Opinion: Real Madrid should not play early La Liga matches
By Ben Sundock
It seems that the Real Madrid players are not morning people. Los Blancos have struggled to play in the earliest La Liga match window for the last two years and there is no sign of this poor form changing. My solution is to not play matches before 3:00 p.m. ever.
Real Madrid cannot play at noon or one p.m. in La Liga. The track record is so poor for Real in the last six matches that started in the earliest window, it’s hard to believe more media members aren’t talking about it.
Since 2017/2018, Real Madrid has been terrible in these games. The last time the Royal Whites won an early match at home was in the 2016/2017 season against Granada. The team has lost its last three early afternoon kickoffs and have been embarrassed in all of them.
The club lost to Levante 2-1 back in October, were demolished by Eibar 3-0 under Santiago Solari, and yesterday against Girona 2-1.
Something about the early morning game seems to freak the players or causes them to think that they will cruise to a victory. As we have seen this season especially, mid-table sides are playing the biggest match of their season against Los Blancos while Real doesn’t take the tie seriously.
Watching the match yesterday, it seemed the Real Madrid players, commentators, and fans all assumed that Girona would roll over and not fight back when Casemiro scored the opening goal inside a half hour.
Despite not having won a match since the beginning of December, the side from Catalonia did not slow down as they tested Marcelo and Sergio Ramos over and over in the second half.
Real had no trouble with Girona in the three other meetings the clubs have had this campaign, but something just seemed off the entire match. I had a sinking feeling that something bad was bound to happen because of how laid back I was watching.
Yes, it was five a.m. here in the United States and I had pulled an all-nighter to watch the game, but it wasn’t from my lack of sleep that I felt weird. I was really surprised that Girona didn’t put up much of any fight in the first half.
But, they were clearly conserving energy for when Real Madrid wore down and it worked to perfection.
Next. Real Madrid: Is Marcelo bad or just out of form?. dark
Maybe the RFEF can take a look at the schedule and start games at three p.m. at the earliest? I know the Madrid players and us Madridistas in North America would appreciate matches starting at a reasonable time.