SB Nation - Sergio Ramos

Real Madrid Announces Roster To Face Celtic In Philadelphia

Matt Verderame — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 23:02:07 -0000

In a highly anticipated matchup between two of the most renowned soccer clubs in the world, Real Madrid and Celtic are scheduled to play in Philadelphia on August 11 in Lincoln Financial Field.

On Saturday, Real Madrid let their star-studded roster be known.

Goalkeepers: Iker Casillas, Antonio Adan, Jesus Fernandez Collado

Defenders: Raul Albiol, Alvaro Arbeola, Fabio Coantrao, Jose Nacho Fernandez, Pepe, Sergio Ramos, Raphael Varane

Midfielders: Xabi Alonso, Jose Maria Callejon, Angel Di Maria, Lass Diarra, Alex Fernandez, Esteban Granera, Kaka, Sami Khedira, Mesut Uzil, Jese Rodriguez, Nuri Sahin

Forwards: Karim Benzima, Gonzalo Higuain, Alvaro Morata, Cristiano Ronaldo

Few clubs if any can present the type of firepower that Real Madrid possesses with the likes of Kaka, Pepe, Ramos, and of course Ronaldo among others. With marquee names at every level of the pitch, Celtic will have their collective hands full.

Of course, they're no slouch either and will certainly be ready to meet the formidable challenge.

The match should be a dandy and is luckily only a few short weeks away.

For more on this match, please be sure to check out our Soccer Hub and SB Nation Philly for all the latest news and updates.

Sergio Ramos Saves Us All, Goes Hunting For Asteroids

Ryan Rosenblatt — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 22:34:36 -0000

Imagine 85,454 people watching your every step as you walk from the halfway line to the penalty spot. You know that millions upon million upon millions more are watching you on TV around the world. Then you stop 12 yards from the goal, put a little ball on a spot and aim for the net, only there is a neon green blur of a goalkeeper in your way. Sounds like oodles of fun.

That was Sergio Ramos on Wednesday at the Santiago Bernabeu, only there was also a spot in the Champions League final on the line. What he did then was heroic. Instead of aiming for the goal (and riches and glory and pretty much every other good thing in the world that he could possibly desire) he looking upwards and knocked an asteroid heading for Earth off of its path, saving us all.

Now let us raise our glasses to Sergio Ramos, saver of all things on Earth. Cheers!

VIDEO: Bastian Schweinsteiger Sends Bayern Munich Home For Champions League Final

Ryan Rosenblatt — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 21:38:03 -0000

Bayern Munich will be playing in the Champions League final, which is cool, but it is 100 times cooler because they will be playing it in their home stadium. The Allianz Arena is host to this year's final and thanks to Bastian Schweinsteiger's penalty kick (or Manuel Neuer's two saves, or Sergio Ramos' field goal), the Bavarians will be there to take on Chelsea.

The final is still a month away, but with Bayern set to play at home, the spectacle scale has already been broken.

Consider how silent the Bernabeu was after Schweinsteiger eliminated Real Madrid with that penalty. Allianz Arena is going to be the complete opposite of that on May 19. It will be a sea of red, with a little portion of Chelsea blue that will be vastly out-numbered, but nobody cares about the Blues right now anyways. The team in the final at home gets all of the love because awesomeness always wins.

VIDEO: Maarten Stekelenburg Drops Eredivisie Cup From Moving Bus

Graham MacAree — Sun, 15 May 2011 22:30:04 -0000

I don't know why there's been such a spate of trophy-dropping-from-busses this year, but it makes me giggle so I'll take it. Ajax goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg was celebrating his club's victory after a hard-fought Eredivisie campaign when he decided to go all Sergio Ramos and drop the cup under a moving bus:

This was a much more impressive affair than the Ramos drop, though. Stekelenburg literally hurled the thing off the top of the bus, sending the cup careening down the street after possibly bouncing off the trailing bus. And he's a goalkeeper to boot.Call me a traditionalist, but this seems like a weird way to celebrate a championship.

VIDEO: Sergio Ramos Drops Copa Del Rey Under Bus

Graham MacAree — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 03:31:26 -0000

You are one of the world's best fullbacks celebrating your first domestic trophy in some time gained in a stirring extra-time victory over your arch-rivals. You are in an open topped bus in a parade around town. What do you do? Well, if you're Real Madrid's Sergio Ramos, you drop the Copa Del Rey and have the bus run over it. Seriously:

Five To Love - January 7, 2011: Chad Ochocino's Lucky, Dutch Soccer's Ironic, Leonardo's Not Rafa, England's FA Gets One Right

Richard Farley — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:15:34 -0000

Envy inducing pictures, strange family tree-fellows, Dutch soccer having a laugh. From the staff at SB Nation Soccer, five items from the world's Soccerverse to love on Friday, January 7, 2011:

1. Chad Ochocinco is now Chad NueveSeis - I've given him an upgrade, though I'm not sure why. Perhaps it's the equal and opposite reaction to my envy, because earlier today the Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver posted a bunch of pictures which implicitly say "star NFL wide receivers get to do things like this: wake-up and roll over to Real Madrid training to say high to Xabi Alonso, Sergio Ramos, Cristiano Ronaldo, and José Mourinho."

After the jump, more Chad Ochocinco envy, the England FA being sensible, the shared Eriksson-Mancini gene pool, Dutch voetbal irony, and Leonardo - Forza Leonardo.

Ronaldo wasn't the only player cornered by this random, rabid Madridista:

Xabi Alonso	José Mourinho	Kaká	Sergio Ramos

It must be nice. One off-season you're doing Dancing With The Stars, the next you're doing legitimately interesting things like flying to Spain to hang out at Madrid's training sessions. Did the NFL provide the spring board? Or was it that dancing show?

Two other things: First, in the face he's turning into Robert De Niro, but José Mourinho's body is starting to mimic his puppet's. That head has gotten far too big for that torso. Why not?

Second, Chad Ochocinco is a normal-sized, perhaps slightly small National Football Leaguer. Kaká and (especially) Cristiano Ronaldo are just as big. Those guys are NFL wide receivers running around the Bernabeu.

Pics courtesy of Ochocinco's Twitpic.

2. Leonardo's Perfect Inter Debut - Yesterday's 3-1 win over formerly second place Napoli not only made "Rafa" archaic jargon around the San Siro but also revitalized the Nerazzurri long-shot title defense. They're still 13 back of first place Milan, though with two matches in hand, five consecutive scudetti on their resumé, and "the best Inter of all time," it's difficult to completely write the holders off.

3. Roberto Mancini and Sven Göran Eriksson: Brothers from other mothers that have probably never met - Manchester City will meet their former coach on Sunday when FA Cup action sees the Citizens visit second division Leicester City. It will also be a reunion for Roberto Mancini and his mentor, the Manchester City boss having played under, learned from Eriksson during the Swede's time at Sampdoria and Lazio. In addition, Mancini had a brief spell with Leicester at the end of his playing career, though that's being overshadowed by Mancho's first coaching battle with his ~~mentor~~ ... brother?

Via FIFA:

"He stayed there for one year," laughed Mancini. "That is enough, no? He left a seat for me. Sunday will be the first time one of my teams has played against one of Sven's. It will be very interesting because he is like my brother. I have known him for around 15 years. He is a fantastic coach and a fantastic man."

I wonder how Sven feels about this. You have this kid who you nurtured, helped develop as a manager, and before your first on-field meeting, he's forgone all appropriate reverence and is meeting you eye-to-eye? Well!

4. Bert van Marwijk's "fair play" helps win Dutch coach an apparently entirely earnest award - No, seriously. The man who led his team to a record level of clearly premeditated infractions in this summer's World Cup final has won the Machiavelli award for instilling a footballing approach that "propagates the values of sport as fair play." I sincerely hope that I'm not overlooking some level of irony - that Voetbal International isn't having a The Onion moment. This is too good to make up.

5. Noteworthy: The English FA gets one right - Pablo Zabaleta's not going to be punished for being impaled by Bacary Sagna's goldilocks:

Zabaleta was red carded for absorbing this on Wednesday. The English FA has rescinded the red card, canceling what would have been a three match ban. Sagna's stands, though it would be nice to see the Arsenal fullback get an extra game for his lack of innovation.

Are there stories from the soccer world that are captivating you? Share, laugh, rant, vent. Flood the comments and give us a reason to put your contribution in the next Five to Love.

Real Madrid Forcing Yellow Cards: Fair Play Or Foul Play?

Steve Abrams — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 23:41:46 -0000

Wherever Jose Mourinho goes, controversy is never far behind. The man is pure box office. You would have thought that after a glorious 0-4 victory in the Amsterdam Arena against one of Europes sleeping giants that Jose would be allowed to bask in glory for a day or two before the Clasico preparations kick in. Well you'd be wrong. Instead the special one finds himself in the middle of a debate about whether or not it is fair for a team to force yellow cards. During tonights encounter, Mourinho sent reserve keeper Jerzy Dudek scuttling along to Iker Casillas to pass on a message. Casillas then whispered sweet nothings into the ears of Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso. In the last five minutes of the match both players recieved second yellow cards for time wasting. Yes, time wasting when 0-4 up. No prizes for guessing what went down. Both players forced the ref to send them off. Fair play or foul play?

For there really can be no doubt about both players intentions. At that stage of the match and with that scoreline, both players were acting under instruction. An instruction to force yellow cards, thus ruling themselves out of the final (meaningless) group match against Auxerre, ready to start the knockout stages with a clean disciplinary record. I guess the one big question in all of this is the following. Was what Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso did against the rules? The answer is a big fat no. At least not yet. Even if they did bring in a rule to prohibit inducing yellow cards on purpose, how on earth could the referees possibly be expected to enforce the rule? Impossible.

What Jose Mourinho did was well and truly within the rules of the game, even if a tadge unsporting. People will get all hot under the collar, claiming it undermines the whole competition. Yet who wouldn't want their team to do the same if it meant guaranteeing the presence of two of their most important players in the all-important knock-out stages? Personally, I think it is just another example of the extraordinary attention to detail that Mourinho pays to his match preparation. That difference between very good and great managers. Jose Mourinho doesn't miss a beat. It won't win him or Real Madrid any friends, but this isn't about winning friends. It's about winning a record breaking tenth Champions League crown.

Poll

Were Real Madrid right to force the yellow cards?

Yes. If it's not against the rules, why not?

323 votes

No. It's a blatant show of disrespect to the competition.

100 votes

423 votes | Poll has closed