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Generally, the pre-season hardly indicates how the season will shape up as for each team, but not this year. The contrasting Pre-seasons of Real Madrid and Barcelona might just set the tone for the season.
A detailed look into each team’s campaign in the states may let us in..
BARCELONA:
Finally??
Trending
The Catalans have had a disturbing transfer campaign with only one acquisition of Chilean Attacker Alexis Sanchez. Off to America, they had their lone signing and star man Messi away from the squad, thanks to Copa America. Adding to it, Xavi and Puyol remained sidelined. This did provide an opportunity to Manager Pep Gaurdiola to try out different combos and give the young blood a chance to shine. But distracted by the Cesc saga, he seemed to have failed to make full use of the games. His tactics seemed not so Pep-like and no wonder they lost twice and drew twice.
Other than Thiago Alcantra, no youngster impressed nor the experienced men could warm up. The stats summed it up.
The only positive.
PLAYED: 6
WON: 2
GOALS SCORED: 8
GOALS CONCEDED: 8
REAL MADRID:
The youngie who's making news.. Callejon.
On the other hand, the blancos signed up Nuri Sahin, Altintop, Coentrao, Callejon and Varane even before setting out on their campaign to the States. Not only did they let the fringe men hone their skills but also gave quality time to the latter 3 of their signings, each of whom showed great skills and gelled perfectly with the team.Master Tactician Jose Mourinho has already prepared up with different permutations and combinations and add to it, Benzema has struck 8 goals with Ronaldo and Kaka turning up as well.
Are these youngsters the REAL deal??
The castilla wasn’t left out with Joselu, Jese and Nacho getting impressive minutes under them. Ending up as the 2011 CLUB WORLD CHALLENGE CHAMPIONS. The stats read:
Has their time arrived?
PLAYED: 7
WON: 7
GOALS SCORED: 27
GOALS CONCEDED: 5
Though the stats don’t show that Barcelona faced Chivas, United, Munich, etc. and that Madrid played only Leicester, LA Galaxy, Chivas, Gangzhou, etc. Its a clear indicator of motivations in each camps.
Too early to judge perhaps, but come August 14 and 17, the super cup, the views should be much clear as to who is going to dominate Spain this season.
