models for a day

Remember how during the last concentración, several of the boys did a photoshoot with Pedro del Hierro, the firm that is responsible for dressing the national team?  Well here we have some of the (colorful) results, courtesy of XL Semanal!  Plus the boys talk about their own styles…

Sergio Ramos at El Partido de las 12

Sergio Ramos was the special guest at COPE’s “El Partido de las 12″ program on Tuesday night.  He spoke with them for one hour on a variety of topics.

on reaching 100 games: perhaps the first thing that comes to mind is how fast it all went, so you don’t have time to stop and think about it.  I’m tremendously proud of it, because previously, Carles Puyol, a great footballer, reached it at the age of 34, if I’m not mistaken, and I’m lucky to be able to reach it 26, during a very good stage in my life.  If God wants and I take care of myself, the number will go up.  I have to thank Luis Aragonés for taking a chance with me, considering that I had a very great competitor, Míchel Salgado, in front of me.  I didn’t have a lot of experience in the World Cup, in the Champions League, since it was my first year in Real Madrid, and using a 19-year-old kid in World Cup qualifiers is not something all coaches would do.

back together again!

The concentración for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Finland and France began on Tuesday morning.  Surprisingly, as the players began arriving, there were no major fashion failures (emphasis on the word “major” since some of the players, in the simple act of choosing their own clothes, commit fashion crimes).

ready for some La Roja?

A random assortment of recent and not so recent La Roja-related things – consider this post a warm-up for the international week!

Pepe Reina stars in a short film, “Invictus – El Correo del César,” which premiered at the Teatro Compac Gran Vía in Madrid on Monday.  The film is part of insurance company Plus Ultra’s (formerly Groupama) promotional campaign, as Pepe is their spokesperson (he took over from Iker Casillas – remember the famous “me siento seguroooo…”?).

Pepe stars as one of the Roman empire’s messengers.  He is tasked with bringing a message to Rome but of course runs into some trouble along the way.

The director of the short film, Javier Fesser, said of Pepe, “he acts better than some of those who have actor’s cards.”

más secretos – champions of the world IV

I thought it would be nice ahead of tonight’s clásico (and all the craziness that can arise from these games) to take a look back at how Real Madrid and Barcelona players (and other teams’ players) worked together to achieve the greatest triumph in Spanish football history.  So, here is the chapter from Más secretos about the 2010 World Cup final.

By the way, are Luca Villa and Luca Reina destined to be best friends, or are they destined to be best friends?

más secretos – champions of the world II

And we continue with the chapter “Champions of the World” in Más secretos de la Roja!  In this excerpt, we find out what went on before and after the games against Switzerland, Honduras and Chile.

Switzerland (June 16, Moses Mabhida, Durban).

Spain and Switzerland were the last teams to play out of the 32.  Spain used the same formula for the game.  It had the ball and frequently got close to the rival goal.  Arbeloa said, “I remember that 15 minutes into the game, I told Albiol that if we continued like this, no one could beat us.  We were playing so well…”  But the minutes passed and the goal didn’t come.  In the 51st minute, Switzerland scored a goal.  Casillas said, “the game could be summed up in that play.  It was a real misfortune.”  To make matters worse, Piqué suffered a cut above his eye and needed two stitches.  Iniesta lost feeling in the back of his right thigh after receiving a blow and had to be taken out: “I was quite scared.  I thought I had suffered something more serious than what I really had.”

¡campeones 2012! – the celebration in Madrid (II)

Continuing with the celebration in Madrid…

The goddess was wearing her best Spain finery for this occasion.  I wonder if Xabi was already too drunk at this point to remember how drunk he had been the last time he was here, and how amusing that was for all of us?

¡campeones 2012! – the celebration in Madrid (I)

Here is how the rest of the day of celebration in Madrid went: the plane ride from Kiev to Madrid, meeting with the king (no one told the elephant joke) and the slow descent into mass drunkenness, starting on the open air bus.