Spanish Supercopa: Rating Real Madrid

In the first leg of the Spanish Supercopa, Real Madrid fell to Valencia 3-2. The defending La Liga champions saw an early lead evaporate as their defense could not hold against the dynamic Valencia front line.

Despite Valencia controlling much of the play for the first half, los Blancos jumped on the board first when Ruud van Nistelrooy put away a shot at a tight angle completely against the run of play.

While "Van Gol" would go on to add another goal in the second half, it was not enough to counteract Valencia's 12 shots on goal and skill of David Villa.

The Golden Boot winner from the European Championships earlier this summer ran wild all over the field and while he was caught offside at least three times he caused utter havoc in the Madrid back line.

If Madrid has any aspirations of repeating as La Liga champions they will need to solve their defensive issues.

Here is a rundown of my ratings of each player for Real:

Iker Casillas, 4. He made some great saves in the first half of the game but was caught out in the second half and should have done much better on all three of the goals.

Michel Salgado, 4. Had little effect on the game in a positive sense going forward and looked completely overmatched on defense.

Javi Garcia, 3. Looked stuck in no-mans land in the center of the back line constantly throughout the game. He is a young player with a lot of potential but against Villa he was completely overmatched.

Gabriel Heinze, 4. Did not much better than Garcia. He made a few saving tackles but overall looked very rusty and a step slow.

Miguel Torres, 3. Was caught with too much space between himself and the center backs, which gave the attacking players for Valencia way too much space.

Mahamadou Diarra, 4. Gave the ball away far too easily in the first half. He got better as the game progressed and even looked dangerous going forward on a few occasions. Should have done better dropping back in defense.

Ruben de la Red, 5. Showed a few bright signs of what his future could hold but was invisible for long stretches of this game. His pass to Van Nisterooy lead to the first goal of the match but did little else the rest of the game.

Rafael van der Vaart, 6. His free kicks were a highlight of the game, causing problems with their superb pace and great placement. He needs to be more assertive controlling the game and possessing the ball.

Robinho, 4. Did not look menacing once on the wing. He was almost a non-factor and for a player of his skill, that is unacceptable.

Raul, 5. Seemed to come on as the game progressed. In the first half he made almost zero touches but as the game went on he got more chances and almost slotted home a goal that the Valencia keeper just beat him to.

Ruud van Nistelrooy, 7. The only reason Madrid got on the board. Van Nistelrooy made a fantastic move to score the first goal of the game and while most of the second goal should be credited to Robben, Van Nistelrooy was in the right place and the right time to pound it home.

Subs:

Sergio Ramos, 5. Immediately brought a calming influence to the game and looked great controlling the ball going forward. Was lax on defense where he seemed out of tune with the others at the back. Looked more interested in controlling the game than doing his job on defense.

Arjen Robben, 7. He looked menacing running down the left side of the field and it makes you wonder why he was not in the game longer. The Dutchman made a fantastic run past three defenders to set up the second goal.

Guti, N/A. Was not in the game long enough to get a good reading on the Spanish playmaker. That being said, he did not look as comfortable on the ball as usual, giving it away a few times on easy passes.