Real Madrid's End-of-Season Awards Show Marathon, Part 2: The Losers
Whenever teams like Real Madrid, or any organization that expects to compete for championships every year, falls short of their ultimate goal, fans, players, management, and sportswriters alike look for reasons why.
Each of these constituencies voice their questions slightly differentlyโplayers sullenly grant interviews, management looks to shake the right pieces loose, fans depressively scan over their memories of the season, and sportswriters, well, we write lists like these.ย
In my last article, I gave out awards to the best players for Real Madrid during the 2010-2011 season: Cristiano Ronaldo and Mesut รzil were the big winners, along with Iker Casillas, Karim Benzema, and Marcelo (and Xabi Alonso definitely deserved something like a โMost Important Playerโ award).ย
Now, Iโm looking back over the season for the worst performances, the goatsโif you willโof los blancosโ 2010-2011 campaign.
While I would categorize the season as a success overall (second in the Liga, a Champions League Semi-Final berth, and the Copa del Rey title is pretty good on paper), there were certain players and certain moments that deserve negative critical acclaim.
Worst Performance in a Major Match: The Entire Defense in the 5-0 Drubbing
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Madridโs 5-0 destruction in the Camp Nou will go down as one of the most embarrassing moments in the history of the Clรกsico (right up there with Barรงa giving Madrid the โPasilloโ in 2008), and the shame rests mainly on Madridโs defensive line (though everyone on the team was complicit).
Barcelona cut up Madridโs back four easier than, well, the Globetrotters crushing the Generalsโand thatโs pretty much what the entire match looked like. Added to los blancosโ misery was the (pretty unsporting) ad campaign that the Barรงa brass put up after the match.ย
Worst Actor: Angel Di Marรญa
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When I say โworst actorโ I donโt mean โworst player.โ Di Marรญa was far, far, far, from thatโhis electric runs down the wing, his absurdly energetic help defense, and his clutch scoring won many a game for Madrid throughout the course of the year.ย
What I mean is that more than any other player on the team, di Marรญa was guilty of feigning fouls (note: I almost named this award the โSergio Busquets Worst Actor Award,โ but I didnโt really want to deal with all the hate that would be channeled my way).
Angel feigned a lot of fouls, and by the end of the year stopped getting legitimate calls because he was on the ground so muchโthis is much like what happened to Cristiano Ronaldo when he first played in England.ย
I will say this, though: he did get hacked a lot because he was so quick, he just tended to flip around a few too many times. Heโs a superstar-in-the-making at the moment, and I hope heโll be able to cut this part of his game down, much like a certain Portuguese forward.ย
The Bill Walton โWhat Ifโ Award: Kakรก
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I named this award after one of the greatest, and most tragic, basketball players ever: Bill Walton had one amazing season, then his body betrayed him. But for that one year, he was the most dominant player in the league, an offensive threat unlike almost anyone else ever.
Now, Iโm not saying that this is Kakรกโs fate: I have no doubt that he will return stronger from his injury next year. But the fact is, he was never the same after his surgery this season, which is why he gets the โWhat Ifโ award: what if Kakรก had been healthy?
Would Mesut รzil have become such a superstar? Would he have found a way to play in Mouโs midfield? Itโs possible he would have made the team worse; but he could have made them even better.
And thatโs the beauty of โwhat ifsโโthey canโt be answered.ย
The Brian Scalabrine โLeast Important Benchwarmerโ Award: Sergio Canales
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At the beginning of the season, the young Spanish phenom Sergio Canales looked to break onto Madridโs starting roster from day 1; after a series of lackluster performances, he was relegated to a bench role.
As the season progressed, Mourinho used him less and less, until he was essentially bolted to the bench with adamantiumโnothing was getting him off.ย
He remains an incredibly talented young player, and one of the best prospects in the worldโbut, he had a very disappointing first season for Real Madrid.
The Charlie Sheen Award for Most Bipolar Player: Pepe
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What on earth can I say about Pepe that hasnโt already been said?
On his best days, heโs a maniac, a fanatical defender capable of completely shutting Leo Messi out of games. On his worst days, he flips out and kicks the stuffing out of random players.
Heโs just as likely to make a game-saving tackle, or shut down the best player on an opposing team as he is to snap and make a red-card worthy tackle or punch someone in the face.ย
What the heck is going on in his mind? Why canโt he just put it all together without the mental mistakes?
Well, itโs called #winning, bro.ย
Most Disappointing Player: Sergio Ramos
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I have a lot of respect for Sergio Ramos. When he first came to Madrid, I thought he was the next superstar defender for Madrid, like the best of Michel Salgado and Roberto Carlos combined.
And for a while, he was: I remember him shutting down some of the best players in the game year after year, and then running blazingly quickly up the pitch to score a goal off a corner.ย
But last season he seemed to fall off a bit: his play was erratic, his crosses didnโt find heads, and his head only rarely found the ball on corner kicks. He was caught out of position too frequently, allowed too many runs behind him, didnโt get back fast enough.
He seemed out of whack. My theory is that heโs really tired: he plays one of the positions that requires the most conditioning, and he had just played through an excruciatingly tiring World Cup.
But whatever the reason, he didnโt impress me at all this year; and yet I fully expect him to bounce back next year.ย
The โBad Luck Chuckโ Award: Pepe
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So I named this award after that terrible Dane Cook movie โGood Luck Chuck,โ which features a man who seems to be a consistent stepping stone to marriageโas soon as a woman dates him, she marries someone else. Good luck for her, bad luck for him.ย
Well, Pepe was this seasonโs Bad Luck Chuck, a player who kept being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He got the raw side of quite a few important plays, and was roundly blamed for things that were certainly not only his fault: his โred cardโ โfoulโ on Dani Alves in the first leg of the Champions League semi final springs to mind.ย
He is a famously neurotic player, apt to make a rash challenge at any time, and I think that reputation haunted him throughout the season and swayed referees' decisions at important moments.
Bad luck, man.
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