Hertha Berlin 1-3 Real Madrid: Karim's Time

Real Madrid earned a hard-fought come from behind victory against German side Hertha Berlin in the famous olympiastadion in the German capital. Hertha put up quite a fight in the first half, breaking hard and with increasing danger while maintaining a strong defensive line--they opened the scoring in the 18th minute off a beautifully orchestrated counter attack that Ebert slotted by Iker Casillas.

Madrid looked lost for much of those first 20 minutes: they couldn't string more than a few passes together on offense, and the defense looked jumpy and prone to getting caught out. Even after the goal, los blancos had a hard time reacting, only managing a few dangerous attacks (all of them courtesy of Karim Benzema, who played an incredible game).

Everything changed in the 29th minute, though, after Benzema (who else?) was brought down about 15 feet outside the area. Cristiano Ronaldo, popped collar and all, stepped up and nailed a Beckham-esque free kick that dove under the bar, and that was pretty much that for Hertha.

About 4 minutes later, in the 33rd minute, Callejón (who continues to assert his dominance on that left wing) slotted a perfect through ball to Benzema who expertly killed off Hertha's hopes. 1-2, and Madrid were cruising thanks to their enigmatic Frenchman, who was the heart and soul of this game.

I remarked to myself at the break that I hoped that Mourinho would keep Benzema on--he's one of those players that feeds on good performances, and he was playing out of his mind. Good call. Within two minutes, he had scored again, this time with a beautiful assist from Sami Khedira, who clearly enjoyed playing against his countrymen.

(A quick aside about Khedira: he came in for Fabio Coentrão at halftime and looked superb. He cut out passes, bossed his way through the midfield next to Xabi, and almost scored his first goal for Madrid towards the end of the half. This is the type of player he can be, and let's hope he keeps this level of play up, because damn.)

But this game was about Karim. Whether he was dropping back into midfield to gather up loose balls, or slotting perfect diagonals back to a charging midfielder, or deftly dribbling around the keeper, he played some of the best soccer I've seen him play ever. He was everywhere for this team, and he looked like he was seeing the game in a completely new light (we saw hints of this earlier in the preseason, especially in the Chivas game where he gave Ronaldo that beautiful assist).

Mourinho certainly felt that way after the game:

"Now, Karim sees and thinks about football the way I do. He has everything ready for a great year. He's playing much better now than he was last year at this time. I think I've finally been able to persuade him."

The scary thing about Benzema is that this might only be the beginning. (Is "scary" the right word?)