Real Mallorca- Real Madrid

By: Jeremy | January 10th, 2009

As we appraoch this weekends home match against Madrid, the good news about having to face one of the better teams in La Liga is that my inconsistent yet (haters insert your own word here) posts on this Mallorca page get read by a few more people as the more indepth and followed blogs typically see their followers pop over here when we play their team to either heap praise on our humble little team or to tell me how ignorant I am. Either way, its good to have more then a handful of readers during these weeks and another reminder that each team in La Liga needs to have a fan, who does not feel loyalty to another Spanish team, write something about their club on the Offside.

After last weeks game where I made my feelings known about Barca, I get to discuss Madrid and how we match up this week. Contrary to what some Barca fans may think, I am certainly no fan of Madrid. They are just another big club in my mind who can buy what they want and have players on their second team that could start for us. I do prefer Madrid over Barca which is like choosing a preferred manner of death, but the reasons are justified based on my initial exposure to European soccer some twenty years ago or so. I did see them play on my visit to Spain and I loved watching Butragueno and Michel. I also tried to learn about them when hometown hero, Hugo Sanchez, who played for the San Diego Sockers when I was a kid and that was my local team, ended up in Madrid. Add players like Raul and Iker Casillas,who are total class, and you cant help but pick them over Barca for overall history and style. Just a personal preference.

Madrid ass kissing aside, games with them always seem to be exciting and we have won some meaningful clashes, especially in Palma. While they clearly are not as good as Barca this year and their fans have to be disappointed with their team, their status and money will keep them near the top of the standings. I cant say I am too familiar with them as they seem to be losing big names, and have some injury issues, but they are trying to fix weaknesses with guys that are on the level of the well known names we dont see with them like the days of the Galacticos.

Schneider and Robben were great pickups and relative bargains, and I do think we will see Christiano Ronaldo in Madrid next year, so they are really just going through a transition period, albeit on a different level then transition we are going through. They need to acquire a superstar player ie a Kaka or Ronaldo. This weekend however, Madrid comes to Palma without Guti but Higuain will be back so they will be ready to play. Unlike Barca, I feel we have a good chance against them despite facing our own lineup issues.

Mallorca will see its second home game this week with the first being the Copa win against Almeria 3-1 in a methodical wearing down of a mediocre opponent. These are the kinds of results against teams that are not better then us, but if we dont beat, especially at home, we end up in the position we are in.

Madrid is no Almeria however and we will feel added pressure of needing some results as we are establishing our position near the bottom of La Liga while our relegation rivals slowly move away from us. After last weeks results, we are at 14 points with Espanyol and Osasuna is at 13. These are the three teams that are favorites for relegation.

The added pressure of this match, combined with no Aduriz, Moya, Valera, and Josemi, will make this game even tougher. While we could see Trejo move into Adurizs slot, how effective he will be after not playing much recently is really up in the air. We also may be showcasing him for his transfer to West Brom in the EPL, which as bad as we are, is not a good move for him. Who will fill all these suspended players positions is anyones guess, but Keita should play and we might see Callejon, who could be motivated to show his stuff against the team who molded him. He needs to play more for us so we can see what we have with him.

If we play like we did against Barca, we could steal a point, but as bad as Madrid has been, it will be tough to expect much in this match with Aduriz missing. We got an early goal against Barca and then sat back and got systematcially torn down by a superior team. We have to not only attack aggressively in this game, but show the fans some attractive football to keep them from booing us off the pitch. Which Madrid team shows up? They seem to do enough to win most of the time, but too many let downs, especially against small clubs, have caused them to fall behind Barca too far to likely make up.

If we cant a draw in this game, even against Madrid, it will be a disappointing game, but to expect a win with all the missing players may be a bit much.

Prediction

Mallorca 1-1 Real Madrid