Because... football

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1:37Hello everyone and welcome to this week's edition of the Spanish Football Podcast. I'm Phil Kitromelidis. Sid Lowe is in San Sebastián. Don't worry, we will hear from him a little bit later on in the pod. But Alex Kirkland, Al, is with me for today's show. Hello, Al.

1:51Sid Lowe:Hello, Kitromelidis. I've just had a breakfast smoothie. That's how comfortably I'm slipping into Sid's shoes here. Sid usually has a smoothie for breakfast. Often mid-pod. Why that is relevant. Yes, it's true. He's sometimes sipping on a smoothie as he's going off on a tangent and slipping in some caveats. Anyway, we will hear from Sidney in just a moment. Firstly, let me tell you what's happened on Matchday 20 in La Liga EA Sports so far. Friday night was a Catalan derby at the RCDE Stadium, which Girona won by two goals to nil, both goals from the penalty spot. Espanyol still haven't won in 2026.

2:32Very impressive first half of the campaign, but winless so far in the three matches they played this year. Girona absolutely flying up to 10th in the table. Saturday was a pretty eventful game at the Bernabeu between Real Madrid and Levante. Not so much matters on the pitch, matters off the pitch, causing the headlines. An unbelievable reception from the fans for the players at the Bernabeu. I say unbelievable, actually incredibly believable, although it was quite predictable.

3:03Sid Lowe:Very predictable. But yes, the volume was pretty unprecedented. We'll talk about that in just a second. Real Madrid, the winning this weekend and cutting the gap on leaders, Barcelona, to just a point. They were beaten in San Sebastián last night, 2-1, by Real Sociedad. Elsewhere, Mallorca with a really big win on Saturday against the Athletic Club 3-2, possibly saving Yago Barra Sate's job as manager of the team from the Balearic Islands. Osasuna beat Oviedo 3-2. Poor old Sid went to Pamplona, went to El Cedar. Saw Oviedo score two goals, thought they were going to win a bloody game, but they didn't.

3:40They lost. just as well he's not on actually to talk about that game. I mean, I couldn't have, honestly,

3:47Sid Lowe:I couldn't have bared to hear him talk about it. I was watching the goal notifications coming on my phone. Even I, who don't care about Oviedo, I, yeah, it was, it sounded especially cruel. Even in a season of cruelty, this was above and beyond. We care a little bit about Oviedo just because, you know, we want Sid to be. Because we want Sid to be happy, yeah. Yes. But he is not happy. Oviedo rock bottom. and they are seven points from safety now. They're beginning to look a little bit doomed. Saturday night, saw Betis beat Villarreal 2-0 at the Cartuja. Pretty decent win this for Betis. They were pretty comfortable against Villarreal and second goal is a really nice, really nice goal from Pablo Fornalz and Betis are a little bit unpredictable but they did get this a good win against Villarreal.

4:35Then on Sunday, what was predictable is that Getafe against Valencia was going to be a terrible game. It duly was, but Valencia managed to get a goal in the second half to win it. 1-0. Massive win for them. Atletico Madrid beat Alaves 1-0. Alex Sorlo scoring the only goal of the game. Atleti actually hanging on towards the end. Alaves putting them under plenty of pressure, but they managed to hang on for that 1-0 win. Celta beat Rio 3-0 in a really predictable result. Sorry, Ketro. We did predict this, but it's all right. I knew it. I predicted it on the preview program.

5:09Sid Lowe:Yeah, you knew exactly what you had. With absolute certainty, you predicted this result. I did say 4-0 to my son when he asked what was going to happen. Okay, so in the end, you came out kind of on top. Real Sociedad beating Barca 2-1. Monday sees Elche host Sevilla. Now, it is going to be a very, very exciting second half of the La Liga season, so don't miss a thing. Come and join us at patreon.com forward slash TSFP. patrons get the Monday and the Friday podcast without any adverts, plus they get a weekly Q &A pod and a bonus pod, and there's the newsletter, and there's the TSFP diary, and there's the Discord, you should join us.

5:48You can sign up from€4.75 a month, or it's even cheaper if you get an annual membership. So, to Real Sociedad, to Barcelona, one, absolutely ridiculous game, Barcelona dominated. If you look at the stats, they are absolutely absurd. Barcelona with six big chances in terms of opt-to-defined big chances, 25 shots, an XG of 3.69. How did they lose this game, Sid? That's the question, isn't it?

6:22Sid Lowe:How did Barcelona not win this game? I guess the answering part is because football, it's silly sometimes, isn't it? And I think last night was one of the silliest games I've ever seen in terms of trying to understand or trying to kind of fathom how it was that one of the teams didn't win. Let's give some of the reasons why. I mean, the obvious reasons here. Barcelona didn't win well because you've got two disallowed goals and a disallowed penalty. Because you've got really, really clear chances missed by Pedri and Dani Olmo. Because you've got the five times, five times that they hit the post.

6:58Sid Lowe:because you've got the eight saves from Alex Romero. And one of them was absolutely phenomenal. And I guess in that sense, it's just because football. And you listened to Raúl Santidad last night and they were aware of the fortune. It was quite nice to see talking to Mikel Fabel after the game in the mix zone and asked about this performance and what they'd done. He said, well, and luck. You've got to be honest. We've got to admit that we were very, very fortunate. and those goals disallowed for Barcelona are all very very tight I think you can probably see a rationale for all of them even if you know personally I think we've reached a point now where we're tiny tiny things are becoming absolutely decisive all the time and it's it's it's baffling at times and Barcelona I thought played really really well I mean this is nine victories in a row until last night at some point that result was going to end but you didn't think it was going to end on the night in which they produced probably the best performance in this run, which is now a run that's a course over.

7:57Sid Lowe:I think there's lots and lots of things to pick up on as well. I mean, the analysis in a way is to kind of just shrug your shoulders and say, because football, because this is what happens. But I think there's some other things you can pick up on. For example, the goal, the second goal that is. I think when Barcelona scored, I think there was a sense that that's it, right, the momentum is there. Sort of, if you like, normal service is resumed. And I think Barcelona switched off momentarily. There was 59 seconds between the 1-1, which really should have set them up to win, and then being caught again and conceding again.

8:27Sid Lowe:I think on that goal, Joan Garcia makes a mess of it. I don't think he does a particularly good job of a first attempted save. But I think in particular, Kubarci makes a mess of it twice in that move. And Barcelona, once they conceded that goal, they then collapsed for a bit. In fact, Real Sofidad had a couple of chances to have made it 3-1. I think that's not surprising, to be perfectly honest. And frankly, the young was saying this post-game. mistake. There's a moment when you've spent the whole game looking for this 1-1, then you're in and it's done. It's almost as if your work is done and then bang.

8:54Sid Lowe:And I think it's then not surprising that for 15 minutes or so after that, they just couldn't kind of mentally get themselves back in the game. Now, I do sort of want to pick up on Braus of the Dad here. And we always do this and we always talk about the opponents. I think there's a tendency in Spain to see every defeat or draw from Real Madrid and Barcelona as purely a product of Real Madrid and Barcelona. And too often the opponents are not taken into consideration and I think they should be. Now in this case it's a slightly difficult one because I think we've seen a very significant change in Real Sociedad with Matarazzo.

9:28Sid Lowe:I think we've seen a team that's more aggressive, I think we've seen a team that's more dynamic, I think we've seen a team that's a bit more direct and a team that kind of believes in itself and we've also seen I think an adaptable team that played differently against Atletico Madrid as it did against Getafe, as it did against Osso as it did now against Barcelona. but at times they were completely overwhelmed and so that kind of analysis on this particular game individually this particular game I'm not sure it does entirely stand up because you know there's an awareness from them that they were kind of outplayed that this is I think possibly the best performance from Barcelona this season but you can then say well is it luck that you've got a brilliant goalkeeper Romero was absolutely brilliant yeah of course there's an element of fortune there and Rouseau think we're absolutely clear about saying so so maybe on this occasion you just got to kind of take a step back and say, well, because it happens.

10:15Sid Lowe:It's an extraordinary night at Anueta. We're two days away. Well, we're one day away from the Tamborada, the celebrations in the city where there's drumming, marching bands through the city of people drumming. You can hear it everywhere as they practice in the days, building up to it. On the way into the game last night, Real Sociedad's players came in for a passageway, which is not really a gauntlet, but a passageway of drummers dressed as soldiers and chefs with giant comedy knives and forks and banging away at the drums and a real sense of Matarazzo taking on the identity of the city, not just the club.

10:48Sid Lowe:And actually the players last night, one of the things that Doria Thabo said post-game was that he's been impressed with Matarazzo's willingness to embrace the city, Donosti. And he talked a lot, Matarazzo, of the atmosphere, the sense of occasion. He said after the game yesterday that there was something magic in the air. And so I suppose that's the answer then for all of this. it's magic never believe it's not so Sidney joining us from his hotel room in San Sebastian yeah from the Audrey Hepburn suite at his favourite cinema themed hotel in San Sebastian it's magic then Relsor Sid had won because of magic no I think Sid touched on all the themes there because football he said that was that's the verdict that's his column this week yeah because football I mean yeah it was absolutely ridiculous Barcelona 100 % should have won this game.

11:40And I think he touched upon the fact that they conceded that second goal, which killed them. There was no reaction after that. There was a little bit of reaction in injury time. But I think they were really sucker-punched by that second goal from Real Sociedad 59 seconds after the first one. I just wonder, you know, Barcelona didn't lose this game because of the high line. Often when we talk about them, the high line is mentioned all the time. and this was not why it was. But I wonder if there is an element of a lack of, and as they say in Spanish, oficio, a lack of kind of know-how in seeing and managing games, which comes from maybe this being literally the youngest squad in La Liga, just knowing that you cannot concede that goal that they conceded.

12:25And as you mentioned, Joan Garcia and Paco Barsi, both very young, not that experienced, and kind of at fault for that second goal. and I just wonder if again we're seeing just that lack of know-how how to manage games for Barcelona that might cost them remember the Champions League semi-final last season against Inter Milan I want to go back to that but that was perhaps the most egregious example of this and just to try and explain you know how Real Sociedad got that second goal there was just they weren't switched on enough in that in that moment which they really should have been.

12:57Sid Lowe:Yeah I think psychologically it's probably one of the most difficult scenarios to kind of deal with is when you concede that soon after scoring it's such a an extreme kind of turnaround in such a short space of time from being right back in the game to being behind again and you mentioned joan garcia it was an interesting performance from him wasn't it because i mean the ojathabao goal he doesn't get near it i know that it's hit hard and it's not that far out but he joan garcia barely reacts at all it doesn't get a hand up at all and the second goal as well i just think he sort of spilled the ball in the moments before it and I especially up against Alex Romero who is you know as we've discussed third choice goalkeeper in the Spain national team squad.

13:37Sid Lowe:Joan Garcia not currently in the Spain squad but really should be. This was I mean I mean look he's been great he's been he's been he's been really good but this this this wasn't I think this wasn't a good performance for him at all. So what we're saying is if Barcelona you know they've been very good in the in the areas obviously they were missing Rafinha as well and he's someone that we haven't mentioned And in all five of the games that Barcelona have lost this season in all comps, Rafinha didn't start. Which, you know, it's not an explanation, but I think it's more than just a coincidence that he hasn't been present from the start.

14:10Sid Lowe:We've talked about him being maybe their most important player in terms of everything that he contributes on and off the ball. So end product and also what he does in terms of working to win the ball back. I wouldn't be too worried if I was a Barcelona fan of this game. I would be frustrated and disappointed and angry and confused. how he didn't win this game and that you've let Real Madrid back into the title race but really this was not a performance where you were like our Barca played terribly they they were overrun there was no spirit there was no you know it wasn't that at all it was just that they could not put the little round thing into the big rectangular thing yeah which is of course the most important thing in football but no if you look at the two performances this weekend for Barca and Real Madrid you know Barca played really well and lost Madrid were mostly really quite unconvincing again and won, you will get games and you will get weekends like that at some point over the course of the season.

15:00Sid Lowe:And I agree. I don't think it has to be overly concerning. Shout out to Pellegrino Materazzo, who Sid mentioned has got Real Sociedad playing more on the front foot, more vertical. He literally said, you know, I want my players to pass the ball forward more. And he's had an incredible start to life as Real Sociedad manager because I looked at his first few games and I thought, oh God, this is a tough start. for old Reno, but he got a very creditable 1-1 draw against Atletico Madrid in his first game, went away to Getafe and won a real battle there with a late, late injury time goal. They came from 2-0 down to win on penalties in the Copa del Rey against Osasuna.

15:40And now they've had this big win against Barcelona. So it's been a brilliant start for Reno and he's got the Barca derby coming up next weekend as well. So I said, you know, when he was appointed, he had a good squad to work with. It's not like he was taking over a bunch of hopeless guys who were battling relegation, staring it square in the face. They were lower than they should be. And he's taken over a squad with quite a lot of good players to work with.

16:08Sid Lowe:No, it's been really impressive. And look, this is a guy who I don't know about you, Kittrow. I knew next to nothing about him before he before he arrived. And like you say, the impact has been undeniable. talking on TV last night after the game he was asked you know seven points out of three games so far you know you couldn't have asked for much more than that could you and he was like well I could have asked for nine and he said actually he thought they probably could have had nine I think he's a really interesting appointment and like quietly really quite impressive so far of course it's still early days and lots of things can happen but this is you know coming into a job where you and Seeds earlier in the season when we had our sort of surprise picks one of them was La Real to really struggle and be dragged into a relegation battle.

16:46Sid Lowe:Look, there's still only, what is it, five points off the drop? I think because it's so tight between basically just off the European spots and relegation. So they're not out of the woods yet. But no, it's been really encouraging. The world moves fast. Your work day, even faster. Pitching products, drafting reports, analyzing data. Microsoft 365 Copilot is your AI assistant for work. built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Microsoft 365 apps you use, helping you quickly write, analyze, create, and summarize so you can cut through clutter and clear a path to your best work. Learn more at Microsoft.com slash M365 Copilot.

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18:50That's strawberry.me slash career. All right, let's move on and talk about what happened at the Bernabeu. Real Madrid beating Levante 2-0, a penalty from Kylian Mbappé in the second half and a thumping header from Raul Asensio enough to give Real Madrid all three points a 2-0 win, a clean sheet and cutting the gap on Barcelona to one point at the top of the table that is almost, almost incidental given what happened at the state I mean it's not and we will talk about the football in just a moment but this was literally a historic day at the Bernabeu you and I have been living in Madrid for 14 years.

19:33We've been at a lot of games at that stadium. Covered almost all the majority of Real Madrid games during that time and have never experienced anything like that. People who have covered Real Madrid for even longer, much longer than us, are saying this is almost unprecedented. The level of vitriol, anger and fury directed at the players, at specific players and for almost the entire game, the players were whistled when the bus turned up.

19:59Sid Lowe:Yeah, that's the thing, Kittro, because quite often, quite often it's like the crowd kind of loses interest at some point during the 90 minutes, right? And the whistles, there are whistles, you know, the first time or the second or the third time certain players touch the ball and then it drifts away. But that wasn't the case. It was right the way through. And like you say, from the moment the bus arrived, when the players came out for the warm-up, I mean, the whistles, when the players were in the huddle, the team huddle just before kick-off, I think that's the loudest whistling I've ever heard at the Bernabeu.

20:27Sid Lowe:For, you know, Vinicius Junior, it was right the way through the game. for Jude Bellingham. It was right the way through the game for Valverde as well. You know, we had chance in the fifth minute of Florentino resign, which we haven't heard of the Bonavail for a long time. I mean, you've got to go way back, right? Like, I can't... What, 2015? So I remember, yeah, I remember being a very, very, very weird game, which Real Madrid won 10-2. Do you remember this game against Real? Yeah, yeah, yeah. They won 10-2, and there were huge chance of Florentino dimission, everybody was angry was that in 2015 that was December 2015 Raya actually took the lead in this game and ended up losing 10-2 and it came off the back of they'd lost the Classico 4-0 it's the Benitez yeah yeah yeah exactly so yes that era took in 10 years yeah it's really clear in my mind as hearing that a fair bit but not since then because what happened after that Zidane came in they win three European Cups in a row and you can't you can't really you can't really argue with that so that is significant you know people waving white hankies, which is the other thing they do here in protest as well as whistling.

21:34Sid Lowe:And yeah, like I say, we've basically never heard that level of kind of anger being expressed at the team. And not to the team, but the institution and the way that it's being run. I think it's worth maybe just, you know, people will look at this from afar and saying, and will say, Real Madrid are one point off Barcelona. They're in good position to finish in the top eight in the Champions League. yes they lost the Super Cup, yes they got knocked out of the Copa del Rey. Is this some kind of overreaction from the fans? But this is kind of what Real Madrid is all about and I think there's this kind of misconstrued idea that Real Madrid, the only thing that matters is winning and I actually don't think that's true.

22:20Yes their approach to winning is malleable and if they They're up against a team where they have to sit back and defend and all hands to the deck and we sit deep and defend. But the fans will accept that. But what they won't accept is if you win, but they think that you're not trying or you're not playing well, then this is why they whistle. Because if you look at Real Madrid's result in La Liga, was it five consecutive wins, five or six consecutive wins? They have been winning in La Liga. And obviously the loss at Alba Fete didn't help and the loss against Barcelona Super Cup didn't help at all.

22:55But I just think that there's a perceived lack of effort. It's not necessarily the results, which obviously have been bad in those two cup competitions. It is how the fans perceive the players are approaching this big honour of wearing the Real Madrid shirt and specific players, very specific players, because you were there, Raul, and you heard Raul Asensio got applauded off. I think Thibaut Courtois got his name chanted. There were specific players that were targeted because the fans feel, you guys, you have not been putting in enough effort.

23:29Sid Lowe:Yeah. And look, the context is last season in which they didn't win a major trophy. You know, that very rarely happens at Real Madrid. They didn't win a major trophy. And the view was that this was, I mean, it's partly about Ancelotti and maybe some of the deficiencies in Ancelotti's side, but also largely about the players, about players not being willing to work, about players not being willing to listen. The solution was bring in Xabi Alonso. That hasn't worked. And the feeling is that, again, it's the players who've essentially got him the sack. And so, yeah, the anger of the crowd is largely aimed at certain players, in particular, who haven't been performing, who we know weren't buying into the whole Xabi Alonso project.

24:09Sid Lowe:And at, basically, the president, at the very top of the club, who's the one who ultimately makes the decisions. A sort of dissatisfaction with the way this whole project is going. And I feel like the right decisions aren't being made. I was just going to say, you know, we spoke about Alvaro Arbeloa with Sid in the bonus pod we did after the elimination by Albacete. And so, you know, there's not as... How much blame can you apportion to this manager who's been in charge for 24 hours? But there were certain aspects of how he approached the game, which we did blame him for, not least, the matchday squad that he chose to take to Albacete, which was devoid of some very important players, which he chose to leave in Madrid.