The days of playing football with Da Luo

Chapter 504: A Troubled New Season
What is worrying is the state of Ronaldo and Ruud van Nistelrooy. At the age of 32, they seem to suddenly be unable to find their shooting boots, and they have wasted many wonderful passes by Ricardo and Kaka.

New aid Gareth and Van der Vaart were expected to be high, but they have not been able to integrate into the team.

In the past 5 rounds, Real Madrid topped the list with 4 wins and 1 loss. In addition to the first group match of the Champions League, Real Madrid won 5 consecutive victories.Barcelona's league record is 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss, and the start is not as smooth as Real Madrid.

After all, Barcelona's new coach takes office, and it will take time to run in.

In the second game of the UEFA Champions League group stage on September 9, Real Madrid defeated Zenit St. Petersburg 30:2 in an away game, temporarily ranking first in the group.

Although the team performed well, Ricardo always felt that something was wrong.

On the court, he is most sensitive to subtle changes.

Then on October 10th, in the sixth round of La Liga, Real Madrid took the lead twice at home through Ricardo's two goals, but was tied twice, and finally shook hands with the Spaniard 5:2.

Ricardo finally understood where the problem was.

Out of the mentality of the players.

In the past 3 years, Real Madrid has won 2 Champions League titles and 2 La Liga titles. For many players, there is no pursuit.

They get slack, they get lazy, they lose their passion on the court, they lose their drive.

Diarra, who performed well in the past two seasons, is now a moving piece of shit.

Cannavaro, the former No. [-] defender, is now a big colander.

Even the captain Raul felt slack and started walking on the field.

Only a few young players still have a little passion.

This situation is easy to see in a team full of honors.

After Manchester United won the Triple Crown in 99, their performance fell off a cliff.

In another time and space, after Inter Milan won the Triple Crown, it also fell very sharply.

Ricardo had no choice but to rely on his own performance to try to lead the team forward.

But this Real Madrid team is no longer the unstoppable team of last season.

Moreover, the evil consequences of Baptista's release have already been reflected, the team's waist is not strong enough.

In the next 8 rounds of the league, Real Madrid's state was ups and downs. They won Atletico Madrid in the away game, but were tied by Almeria; they narrowly beat Malaga 5:3 at home, and then lost to Valladolid, Getafe.4:4 draw with Sevilla at home...

By the end of the 14th round, Real Madrid had 8 wins, 3 draws and 3 losses, and they have been left behind by Barcelona by a large margin.

In the Champions League, the performance was not satisfactory. They were double-killed by Juventus at home and away. Fortunately, they won the games against the underdogs Zenit St. Petersburg and Bate Bolisov with difficulty. In the end, they won 6 games with 4 wins and 2 losses. With 12 points, they have the same points as Juventus, but due to the relationship between victory and defeat, they qualified second in the group.

Pellegrini also suffered a lot of criticism.

But to be fair, Pellegrini's responsibility is not the biggest for the team to play like this.

If the player's psychology is in trouble, he can't do anything. He is a master of tactics, not a master of psychology.

On December 12th, Real Madrid challenged Barcelona in an away game. Ricardo thought that the national derby would bring some healthy stimulation to the team, but the Real Madrid players were out of form throughout the game.

Although the first 80 minutes barely held a draw, Eto'o and Messi scored two goals in the 83rd and 91st minutes to win the game.

After the game, Messi found Ricardo to change his jersey and said triumphantly: "I finally beat you once."

Ricardo shot back: "You catch up with me on the scorer list first."

Messi suddenly froze.

Messi has scored 10 league goals this season, while Ricardo has scored half of Real Madrid's goals. After 15 league rounds, he scored a total of 23 goals, which is simply terrifying!
The media ridiculed Real Madrid in all kinds of ways, but they only praised Ricardo.Everyone believes that as long as he is not seriously injured and keeps his attendance rate, he will surely break the long-standing La Liga scoring record this season.

In the Champions League, he played 6 times and scored 8 goals, which is not inefficient.

However, Real Madrid is in a downturn as a whole, and the defense line is like paper, which often makes his efforts in vain.

Now Riccardo only hopes that the top management of the team can see the problem and make up for it during the winter break, otherwise Real Madrid is likely to get nothing this season.

After playing this national derby, Real Madrid flew to participate in the Club World Cup.

In this competition against younger brothers from Asia, South America, and Africa, Real Madrid did not embarrass the European teams.Or maybe this event made the players feel a little fresh, and they finally played two hearty games.

In the semifinals, they defeated Gamba Osaka 6:2; in the final, they defeated Quito Sports 3:0, and won this unimportant championship.

Ronaldo finally found a little form, becoming the top scorer of the tournament with 4 goals, and Ricardo became the most valuable player with 2 goals and 5 assists.

Back in Madrid, in the last game before Christmas, Real Madrid also continued their good form, beating Valencia 2-0, Ricardo and Ramos each scored a goal.

半程结束，皇家马德里9胜3平4负积30分，排名第四；而巴塞罗那则是13胜2平1负，积41分。两队的积分差距达到了11分之多。

Everyone except those who believe in miracles knows that Real Madrid have lost their chances of winning this season's La Liga despite only being halfway through the season.

The hopes of a league three-peat have been dashed.

In the Copa del Rey, Real Madrid was also eliminated early.

Although Pellegrini has received a lot of doubts and criticisms, since Real Madrid is still moving forward in the Champions League, and after all, he led the team to win the double last season, after all, he is the hero of the team, so There is no risk of dismissal for the time being.

But if he can't make it to the top 8 of the Champions League this season, and can't get the top 3 in the league to qualify for the Champions League, there is no doubt that he will still be fired.

With the arrival of the winter break, Ricardo, who has won the Ballon d'Or and World Footballer of the Year for the third time with an absolute advantage, traveled around Asia, including China, Japan, and South Korea. Jin, let his somewhat deflated wallet bulge up again.

Then he returned to the Brazilian state of Rio to inject fresh money into Botafogo.

Botafogo performed very well in the second half of the league, and finally won the third place in the league and was able to enter the Copa Libertadores next season.Neymar also made several appearances in the league and performed well, earning him the reputation of "New Ricardo".

He said in an interview: "I grew up watching Ricardo play football. He is my idol. I feel very honored to be compared with my idol."

(End of this chapter)