Eurosport - Sun, 30 Aug 15:24:00 2009
Real Madrid's expensive new team boasts an awesome array of attacking talent and huge goal-scoring potential but their defence looked worryingly porous in their opening match of the La Liga season on Saturday.
President Florentino Perez spent £200 million to bring excitement and spectacle back to the Bernabeu after two barren years and judging by Saturday's 3-2 win over Deportivo Coruna, when Real twice surrendered the lead and created a host of chances, the fans will not be disappointed.
The return of the suspended Pepe and injured pair Christoph Metzelder and Sergio Ramos may help to eradicate the errors that blighted their performance.
However, Real's hopes of mounting an effective challenge to treble-winners Barcelona seemingly rest on the ability of Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Karim Benzema and their team mates to score more goals than are inevitably conceded.
Sports daily Marca said in an editorial on Sunday that Real were following a script against Depor that the fans had become well used to over the years.
"An opponent with a solid back line who refuses to be intimidated by so many star players and knows how to exploit the whites' defensive weakness but who ultimately yields to massive firepower," the paper wrote. "This (Real) promises excitement."
Perez's latest creation resembles the band of "galacticos" he assembled during his first stint in charge in 2000-2006, who included Zinedine Zidane, Figo, David Beckham and Brazilian striker Ronaldo.
El Pais soccer correspondent Jose Samano said that coach Manuel Pellegrini was under orders from Perez to focus on attack because the president had grown up watching dynamic Real sides including players such as Alfredo di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas in the 1950s and 60s.
"Over time soccer has become more conservative but not in the mind of (Perez)," Samano wrote.
"Manuel Pellegrini has no other option than to field as many defenders as attackers, a gamble that almost got them into trouble against Depor," he added.
"Madrid were struggling to dictate the game and obviously won't be a balanced and well calibrated side anytime soon but their box of tricks is limitless."
Writing in El Mundo, Orfeo Suarez said that the new-look Real side were "terrific going forward and vulnerable at the back".
"That's the conclusion to be drawn from the start of the second Florentino Perez era; understandable because it's a project under construction," he said.
"Madrid kept Depor's hopes alive because they are not yet a team and perhaps never will be, and some of the stars are still not firing on all cylinders."
Comment 1 - 7 of 7
what if kaka n ronaldo get injured????????????? i love real madrid..but the management really sucks!!!!!
plz sell m.diarra, guti n nistelrooy..plz....their thrash...its a mistake to sell robben n sneijder...there is no better left winger than robben right now...sneijder n van der vaart can help kaka or ronaldo if their injured, dont need granero coz he is too young n no experience....
this is not a verdict, just a collection of opinions .... #1 learn to write/talk
Since when is Real Madrid a person?
nice to hear from you raimo k
you know that i respect your football knowledge very much but you make mistake when you talk about robben
as madrid fan i'm really sad to see robben leave
if madrid didn't bring ribery, then why they sell robben?
robben has so many advantages
robben plays with left foot not right
robben heguen and diara were the best madrid players last season
so why do they have to sell him for such redicuoles amount?????????????
And when has Robben scored 42 goals a season. andrewserhal you really are a moron. anyone can score 2 goas at one game. lets see who gets more goals per season robben or ronaldo.
real madrid in the most idiot persons in the world!!
hahahaha they sale robben for bayern and roben is in the same world class player cristiano ronaldo...!! Robben has put 2 goals for bayern in his first appearance he play like ribery...
VIVAAA BAYERNNN!!!!
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