Real Madrid 1-0 Racing Santander - La Liga Round 22

Real Madrid continued their great form as they beat Racing Santander 1-0 thanks to a lone goal from Gonzalo Higuain who now has 13 league goals.

And yet another record was broken. Iker Casillas played his 454th match with Real to equal Madrid legend and goalkeeper Paco Buyo but he is still far from being the player with the most matches in the white shirt.

New signing Julien Faubert made his debut but failed to impress. As Juande said, it is too early to make judgments but if the French midfielder wants to stay longer then he has to work harder.

First Half

Juande started with Casillas, Ramos, Pepe, Cannavaro, Heinze, Lass, Robben, Van der vaart, Sneijder, Higuain and Rau'l.

Our defense has improved dramatically since Juande took over the team. Believe it or not, we are the least scored upon team in the league so far in 2009, conceding only one goal in our last seven matches.

This a pretty important stat. Not only have we won seven straight matches but also maintained a clean-sheet in six games. We've only conceded one goal. Before Juande came in, we had been averaging one goal in each match although to say the truth Schuster had many defenders injured.

Lass, Sneijder and Van der vaart all played in the midfield. However, it was Lass who did all the dirty work of recovering and distributing the ball. Fernando Gago was clearly missed, but the Frenchman doubled his efforts and is proving everyday that he is capable of being the coach's first and best choice.

Arjen Robben who hadn't trained in the week before the match made some good runs through the wings but Rau'l, Higuain and Van der vaart all failed to convert his passes into goals.

Rau'l: one more goal to become Real's all time top-goal-scorer

Real Madrid Vs Racing Santander - La Liga Round 22 | 07/02/2009 - 20:00 CET | Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid.

What is interesting is that since Ramos took over as our head coach, we haven't had many injuries (touch wood!) and this supports the notion that Schuster and his physical trainer, were, somehow, doing something shady.

We've pretty much recovered most of our injured players save for those who have long-term injuries (De La Red, Diarra and Van Nistelrooy) and this has improved our performances tremendously.

The good news today is that Arjen Robben started to train with the team normally as he seemingly recovered from the flu. In the last couple of days he had to stay home or just workout in the gym, however, the Dutch winger is reportedly fit and should be able to play tomorrow.

Racing Santander

Racing is a team that I respect a lot. They have also proved to be a difficult opponent, but we have always had the edge. This time they visit us hoping to snatch at least a draw in order to keep their hopes of qualifying for the UEFA Cup alive as they stumbled against Barcelona last weekend.

They currently sit tenth on the table with 28 points. A win wouldn't magically guarantee them them a place in the UEFA but would push them to the ninth or eighth place if At.Bilbao and Malaga failed to win their respective matches.

Here are their recent results:

Recent Matches

• Feb 1  Racing 1-2 Barcelona
• Jan 25 Sevilla 0-2 Racing
• Jan 18 Getafe 0-1 Racing
• Jan 14 Valencia 3-1 Racing
• Jan 11 Racing 1-1 Recreativo
• Jan 7  Racing 1- Valencia
• Jan 4  Real Valladolid 0-1 Racing

Real Madrid has finally completed the registration of its players for the Champions League.

There had been long discussion about whether Real should register Lassana Diarra or Klaas Huntelaar who both were signed in January. However, it now has been confirmed that Lass is the one who will play in the Champions League.

Full List

Goalkeepers
No. Name
1 Iker Casillas »
13 Jordi Codina »
25 Jerzy Dudek »
29 Felipe Ramos *
30 Antonio Adán *

Defenders
No. Name
2 Míchel Salgado »
3 Pepe »
4 Sergio Ramos »
5 Fabio Cannavaro »
12 Marcelo »
15 Royston Drenthe »
16 Gabriel Heinze »
21 Christoph Metzelder »
22 Miguel Torres »
26 David Mateos *
27 Javier Velayos *
32 José María Antón *

A legend congratulating another.

Numancia 0-2 Real Madrid

One of the things that I like about Juande is that he is pragmatic. He deals with everything objectively and he knows that there is no room for experiments so the first thing he started to do is to have a "fixed" starting lineup and yesterday's team had started in the three previous encounters something that hadn't happen since 2002. This brought stability, familiarity and harmony to the team.

Juande also brought results to the club. The freedom he gave to Robben has helped the team tremendously. We also have to mention Lass and Gago and their partnership in the midfield; it has had a big impact on our performances.

First Half

Juande started with Casillas, Ramos, Pepe, Cannavaro, Heinze, Lass, Gago, Sneijder, Robben, Rau'l and Higuain.

Numancia were the first to attack when Boris found Barkero's cross only to send it straight into Casillas' hands.

They continued putting pressure on us as their back line advanced to tighten the lines, giving us little room to work with. Gago had a go from the top of the box in the 18th minute but struck the ball poorly and sent it wide of goal.

Del Pino came closer to striking gold but could only watch in dismay as his shot hit Casillas' far post (26’).

In the closing minutes of the first half we regained possession, and we could have gone into the break with the advantage had Dimas not cleared Heinze's shot off the line.

Real Madrid has officially announced that the club signed French winger Julien Faubert from West Ham United on a loan-deal that will see him at the club through the end of the current season.

Numancia Vs Real Madrid - La Liga | Saturday, 31 January 2009, 22:00 CET | Los Pajaritos

Although Juande Ramos' men have won five consecutive league matches so far, they haven't yet overtaken Barcelona as the arch-rivals have also been winning matches and in style as well.

And since Real's fixture list is similar to Barca's, with the Whites taking on the team Barca have faced in the previous match, it is then Numancia's turn to host the Whites who have one goal in mind; winning and taking the three points.

While it seems difficult to win the league, the team should continue playing well as that will help them prepare for the Champions League clash against Liverpool. And you never know, Barcelona might slip up and the point difference gets reduced.

Numancia

Numancia are still the only team who managed to beat Barcelona. That was in Round 1 of La Liga when Barca weren't well-prepared to say the least.

Although they had a good first half against the Catalans in their recent fixture last Saturday, they eventually went down 4-1. Still they are a team not to be underestimated and they'll prove it tomorrow night -- it is not easy to play them at their own stadium. We also have to consider that they have won all of their recent three home matches.

Recent Matches

• Jan 24 Barcelona 4-1 Numancia
• Jan 17 Sevilla 1-0 Numancia
• Jan 11 Numancia 2-0 Getafe
• Jan 04 Recreativo Huelva 3-1 Numancia
• Dec 21 Numancia 4-3 Real Valladolid

I haven't posted that much recently mainly due to the fact that a family member passed away and I didn't have time to go online. Anyway, I just thought you might like to see the team's official 2008/09 photo.

I couldn't find a larger version so If anyone of you guys has it, please link to it in the comment section and I'll upload it here.

Hala Madrid!

P.S: I'll be back to regular posting starting from tomorrow.

Kaká has rejected Man City's historical offer and decided to stay in Milan. Okay, that's a wise decision. But what If Real were coming with another historical offer, would he reject it as well?

Well, not according to David Beckham who has reportedly said that the Brazilian will join Real Madrid in June:

"I think someone has called him (from Real) and Kaká has made his decision (to leave)."

I think it makes sense for Kaká to move to Real. Moreover, it makes sense for Milan to sell him. He was surprised to find out that AC Milan were willing to sell him to Man City.

The English club offered Milan $161m, which is a lot of money -- why wouldn't Berlusconi sell him for that sum of money especially If he had Ronaldinho and Pirlo on the squad?

In football, what matters the most is the result. Some might argue a team should play very well and win. Some might say that you must win no matter how and tonight was a proof. Real did everything they could to win the game.

Juande Ramos started with Casillas, Ramos, Pepe, Cannavaro, Heinze, Lass, Gago, Sneijder, Robben, Rau'l and Higuain.

Everyone before the match had been wondering if the resignation of Ramon Calderon would have had an impact on the team's performance, and initially, that seemed to be the case, however, Ramos managed to tweak his team and snatch the three points.

Osasuna dominated the first half, attacking well and not giving us the opportunity and space to pass the ball. There was strict control and moderation over Arjen Robben, which as a result, slowed down our attacking efforts.

Ramos scored a goal off a corner-kick but it was ruled offside.

Javad Nekounam scored for Osasuna from a header in the 20th minute. Real made a few chances, but they couldn't capitalize on them.