In what is easily one of the the biggest upsets in Spanish soccer, if not European or world soccer, Real Madrid were beaten today in the 4th round of the Copa del Rey by 3rd division Real Unión. Over two legs, the small Basque club won the tie 6-6 on away goals, the first time los Merengues have lost out to a 3rd division club. Just to put this into perspective, this was the Real Madrid line-up:
Jerzy Dudek; Míchel Salgado, Fabio Cannavaro (Javi García, 46min), Christoph Metzelder, Marcelo; Fernando Gago, Wesley Sneijder, Rafael Van der Vaart; Royston Drenthe (Alberto Bueno, 60min), Javier Saviola (Gonzalo Higuaín, 80min) and RaúlThe Basque party crashers aren't strangers to success in Spain's cup competition, heck, beating the Madrid giants is nothing new to them either. Real Unión won the Copa del Rey in 1918, 1924, and 1927, beating Real Madrid in the '18 and '24 finals.
The best part of the night: out of the 16 4th round ties played this week in the Copa del Rey, the Madrid-Unión tie was the only one played tonight, the rest to be played tomorrow night. Not only was the whole country watching, the long knives are now out for Bernd Schuster. The rumors out of the Real Madrid boardroom is that if they don't beat Valladolid convincingly this weekend in la Liga, the German boss will be shown the door.
El Madrid y sus miserias caen arrojadas al vacío (in Spanish) [Marca]
-ac
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1 comment:
I like your writing.
Would you be interested in contributing a bi-weekly column for a fast-growing sports site?
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