And now onto the game.  It needs no introduction, but I just have to say, it reminded me of the World Cup final, because that was the last big final I saw, it also went into overtime with one goal scored during that period, and the night ended with Iker kissing someone (unfortunately not me).

FIFTEEN.  The goal from Cristiano Ronaldo that brought the Copa del Rey back to Madrid – from four different angles!

As Cris said the other day, the one who laughs last laughs best.

SIXTEEN.  Cristiano celebrated the goal by running to the sideline, and then falling to his knees and sliding, while the rest of his teammates ran to him to mob him (Sergio was really excited, no?).  An upset Barcelona fan, realizing that the Cup wasn’t going home with them that night, decided to throw some object at Cris.  Luckily, the fan had as much luck at hitting the target as David Villa has of late, so it wasn’t an incident.  But seriously, that type of action should not happen, along with those lasers pointed at the faces of players (Messi in this game), and what Pepe did in the direction of Barcelona’s fans during this celebration.  In fact, Álvaro Arbeloa scolded him for doing that right then and there, which I love.  After the game, Pepe immediately apologized, saying in the mixed zone, “I ask for forgiveness for what I did after the goal.  It was due to euphoria, but it wasn’t the right thing for me to do.  I really do ask for forgiveness.”  It’s nice to see our players can admit when they do something wrong and apologize for it.

SEVENTEEN.  Madrid wore special shirts for the game, with a patch of the Cup on the sleeve and words commemorating the event, teams, date and venue under the escudo on their chest.  And it looks like Iker switched back to his normal captain’s armband in the second half.  He also turned his socks inside out after the half.

EIGHTEEN.  I love, love, LOVE that Álvaro and Sergio knew that David was just pretending that he was dying, and so they decided to just pull him up so the game could continue.  And Sergio shoving both David and Leo?  Nice.  The incident ended with the captains having a little discussion and Xabi chewing off the referee’s ear.

NINETEEN.  Scenes from the south end of the Mestalla, where Madrid’s fans were congregated.  Most of them heeded Iker’s words and showed up in white, with the lovely accessory of the Spanish flag.  As they do at the Bernabéu, some fans chanted “illa illa illa, Juanito maravilla” during the seventh minute.  Cristiano’s attacks were rewarded with the singing of the familiar “A por ellos, oé” and José Mourinho was honored with “José Mourinho, José Mourinho, la la la…”

TWENTY.  Even saints sweat.  And another espaldinha from Cristiano.  Too bad Pepe couldn’t finish the play.

TWENTY ONE.  Xabi and his posing are contagious, because less than thirty seconds after he did this, Iker did that.

TWENTY TWO.  More teammates doing the same thing… I am grateful for this thinking alike.

TWENTY THREE.  Piqué was running his mouth off the entire night, but no one wanted to hear.  First, Xabi brushes him off as if he were an annoying fly in his ear.  Then Sergio, Álvaro, Pepe and Xabi once again shove Piqué aside in succession.  As Shakira sang, “Don’t Bother.”

TWENTY FOUR.  No one probably wants to be David Villa at the moment, with his 11-game dry spell, except for maybe this moment.

TWENTY FIVE.  I always love seeing the bench’s reactions to almost-goals and goals.  In Wednesday’s game, Kaká and Mesut were the ones in disbelief, while Eze just threw himself on the ground out of disappointment.

TWENTY SIX.  Speaking of the reserves, did you notice the rest of the players sitting behind the bench?  They were hard to miss, because they were all wearing bright white jackets.  During one of the moments when the camera panned to Mou, you could see El Chori and Antonio Adán joking around, Sergio Canales getting distracted and Peter Lion lost in thought.  And our players are so professional – here we have Fernando Gago and Juanfran – that even when Mou is getting crazy, they don’t even bat an eye.

TWENTY SEVEN.  One of the few contributions David Villa made to the game: making Álvaro’s shorts ride up.  ¡Gracias David!  And some of his teammates contributed to the game by giving some Oscar-worthy acting lessons!  (Our guys aren’t too bad at that either at times.)

TWENTY EIGHT.  The man of a million gestures and expressions.  I don’t know how Aitor can stay so stoic.  The one in the right is my favorite, and my favorite “mou-ment” during the game was when he yelled at Cristiano for complaining instead of going back to defend.

And once again, Mou ended the game with only 10 players.

TWENTY NINE.  Iker showed off his perfect profile in the tunnel while waiting for the second half to begin…

… and made some wonderful saves during the game.  Thank goodness he’s not one centimeter shorter, no?

THIRTY.  Go ahead, make up some questions that you want Sergio to reply “sí” to.

Our kits really are quite transparent, aren’t they?

THIRTY ONE.  More examples of how this team is a piña: Karanka, Jerzy Dudek and El Pirata waited at the entrance to the tunnel to high five their teammates as the half ended.

And Cristiano high-fived everyone passing by him as the team returned to the field for the start of the second half.  Meanwhile, Marcelo made sure he still had his little baby face.

THIRTY TWO.  One of my favorite images from the game: the huddle between the end of regulation and the beginning of overtime.  It’s quite unusual to see Madrid like this, which makes it all the more special.  Everyone was there – the players, the subs, the ones not called up for the game, the coaching team, the medical staff, other staff members… all forming a huddle that showed how united this team is.

One of the physios was applying treatment to the thigh of a certain player (a thigh we are very familiar with), and it looked like fun, no?  And an equipment manager got to help Iker change out of his shirts.  Why couldn’t Iker turn around???

In the very center of the huddle was Mou and his lieutenant.  Barcelona did the same thing as Madrid, leading to this image.

THIRTY THREE.  We also saw Pedro León giving Cris some advice before the overtime began.

THIRTY FOUR.  Some great steals.  The one on the right is of course the one that led to The Goal.

THIRTY FIVE.  The Xabi Alonso pose section.™

Xabi rose to the occasion, bringing out his favorite poses and adding some new ones to his repertoire.