Jose Mourinho was shown a yellow card by referee Fernández Borbalán for failing to release a ball on a frustrating night for Real Madrid. When Mourinho appealed for time at Madrid, few believed that he needed it but on this showing the coach was right. His debut in Spain ended with a disappointing and disjointed 0-0 draw with Mallorca, a side whose financial crisis is so acute that Uefa have banned them from competing in Europe.
As the two sides lined up for their pre-match photograph, the first of a new campaign, cameras crowded round. But they did not surround the players; instead, they crowded the Real Madrid bench, into which Mourinho was settling in for the first time. He was joined by Mesut Ozil and Sami Khedira, the club's two German World Cup signings. Ozil was the nearest thing that Madrid had to a galactico this summer, but that may even have worked against him.
Mourinho had warned before the game that he would not include players because of their "price tag, prestige, status or reputation". Sergio Canales, he said, "goes against all that". And Mourinho promised there would be a place for the 19‑year‑old. Initially excepted to spend this season out on loan, he lined up in the No10 role behind the striker Gonzalo Higuaín. As for Khedira, his place was taken by Lassana Diarra – another footballer whose future had appeared to lie elsewhere.
It appeared more than just a tactical change. Mourinho described Canales's inclusion as a "positive message" to his squad. As the club's sporting director Jorge Valdano put it immediately before the game: "Mourinho's style is meritocracy – the man who deserves to play plays." New manager, new Madrid. Old privileges would be banished.
In the opening minutes it was Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored a hat-trick here at the back end of last season, that carried the greater threat - dashing in from the left and then the right. And while there was an intensity about Madrid that contrasted with last season, the tendency was to seek Ronaldo as much as Ronaldo's tendency was to seek the ball, turn and run at Mallorca.
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