Real Madrid: M for Magic, M for Midfield, M for Maite

Real Madrid Femenino have secured a 2nd place finish in the league this season with 1 game to go. They have finished above the likes of Atletico Madrid, Real Sociedad and Levante. They have secured a chance to compete in the UEFA Women’s Champions League next season by qualifying for the play-offs as a virtue of their league finish.

This has been a successful campaign for the Las Blancas. They have the 2nd best offence in the league with 74 goals scored, 6 more than the next best and have the joint 2nd best defence with just 32 goals conceded in 33 games. This has been a collective effort from the team.

A lot of players played an important part in making this dream work. The forwards came through with the important goals, CBs held the fort down the middle as the fullbacks ran down the flanks tirelessly but whilst the appreciation for golazos and the last-ditch tackles, the orchestrators or the brains of the side, the midfielders get overlooked.

Today we will talk about the linchpin of Madrid’s midfield throughout the season, the 23 year-old, Maite Oroz. She has been fondly regarded as “La Profesora” among the Madrid media and was voted Mahou’s 5-star POTM for the month of May by the fans. Maite is the one with the plan, always.

Arriving in the summer from Athletic Club, where she had played since 2014 making her senior debut in 2015 as a 17-year-old and instantly becoming a regular, Maite has been the fulcrum of Madrid’s midfield. Maite wasn’t an unknown figure, neither in the league nor across the women’s football world. Her talent, her magic has been widely regarded and witnessed in the Spanish youth levels.

Maite Oroz’s role at Real Madrid

Maite played in a deep-lying playmaker role during the season, playing a total of 2338 mins in 29 appearances so far. Accustomed to a more advanced role with more attacking freedom playing alongside a defensive midfielder, Maite never seemed out of place. A versatile and technical maestro, who dictated the tempo of games and is a crucial part of the build-up for Madrid.

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On the ball is where the magic happens with Maite. Her skills, close control, and vision make her a delight to watch when on the ball. She does things with a blend of flamboyance and elegance that equals that of a well-executed magic trick leaving the spectators filled with awe.

As Madrid build up play from the back, Maite would often drop deep to pick up the ball and dictate how the play flows. She has the blueprint in her brain about where she is gonna play her next pass before she even receives the ball. This art of constantly scanning the field before receiving and being aware of her spatial surroundings is what makes her so important for Las Blancas. Her ability to receive the ball on the half turn or receiving and doing a 180 is simply brilliant, allowing her to quickly change the direction of play or move into space.

Playing a pass is the first part of her magic trick (or ‘the pledge’ if you want to appeal to the cinephile inside me); what follows is even more important. Maite isn’t static after having played a pass, she quickly identifies and moves into the space that has been created by her playing the pass and pulling opponents out of shape. Maite is already pointing to where she wants the ball to be returned to her as she maneuvers there.

The range of her distribution and the weight on her incisive passes are almost never off the radar. She chooses and picks out her target with perfection. In the latest 5-star display against Santa Teresa, in the 88th min, Maite picked up the ball from Tere before playing a pass that broke both the midfield and the defensive lines into the path of Jakobsson. These line-breaking passes are a big part of her game, she has an eye for playing these incisive or high-risk-high reward passes.

She is able to identify the space opening up and anticipates the run before picking out the teammate with the perfectly timed and weighted ball. All of this processing is done in seconds inside her brain. Against the recent 3-2 comeback win against Real Sociedad, Maite plays a perfectly weighted first-time pass into the path of Kenti Robles, who is making a run into the space behind the defence. This vision, awareness, and the knack to pick out incisive passes are a big part of Maite’s game.

Maite Oroz’s skills

The second part of her magic on the field, or “The Turn” if you will. This is where she takes something ordinary and turns it into something extraordinary with her elegant and extremely skilled nature on the ball. The backheels, the nutmegs, the dribbling one, two, three opponents one after the other, the magnetic cushioned first touch of the ball that makes it stick to her feet and leaves the spectators mesmerized.

In the 42nd min of the game against Santa Teresa, Maite dropped in and picked the ball up from Ivana (CB) before performing a roulette to beat an on-rushing player, nutmegging another one and making another player lay flat on the ground as she spread the ball wide towards Samara (RB) or the time against Madrid CFF earlier in the season where she received the ball surrounded by 2 players and played a sublime backheel into space for O. Carmona to pick up.

She does this with such guile and elegance, it’s like watching a magician at work, only the magician is performing tricks with the ball on the football field.

She has an eye for goal and has a great shot on her as well making her a threat from range. The signs of these were seen way back in 2013 with U16s against England when she scored from almost 30m out or in 2016 when an 18-year-old Maite scored the winning goal against Fortuna Hjørring, in the first leg of their UWCL tie, making a timely run in behind the defence and slotting the ball at the near post in the 83rd min.

She has displayed this at Madrid too, albeit playing slightly deeper shooting doesn’t allow her to showcase this often, against Rayo Vallecano on matchday 3. She hopped in front of the marker intercepting the failed clearance from the corner at the edge of the box and thumping in a venomous half-volley in the net, scoring Madrid’s 2nd goal of the season.

Maite isn’t a tall – standing at just 1.55m – or physically dominant player in particular which makes for lazy conclusions like she isn’t good at defensive duels, that isn’t entirely true. While her physical stature does put her at a slight disadvantage in physical duels (something she compensates for with her on-ball skills), Maite’s defending has a lot to do with her pressing and anticipation.

The mental tools and consistency

Her reading of the game allows her to anticipate a move, intercept the ball and recover possession high up the pitch. This was on display in the 3rd goal Madrid scored against Athletic Club. Maite anticipated the pass, jumping in to intercept the play and cause a turnover in the attacking third of the pitch. Her tackling isn’t bad either allowing her to hold her own in 1v1 defensive duels.

Another aspect of Maite’s game is her mental fortitude. She is 23 but has been around the Primera division forever. She suffered an ACL injury at the start of the season in 2018 missing the entire season but she came back and continued to perform at the high level displayed before. In the 2019/20 season, she started all 21 of the club’s league games amassing almost 1800 mins, playing alongside Damaris (now at Lyon), before the season was brought to an abrupt end due to COVID. She isn’t fazed by the opposition. She brings the same array of trickery to play against league leaders Barcelona as she does against teams from the bottom half of the table.

The third and final part of her magic, “The Prestige” continuing the theme, the part that completes the trick and keeps the viewers coming back for more is her consistency. Maite has been one of the most consistent players in the squad this season. She brings the same magic, the same trickery, the same work rate and the same vision onto the field every game.

Real Madrid Femenino dances to the tunes that Maite orchestrates. Madrid’s midfield is the trick that Maite pulls off every time she steps on the field. She is “La Profesora”, the one with the plan.

M for Magic, M for Midfield, M for Maite, and M for Madrid…