Real Madrid Juvenil A 6-0 La Cruz Villanueva

After the last week’s demolition of Alcorcón, Real Madrid Juvenil A travelled to Villanueva de la Serena for a Sunda match against La Cruz Villanovense. La Cruz, who have been promoted this season, are not enjoying a good spell in División de Honor Group 5. They are by far the worst team in this group. They have a negative goal difference, which is usually the case with bottom teams, but La Cruz has scored only 9 goals and conceded 53 this season (18 games played). They’ve collected only 5 points so far - 1 win and 2 draws - and lost 15 games. It had all the signs of yet another high scoring game for Juvenil.

Missing players: Dani Gomez (ST), Tati (RB), Gorka (CM), Dario (GK), Franchu (LW) – all injured. Manu (CB) was suspended, Álex (CB) was called up to Castilla game

Juvenil lined up again with 3 at the back with Alberto and Cobo playing as wingbacks. Martín Calderon came back and Mink Peeters was deployed with Echu as free floating strikers.

The game kicked off in a frantic, fast paced style. Both teams were pressing high up the pitch and were trying to score an early goal. After a few minutes, Juvenil started showing their class and the Mink – Echu duo made a couple of lovely plays and created good chances. In the end, it didn’t take long for Juvenil to score the first goal. Mink received the ball at the edge of the box from Cobo and moved it to the right on his weak foot, and his shot was saved and deflected by the keeper straight into the path of Echu, who made it 1-0 for Juvenil.

Juvenil continued to created great chances, and in the 23^th minute Óscar scored the goal of the match. Toni received the ball at the edge of the box and teased the defenders looking for a shot, he decided to pass it to Echu, whose shot was saved. But he then managed to cross it to Óscar, who scored a beautiful overhead goal. 2-0 for Juvenil.

Juvenil scored another 2 goals in quick succession. In the 29^th minute, Mink made a good run into the channel and his shot was deflected to Cobo, who passed it to Echu, who was in the center of the penalty box. He didn’t miss. 3-0 for Juvenil. 4 minutes later, Juvenil had a corner. Óscar and Toni decided to play it short and Óscar scored directly from his cross, because neither Soti nor La Cruz’s keeper could reach the ball. 4-0 for Juvenil.

Juvenil had 2 more good chances, but last ditch tackles and blocks from La Cruz’s defenders prevented Toni from scoring more goals. The first half finished 4-0 and it could have been much more. La Cruz didn’t manage even a single shot on Moha and after the first 10 minutes they’ve stopped trying to play out of the back and switched to a more direct approach. Even though Juvenil comfortably scored 4 goals, their passing wasn’t as crisp as usual.

At half time, Guti made 2 changes – Fran García for Zabarte and Alvaro for Cobo. Fran moved to the left wing back position, Martín moved from DM to CB and Juvenil switched from 3-1-4-2 to a flat 3-4-3. Then shortly after 10 minutes into the second half, Mink Peeters was taken off and Ousama (ST) took his place. Mink finished a good shift, but it was clear by that point in the match that he wasn’t ready to play the full 90 minutes.

La Cruz improved defensively in the second half, as they didn’t commit that many players forward. They were looking to see out the match and avoid a bigger score line. Juvenil didn’t exactly go all-out attack to get more goals, but in the last 10 minutes they upped the tempo and La Cruz were simply too tired to respond.

In the 79^th minute, Toni played exquisite one-twos with Alváro and found himself right in front of the keeper. He kept his cool, he avoided the sliding tackle from the defender and calmly put the ball in the net. 5-0 for Juvenil. Juvenil created chance after chance, they had a 4 vs. 2 counter attack, which Ousama completely wasted. But in the 88^th minute, Fran García found space on the left wing and his cross was deflected by the defender straight to Óscar. He was alone in the middle of the penalty box, he didn’t miss. 6-0 for Juvenil and hat-trick for Óscar.

Final thoughts:

1. Mink looked particularly good in this new role as a striker. He made a lot of good runs into the channels, he also dropped between lines and played one-twos with Echu and Toni. Through this combination, Juvenil created a lot of good chances. Surprisingly he took a lot of shots considering he is mainly a creative player and not a finisher.
2. The return of Fran García has been highly anticipated. He got injured while playing in UEFA Youth League against Legia Warsaw and this was his first minutes since the injury. He is an indispensable part of Guti’s team. His original position is a left winger, but he is being converted to a very attacking left full back. And the current system with two wing backs is getting the best out of him. He is incredibly fast with a low center of gravity. If you are looking for a top left-back prospect in La Fabrica, look no more. He is the one. I suspect that he will be fast tracked like Achraf. Fun fact: he is Koke's cousin.
3. One of the things that impresses me is the flexibility of this team. They can switch number of systems during the match and majority of players can play numerous positions very well (out of the starting 3 CBs, only 1 was a pure CB). So, for example, at some point in the match you can find the CBs in the striker positions. And if you didn't know that it is a CB, you wouldn't notice that. They are well drilled and the players are constantly and efficiently covering for their teammates when they venture forward. Thanks to the flexibility of the system, they are very unpredictable in the attack.

Juvenil A starting XI and subs: Moha, Zábarte (46’Álvaro), Soti, Javi, Cobo (46’ Fran García), Alberto, Óscar, Martín (67’Bravo), Toni, Echu, Mink (57‘ Ousama)

Goals: 3x Óscar, 2x Echu, 1x Toni

MOTM: Óscar