Remembering the 2011 Spanish Supercup between Real Madrid and Barcelona

While it’s a glorified friendly, the Supercopa is upon us.

The last time these two eternal rivals met in the competition was 5 years ago at the start of the 2012/2013 season. But what I want to do is look at 2011/2012 Supercopa. The gold kits, Jose Mourinho and a two legged affair that at times was wonderful to watch and other times as cringeworthy as it could get.

Just look at the lineups both teams put out in 2011. Kind of weird seeing Messi as the striker when I’ve gotten used to Luis Suarez.

During Mou’s tenure things were known to get heated between the two teams. The match had everything from; former Arsenal Captain Cesc Fabregas making his his debut for the Blaugrana, to Marcelo’s red card in the waning moments of the match, with his scissor tackle taking down Fabregas. Not to mention David Villa and Mesut Ozil getting red cards having already been subbed out.

I’m not sure when or why Marcelo had lost the plot, but he did. At that point the match was all but won for Barcelona and maybe it was frustration kicking in after a well battled two legs and pent up frustration from the Champions League El Clasicos earlier in the year where they lost to the Blaugrana in the semi-finals.

All the distractions hid that fact that Real Madrid had a low-key good match and unfortunately lost 5-4 on aggregate. And in doing so awarded Guardiola with his 11th piece of silverware at Barcelona. That will irked me at the time, like he needed more trophies.

Here is the full match from 2011.

Supercopa By The Numbers

You know me and numbers let’s take a look at the Supercopa by the number’s especially when Barcelona is involved.

9

The numbers of wins for Real Madrid in the Supercopa only Barca have a better record, winning the competition 12 different times. Here are the years in which Real Madrid have won the Supercopa: 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2008, 2012.

1989

Yes we won the Supercopa in 89, but we didn’t have to play the match. Why you ask? Well that’s because Los Merengues won the double that year and was automatically awarded the Spanish Supercopa. This is something that has been only once in the entire history of the competition.

25

The number of goals scored by Real Madrid against Barcelona. The Blaugrana on the other hand only have 17 goals to their name. Always comforting to know that Real Madrid are putting more in the net than Barca.

5

I know I shouldn’t bring up his name; but I will, Lionel Messi has scored 5 goals against the boys in white. Cristiano Ronaldo comes in 2nd with 3 goals which makes him tied with Raúl for the honor.

Quick Thoughts

- This and the Champions League semi-final before it sold me on Real Madrid and become a hard core supporter and joined a fledgling Managing Madrid to write about the team that I was just in awe of.

- Here’s where I tell you, I’ve only been a fan of Madrid since 2010. Seven years of fiercely supporting this club. I’ll be honest, because of that Supercopa I wasn’t Marcelo’s biggest fan at the time. Now he’s one of the best LB’s in the world and I absolutely love watching him play.

- This doesn’t mean I wasn’t upset by the extracurricular activities that took place during the tie to be sure. It was frustrating, and I watched both legs literally standing in front of my TV. I think I sat down and chain smoked (been smoke free for 2 years) at halftime.

- As far as this year’s Supercopa goes I have confidence going into Sunday. I also think it's ridiculous that Modric has to serve a suspension from years ago. Though I think that Kovacic will be just fine in Luka’s role as he usually is.

- This team is perched on the precipice of the possibility of a treble. My gut tells me that this could be the year. This would prove that Real Madrid are at the start of something HUGE - a dynasty. While Zizou works on his legacy, he can also set things up for years to come. I trust my gut.

- I straight up miss Ozil, Di Maria and Xabi. Especially Xabi.

- It will be interesting to see how many of the new kids get a shot in this tie. I’d really like to see a little bit of everyone - but that can’t happen. I for sure want to see Ceballos and Llorente. Oh and hell how about some Asensio too.