new style of play.

One more thing that needs to be done is getting rid of Ronaldo. I can't stand him anymore, he just needs to go.

All in all I believe they can't play worse than last season, right? Capello is one of the most successfull managers in the world, all I'm asking from him is that he continues his success Barca may still be a bit too strong, but this season should be much more interesting.

 

[willemvanoranje]

Barça just got its ass kicked by Sevilla.. hope?

 

[PontifexMaximus]

Barça just got its ass kicked by Sevilla.. hope?

Damn, that was fun to watch.
The best thing about it is that I have a good friend who is a Barca fan, and after the game we went out, you can imagine what I did to him hehe...

Seriously, I don't know what to make of Barca yet, first crushing Espanyol, now this. However, I am sure that Ronaldinho won't repeat his performances from last season, he seems distracted, just like during the World Cup. I guess that supermodel really got to him, he says he's madly in love, obviously not good for his football.

 

[Lambert Simnel]

Weird. I just cannot bring myself to want Madrid to do well, especially versus Barcelona.

Maybe it's because Barcelona is a much nicer place to go ? Maybe, as a Scot, I relate much more closely with the Catalonian than the Castilian mentality ? Maybe it's Madrid's association with the fascist leader Franco ? And, as a corollary, Barcelona's importance as part of the anarchist/republican/communist coalition (cf Homage to Catalonia) during the civil war ?

Nah, it's no good. I'm too old to change, and will always want Barca to win, and Madrid to lose.

 

[PontifexMaximus]

Weird. I just cannot bring myself to want Madrid to do well, especially versus Barcelona.

Maybe it's because Barcelona is a much nicer place to go ? Maybe, as a Scot, I relate much more closely with the Catalonian than the Castilian mentality ? Maybe it's Madrid's association with the fascist leader Franco ? And, as a corollary, Barcelona's importance as part of the anarchist/republican/communist coalition (cf Homage to Catalonia) during the civil war ?

Nah, it's no good. I'm too old to change, and will always want Barca to win, and Madrid to lose.

Yap, those associations are true, so I can undertand your point of view. However, we have different reasons for supporting those clubs. Like I said, my sole reason for starting to like Madrid was Davor Suker and the style of football that generation played. And now I'm also too old to change...

 

[Thorgalaeg]

Well, it is common to associate football clubs with whatever you want to find "reasons" to like or dislike it. You could for instance associate Barcelona with the boixos nois, his most charismatic and famous group of fans, a neonazi-catalanist group. It would be equally erroneous or equally correct.

 

[BCLG100]

I think Barcelona is my favourite purely because it seems friendlier with Ronaldinho and his smiling face the whole time (im not saying its true) but thats the first thing that comes to mind when i think of barca