Soccer, football, footie from an American perspective by kaidez

Seven days ago from this post, superclub Manchester United won a squeaker of game in England against the recently-promoted but always surprising Hull City Tigers. The final score was 4-3 and, truth be told, it shouldn’t have been anywhere near that close! Man U held the lead for almost the entire game, only to surrender two goals as the game drew to a close. Yeah they got a win but a sloppy one…so sloppy that United keeper Edwin van der Saar publicly stated that his team needs to get it together, especially against teams like Hull City which just refuse to give up.

Slightly tweak a few facts, and I just watched the Spanish translation of this game. In one of the greatest La Liga games that I’ve seen in a while, Real Madrid pulled out an AMAZING 4-3 win over the recently promoted Màlaga.

No doubt about it, los blancos needed a win after the week they’ve had. A loss to Juventes on Thursday capped off one of the most pathetic Champions League performances in recent memory. This is on top of a season that’s seen Real Madrid just barely remain in the top five of the Primera División. They’re losing games that they should be winning. Keeper Iker Casillas, long the rock of the team and one of my heroes, is playing at an almost collegiate level. Injuries of key players aren’t helping matters. All of this has spurred talk that current RM manager Bernd Schuster is about be ousted and replaced by either Frank Rijkaard or Juande Ramos (Just and FYI…Juande Ramos?!?! Not snowball’s chance in hell of that happening).

With the Juventes loss fresh in their minds, they needed a win over Màlaga if only to maintain their confidence. Like Hull, Màlaga are a team recently promoted to the top flight of La Liga from the league below (the Segunda División). Everyone expected them to pretty much suck like Hull, yet they’re in eighth place as of this post. They got there by pulling out some surprising wins and draws and this match was almost one of those. They put three goals past Saint Iker (a rarity) and held the lead for a big chunk of the match. With Ruud van Nistelrooy, Arjen Robben, and Raul out because of injuries, a Sergio Ramos red card put Madrid on the brink of another pathetic loss as they faced Màlaga’s aggressive striking style a man down.

But Gonzalo Higuaín, the Reggie Miller of football, responded by spanking four balls to the back of the Màlaga net (yeah, four). Two of them were penalties but four goals are four goals, no matter how you spank ‘em. As many footie pundits say, football is a results-oriented business and the end result of this game was Real Madrid scored more than Màlaga.

And, yes, Higuaín rightfully deserves to be compared to Reggie Miller. Like the retired Indiana Pacers shooting guard, Higuaín is a definitive clutch player. Like Miller, Higuaín gets the points when they’re really needed. Like Miller, Higuaín usually gets these points at the end of the game, making it all more dramatic. Most profoundly, like Miller, Higuaín is consistent about all of this. I can recall five games last season that he snatched victory from the opposing team last season, the most memorable being the Osasuna match where his clutch goal clinched the La Liga Championship for Real Madrid.

Higuaín deserves accolades for the clutch wins he provides to RM, but he’s not the first provide them to the club. I may have been a hardcore footie fanatic for only a year-and-a-half but I’ve seen them pull out some amazing out of the blue back-from-behind wins with plays by Mahamadou Diarra, Roberto Carlos, and yes, even David Beckham. Like Hull City did against Manchester United, Real Madrid refuse to give up. Unlike the Tigers though, Real Madrid refuse to give up and get a win out of it. No other footie team is better in the clutch.

It’s this last point that’s made me rethink my current love affair with Hull but that’s for another post.

Tags: Gonzalo Higuain, La Liga, Malaga CF

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 8th, 2008 at 11:21 pm and is filed under Real Madrid. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.