Best of Spain: Explosive Kaká Stars As Lacklustre Madrid Rout Dortmund

(Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

This is the second in a series of articles I have entitled "Best of Spain."  This is a project to translate or reinterpret the outstanding articles in the Spanish press into English, for the pleasure of those non-hispanohablantes among us.

I have here given full credit to the authors where it is their due, including a link to the article in question, but as this is a somewhat loose translation of a highly idiomatic language, much of the style is my own and some of the ideas necessarily embellished.

Note that my translation and publication of this piece does not necessarily entail my endorsement of the original author's opinions.

The inspiration for this article is a piece entitled "Kaká y dinamita" by Diego Torres, published in El País on 20/08/09. 

Kaká saw out of the corner of his eye Granero making a diagonal run. He had the ball under his feet and his head up. With one fluid movement of his foot he slotted the ball through the defence with the back of his heel. Granero picked up the superb pass one-on-one against Weidenfeller and coolly knocked the ball into the far corner with his first touch. 

This moment of pure inspiration pushed Madrid forward at the beginning of their penultimate friendly of a pre-season campaign that has at times failed to impress.

Granero’s goal confirmed that the squad’s abundance of talent will extricate Madrid from more than one difficult situation in the months to come.   The players have gained pace; physically they are in good condition.  However, the coach, Manuel Pellegrini, seems confident neither in his schematic nor in the players who are to enact it.  It would be odd if he were sure at this stage.  The players are very good, but there are many of them, some recently arrived, who he still does not know well. 

The proof is that by the end of a half hour’s play, Pellegrini had identified enough problems with how the team was functioning that he ordered the much-maligned Robben to start warming up.

Predisposed to experimentation and no doubt thinking of the suspension that will prevent Pepe from starting the La Liga season, Pellegrini made Metzelder and Albiol the core of his defence. Encouraged by this scientific spirit, the Chilean coach moved Lass to right-back and put Pepe in his place; to what end, no one knows. 

The truth is that Pepe never looked comfortable. He covered what he needed to, put the pressure on when needed, and swung to the right and to the left when necessary. But when he had the ball, he hoofed it up field in search of the forwards or passed it back to the keeper.  By the end of the evening, one could say that he had trod on every square meter of grass, rushing back and forth all over the pitch.

Football has specialists. In order to play in the center of midfield, Madrid signed Xabi Alonso, a player that conforms to the orthodoxy of his position.  Yesterday, Pepe—no doubt inspired by the best of intentions—got in the way of Xabi Alonso.  The Basque play-maker did not partner well with his colleague.  The result was that Madrid’s game lost continuity. 

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