Real Madrid 1–4 Alcorcón: The Five Stages of Grief Through the Players’ and the Supporters’ Eyes

Denial

Although Real Madrid needed five goals to over­turn their Round of 32 tie with Alcor­cón, a cer­tain sense of denial was impor­tant in this par­tic­u­lar sit­u­a­tion so that they could believe that their task was not impos­si­ble.  Kaká stated, “For the pride and for the his­tory of Real Madrid, we have to win this tie.”  Marcelo and Jerzy Dudek fol­lowed in this same vein, declar­ing, “… for our badge and our shirt, we will not fail.”

Through all these hope­ful and defi­ant player state­ments about their sec­ond leg against Alcor­cón, Eze­quiel Garay showed their true depth of denial when he pro­claimed that the Bern­abéu will be the 12th man on Tues­day night.  Appar­ently, Garay relied upon a his­tor­i­cally impa­tient set of sup­port­ers, whose lofty stan­dards often lead more to boos and jeers than blind loyalty.

Anger

After the open­ing stanza of the game, where Real Madrid came out with guns blaz­ing, real­ity began to set­tle in as their exer­tions led to zero goals on the score­board.  Real Madrid knew that Alcor­cón would put ten men behind the ball, and Alcor­cón knew they had to defend for their lives as Real sent out three strik­ers, Raúl, Ruud van Nis­tel­rooy, and Gon­zalo Higuaín, as well as Kaká from behind to break the Alcor­cón dam.  Alcor­cón man­ager Juan Anto­nio Anquela admit­ted as much, say­ing, “If they want to crush us, they will crush us.  If Madrid is at its very best then it will be dif­fi­cult to move on.  They are the clear favorites.  We hope we can win, but not in this leg.”

The Real Madrid play­ers began to get frus­trated, as Alcor­cón can­celed most of their attack­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, and the demand­ing Madridis­tas were not shy in their dis­ap­proval.  There was no dis­putable red card to dis­tract the sup­port­ers in the San­ti­ago Bern­abéu as there was in their La Liga clash with Getafe on Sat­ur­day.  The full venom of their anger went directly to the play­ers, exco­ri­at­ing their every move as the min­utes ticked toward their inevitable fate.  Whether the fans’ fury fix­ated on the play­ers, man­age­ment, own­er­ship, or both, the ram­pant con­dem­na­tion within the sta­dium was more than pal­pa­ble, espe­cially when Manuel Pel­le­grini sub­sti­tuted man of the match at the time Las­sana Diarra in the sec­ond half.

Bar­gain­ing

As Real Madrid got closer and closer to break­ing the stale­mate, many believed that the first goal would open the flood­gates.  If only Real could score early in the sec­ond half, Alcor­cón would feel the pres­sure for the first time.  Many prayers by the Madridis­tas were sent to higher pow­ers, ask­ing for a minor mir­a­cle.  They will reform their lifestyles.  They will give up their vices.  They will change.  One goal is all they need to spur them on to a his­toric come­back.  Grant us this one wish.

As Real hit one, then two, then three posts/crossbars, the play­ers and the fans ceased to bar­gain.  Rafael van der Vaart’s 81st minute goal only helped in ush­er­ing a sense of hope­less­ness.  There was no way Real could score three more times in nine min­utes plus stop­page time.  The depres­sion set in as Real Madrid won the sec­ond leg 1–0 but lost the tie 1–4 on aggregate.

Depres­sion

After the match, Pepe remarked to Span­ish sports daily, AS, “It’s a very sad night.  The atti­tude and spirit have been pos­i­tive, but the win could not be.  The effort was there.”  Flo­rentino Pérez, the proac­tive and ambi­tious pres­i­dent of Real Madrid, was muted in his assess­ment of the state of affairs, artic­u­lat­ing, “It wouldn’t be a fail­ure if we didn’t win a tro­phy.  We are in the mid­dle of build­ing a new project.  We’ll give it stability.”

For the play­ers, depres­sion after a loss is only short-lived because their next objec­tives come at a rapid pace, and they do not have to mull over a loss like this.  Unfor­tu­nately, for Real Madrid, there is an inter­na­tional break this com­ing week­end, which means they will not start aveng­ing this loss until Novem­ber 22, when they host Rac­ing San­tander at the Bernabéu.

Accep­tance

As one would expect with pro­fes­sional foot­ballers and man­agers, they should have the proper per­spec­tive after all the loss and heart­break they have suf­fered in their careers.  “The play­ers are with me, but it’s not easy over­turn­ing a four goal deficit because were play­ing against the score line, against the oppo­nent, and against anx­i­ety.  But we are a point behind Barcelona in La Liga and lead­ing our group in the Cham­pi­ons League.  This will end well,” declared the lev­el­headed Real Madrid man­ager Manuel Pel­le­grini, accord­ing to AS.

“The fault lies with all of the play­ers, who are the ones who play the game. We had a very bad first leg. We lost 4–0, a very heavy los­ing mar­gin. We have not lived up to what is required at Real Madrid. They worked hard to get through and they deserved it,” Raúl Albiol said to Marca.

Whether Pel­le­grini and Albiol truly meant these words or if they were hol­low state­ments is irrel­e­vant.  They have to assure both the Madrid media and the Real sup­port­ers that their Round of 32 col­lapse to Alcor­cón was merely a blip on the radar and that they would grow stronger from these expe­ri­ences.  Alcor­cón jus­ti­fied their two-legged vic­tory as more than a fluke.  Real Madrid does have big­ger fish to fry.  As Pel­le­grini men­tioned, they are sec­ond in La Liga by one point and tied with AC Milan at the top of Group C in the Cham­pi­ons League.  Real has not won the Copa del Rey since 1993, so while the man­ner of their exit was sur­pris­ing, the exit itself was not.  Under­stand­ably, all is doom and gloom in the Real uni­verse, but if Real Madrid wins either of the two com­pe­ti­tions in which they are still entered, this Copa del Rey embar­rass­ment will merely be a foot­note in their history.

Tagged as: Alcorcon, AS, Champions League, Copa del Rey, ezequiel garay, FC Barcelona, florentino perez, Gonzalo Higuain, Kaka, La Liga, lassana diarra, Manuel Pellegrini, Marca, Marcelo, pepe, Raúl, raul albiol, real madrid, ruud van nistelrooy, Santiago Bernabeu