Soccer Slant

Real Madrid is synonymous with success.

On Sunday night the greatest club of the 20^th century aggrandized its own legend by clinching its 31^st league title. True to form, this Madrid side did it in heroic fashion. Last season Madrid won the title with an amazing run of come-from-behind victories. Bernd Schuster took a page from Fabio Capello’s notebook and repeated the feat at the hostile Reyno de Navarra stadium in Pamplona. They did it with grit and resolve - the team’s two outstanding qualities throughout the season. Despite all the criticism – some of it deserved – Real Madrid is the rightful winner, the most decisive, consistent, and efficient team of the season. Madrid won more games, scored more goals, and conceded less than any other team in the league.

The game itself was a microcosm of what this team is built on, namely the impressive ability to overcome obstacles. After a tense, physical first half that saw Osasuna’s radical supporter’s group, the Indar Orri, throw objects at Iker Casillas; Real Madrid were reduced to ten men after Fabio Cannavaro was given a harsh second yellow card. Unfazed, the team actually lifted their play and managed to pin Osasuna back. When it looked like Osasuna were incapable of generating any play, Gabriel Heinze handled the ball in the box as he went up for a header in the 83^rd minute. The fact that his hand was gashed open by a falling cleat as he came down only added to his catastrophe. Penalty for Osasuna and without any subs left, Madrid approached the difficult task of coming back shorthanded by two.

When the situation looked bleak, a familiar hero emerged from the shadows. Gonzalo Higuaín, a key component of last season’s run, confirmed his place in Real Madrid lore underneath the pouring rain in Pamplona. First, it was his whipped-in cross that found Arjen Robben’s head to tie the game. Then, after chesting down a Sergio Ramos pass, he volleyed the ball passed Ricardo with some vengeance. Higuain, who has been the subject of criticism for his supposed lack of finishing (his average this season is a goal every 106 minutes), seemingly put all his heart and soul in that strike, as if to vindicate himself in front of all his doubters. Watch it below.

The heroism of the last match added spice to what has been an incredibly bland end of the season in La Liga. With Barcelona mired in their own version of the galacticide, Valencia performing a club wide hara-kiri, and Sevilla still recovering from the traumatic death of Antonio Puerta and the sudden departure of Juande Ramos, no one has been able to come close to the team in white’s steady pace. Only Villarreal was able to put an inkling of doubt in the outcome these past few weeks.

This season, different players have played important roles during different parts. Wesley Sneijder at the beginning and then at the end, Ruud Van Nistelrooy in the first half, Robinho with a brilliant middle stint, Higuain in the final run in. But the constant core has remained largely the same: the super-human Iker Casillas between the posts has been his usual remarkable self, the mercurial Guti has finally been handed the reigns of the team and he’s responded by leading the league in assists, and of course the inspirational captain Raúl up front.

No one personifies this Real Madrid side more than the captain, Raúl. After the anomaly that was the Galactico era, Raúl has risen from his own ashes to return the values that have always characterized Real Madrid as a club. The glitz and glamour of the Florentino Perez years is not what the mythical Don Santiago Bernabéu branded into the identity of Real Madrid. Throughout his career Raúl has had the ability to overcome his own limitations to reach heights that few could ever dream of. He’s done this on sheer hard work and mettle. It is the same insatiable thirst for victory that existed in the likes of Di Stefano, Pirri, Camacho, Juanito, Santillana and other ghosts of Madrid’s illustrious past.

But beyond any individual names what this team has an astonishing sense of collective spirit. This group of men has walked into Mestalla, El Madrigal, San Mamés, Vicente Calderón, El Sardinero, and Camp Nou and come away with the three points. To borrow a Spanish expression, this group is rowing in the same direction.

Never before has the famous chant “Así, así, así gana el Madrid!” (“This is how Real Madrid wins”) rung so true. Real Madrid fought bitterly hard, they showed tremendous spirit, and they dominated. Barcelona will now have to hand the champions a humiliating guard of honor in one of the most decaffeinated Clásicos in recent memory. For Real Madrid, this is just the icing on the cake. For the first time in 18 years, Real Madrid is the champion of La Liga for the second year in a row.

-By Fernando Rodriguez-Vila