The odds are very much against them. That’s why everyone should be on red alert. Real Madrid, who have looked irrelevant for most of the season, might be about to pull off one of the greatest heists in basketball history. Emmet Ryan on why everyone in Euroleague and Spain should be wary of Chus Mateo and Los Blancos.
Few outlets have been as harsh in their criticism of Real Madrid this season as BallinEurope. First I called them an unwatchable mess, then I called them a hot mess. The basic rationales for both contentions still stand. Chus Mateo sits on the hottest of hot seats and the dallying over resigning Dzanan Musa is ridiculous. Yet, here they are. The unkillable force of basketball. Real Madrid could quite plausibly end the season with both the Euroleague and ACB crowns.
Mateo, I Chus you
Apologies for the forced Pokémon reference. Chus Mateo has been on the hot seat seemingly throughout his tenure at Real Madrid. This despite each of his two full seasons in charge of Los Blancos ending with a major title. In the other, he still managed to narrowly lose the Euroleague title game.
Indeed, in less than three full seasons in charge he has three appearances in the Euroleague championship game to his name. He may have only won one but he’s also picked up an ACB title and Copa del Rey along the way. Last season, he missed out on the treble by a single game.
Yet throughout this campaign, after an enormous roster overhaul for Real Madrid, his job has been in doubt. Real narrowly missed out on an automatic playoff spot in Euroleague where, granted, the norm is home court. Still they lead the ACB with a 22-4 record and reached the Copa del Rey final. Losing to Unicaja Malaga in a one-off game is hardly a cause for alarm. That may be the most stable roster among Europe’s best teams.
BallinEurope is ramping up its YouTube game this season. Subscribe to our channel now for player exclusives, analysis videos, and much more.
A Max Schmeling moment
A few weeks back I was in Malaga, at the Martin Carpena, to watch Unicaja Malaga take on Real Madrid. The atmosphere was so hot with a great full house of Malaga fans ready to see some manners put on the visitors.
It was an instant classic, easily one of the finest games I have witnessed in person. Unicaja Malaga were extraordinary in every department they needed to be, including setting an ACB record for made threes. Yet, still, Real Madrid won. They finished that game with the type of grin only someone who knew in advance what would happen could.
Like Max Schmeling before his enormous upset of Joe Louis, this was an “I see something moment.” Only instead of seeing a flaw in Malaga, it was that aura returning to Real Madrid. The sheer sense that anyone can try anything, do anything, yet they’ll still find a way to win. It happened in Belgrade on Thursday. It can happen again.
BallinEurope has a book, a real life actual book called I Like it Loud, and you can buy it on Amazon now. It’s here as a book and here in Kindle form.
Yes, I’m going off vibes
And you might want to do the same. I’m very fortunate in my working life. I get to watch a lot of basketball at all kinds of levels, not just Euroleague, NBA, or the Basketball Champions League. You spot it when the vibe is hitting a team and when it’s leaving it too.
There are visibly better teams in Euroleague right now. Each of the sides above Los Blancos in the standings, with the exception of FC Barcelona, look just plain better right now. The top three in particular look substantially better. If Real make it through the first set of play-ins, then Chus Mateo and his guys need to overcome Fenerbahce.
Every rational fibre of my being is urging me to believe that Fener will need, at most, four games to deal with Real. That’s how big the gap looks to me. Yet Real Madrid are the physical manifestation of every irrational fear of their opponents’ fans. They exist to make you doubt everything and then prove your doubts well-founded.
There’s still a limit
In elimination basketball, normality goes out the window. There are, by its very nature, no second chances. The idea of Real Madrid pulling off a pair of smash and grabs in Abu Dhabi, should they get there, is entirely plausible. They would get there with no expectation, with Chus Mateo and his roster carrying a Mulhacén sized chip on their shoulder.
Still, that makes this week’s game against Paris Basketball all the more important. Win that and they get Fenerbahce. Los Blancos will still be underdogs but the Istanbul giants feel capable of falling to Real’s vibe of inevitability. Barely capable but still a chance at the very least.
Should they lose to Paris and beat the winner of FC Bayern and Crvena Zvezda, their reward is Olympiacos. That’s a no from me. For all the power of Real Madrid riding a wave of vibes into the postseason, the Reds are the ultimate reality check. In a single game, even in the SEF, Real could win. Over a best of five series? Nope. Max Schmeling beat Joe Louis once because he could capitalise on opportunity. After that first defeat, Louis faced Schmeling again in 1938. The Brown Bomber was not to be trifled with more than once and destroyed the German in the first round. Real Madrid may be capable of getting a win when needed but three, against Olympiacos? Nope, I’m not biting on that.
Leave a Reply