Jose Mourinho put on a serious, yet brave face. He had just seen his team draw 0-0 in Mallorca against a hastily assembled side which featured five players who were playing reserve football four months ago. It was an inauspicious and unexpected result for Real Madrid, who are already two points behind Barcelona after the first of their 38 Primera Liga games.
Given that Barca lost only one league game last season, the bar has been set so high that such margins matter. The new Real coach was composed by the time he spoke to the media, but that masked his raw reactions during the game as he berated the fourth official and lost his cool in the Mallorcan heat. Florentino Perez, the club president, looked equally flustered up in the best of Son Moix's 23,000 seats.
Mourinho claimed that his team deserved to win. "This team is still under construction and far from reaching its true potential," he said. He praised their attacking spirit, but there is already a problem. Real fans heard the same week after week last season. Manuel Pellegrini, the former coach, was talking about the team coming together. He too, was correct. Title-winning teams do not solidify with a click of the fingers and the signing of a contract. They take time to bed in and gel. The nuances of understanding and instinct between players cannot be coached, but take hours on a training pitch. Even Pep Guardiola lost his first game at Barca against a team who would be relegated.
The problem is that Real do not have time. If they are still under construction in a month, there is every likelihood that Barca will have disappeared into the distance in a two horse race. This is the price you pay when you choose to dismiss your coach every year as Real do. Barca's pre-season has been far from settled, but Guardiola had already built a team, a system. Its luxury engine needed some oil, but it was already running. Real's wasn't.
When the Whites last played in Mallorca in May, they scored four goals including a Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick. The Portuguese winger was full of his usual zest and determination on Sunday, but he failed to find the net as Mallorca's two centre-backs defended as though their lives depended on it. He also picked up an injury, which is not ideal. It is very early in the season, but Real appear to have a surfeit of No 10s, but no No 9 to put the ball in the net.
After the ?40 million (Dh187m) acquisition of David Villa, Barca have no such problems. Villa is likely to play more on the left with Lionel Messi as their central striker. The prospect is tantalising and it took less than three minutes for a sublime Messi chip to give them the lead at Racing Santander. Villa later scored the first of what is expected to be many goals this season when he powered a header from a standing position following a Dani Alves cross. The Catalans won 3-0 and are looking good to remain unbeaten all season in the league. They also appeared to have concluded their transfer business, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic being loaned to Milan and Javier Mascherano purchased from Liverpool.
It is doubtful that the Swede will ever play for Barca again, as he departed with his Italian agent launching verbal bombs in the direction of Guardiola. When Ibrahimovic claimed that he had not spoken to his boss in six months, it illustrated the breakdown in communication between the pair. Despite an impressive record, Ibrahimovic will go down as the costliest mistake in Barca's history. So vast are their talents, Barca have margins for such errors. Not so Real.
sports@thenational.ae
