A real man of his word, Michael Owen. During the dry weeks of September, the stop-start appearances of early October, he kept saying that once his first Real Madrid goal went in, more would quickly follow. Number one arrived last Tuesday in the Champions League against Dynamo Kiev, and it took fewer than seven minutes of last night’s visit by Valencia to the capital to produce number two. Bet on a third, a fourth and a fifth before too long.
Madrid won both matches 1-0, so he’ll be popular, too. For colleagues, already taken by his sharpness playing off the shoulder of defenders — “the best I’ve seen at doing that,” says Ivan Helguera — last night’s winner was more vintage, more classic Owen than the Kiev strike. Fed by Raúl’s fine through ball, he found the Valencia defence caught in a rigid line, and from there nobody was going to overtake him.
Owen waited for Santiago Canizares to advance, entered the penalty box and then lobbed the Valencia goalkeeper with his right foot. From the ultras behind the goal to the VIPS in the palcos, the Bernabeu erupted. This was by far the most emphatic start their disjointed team had made to any match this season, and against the Spanish champions, too.
If Owen has kick-started his Madrid career, the sense among madridistas is that he may have guided the team out of their rut, too. They had not won successive matches since the first two weekends of the league season and have lost a manager, José Antonio Camacho, in the meantime. Once Camacho left, 48 hours after giving Owen his first start, the Englishman was back on the substitutes’ bench again. For all his minutes on the pitch, this was only Owen’s fourth outing in the first team.
His new coach, Mariano Garcia Remon, has at last made space for him by sacrificing a sturdier midfield. So far it is working. And an intriguing question started to pose itself as madrilenos headed off for a long Saturday night: can David Beckham, recovering from his rib injury, walk straight back into this galvanised Madrid team, if galvanised is what they are? Certainly, there are stiffer tests to come, most notably against league leaders Barcelona in four weeks. Valencia did not look like champions and had arrived demoralised after a first league defeat last Sunday and a 5-1 walloping from Internazionale in Europe. Claudio Ranieri’s side were without their electric winger Vicente and their finest defender, Roberto Ayala. They seemed inhibited, their midfield bruisers losing out in challenges to the more delicate Guti and even to Zinedine Zidane.
Thus Madrid, missing only Beckham and the yet-to-appear Jonathan Woodgate, had all the possession and looked to Owen to reap the dividends. A Figo through ball bounced off the Englishman’s shin when he had again crept between defenders; a searching pass from Guti just asked too much of Owen.
That is how he likes it, although he has been quick to argue against a perception among Spaniards that he comes to passing, possession-football Madrid from a background at counter-attacking Liverpool. “Just because a team have played in that way, it doesn’t mean it’s the only way that I can play,” Owen explained. “I’ve played nearly 70 matches for England and they don’t play on the counter-attack. If you’re a good player you can adapt to any side. People talked too much about Liverpool as a counter-attacking team, comparing them with Manchester United and Arsenal, who actually do it better than anybody with players as quick as Thierry Henry. When you play at Anfield you can’t just sit back. The fans expect you to get forward and be in the opposition half.”
Madrid spent most of their time in Valencia’s half for the first 45 minutes, but one-nil it stubbornly remained. It was not for want of Madrid penetration. Helguera had prodded a shot, via Canizares, off the outside of the post and Ronaldo and Raúl, making useful runs down the left, had shot across the goal. The scant resistance they encountered would have surprised them.
Valencia have not won two of the last three Ligas by being softies, but their tackles here were late or limp. David Albelda, the captain, had a particularly poor first 45 minutes. Albelda entered the second period with more bite, fouling Owen as the striker led him a little dance down the left wing. Valencia had become wary of the Englishman, and Owen caused several moments of alarm when he sought space in wide positions. Ranieri, the Tinkerman of old, set about reshaping his strategy during the interval.
He had planned with caution, leaving the creative Argentinian Pablo Aimar out of the starting XI, and packing his midfield with Marco Di Vaio the lone runner up front. Come the break, Aimar would be summoned, with the Italian Stefano Fiore, and Valencia re-emerged with a little more colour. Di Vaio had more chance to run at Madrid’s defence, and from a Fiore corner, Albelda drew a smart save from Casillas.
Real found themselves on the retreat more often, but they had plenty still to give. As attacking a formation as theirs is, with Owen, Ronaldo, Raúl, Zidane and Guti all in the side, it asks its strikers to use their imagination and Ronaldo’s willingness to seek the ball in deeper positions has added to their football in their last three games. The Brazilian worked Zidane into the penalty area and the Frenchman’s pirouette finished with a low drive testing Canizares.
Spain’s best two goalkeepers were sharing a pitch last night and though they were seldom required to do anything spectacular, they matched one another stop for stop as the match took on a more even, end-to-end quality. Canizares worked marginally harder and tipping over a late Figo shot was top-class.
By now, Owen had departed, withdrawn just before the hour, principally for the sake of caution, his replacement the orthodox left-sided midfielder Santiago Solari, who put a good chance wide 15 minutes from time. Owen got a good hand from the crowd, although he and they would be entitled to wonder how long it will be before he completes his first full 90 minutes for his new employers.
But the main statistic next to his name is a far healthier one than it was five days ago. Two goals in two wins have made Owen both a cheerful and a cherished man around the Bernabeu. The sense of belonging will grow when he moves from his hotel suite into a home for his young family at the beginning of next month.
“That’s important for me because it has been hard living in a hotel with my girlfriend and my little daughter for three months,” he said. “Maybe now things are starting to go well off the field, I’ll play better on it. If things go well at home, it reflects on the pitch. My family are happier and happier in Madrid.”
There will, he smiles, be a housewarming party for teammates, though it is unlikely, as one local wag suggested, to be the style of birthday bash Ronaldo famously hosts, which are anticipated hungrily by the paparazzi.
Owen lives his life differently, though this weekend he has plenty to celebrate.
Real Madrid: Casillas, Salgado, Helguera, Samuel, Roberto Carlos, Figo, Guti, Zidane, Owen, Ronaldo, Raul
Valencia: Canizares. Curro Torres, Marchena, Navarro, Carboni, Rufete, Sissoko, Albelda, Baraja, Angulo, Di Vaio
Scorer: Read Madrid: Owen 6
Referee: M Perez Lasa
Attendance: 78,000
