Everything Will Be Ok, Madridistas
Before I get into some thoughts about Real Madrid’s opening game of the season, I wanted to let you know that these Real Madrid ‘Nueve’ Hoodies are only on sale until September 1st and will disappear forever after that:
With that out of the way, I wanted to tell you a short story.
On our most recent monthly Zoom call for Members, I started to recount a story about my jarring memories of Real Madrid’s performances away to Mallorca at Son Moix over the years.
I recounted one game in particular, back in 2001, when Real Madrid, with Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Michel Salgado, Roberto Carlos, Claude Makelele, Raul Gonzalez — and the entire once de gala — couldn’t cross the half-way line or put together any meaningful chances against Mallorca in a 1 - 1 draw.
While trying to find that game, I stumbled upon more games against Mallorca, that, um, were not pretty: A 1 - 5 loss at home in 2003; a 4 - 0 loss away in 2004; a 2 - 3 loss at home in 2004; a 2 - 1 loss at home in 2006; a 0 - 1 loss at home in 2008; and a 1 - 3 loss at home in 2009
What’s the point here? That it’s completely understandable for us Madridistas to be disappointed with the performance over the weekend against Mallorca, and heck, we dissected the heck out of what went wrong (and I would especially urge you to check the analysis Matt Wiltse and I put out this week as we did a deep dive on the second half).
But, as we’ve seen, Real Madrid, even when they’re awesome, always have performances like this throughout their season, and we can’t use these games as premonitions of where the team will be come spring time. Carlo Ancelotti has a great squad at his disposal, and a lot of time to figure out his best scheme.
And, as we illustrated below, there is a lot to be excited about:
P.S. I’m taking 5 people to an event with Florentino Perez.