<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[following Real Madrid...]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://unamadridista.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[unamadridista]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://unamadridista.wordpress.com/author/unamadridista/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[in case you missed it – the Iker &amp; I are bored together&nbsp;edition]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>In case you missed it &#8211; Levante vs. Real Madrid [2010-09-25].</p>
<p>This was the first time ever that Madrid had not won at the Ciutat de Valencia, after going 5-0 there in the five seasons that Levante was in the first division, and scoring a total of 10 goals against Levante&#8217;s one.  Oh, by the way, Levante is also the team in the first division with the smallest budget, €17 million, against Real Madrid&#8217;s quite vulgar €450 million.  Before this game, Levante was also the most scored against team in the first division.  And all Madrid could do was eke out a 0-0 draw.  <em>Fantastic.</em></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:#0000ff;">One. </span> </strong>Before the game, the four Madrid players who had won the World Cup with Spain were honored by Levante with commemorative plaques.  Is Levante going to do this each time a World Cup winner visits?  And yes, when the best moment of the game occurs <em>before</em> the game has actually started, it&#8217;s bad.</p>
<p><em><a href="http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25homenaje02.jpg"><img class="alignnone" src="https://i0.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25homenaje02.jpg" alt="" width="299" height="169" /></a><a href="http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25homenaje03.jpg"><img class="alignnone" src="https://i0.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25homenaje03.jpg" alt="" width="299" height="169" /></a><br />
</em></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:#0000ff;">Two. </span> </strong>This sums up the game nicely.  Team doctor &#8211; yes doctor &#8211; Juan Carlos Hernández (not pictured, for obvious reasons) got himself ejected in the 79th minute for &#8211; according to the ref&#8217;s match report &#8211; &#8220;leaving the bench area while protesting a decision (by the ref), and entering the rival bench area to yell at a member of the rival coaching staff.&#8221;  He&#8217;s my new idol.  And good thing none of the players injured themselves in the last 15 minutes then.  Although it wouldn&#8217;t surprise me to find out that Mourinho can act as a doctor as well.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone" src="https://i0.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-2508.jpg" alt="" width="562" height="317" /></p>
<p><!--more--><strong><span style="color:#0000ff;">Three. </span> </strong>Iker was bored.  And so was I.  Except I didn&#8217;t have any socks or gloves to play with.  Iker ended the game with only one intervention.  That&#8217;s good, at least.</p>
<p><a href="http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25iker03.jpg"><img class="alignnone" src="https://i0.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25iker03.jpg" alt="" width="299" height="169" /></a><a href="http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25iker04.jpg"><img class="alignnone" src="https://i2.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25iker04.jpg" alt="" width="299" height="169" /></a></p>
<p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><strong>Four.</strong> </span> The Valencian sky was a nice color shortly after kickoff.  I could have spent my whole time staring at it instead of the play on the field.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone" src="https://i2.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25valencia01.jpg" alt="" width="562" height="317" /></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:#0000ff;">Five. </span> </strong>Here we have Cristiano doing his part to make sure that the team will have the possibility of having more children in the future, in case <span style="text-decoration:line-through;">evil dictator</span> coach Mourinho <em>really</em> decides to make them start training at 10h.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone" src="https://i1.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-2505.jpg" alt="" width="562" height="317" /></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:#0000ff;">Six.</span> </strong>Hey, look!  For once Mesut is not the guy with the biggest eyes on the field!  Yes, the game was <em>so</em> hopeless that even this normal moment was more interesting than the game itself.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone" src="https://i0.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-2506.jpg" alt="" width="562" height="317" /></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:#0000ff;">Seven. </span> </strong>Benzema really loves that water bottle.  He clutched it the entire time.  Or, he&#8217;s just doing his part to protect it from Mourinho.</p>
<p><a href="http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25benzema05.jpg"><img class="alignnone" src="https://i1.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25benzema05.jpg" alt="" width="299" height="169" /></a><a href="http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25benzema06.jpg"><img class="alignnone" src="https://i1.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25benzema06.jpg" alt="" width="299" height="169" /></a></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:#0000ff;">Eight. </span> </strong>A concentrating Cris.  He also debuted new boots.  What do you think of the pink boots?  I like them!</p>
<p><a href="http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25cris21.jpg"><img class="alignnone" src="https://i1.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25cris21.jpg" alt="" width="299" height="169" /></a><a href="http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25cris22.jpg"><img class="alignnone" src="https://i1.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25cris22.jpg" alt="" width="299" height="169" /></a></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:#0000ff;">Nine.</span> </strong>Peter Lion, his thighs and his thick fluffy hair returned to Levante, the team he played for during the 2007-08 season.  He got a nice round of applause when he checked in at the 62-minute mark.  It was nice of Mou to let him play.</p>
<p><a href="http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25pedroleon01.jpg"><img class="alignnone" src="https://i1.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25pedroleon01.jpg" alt="" width="299" height="169" /></a><a href="http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25pedroleon02.jpg"><img class="alignnone" src="https://i1.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25pedroleon02.jpg" alt="" width="299" height="169" /></a></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:#0000ff;">Ten. </span> </strong>The obligatory Sergio Ramos moment.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone" src="https://i0.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25sergio04.jpg" alt="" width="562" height="317" /></p>
<p>What a lovely ass he has.</p>
<p><a href="http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25sergio07.jpg"><img class="alignnone" src="https://i2.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25sergio07.jpg" alt="" width="299" height="169" /></a><a href="http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25sergio08.jpg"><img class="alignnone" src="https://i2.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25sergio08.jpg" alt="" width="299" height="169" /></a></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:#0000ff;">Eleven.</span> </strong>And of course, no &#8216;in case you missed it&#8217; post this season is complete without Xabi&#8217;s posing.</p>
<p><a href="http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25xabi02.jpg"><img class="alignnone" src="https://i0.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25xabi02.jpg" alt="" width="299" height="169" /></a><a href="http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25xabi05.jpg"><img class="alignnone" src="https://i2.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25xabi05.jpg" alt="" width="299" height="169" /></a></p>
<p>And yes Xabi, I <em>will</em> call you after the game!</p>
<p><img class="alignnone" src="https://i2.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25xabi07.jpg" alt="" width="562" height="317" /></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:#0000ff;">Twelve. </span> </strong>The Mou corner.  Mou spent lots of time sitting, and even waited until the half was OVER before heading to the locker room.  That must mean that Madrid wasn&#8217;t playing that bad (it was still boring though).  Iker made a point of saying that Mou didn&#8217;t yell at them after the game.  Rather, he &#8220;encouraged us and ordered us to improve.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25mou07.jpg"><img class="alignnone" src="https://i1.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25mou07.jpg" alt="" width="299" height="169" /></a><a href="http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25mou08.jpg"><img class="alignnone" src="https://i1.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25mou08.jpg" alt="" width="299" height="169" /></a></p>
<p>The fans also had fun with Mou.  One gave him a thumbs up, and a delusional Barcelona fan displayed this sign behind the Madrid bench.  Way to erase your own history there.</p>
<p><a href="http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25mou10.jpg"><img class="alignnone" src="https://i1.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25mou10.jpg" alt="" width="299" height="169" /></a><a href="http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25mou11.jpg"><img class="alignnone" src="https://i1.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-25mou11.jpg" alt="" width="299" height="169" /></a></p>
<p>The Mourinho quote of the day: &#8220;It seemed like a minimum of 10 of them were dead, and then they weren&#8217;t.  Luckily, no one ended up in the hospital.&#8221;  This was said in response to Levante&#8217;s players exaggerating their pain a bit during the game.</p>
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