Getafe Vs. Real Madrid, La Liga 2012: Press Roundup

Real Madrid has the dubious honour of being written up by Canada's National Post this evening.

Headline: Real Madrid remains winless with stunning loss to Getafe.

To clarify: any of us who have had the pleasure of visiting Canada will know that it's a far-north desert of football mania. To rate a mention by either of their hockey-obsessed national newspapers is to have done very badly indeed. Or to have lost our first league match since December. Or both.

Meanwhile, off in Spain...

Contrary to popular belief, there is no pro-Madrid media; the in-house people aside. The Schadenfreude currently leaking out of the capital from the papers who follow Madrid is nearly palpable.

Barça has 5-point lead on Real says Marca's headline, coming straight to the point. Any pretense of any kind that the league is not a two-horse race being forgotten entirely by the headline writers.

They also make the following observation on the game -

All seemed to be going smoothly for Real Madrid against Getafe. There wasn't much of a crowd to contend with, despite it being an away fixture, and its southern Madrid opponents were struggling to make an impact on the game. The opening goal from Higuaín was no less than the champions deserved, having dominated the encounter and so nearly gone ahead several minutes earlier, when Cristiano played in Özil, who crashed his shot against the bar with the goal gaping.

But, as time wore on and Madrid failed to add to its advantage before the break, things began to unravel, culminating in defeat.

As are even more succinct: Madrid implode against Getafe.

All newspapers in all languages are lapping up Mourinho's very angry post game comments.

Unless otherwise noted, the following translations are from Marca.

The Coach

Mourinho said the following:

Getafe has a deserved win because Real Madrid played terribly. It’s one of those games that hasn’t frustrated me because I wasn’t at all surprised by the final score based on what I observed during the game...The way we played was unacceptable.

They [Barcelona] could have had a six point lead if we’d lost the first game. But we’re only five points behind. Which are too many when only six points have been played for. However, today was a completely different game. Against Valencia we did more to win. Not today, it was a terrible game and we fully deserved to lose.

His verdict on the Super Cup:

New things happen to you every season. This isn’t normal, to have won only one point out of a possible six. The Super Cup is different, it’s a knockout game. In the league championship two games; one point and one terrible match.

His impression of the locker-room after the match:

There are some things I think that a coach can’t discuss with the press. I haven’t argued with them. I have no feedback for them.

The Players

Xabi Alonso:

Results need to improve, but also the standard of play, we aren’t getting a good vibe. These things can happen in football but we have to improve and correct many things.

Gonzalo Higuaín (my translation):

The míster is right. It's illogical to lose a game when you go one goal up. We should have killed the game. [The super cup] is a different competition. It's a title and we have to be tranquil, so that we'll win the first trophy of the season.

Iker Casillas (my translation):

This situation is similar to last season where we had a couple of setbacks against Racing and Levante. It's not an ideal situation because we have let this win slip away and are now five points from the top. We have tried to do our best, but we agree with the coach that we have not been good. This game was forgettable. Think of the following. The Super Cup is coming and we will have the perfect opportunity to pick ourselves up and forget these three games.

The Spokesman

Club legend Emilio Butragueño urges fans to get some perspective:

The league has just started and we have to remain calm. We just have to worry about regaining our normal rhythm.