If you expected today to be as interesting as yesterday, then you might have been disappointed. None of today’s matches could compare to the drama of yesterday’s Real Madrid-Manchester City game. That’s not to say that the games were boring or anything.

In fact, if you watched today, you would’ve seen an amazing goal from a young Brazilian and a not so great goal from another Brazilian.

As expected, Barcelona, Manchester United, and Bayern Munich all won their respective matches. Chelsea was another team that should’ve won, but ended up getting a draw. They were up 2-0 by the 35th min, thanks to Oscar who scored both of Chelsea’s goals. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to stop Juventus from scoring and they were able to equalize.

This is yet another disappointing match from Chelsea, who earlier this weekend, had drawn against QPR 0-0. Luckily for Chelsea, Juventus is their toughest opponent in this group. They should be able to win against the other two teams with no problem.

Here’s that amazing goal I was talking about earlier. It came from Chelsea Brazilian Oscar. http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/video/champions-league/?vid=ef202789-51d9-4f7a-a5c1-1b4400046b5f

While Oscar was making Brazil proud of him, they were hoping Dani Alves doesn’t do this while playing for their national team. Barcelona was up 1-0, when Alves scored a goal. Unfortunately for him, it was in his own net. Oops. Here is Alves’ own goal. http://www.101greatgoals.com/gvideos/dani-alves-own-goal-barcelona-v-spartak-moscow/

Here are all the scores

Group E
Chelsea 2 – Juventus 2
Shakhtar Donetsk 2 – FC Nordsjaelland 0

Group F
Bayern Munich 2 – Valencia 1
Lille 1 – BATE Borisov 3

Group G
Barcelona 3 – Spartak Moscow 2
Celtic 0 – Benfica 0

Group H
Braga 0 – CFR Cluj-Napoca 2
Manchester United 1 – Calatasaray 0

Photo courtesy of SportingLife.com

Let’s be honest with ourselves for a moment.

Real Madrid cannot beat Barcelona.

Why? Because we don’t know how to capitalize. No matter how many chances we get, how often we take them, we can never finish when we need to.

As a die-hard Madrid supporter, and I mean I’m literally a die-hard supporter, I am sick and tired of losing to the one club everyone thinks we can beat.

Sure, we can beat every other club in in La Liga, in Champions League, in Copa del Rey, but the one club we can’t beat is the one we need to the most.

Sometimes life as a Madrid supporter is tainted with these never-ending losses to our rivals.

Real Madrid might be sitting comfortably ahead of Barcelona in the Liga standings, with a 5 point margin, but things can change. In Champions League, we’re undefeated, having the highest amount of points possible, leaders in our group.

But for today, even with a 4-3 aggregate loss to Barcelona in the Copa del Rey quarterfinals, for some reason I’m surprisingly at peace with everything.

Perhaps if Jose Callejon and Karim Benzema started, or Sergio Ramos’ header goal was allowed, things would have played out differently. But what I saw today on the pitch, the teamwork, the passion, the heart…well that’s what football is about, right?

I saw my captain, Iker Casillas, defend and hold back his players in hopes of preventing a scuffle. I witnessed Sergio Ramos receive a useless second yellow, being kicked out of the match and still shake hands with the referee. Respect. The one quality that Real Madrid, as a club, possess and live by.

I saw Barcelona get completely scared in the last 25 minutes of the match. They feared us, the crowd was silent. Real Madrid kept on pushing, hoping for that goal. For once, Barca was terrified of us and what we could do. Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema lit a fire under the players, the supporters and the doubters with their second half goals. It was beautiful.

I’ll give it to Barcelona’s Pedro who scored their first goal and to Dani Alves, who in my opinion is a piece of overly-watered grass, for scoring a beautiful goal putting the Catalans above Madrid in score.

The dynamic between these two clubs is insane. Crazy, even. There’s a lot of bickering back and forth, unnecessary fouls, terrible acting and today was no different. I’ve learned a few things about certain players, you know, mostly about Cesc Fabregas. A man who I once adored and respected, now forever pushed over to my “I lose respect for you every time you do that” list.

And I’m not biased because if I was, I wouldn’t say that Pepe didn’t deserve the right to play tonight, or that he totally embarrassed his club with his high-octane temper. Because surely, he did.

I guess a ‘Felicidades’ is in order for Barcelona, who are advancing to the CDR semifinals and I say that in a true genuine fashion.

So what’s in store for Real Madrid? Our focus lies solely on La Liga and Champions League. The two big trophies that really matter and count for something.

It takes faith to be a Real Madrid supporter. Faith in your manager, in your players and in your heart. We struggle against Barcelona, but our faith for each other and our club is what gets us through. We never give up on our goals and we’ll fight to the finish.

That’s why I’m proud to say that no matter what, I am honored to call myself a Real Madrid supporter.

Vivimos por ti, vence por nosotros!

Photos courtesy of Real Madrid C.F. edited by myself

Let’s take a deep breath together. Feel good? Good.

Barcelona-Real Madrid in the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey began in the usual fashion: Madrid scoring early to an overly-possessive yet boring Barcelona, only to lose 2-1 in the second with the roles reversing.

Just like every El Clasico recap I’ve written thus far in my time with Aerys, I always come out disappointed and angered. The long-standing rivalry between the Spanish giants will never end, yet it always worsens. Eventually a 90 minute match becomes a 22 ring circus with players from both sides making bad decisions.

Bad tackling, the never-ending diving, too much card contesting, the ever-so-close fist fights, one-sided referees, stepping on players hands and with all that, where is the actual football?

It’s almost non-existent. As Madridistas or Cules, we love the rivalry between our two clubs, but we also miss the passion, the excitement of the sport. We want goals that are fair, refs that are fair and players who don’t complain about every little thing. But then again, as a sport, football is widely recognized more as a theatrical event rather than a beautiful sport. Sad, really.

With all that mumbo-jumbo, let’s celebrate the goals scored today!

Cristiano Ronaldo hit it big for Madrid putting them up early in the match at the 11′ giving all Madrid supporters a reason to stick behind the ever-so talked about Ronaldo.

For Barcelona, Carles Puyol gave the Catalans their much needed equalizer. All was lost for Madrid when Eric Abidal scored again for Barca inevitably giving them the advantage and win. Abidal celebrated his goal with teammate Dani Alves in a poor reenactment of the goal celebration that Madrid’s Marcelo and Cristiano Ronaldo had earlier in the season. I’m talking about dancing to Michel Telo’s ‘Ai Se Eu Te Pego.’

Abidal & Alves

http://youtu.be/USu-g-KgNIc

Marcelo & Cristiano Ronaldo

Which do you like better? Personally I love Marcelo and Ronnie’s better; there’s more fun and personality involved!

The second leg between these two club will be next Wednesday, Jan. 25, at Camp Nou. Let’s hope for all the footy fans out there and myself, that there’s some actual football!

And a happy 41st birthday to Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola, now you have something to celebrate!

Athletic Bilbao won 2-0 over Mallorca in their quarterfinal match

Stay tuned to Aerys Soccer for all your Copa del Rey updates!

Ready for your Daily Kick Around? Today we have a bus-surfing French women’s national team, players quash rumors on Twitter and lots more! Check it out!

International 

The France Women’s National Team had a little too much fun on their bus trip after qualifying for the 2012 Olympics with a victory against England. Bus surfing anyone?

La Liga

Real Sociedad goalkeeper Enaut Zubikarai made a huge mistake in yesterday’s Copa del Rey match against Mallorca in the second round. It was only the 4th match this season that Zubikarai has played in net, all of which were Sociedad’s CdR matches, and after a mistake like that, it might be a while before he backs up his club. Note to all keepers out there: Make sure there is no one behind you when your about to kick the ball out of your box.

Earlier in the week during the Catalan Derby between Barcelona and Espanyol, there were racial remarks towards Barca player Dani Alves by a section of supporters. Espanyol boss Mauricio Pochettino says otherwise. The Brazil international claimed that he hadn’t heard any racial remarks from the crowd because he was more focused on the match. Anyone else getting tired of all these racism accusations lately? I know I am.

Congrats to Real Madrid player Gonzalo Higuain on being with the club for 5 years! He played his first match with the white 5 years ago today against Betis in the Copa del Rey. So far in his career with Madrid, he’s the fourth captain, won two league titles in 2007 and 2008, one Copa del Rey in 2011 and one Spanish Super Cup in 2008.

English Premier League

After Arsenal legend Thierry Henry made his debut with the Gunners since 2006 on Monday, rumors began that other Gunner legends could make a return to the club. But not so fast! Robert Pires, who is currently training with the Gunners, slammed down any speculation via his twitter account, of a possible return to Emirates. Pires, who left Aston Villa in May, is still in a search for a club, preferably one in Asia.

New Queens Park Rangers manager Mark Hughes claimed that Joey Barton will remain club captain despite the controversy surrounding his career.

Apparently there is some mis-communication between Newcastle’s Demba Ba and his “agent” Armand Doorn. The 26-year-old Ba took to his twitter account attacking Doorn about his remarks that Manchester United were interested in picking up Ba in the January transfer window. The tweet? “Really, I don’t know how desperate this “armand doorn” can be to talk like he’s my agent!! He’s nothing for me. Stop lying and show respect.” 

Serie A

Lazio midfielder Lorik Cana will be sidelined for about two months with a back injury. During Lazio’s 4-nil defeat of Siena, Cana was forced off during halftime, confirming through tests that he has a damaged lumbar vertebrae. With this injury, the Albanian will miss 10 Serie A matches including their Europa League match against Atletico Madrid.

Major League Soccer

The Chicago Fire has signed Uruguayan forward Federico Puppa two days after signing Colombian midfielder Rafael Robayo. This is good news for the Fire due to the international experience that Puppa has, moving well off the ball and finishing strong in front of the net.

Goodbye Robbie Rogers! The Ex-Columbus Crew midfielder has signed a new deal with English club Leeds United until 2014. That’s of course, if he can get his hands on a work permit. Rogers doesn’t meet the national team cap percentage needed to score a work permit, but Leeds seems overly confident that the Huntington Beach native can get one. Leeds beat out another MLS (who was undisclosed) club, a secret English club, and even a return offer from the Crew. All I have to say is good luck to Robbie in England! He now joins the ranks of Mike Grella, Eddie Lewis, Eric Lichaj and England Youth International Paul Rachubka as the 5th American-born player to suit up for Leeds.

That’s right.

The FC Barcelona star grasped his third successive Ballon D’Or trophy today, beating out teammate Xavi Hernandez and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo (who couldn’t attend due to match preparation.)

The Argentinean said at the FIFA World Players Gala, “It is a pleasure and honor to win this for the third time. Thanks to those who voted and all my teammates.”

Congrats to the other two nominees Xavi and Cristiano for having fantastic seasons as well.

Not only was the winner of the Ballon D’Or awarded but so was the FIFA Women’s Player of the Year. The nominees were Abby Wambach (USA), Marta (Brazil) and Homare Sawa (Japan).

This year’s award goes to Homare Sawa of Japan. Sawa led her national team to victory this year in the Women’s World Cup in Germany where she won the Golden Ball and Golden Shoe award.

Sawa’s country of Japan also won the FIFA Fair Play Award due to their reaction of the devastating earthquake and tsunami the country faced earlier in the year.

Mexican legend Hugo Sanchez presented Neymar the FIFA Puskas Award, which is determined by the player with the “most beautiful” goal of the year. Neymar beat out both Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney.

“I am very happy to be part of this party and have been competing with this two great players. I’m very grateful to God and all you. Enjoy this party.”

You can see Neymar’s outstanding goal here!

Now to the coach awards. Let’s start out with the FIFA Women’s Coach of the Year.

The nominees were Bruno Bini of France, Norio Sasaki of Japan and Pia Sundhage of Sweden.

Japan’s Norio Sasaki claimed the award with his efforts of leading his national team to victory when Japan beat the US in the final.

The FIFA Men’s Coach of the Year was won by FC Barcelona’s Pep Guardiola, who managed to win Champions League and the La Liga title last year. Pep beat out MUFC manager Sir Alex Ferguson and Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho.

Guardiola was quite humble after winning the award saying, “I would like to share this award with Mourinho and Ferguson. It is an honor. And all the coaches around the world who share this passion. And also to the thousands of people that over 100 years have worked and develop Barcelona. It is a privilege to be part of such an incredible club. And finally, I would like to dedicate this award to Tito Vilanova, my assistant, my colleague, my friend who can’t be here tonight. This is for you.”

Sir Alex Ferguson didn’t leave the Gala empty-handed. The MUFC legendary manager won the prestigious FIFA Presidential Award, presented by FIFA president Sepp Blatter. “This is very much appreciated. No matter the honor I get, I feel it’s been the recognition for the 25 years of Manchester United. They always shared my vision and passion. I’ve been a very lucky manager. That makes Manchester United such a special club. The courage to play and the courage to try and win is more important than anything.”

Individual awards aside, eleven players were selected to the FIFA/FIFAPro World XI which was presented by three-time World Cup Champion and football legend, Pele. The players selected are as follows:

Iker Casillas (Spain)

Sergio Ramos (Spain)

Gerard Pique (Spain)

Nemanja Vidic (Serbia)

Dani Alves (Brazil)

Andres Iniesta (Spain)

Xavi (Spain)

Xabi Alonso (Spain)

Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)

Wayne Rooney (England)

Lionel Messi (Argentina)

Real Madrid’s Zinedine Zidane and Emilio Butragueno accepted players Xabi Alonso, Sergio Ramos, Cristiano Ronaldo and Iker Casillas‘ awards on behalf of them due to preparation for their match against Malaga this week.

Stay tuned to Aerys Soccer for all your international football news!

All photos courtesy of FIFA.com