I Am Scouted by Real Madrid

Chapter 737: Chapter 24: Transfer Targets

”Starting goalkeeper red carded, substitute goalkeeper twisted his ankle.”

”Chen won’t continue to play as a goalkeeper in the upcoming games, right?”

”Probably not! After all, there’s a full week before the next league match.”

After the match against the Spanish, Real Madrid got a breather; the next league match is in 7 days, and the first leg of the Champions League Round of 16 is in 10 days.

Antonio Adan, being Real Madrid’s second goalkeeper, though twisted his ankle due to insufficient warm-up before coming on, would have more than enough time to recover in a week.

Besides, Real Madrid wouldn’t want to waste Chen Zhong in the goalkeeper position.

Chen Zhong’s goalkeeping career deserves a perfect ending.

The impact of the Real Madrid versus Spanish match continues.

Getting sent off with a red card for the first time, naturally, Casillas was quite unhappy. After being shown the red card, the Real Madrid ”Door God” walked straight off the field. The whole game, he sat in the stands with a gloomy expression, clearly still thinking about what had just happened. She simply couldn’t accept that she had been sent off with a red card after just two minutes of play. It wasn’t until Marcelo scored that Casillas’s expression lightened a bit.

The Madrid media generally believed that Casillas’s red card was somewhat unjust. Marca pointed out three questionable decisions by Lahoz in the match: first, the red card for Casillas; second, Harvey Lopez’s handball in the penalty area; and finally, a questionable offside call. The first two benefited the Spanish, while the last one benefited Real Madrid.

Because at that time, the Spanish player’s had already been facing Real Madrid’s temporary goalkeeper, Chen Zhong, but the referee directly called an offside...

Of course, the biggest controversy was still the red card Casillas received. Even Barcelona’s goalkeeper Valdes spoke up in Casillas’s defense.

He stated to the media: ”This red card is unfair. I’ve watched the replay many times. Igor (Casillas) had no intention of fouling the opponent, and he even had a clear retraction motion with his foot, but the main referee, in that situation, found it very difficult to make the right decision...”

Diario AS also thought Lahoz shouldn’t have shown the red card at that moment, ”Igor (Casillas)’s move was fine, issuing a red card for such a move early on affects the subsequent officiating standards, and it would also make players doubtful during the match...”

But Diario AS also added that such an early red card put pressure on Real Madrid and on Lahoz as well, but this main referee’s overall officiating standard was still fine for the rest of the match. Although there might be minor mistakes, the game wasn’t disrupted and became more exciting.

Despite Mourinho expressing his attitude at the post-match press conference, Madrid media still questioned Lahoz’s officiating.

In the 18th minute, Adebayor kicked the knee of the opposing player in defense, and Lahoz only stopped the game without issuing a yellow card.

If Casillas’s situation had been the standard, surely a card would have been shown here.

While defending a corner, Spanish’s Harvey Lopez’s arm struck the ball, and Lahoz signaled the game to continue; if following Casillas’s standard, there should have been a call here too, but the main referee showed nothing.

However, the Spanish coach Pochettino also mentioned that the main referee Lahoz’s overall officiating was good and he believed that Lahoz was an outstanding main referee.

Speaking of the offside call against the Spanish, Pochettino remarked, ”I didn’t see that well, so it could be offside or not, but I trust the main referee’s decision is correct.”

More importantly, being one man down from the start, the 10-man Real Madrid performed more bravely, which made Mourinho highly commend his players post-match, ”This was a very tough game, and ultimately, we won. I know these 3 points are crucial.”

Losing the main goalkeeper at the start and having Chen Zhong forced to fill in as goalkeeper, this was indeed one of Real Madrid’s toughest matches this season, but they didn’t collapse. Marca believes this victory will make Real Madrid more united.

Mourinho showed great grace regarding the referee’s ”mistake,” but Real Madrid promptly provided the match footage to the competition committee and filed a complaint. Unfortunately, the competition committee quickly announced upholding the initial decision. Besides the normal one-match suspension, Casillas will pay a fine of 600 Euros, and Real Madrid Club will also pay a fine of 90 Euros.

Real Madrid could appeal to the appeals committee, with a decision on whether the appeal is successful by Friday. If the appeal fails, Casillas won’t play in the weekend match against Levante, and his spot will continue to be filled by the young Adan.

Mourinho has started preparing for the weekend league without Casillas. During midweek training, he had a talk with Adan, hoping to ease his pressure.

After all...

Although in many aspects, Adan seems to meet the criteria and is better suited as a goalkeeper than Chen Zhong, the scene of him twisting his ankle out of excitement when playing against Spanish casts some doubt, though not fully concrete, regarding his stress-handling ability, making Mourinho somewhat concerned.