Luis Llopis, Real Madrid’s excellent goalkeeping coach, kissed Karim Benzema at the end of the match against Chelsea and I wondered if my friend Luis had something to do with this new ability that we have discovered in Benzema of “stealing” goals by going to the pressure of the goalkeeper and causing panic in the last defender, in this case from Chelsea, the otherwise magnificent Eduard Mendy.
Because it turns out that Benzema discovers a new virtue every game as if he were a newcomer to the League, one of those we don’t know and that each game shows something different or one of those that we already have cataloged and in each party break the mold that we have made to tell us that this is sometimes very difficult to classify.
Going back to Real Madrid’s French striker, we wouldn’t say that he is a huge header and that when he started his career after the one-two with Vinicius, a classic action to break a defense with space behind him, we would have bet that play had many options finish with a finish with his right foot, firm, determined to finish off as many passes as possible behind the Brazilian winger. But no, Benzema went to look for a good, warm air ball, which gave him a certain advantage to apply a front in the middle of the race, in an exercise of precision between his speed, the trajectory of the ball and his position with respect to the goal, in one of those shots that against the background of the London rain would be said to be typical of a classic British 9. More of his style would be that second header, subtle, fine, in which with elegant precision he put the ball on the opposite post to the one the London goalkeeper was running and with which he finished a center no less fine, no less subtle, no less elegant. , Luka modric.
But that run in minute one of the second half, minute one let’s not forget, ball absolutely controlled by Mendy, without any real option or scheduled or expected or anything like generating a goal chance or even forcing Mendy to play an uncomfortable ball that could return the ball to Real Madrid possession, that action used to be typical of those forwards who were going to press to make it look like they were pressing, but in reality what they were looking for was to be passed by the ball and be able to say that they had already tried to retrieve it. Come on, one of those actions that used to be called “facing the gallery”, but when Benzema executes it, it has become a scoring opportunity. Come on, some algorithm will have turned that defensive back pass into a play with expectation of a goal if the KB variable is added to it. And don’t say, let’s say that you still feel like a goalkeeper, that the goalkeepers aren’t there, we were warned, that the Madrid-PSG video already gave clues and that, in the end, Benzema is also going to be a titan of the pressure and intimidation. Another nuance to add to the robot portrait of the French striker.
In any case, and since I have started my text with that kiss from Llopis to Benzema, I would have liked to enjoy the greeting, hug, kiss or bow that good old Llopis made to Courtois I don’t know if on the grass, in the rain or covered in the ancient London dressing room. Those things that goalkeepers say to each other almost without words, just with a look, a gesture or a wink full of admiration and joy. One of those looks that say it all without saying anything.
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