Another derby collapse to Atletico exposes Real Madrid's deficiencies
MADRID --
Three days before the latest in what has been a cascade of Madrid derbies in 2014, several of the leading players of Atletico and Real bumped into each other at the Spanish capital's Place of Sports. They were enjoying some time off, checking out the Basketball World Cup. Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos, Real's captain and vice-captain, shared some genuinely warm greetings with Atletico's Koke and Juanfran. The four of them had spent most of the previous week together on duty for the Spain national soccer team.
Sports professionals tend to watch other sports with a special eye, sensitive to what they might learn about conditioning, motivation, and even about tactics and strategy, even if the game seems very distinct from their own. Basketball and soccer may appear remote cousins, but from time to time you hear soccer coaches speak of how basketball has its lessons for them.
On Saturday, as Atletico defeated Real for the second time in a month, and established an unprecedented sequence of two successive La Liga wins in the derby, it was hard to escape the thought Atletico are the slam dunk specialists of Spanish soccer. Once again, the difference between the two sides came down to the champions' skill at a set-piece, to Atletico's mastery of the subtle blocks, feints and side-steps that can eke out small pockets of space in the confined zone around the goal when 15 or more players are gathered there. If you wanted any team from La Liga to shoot hoops, you'd pick Atletico, kings of the headed goal from a rehearsed scenario, tireless students of all the possible variables when a high cross comes into the box.
It's not that Atleti are an especially tall side, although the arrival of Mario Mandzukic from Bayern Munich in the summer has given them more of a skyscraper dimension at center-forward. The men who combined to put Atletico 1-0 up on the way to their 2-1 victory over Real were old hands. Koke, ever precise delivering a dead ball, took the corner, Raul Garcia, with his strong spring, moved to the near post and just as the ball approached him, went shoulder to shoulder with Cristiano Ronaldo, who had sensed Garcia was the target. He was not, but his jostle was important, a distraction, a decoy. Up swooped Tiago Mendes, to nod the cross past Iker Casillas.
Every opponent in Spain knows of Atleti's expertise in these situations. Under Deigo Simeone, the Atletico head coach, the team have climbed the hierarchy via headed goals. There was defender Miranda, settling the outcome of the 2013 Copa del Rey that way; there was Diego Godin nodding in the goal that sealed last season's title at Barcelona. There was Godin again, albeit with an untidy deflection of the top of his back, who put Atletico 1-0 ahead against Real in the UEFA Champions League final in Lisbon last May.
Back then, Real reacted decisively, to come back and win the most important Madrid derby of the year. On Saturday, they responded urgently, too, although the midfield, with its newcomers, Toni Kroos and James Rodriguez, still looks a loose patchwork. Real's intensity yielded the equalizer, via a Cristiano Ronaldo penalty.
Yet what might have been a platform for a "remontada," a comeback, fizzled. "We lost our rhythm in the second half and we have to analyse that," said Carlo Ancelotti, Real's head coach. It is becoming a habit. Real's last outing, before the break for internationals, was the 4-2 loss at Real Sociedad, when a 2-0 lead had been established and then squandered. Two defeats in the first three La Liga games now mean Real Madrid have made their poorest start to a campaign since 2005.
Ancelotti had watched Real Socieded, like Atletico, exploit poor marking two weeks earlier. Real Madrid have long had a notoriety for their flaws defending against crosses. Karim Benzema, the striker, was the assigned monitor of Tiago when he pumped his header past Casillas while the specialists, Sergio Ramos and Pepe, were deployed elsewhere. Some spectators in the Bernabeu whistled Casillas after the goal. Ancelotti claimed not to have heard the hostility towards the Real captain, who has had a challenging last 18 months. Besides, to portray Casillas as the fall-guy for Madrid's falling behind was plain wrong, said the coach. "If you concede a goal at the near post from the corner, the last person who's at fault is the goalkeeper."
There was not much Casillas, who has been restored to the first XI in La Liga after 18 months on the bench -- Ancelotti used him only in the Copa del Rey and in European matches last season -- could have done to anticipate Atletico's winning goal. Juanfran centred from the right, Raul Garcia apparently the target of his cross. But Garcia heard a loud roar of "leave it" from behind him, cleverly let the pass slip under his stride, for Arda Turan, the roaring substitute, to meet it.
Arda's shot was true. Atletico had scored their winning goal from open play, though the maneuver still carried some of their trademarks: A cross, a decoy run by Raul Garcia. The Spanish champions have plenty of cunning in them and to come in this La Liga season, where they sit two points off leaders Barcelona, while Real Madrid look up at them from in the bottom half of the table.
