Defensive woes mar Madrid victory
MADRID - Real Madrid's expensive new team boasts an awesome array of attacking talent and huge goal-scoring potential but their defence looked worryingly porous in their opening match of the La Liga season on Saturday.
President Florentino Perez spent 250 million euros to bring excitement and spectacle back to the Bernabeu after two barren years and judging by Saturday's 3-2 win over Deportivo Coruna, when Real twice surrendered the lead and created a host of chances, the fans will not be disappointed.
The return of the suspended Pepe and injured pair Christoph Metzelder and Sergio Ramos may help to eradicate the errors that blighted their performance.
However, Real's hopes of mounting an effective challenge to treble-winners Barcelona seemingly rest on the ability of Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Karim Benzema and their team mates to score more goals than are inevitably conceded.
Sports daily Marca said in an editorial on Sunday that Real were following a script against Depor that the fans had become well used to over the years.
"An opponent with a solid back line who refuses to be intimidated by so many star players and knows how to exploit the whites' defensive weakness but who ultimately yields to massive firepower," the paper wrote. "This (Real) promises excitement."
Perez's latest creation resembles the band of "galacticos" he assembled during his first stint in charge in 2000-2006, who included Zinedine Zidane, Figo, David Beckham and Brazilian striker Ronaldo.
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El Pais soccer correspondent Jose Samano said that coach Manuel Pellegrini was under orders from Perez to focus on attack because the president had grown up watching dynamic Real sides including players such as Alfredo di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas in the 1950s and 60s.
"Over time soccer has become more conservative but not in the mind of (Perez)," Samano wrote.
"Manuel Pellegrini has no other option than to field as many defenders as attackers, a gamble that almost got them into trouble against Depor," he added.
"Madrid were struggling to dictate the game and obviously won't be a balanced and well calibrated side anytime soon but their box of tricks is limitless."
Writing in El Mundo, Orfeo Suarez said that the new-look Real side were "terrific going forward and vulnerable at the back".
"That's the conclusion to be drawn from the start of the second Florentino Perez era; understandable because it's a project under construction," he said.
"Madrid kept Depor's hopes alive because they are not yet a team and perhaps never will be, and some of the stars are still not firing on all cylinders."