Arguably, this could be considered the most exciting season in Real Madrid’s recent decades. The comeback this summer of president Florentino Perez has brought some of the best players in the footballing world with him.
For the first time in the history of football, one team has been able to sign a group of world class players in one summer. Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaká, Karim Benzema, and Xabi Alonso provide this team with weapons which have been badly missed in previous years.
Barcelona’s wonderful season has forced Madrid into this, and with this roster, expectations in Madrid are high, but exigency is even higher.
With no doubt, one of the main goals for Real Madrid this season is the UEFA Champions League, whose final, moreover, will be hosted at Santiago Bernabeu, Real’s stadium. In the past, the greatest European competition was the tournament where Madrid built a huge part of its legend.
This was where big nights happened, where "90 minutes in the Bernabeu were molto longo’’. There was a time in which the relationship between the Real Madrid and the competition was excellent. Unfortunately, this tradition has dramatically changed in the previous five years.
Seven years have passed since Real’s last European title and in the last five the team have not been able to reach the final eight in the competition.
There is not only one reason to explain these upsets; nevertheless, there are a set of remarkable weaknesses which can explain the reasons for Madrid's inability to claim Europe's greatest prize. The first one is the lack of special players; those players who can change the direction of a game in a moment.
In this type of competition you need these players. The second one is the depth of talent on their bench, which has been poor in recent years. Definitely, there were no outstanding talents coming off the bench, as well as a distinct lack of experience. Besides the likes of Raúl, Guti, Cannavaro, and Casillas, no one at Real Madrid was truly experienced in European competitions.
All these three former weaknesses are reasons to be cheerful coming into this season. Ronaldo, Kaká and even Alonso are special and experienced players; clutch guys. They have all won the competition in recent years and are able to step up in the defining moments.
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