Wednesday, 10 December 08, 03:42 PM · Comments (27)

I haven't had time to reflect on the appointment of Juande Ramo's as our new coach but I generally like him and have a lot of respect for him. I just thought it was a bad decision to sack Schuster at this point in the season regardless of the reason, but it is over now and what a fresh start for the new coach than smashing FC Zenit at the Santiago Bernabeu with three goals (two from Rau'l 1st, 3rd) and one from Arjen Robben who gave a superb performance tonight.
I watched the game through live streaming because my soccer channel does not broadcast the Champions League games. It was a frustrating experience but better than nothing - you know.
Ramos made a few changes to the starting lineup and he used: Dudek (instead of Casillas), Salgado, Sergio Ramos, Cannavaro, Marcelo, Guti, Gago, Van Der Vaart (instead of Drenthe), Robben, Rau'l and Higuain.
What I liked about us tonight was that we started well, moving forward and holding ball possession. As always, Robben provided width and started tearing their defenders apart thanks to his pace. Guti also did some good work in the midfield and Gago also took care of the dirty work of recovering balls. The Argentinian international whom I'm not a big fan of has improved a lot recently - which is good considering that Diarra is out for the season.
Rau'l scored our first goal off a mistake from their goalkeeper's part. It was a good finishing and this is the kind of chances Rau'l is good at (Van Nistelrooy and Inzaghi love 'em too).
The defense looked better. There was communication and understanding among the defenders which we have been missing. I wish Pepe was fit so Ramos could play on the right, but now with Juande Ramos as our coach we could see Metzelder back in the starting eleven.
The German defender came in in the second half and did a good job. If you are wondering, no he didn't replace a defender, we played with five defenders which gave Ramos and Marcelo the chance to go forward which proved successful (especially with Marcelo).
Robben's goal was a fantastic one. Rau'l sent the ball through their defense which then found Robben who sent it over the keeper. It was a work of art.
For the the third goal, the same stuff but vice versa. Robben passed it to Rau'l and the captain cloned Robben's goal - he also sent it over the keeper. The captain was absolutely fantastic tonight. It seems that he hated Schuster so much.
This is by no means a comprehensive review but folks I hated watching the game on my Macbook. It isn't really like watching it on TV. Also my internet connection was being odd and if you are into the streaming stuff you'd know that it sometimes goes off which happened many times.
Juventus drew BATE which means they are still leaders. Well, it is over and doesn't matter.
Anyway, I'm happy that we played this way. It is a big boost and we will hopefully play much more better against Barca.
Hala Madrid!
P.S: should I find videos of the goals I'll embed them here.
UPDATE: Here are the goals:
27 Madridistas have commented on "Real Madrid 3-0 FC Zenit | Champions League Review and Hightlights | Good Start For Ramos!" · Add yours
According to RealMadrid.com were second not first due to the result of the encounters we had with Juve . BTW great post mate
after this match there is only one thing i want to said. juande Ramos is much much more better than schuster
Reply to thedangerzolo:
Yes we were and we are after the win. It was just confusing to some people.
Reply to Juno-NightJ:
Well, I admit we looked significantly better but I wouldn't jump the gun and say Ramos is awesome. It is too early, but as you said, and I'm convinced, he is better than Schuster. At least he got his off the bench and shouted to the players.
I love it when Robben is so devastating. Him and Raul were phenomenal, I thought we would have double-figures but sadly some bad finishing and outstanding saves didn't let that happen. The defense was great, Gago finally filled those gaps which was very important but sadly Robben won't play in El Clasico as he got a second yellow card and you can't appeal that. It's been a while since we won so convincingly and i'm glad this happened. Ramos has started well but lets not forget that Schuster also did really well at the beggining so it's only fair to reserve our descisions for later. The only sad part is Juve got away on head-to-head. If we play as good with Drenthe then Barca have a monster on their hands. Hala Madrid! Vamos Ramos!
Reply to Adambader:
if i'm not mistaken, juande was standing from the beginning till the end of the match. this something that the lazy schuster can't do
First time in a long time I have enjoyed watching a Real game. I was smiling all through because the team had LIFE. The coach was actually on the sidelines giving instructions instead of trying his best to keep warm! They kept possession, had great tackles and superb passing (not just to left to right left to right, they made passes in midfield that bypassed 4-5 opposing team members)Glad Saviola played 30 mins. Loved that guti and raul (who had a great game but I was not shocked since he tends to show up in CL games) were substituted, they should not be allowed to play full games anymore, inclu. salgado....everyone was good all round and more time with Ramos hopefully we'll be spectacular! I wonder though if Dudek in goal was for resting Casillas or a wake up call for him hmmm..........
Reply to Juno-NightJ:
I think you're being very harsh on Schuster, we should all forget abut him and move on. He's given us much happines and much less dissapointment and I think that's enough for my respect, I don't know about you, but it is. I hope he does well where he goes. Adios Schsuter
Reply to realfreak:
nope, i don't think that the reeason why Raul, Guti and VDV been sub is because of: "they should not be allowed to play full games anymore". the reason why they need to been sub is to rest for the game against barca
Reply to TheAngelOfMadrid:
I have to admit. i am a big schuster hater...
i loved this match, althought we could have won by more, i was actually smiling durin the match for the 1st time in a while.. here's a thought... should madrid buy DANNY instead of ASHRAVIN?
yes that's the kind of coach we need .....to night you see a real tactician at work ...( one who is willing to try different thing )he is the man for the job.....
Lets not jump into conclusions , the man just had one match as the manager , the players are only giving their all to secure a position in the lineup . El Classico shall be the real test
Reply to TheAngelOfMadrid:
nicely said angel ... the game was FAN TAS TIC LOVED HOW RAUL STOLE 2 goals ... rubben played like no tom absolutely fantastic show madrid.......congrats folks our team's life is back ... not to foget GAGO was very good tonight and so did metzelder love it all HALA MADRID !
WATCHOUT BARCA !!!!!!
I am so happy with this victroy...what a shame I had a shift in the hospital as I am a doc...I just opened oleole table of the match and new when they scored...as I said I was so happy...but guys..lets admit..we can't defeat Barca without Pepe,Diarra and Rubben...it's so difficullt.....!!
I think we'll sadly lose the classico.....
if we don't lose the classico it would be my happiest night..even a draw would be excellent.....their players haven't played for a week!! and there are no important injuries in Barca....while we played with all of our players this week...and had a lot og injuries and bookings!!
....and they have the bonus of playing on their playground!!!!! god knows what would happen!!!
Good Result. The team played really well. We passed the ball well but Zenit did not bring the game to us. They let us on most of the time. Few things to note. The midfield was good. they defended and bullied the middle. Gago and Guti were spot on. Defense looked quite solid. Count on Metzelder getting more games maybe alternating with Heinze. Overall a good game that we should have won and won. I like Juande's tactics. Still this is just one game. The real test is Barcelona, Valencia and Villareal.
i think real gained their confidence again with juan de ramos and his first impression was pretty good.
but the question is.. for how long will juan de ramos stay at real.....will he be able to win somthing with real.....well by the time we will know the answers..
best of luck 4 real in clasico...hala madrid
at last real played greatly. the team has needed changes for a long time, and now i think juande ramos and the changes he has made are good. but we can't judge him by only 1 match with zenit, which isn't a good team. we'll see everything in el clasico. it will be difficult and the chances to win are still very small, but it's definitely better than with schuster. i like the new tactics of juande ramos, and i think he gives the team more motivation to win. of course barca has better chances to win because they've been playing well and they are playing on their own field, but who knows what will happen...hala madrid!
It really seems that a change of coach can make a big impact on the players confidence right from the first day. The players seemed to enjoy playing so much more than usual. Two things I liked about Ramos coaching decisions were that he benched Castillas...he really needs some time off...and secondly he tried marcelo as a winger for the second part of the game. In FM I always played him in that position (I know its a game) but he does have the attributes to play in that position since he is not so good defensively. Also I hope he can retain Ramos to right back since I think he is the best in the world in that position but not so great as a defender. Raul once again showed his class...I know ppl have been complaining about him...but I really thing he is hard working and it just seems he isnt playning well bc he is missing an all out striker next to him like van.
I hope we can build on this!!
Reply to pellos:
No boy, FM is more than a game! No seriously, some managers actually use it for scouting
I can finally expect a fight at the Clasico, the only problem is we have 15 first team players available! Ramos called 5 reserves for training today. I'm still confident though
So you all think that he will play michel salgado on the left to try and stop messi and have royston drenthe help him out? and have metzelder on the right on henry ? and sergio ramos to cover eto
Gr8 post Adam
I actually think it's good that we finished second...because the teams that were 1st are less good than the ones in 1st place.
Does anyone know whether Robben will be playing in the classico?If not...hope Drenthe performs at least half as well as robben did
It was a gr8 maths...but I'd rather would like to see what will happen withouth Robben....because under schuster whenever we had Robben we did well too
Drenthe will have to play the Classico. Sneijder is still and doubt and Heinze is as well. We may see Javi Garcia and Gago playing 5 in the middle using Higuain on the wings with Raul as a lone striker. This also means that Van der Vaard may play in his prefered role right behind a lone striker like he did at Hamburg. Marcelo really let us down. We needed his pace for this game and now he won't play. Robben is the one that will be missed most of all.
I'm happy REAL is back in shape I was happy about every player performance , Juande Ramos was the boost for every player and I wish they will be playing better than this in El classico, and nshalla we'll win, but whatever was the score I'm proud to be a madridista
Hala Madrid
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