Saturday, September 17, 2005

Champions league surprises

A game stands out from the first round of the champions league, if you say the Sparta - Ajax 1-1 game then I think you were watching the wrong match...what I am talking about is the thrashing that Los Galaticos took at the hands of Olympique Lyonniase. For those ofyou that missed the game, Real Madrid went into Lyon and limped out 3-0, a score that could have been much more severe (missed penalty by Juniho).

Does this surprise me, no. Real Madrid has not been the same since they allowed Makelele leave and watched Hiero move on. Rather than go out and bring in top notch talent at holding midfield and back line, Real decided it needed to get Owen, Robinho, and Bapista to "complement" the already existing offensive talents of Zidane, Raul, Ronaldo, Figo, Beckham et al. All this has done is created a back log in the offensive end for Real. They have not addressed the absolute lack of defensive leadership. The 3-0 loss to Lyon demonstrates this, with all three goals coming within 15 minutes, without a defensive leader a team gets back on its heals and can be open to taking a goals against run. Real has not won a title in a while, I fear the drought will continue for much longer until Real can address its defensive problems.

No comments: