SUPERCOPA.... A Failure?
by Ali Al-Hassan
Real Madrid played against Atletico Madrid for the Spanish SuperCopa and weren’t able to win their second trophy out of six after losing 2-1 on aggregate. With goals from Raul Garcia (first-leg) and Mario Mandzukic (second-leg), Los Merengues simply weren’t able to fully compete in the end.
Even though many of you may see this as a full failure, I personally see it differently. After our La Decima win in May, it seemed as though we were riding on cloud nine and we played with a certain laziness which I have last seen during the final Jose Mourinho days at the club. But, then you bring up that critic favorite “money” issue in which we spent so much money on players especially James Rodriguez, and I come back with the very simple fact that Carlo Ancelotti himself said that he will be experimenting during the Spanish Supercup.
A player such as Toni Kroos would have played for the full two games but didn’t; a player such as James Rodriguez would have played the full two games but didn’t; and a player such as Pepe would have played the full two games but didn’t. The reason behind that is simply because Carlo Ancelotti was experimenting with the team and seeing what the best choice was. He did field strong teams during both games but there were changes and there were tactics which he changed around during the matches. James Rodriguez had a good second half against Atletico and scored his first goal for Real Madrid and also had a great first half in the second leg. Toni Kroos hasn’t disappointed anyone since his first second with Real Madrid as he shows that he is mature enough to go into a team full of stars and still stand out with his beautiful and elegant performances. The only place where Ancelotti did not experiment was when it came to goalkeeping. Iker Casillas started in both games and seems to have regained some of his confidence while Keylor Navas was benched in both games.