Marcelo - Real Madrid

Marcelo Vieira da Silva Júnior, or known only as Marcelo is a Brazilian football player currently playing for the Spanish giant Real Madrid. By many, Marcelo is the successor of Roberto Carlos who played the famous offensive left back position for Madrid and the Brazilian National team for more than a decade.

Marcelo is born on May 12, 1988 in the poor neighborhood in Rio and started playing futsal when he was only 9. When he was 13 the officials of Fluminense saw his talent and transferred him into the youth ranks of their team. Marcelo was quickly becoming their pearl and most popular player and they started comparing him with Roberto Carlos. Those comparisons became more often when Marcelo decided to put a pen to the paper of his dream contract with Real Madrid. In December 2006 Marcelo, who was only 18 moved to Madrid with his family.
Marcelo made his debut for the first team on April 14 2007 in the team that was led by Capello. He adapted quickly to the Spanish style of play thanks to the many Brazilians in the club especially Roberto Carlos. Months later Marcelo became a Spanish champion with Los Merengues.

His big progress in Madrid was seen by Brazilian national team manager Dunga who picked Marcelo as successor of the retiring legend Roberto Carlos. He made a great performance for his national team scoring one fantastic goal.
After winning La Liga in the 2007 summer transfer period Roberto Carlos left Real Madrid and signed for Fenerbahce. That move created an empty spot on the left back position in Real Madrid. At the same time Cappelo left Madrid and Bernd Schuster was hired as a head coach. This allowed Marcelo more playing time as he was better choice for the German coach instead of Heinze. Marcelo’s brilliant performances during the season of 2007-2008 guaranteed him a first team place in the league and the Champions league. At the end of May 2008 Real Madrid was crowned as champion again.

To set aside his inexperience and sometimes his instant decisions that cost his team a lot (it’s always a kind of problem for defenders), Marcelo is typical offensive left back with steel nerves and determined reactions in the back. His pacey runs upfront that comes along with fine cross, precise passing and also powerful long shot makes him one of the best wingbacks nowadays. He is hard working guy and his modest personality, optimism and confidence are one of his best attributes.

Marcelo started off 2008-09 with success winning Spanish Super cup with Real Madrid in August. Day by day he is becoming better yet. He earns more faith by Schuster and this guarantees bright future for the Brazilian pearl at the Bernabeu. I really hope he will become one of the best defenders in the world one day.

Official Real Madrid page about Marcelo

Marcelo on Wikipedia

How to win a football match

“The goal is to score a goal!”

The team who scores more goals – wins. If it is a cup competition, the winner continues in further matches and the loser is out of the competition. In a league match format, the winner takes 3 points, the loser nothing. Draw is also possible here with the two of the teams getting by one point.

So, how to beat the opponent is the subject of this post. There are few waypoints:

1. Ball possession
We all remember the glory days of the two Spanish giants and their eras of dominating the European stage. Real Madrid (1998-2002) and Barcelona (2005-06). And guess what they had in common? Yes, the ball possession.
When the team has the ball for most of the time, it is more possible to create chances for the forwards. That is why strong midfield is required.
The midfield can be organized in various ways, with 2 or 3 playmakers in the core of the midfield. The most important thing of quality midfield display is having defensive midfield with strong playmaking and passing skills and also strong shooting skill is welcomed (Cecs Fabregas, Andrea Pirlo, Steven Gerard…)
And the most important thing is mutual correlation and communication between the players.

2. Turning chances into a goal
Once the ball possession is gained, your team needs to convert the chances into goals. Having quality strikers is the best way to turn a chance into a goal. For bigger chances to score, the teams need higher frequency of shots. If you don’t take a shot, you won’t score.
Teams play with one or two forwards depending on a tactic. When playing 2 forwards, very often used tactic by the managers is one centre forward and one supporting forward. One of the most successful managers, Capello used this “hole” striker role when coaching Real Madrid, Juventus and Roma. Recognizable players on this position are Raul, Del Piero, Totti etc.
Some teams play with 3 forwards (Barcelona). But it is not possible to play with all 3 centre forwards (for example neither manager will put Van Nistelrooy, Drogba and Luca Toni together). And that’s why these teams play with one CF and 2 supporting (defensive) forwards. Barcelona’s squad during the past 3-4 seasons was always using this tactic with Eto’o as a CF and Ronaldinho and Messi as supporting forwards. The main role of these players is to connect the midfield with the attack.

3. Prevent opponents to score
Rock solid defense prevents opponent team to score. Decades ago, teams used to play man-to-man defense which requires running all over the field after the marked player. Today, most common defensive style of play is zonal marking which means that defenders have their assigned zones of the field to cover (not exact player).
The most of the teams today play with 4 defenders in a line. Defensive line is very important part of the team defense and demands high level of teamwork between those players.
Some managers use a “sweeper” – player behind the def. line who is assigned for correcting the possible mistakes by the DL.
In front of the DL there is always one or two defensive midfielders playing the role of “destructor” (Gatuso, Emerson, Makalele, Vieira etc.) and their main job is to strangle the opponent’s attack before it’s really created.
When praising the importance of DL, SW and DM positions I must declare that major importance of the team defense overall has the goalkeeper. Managers who have keepers like Casillas, Buffon of Cech between the posts can breathe easier during the match.

4. Teamwork
The best way to win the match is to have perfect teamwork of the players. We have been witnesses of F.C. Porto winning the CL in 2004 with average players but extremely high level of teamwork. The team had no such big names but Mourinho packed compatible lineup and faced the best teams in the Europe successfully.
On the other hand, see what happened with teams who had the best players all over the globe but didn’t manage so win even a title (Inter over the past 10 years; Real Madrid in the “Galactico” era and Barcelona in the past 2 seasons).

The 2006 Serie A scandal - "Calciopoli"

So, how many titles Juventus won? 28? Nope. Juventus actually won 29 Scudettos but in the 2006 Serie A scandal they lost two of them.

So, officially Juventus are holders of 27 Calcio Serie A titles what makes them still the leaders of this competition. A. C. Milan is second with 17 and Inter third with 15 titles.

Well, Juvents won the Scudetto in 2004/05 and 2005/06 season but in the “Calciopoli” scandal in 2006 they lost those 2 titles and were relegated to Serie B plus starting with 9 points negative. And what was Calciopoli all about?

In May 2006 Italian police exposed evidence for match fixing in the professional football league Serie A. Teams involved were Juventus, Fiorentina, Lazio, Milan and Reggina. The police intercepted calls between officials of those teams and the referees who were appointed to their matches. The process begun immediately and the prosecutor demanded relegation “lower than Serie B” (what means C1) for Juventus and relegation to Serie B for the rest of the teams.
At the end of the trial drama, Italian Football Federation came up with these decisions:
- Juventus - Relegated to Serie B and starting with 9 points negative in the next (2006/07) season. Their 2005 and 2006 title taken off (last one given to Inter F.C.)
- A.C. Milan – Brought down on the table from 2nd to 3rd place (enough to qualify for the next season’s Champions League) and starting with only 8 points negative in the 2006/07 season.
- Fiorentina – Lowered from 4th to 9th place and 15 points negative for the next season.
- Lazio – Inclined from 6th to 16th place and starting with only 3 points less.

Other consequences: Inter earned 2005/06 Scudetto on the “green table” and Roma made their way to the Champions League.

See the full table

Juventus, champion’s team led by Capello due to relegation to Serie B was crashed! The team lost their coach and some of their best players like Cannavaro (FIFA World Player of the year), Ibrahimovic, Emerson, Zambrotta, Vieira, Thuram and others. Yes! They deserved it!
Milan did not enter the Champions League directly, but they qualified for it however.
Fiorentina and Lazio avoided relegation.
What is the most curious Italy became World Champion the same year!

See club punishments

So, what you think? Did everybody involved in this drama get what deserved?
Is match fixing in the world’s top leagues OK by you?

Well, this is what I think:
According to the football laws, everything is OK and the justice came up in front! Juventus, the team with most charges got relegated one level lower. The rest of the teams dropped few places lower on the table and started with negative points next season.
But!
If Italian Football Federation took off 5 more points to Milan they wouldn’t qualify for the CL (Remember: Milan won this competition next season). Four points less to Lazio and they wouldn’t see Serie A matches for next season etc…
Oh, I forgot to mention that Inter got Scudetto for free :)
And where those cheater clubs should be?
They ALL should be out of Serie A!
Match fixers! Cheaters! Out!

Many people will disagree with me. They will say: Who I’m gonna watch in Serie A? Catania, Monza, AlbinoLeffe?
I will say yes! Better lower-quality but “clean” team, rather than cheaters!

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Thanks for reading this story!