3 Things We Learned From Real Madrid’s Win Over Deportivio
By Ben Sundock
Real Madrid played one of their most interesting games of the season Saturday night in the Santiago Bernabeu against Deportivo la Coruña, pulling out a 3-2 win. In a game where Real had the lead and then saw it vanish, Los Blancos showed that they are a resilient team that never gives up storming back to score two goals in the final 10 minutes to get 3 points and maintain a 6 point lead on top of the La Liga table.
The Streak is Important to These Players
With their 3-2 triumph Saturday, Real are now 26-9-0 in their last 35 games, setting a club record for longest stretch without a loss. More importantly, we learned that these players won’t give up or not try as hard because of this streak. Even with the 6 point lead of FC Barcelona who sit in second, these players want to dominant Spain.
Holding Cristiano Ronaldo out of the game along with Karim Benzema who tallied two goals in his last outing and not starting full back Marcelo, Zidane showed his commitment to full team success starting both Toni Kroos and Alvaro Morata after both players missed substantial time with injury.
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The drive and conviction the starting XI and the substitutes showed in getting the game level and then pushing all the way into injury and stoppage time for a last gasp goal from the hero, Sergio Ramos, shows that this is one of the most completes team ever and one of the most driven also.
Mariano Diaz is For Real
A season ago, Mariano Diaz, a seemingly irrelevant player in the Real Madrid youth system didn’t feature in one game last season with the first team, playing only with the Real Madrid Castilla team, has gone to one of the hottest names in Europe this season with his seemingly improbable rise to relevance in the Spanish capital.
Mariano burst onto the scene with an outstanding goal against Chelsea in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the first preseason friendly of the summer and then backed that up with an impressive outing in the final preseason match of the summer in the Santiago Bernabeu trophy match scoring another goal in a 5-3 win over French side Stade de Reims.
Mariano has continued to impress in the Copa Del Rey helping Los Merengues to a 13-2 first round win on aggregate over Cultural Leonesa, as Mariano came on as a sub in the first leg and scored. In the second leg at home, he scored a hat trick (which could’ve been four if not for a bad offside call) as he played the full 90 minutes as the number nine.
Having now made 3 appearances in league play, and one in the Champions League, it is clear that manager Zinedine Zidane has a lot of faith in the young talented Dominican Republican as he continues to put him in when he’s needed and he answers, scoring the second goal in the comeback win over Deportivo.
Bad Defense in the Defending Half
Real Madrid saw a 1-0 lead go to 2-1 down in a matter of just two minutes, and the two goals from Deportivo came courtesy of mistakes. In the first of two goals from substitute Joselu, Casemiro got caught trying to be fancy with no help right outside the box and this resulted in a tackle and steal from Deportivo, leading to an easy goal.
The next goal just a minute later was the result of a bad pass from Sergio Ramos that sparked a 2-on-2 counter attack from Deportivo. Bad closing defense from both Pepe and Ramos allowed for a good cross into Joselu who was able to do just enough to beat goalkeeper Keylor Navas.
These two mistakes were not the only errors by Real in their own defending half, as in the first half, Sergio Ramos allowed a man to slip him on a free kick and get an open header which was ultimately saved by Navas. The small errors from Los Blancos, despite being small individual mistakes in most circumstances, nearly cost them the game and these are not something you want as a manager when your team is pushing for a league title.