DAVID SHONFIELD: Moment of truth for Ronaldo and Mourinho
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It’s El Classico time again and even if Real Madrid now trail Barcelona by 15 points in the main event, they still have a chance of a consolation prize in the Cup and possibly in the war of words.
However, José Mourinho has been uncharacteristically taciturn during the build-up to the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final in the Bernabeu tomorrow night.
A brief sideswipe at Pep Guardiola’s move to Bayern — “No comment. It’s his choice. What’s certain is that I won’t be coaching in Germany”. Is it hard being Portuguese in Spain? “Yes, it is”. The rest is silence.
His opposite number, Tito Vilanova, has been in New York having chemotherapy for his parotid cancer and thus unavailable for interview.
Nothing daunted, the Barcelona publicity department chose yesterday to launch a new book about the club called “Being Barca”.
A collection of interviews with club heroes such as Guardiola and Carles Puyol, as well as the current manager, it contains some choice soundbites that have been immediately picked up on the airwaves.
“One of the three things I would never do in football is manage Real Madrid,” says Vilanova. “The other two would be lose a game deliberately and promote doping.”
As if by coincidence — and maybe it is — yesterday was also the start of the trial of Eufemiano Fuentes, the doctor at the centre of one of the biggest doping cases in history. The accusations all concern cycling and the Spanish authorities insist that cycling is the only sport involved.
But there have been persistent stories going back more than six years that other sports including football were implicated, and claims that Fuentes had professional dealings with doctors employed by several leading clubs, including Barcelona, Valencia and Real Madrid.
Barcelona have always vehemently denied such links, and successfully sued one Spanish radio station for specific allegations against the club, so to associate doping with being manager of Real Madrid has a certain edge to it.
The classico often falls short of its hype, in terms of the football if not the associated drama, but conceivably this one could deliver both. The two stars are in unbelievable scoring form, even by their own record-breaking standards.
Cristiano Ronaldo hit a hat-trick in 10 minutes as Real Madrid beat Getafe 4-0 in Sunday’s midday game. Leo Messi promptly went one better in the evening kick-off against Osasuna, a 5-1 win that Marca compared to hypnosis.
Messi’s league total passed the 200 mark on Sunday and he’s scored in each of his last 11 games.
Madrid, now deprived of keeper Iker Casillas because of injury rather than Mourinho’s decision, have recruited Diego Lopez from Sevilla. He was once Madrid’s reserve keeper before an impressive five seasons at Villarreal. It’s a huge opportunity for him: Casillas is likely to be out of action for three months so Real’s progress in the Champions League will depend on Lopez and their existing reserve keeper Adan.
This could also be a moment of truth for Ronaldo. He’s setting almost as many milestones as Messi — Sunday’s hat-trick was the 19th of his Real Madrid career — but his challenge now is to lead his team as captain. He has never quite convinced in this role for his country and his close identification with Mourinho means there are Madrid factions waiting for him to fail. Tomorrow night is big test for him as well as his manager.
