advantage to maximize the performance of these best players as well as to help generate more money to pay the salaries.
The game ends Real Madrid 4–1 Atlético Madrid. It’s Real Madrid’s tenth Champions League trophy, their first since 2002, and they couldn’t have won it in a more dramatic fashion, coming from behind to tie the score in the ninety-third minute and forcing the game into extra time (for more details, see “Play-by-Play of La Décima” sidebar on page xxvii). To add to Real Madrid lore, the team won the game utilizing one of its core values: never giving up, which means competing until the final whistle. Real Madrid was 150 seconds away from defeat, yet they never gave up hope and played as hard as they could until the very end. Putting aside the rivalry or La Décima, what makes the evening so special to Real Madrid’s management is that the players lived up to the community’s expectations.
On Sunday morning, the team arrived at Madrid’s Plaza de Cibeles with the trophy. There were still tens of thousands of Real Madrid fans in the square after celebrating throughout the night. “Thank you for waiting,” Captain Casillas told the supporters and then added the obvious, “It’s time to think about the Eleventh (La Undécima).”10 Vice-Captain Sergio Ramos, with the second-most seniority on the team, spoke into the microphone: “This is dedicated to Pitina, who helps us from above.11 Hala Madrid!” “Hala Madrid” is difficult to translate exactly. It means something like “Go, Madrid, Go!” or “Forward, Madrid!”
Real Madrid define themselves by results, and in particular by their performance in the Champions League. Anyone who plays for or manages Real Madrid is left in no doubt about the top priority every season.12 The pride of the community at the team’s record number of wins is matched only by their passion for doing it in their own unique way. In Lisbon, the team’s players felt the full weight of the community’s expectations, which went beyond simply winning. There is an intense sense of responsibility and pride that comes with representing what the community is and the values they stand for. Real Madrid’s secret to dominance on and off the field is the passion and values of their community members.
Exactly 19:45. It is time for business. The atmosphere is electric. Real Madrid gets the ball first and kicks it from left to right. Atlético is defending deep, as expected. In the ninth minute, Diego Costa, Atlético’s leading goal scorer, jogs off the field, injured. Since he isn’t carried off, the announcers speculate that he hadn’t torn his hamstring again, like he did in the semifinals against Barcelona, but clearly he knows he can’t carry on. The announcers speculate whether Costa will be sidelined by injury, and, if he is, the gamble that playing him could cost his team one of only three valuable substitutions allowed very early in the game.
Real Madrid continues to control the ball, but Atlético is so well organized on defense that Real Madrid can’t develop any serious threats. As excellent as Atlético has been defensively, however, it has been ineffective going forward. At thirty-two minutes into the game, Real Madrid gets their best chance to score when Bale takes advantage of an Atlético midfielder’s careless pass. Space opens up, and thirty yards out the Welshman uses his world-class speed to sprint toward the goal. Bale fights off a sliding tackle (had Bale gone down, he might have drawn a penalty) and perhaps is somehow distracted enough that he then pokes the ball just wide of the post from twelve yards. Bale throws both hands over his face. The magnitude of his regret over the missed opportunity highlights how rare scoring opportunities are in soccer and how precious the ability to finish and score is.
Only four minutes later, Atlético responds. An Atlético corner is headed away by Real Madrid, then an Atlético player heads the ball back into the penalty area. There seems to be little threat, but Real Madrid goalkeeper Casillas sprints off his goal line into no man’s land. Atlético’s center back rises above a Real Madrid defenseman near the penalty spot to head the ball over the out-of-position goalkeeper who is too far off his line. Casillas is already desperately retreating, realizing that he misjudged his ability to reach the ball. He manages to get a hand on the ball heading toward the empty net, trying to claw it back, but to no avail. The ball crosses the line. GOAL! The goal scorer is tackled by his teammates on his celebratory run and ends up under a mass of Atlético players. Even though Real Madrid had seemed to be in control for most of the first half, they are losing. To make things worse, all Atlético has to do now is sit back, clog things up, eliminate space between players, and defend—which is what they are most comfortable doing.
As halftime approaches, Real Madrid players seem increasingly frustrated by Atlético’s defensive approach, which is tactically designed to break up Real Madrid’s typical beautifully fluid attacking play. Real Madrid looks like they need a break to regroup.
Halftime: Real Madrid 0–1 Atlético Madrid. During the fifteen-minute break, an announcer on one broadcast makes the point that Ronaldo and Benzema barely touched the ball near the Atlético goal area during the first half. Bale only had one real opportunity, which he missed.
When the second half begins, there is a desperate air to Real Madrid’s attacks. Atlético has moved more players to defense, which continues to frustrate Real Madrid, but Real Madrid is advancing the ball deeper and getting a few more opportunities to score. A Ronaldo free kick is deflected by the Atlético goalkeeper and off the bar at fifty-four minutes. A Ronaldo header glances wide at sixty-two minutes. And after an exhilarating sprint, Bale’s shot tamely goes into the side netting at seventy-eight minutes.
After eighty minutes, Atlético players seem like they are on their last legs, tired of chasing after and closing down on Real Madrid’s players and passes. Atlético uses their third, and last, substitution at eighty-three minutes. It seems Atlético can’t clear the ball out of their own third, never mind their own half. The pressure seems to be escalating to an explosion.
At eighty-nine minutes into the game, the Atlético coach implores the fans to cheer his team to the finish. At the ninety-minute mark, the referee decides to add five minutes of stoppage time. Three minutes into stoppage time, a Real Madrid corner kick by Croatian midfielder Luka Modric from the right swings toward the penalty spot. Sergio Ramos gets clear of everyone and powers a masterful header into the far corner of the net. GOAL! English TV commentator Ray Hudson, known for his descriptive color commentary, screams, “. . . magisteeerial . . . the corner kick sails in . . . and Ramos leaps . . . like a fresh salmon from a summer stream . . . it’s an exquisite header . . . with power and accuracy measured down to a pixel!”
The moment the ball swishes the back of the net, a man in a conservative blue suit leaps in front of King Juan Carlos of Spain in the center of the stadium’s VIP suite. The typically levelheaded and controlled Florentino Pérez, president of Real Madrid, raises his arms in celebration. Realizing that his passion is getting the best of him, he quickly pulls his arms down, wipes his glasses, straightens his suit jacket, and sits back down. He is trying to be sensitive and respectful to the president of Atlético Madrid, who is sitting near him.
A TV announcer screams, “We are heading for extra time!”
During the break before extra time, which is divided into two fifteen-minute halves, Atlético’s exhausted and disheartened players stretch out on blue mats laid out on the field, while Real Madrid players gather in a huddle to motivate themselves.
The first fifteen minutes of extra time is sloppy. When the second half of extra time begins, it’s still Real Madrid 1–1 Atlético Madrid. Atlético’s players’ minds now seem as tired as their bodies, and they start making mental errors.
GOAL! Gareth Bale had missed a few opportunities, but in the 111th minute he scores. Real Madrid’s Ángel Di María uses fancy footwork to surge down the left side between two or three weary Atlético players and flicks the ball toward the goal with his outside foot. The Atlético goalkeeper makes an incredible save with his left foot, but the ball still deflects toward the far post. Bale reads the trajectory and spin of the ball and maneuvers his body to head the ball at an acute angle from very close range