El Alcorconazo - the most humiliating defeat for Real Madrid
No club or player can boast of having had a history of only successes. At some point, there have been tough moments, something that is not normal in sport. Sometimes, that hard moment can be the opponent's moment of success and today we bring one of those stories. Talking about Real Madrid is talking about trophies, great players, great feats, comebacks, etc.
A little context
In the summer of 2009, Florentino Pérez returned to the presidency of Real Madrid and did so with the intention of creating a new version of the Galacticos, this time, with some lessons learned from his previous stint. Thus, a revolution occurred where the Chilean manager Manuel Pellegrini arrived at the club, after several very good seasons with Villarreal and several new players that included some of the best in the world.The club let go of some players such as Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Gabriel Heinze and Fabio Cannavaro and brought in established stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Xabi Alonso as well as a young talent called Karim Benzema. With all this, the expectation in the club was enormous and the demand even greater since the project seemed to have everything necessary to succeed.
For its part, AD Alcorcón, a relatively young club (founded in 1971) that had oscillated most of its history up to that point between the fourth and fifth tier of Spanish football. In 2000 they had achieved promotion to the third tier (2 Division B) and they had remained there until 2009, highlighting that in the 2008-09 season, they reached third place in their group (best position up to that date) and qualified for the promotion play-offs, for the first time in their history.
At that time, Alcorcón had mostly faced Real Madrid's main youth team, Castilla, with a record of one victory in 7 matches. The annual expenditure of the entire team was close to a million euros, which was equivalent to the salary of a single player from the white club (and not even one of the stars). In fact, the annual salary of an Alcorcón player was almost the same as Cristiano Ronaldo earned in one day.
The match
Real Madrid reached October 27, 2009, with two wins and one loss in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League and second in the league with a record of 6 wins, one draw and one loss in 8 games. At first glance, a good start to the season, however, placing the magnifying glass on the week prior to the match against Alcorcon, the club coached by Pellegrini had suffered, first, the defeat in the Champions League (vs AC Milan) and the draw in the league (vs Sporting Gijon).So, we could say that the white club was not doing particularly well in those days, although the rival that awaited them in the round of 32 of the Copa del Rey was not a big obstacle in the first instance. Understanding the complexity of the team's calendar, being in three competitions and having to play two games a week, the Chilean manager opted to leave out of the call-up some regular starting eleven players such as Casillas, Pepe, Sergio Ramos, Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo and Xabi. Alonso.
Alcorcón, on the other hand, was playing a very important game for its history and brought its best players, highlighting Borja Pérez, who that day would have the most important game of his career. "They entered through a part of the stadium and we were looking at the field with a little laughter like 'look at this one how he's coming'. The key that day was that we took it as just another game and thought about enjoying football. The reflection of what the game was what happened before. We got to the pitch, we saw the grass, we saw them come in and we laughed for a while and then off to the mess. Let's roll up our sleeves and play some football", said Perez.
Dudek, Arbeloa, Albiol, Metzelder, Drenthe, M. Diarra, Guti, van der Vaart, Granero, Raúl and Benzema were the eleven players who started a match that would be negatively marked in the history of Real Madrid. Just 16 minutes into the match, Borja Pérez himself scored a goal with his left foot, leaving the Polish goalkeeper with a face that seemed like a prediction of what was to come.
Six minutes later, a counter attack by Alcorcón ended with an own goal by Arbeloa and near the end of the first half, Ernesto scored the third goal, taking advantage of the indifference and lack of attention of the Real Madrid defense. At halftime, the Chilean manager changed Guti, something that caused discomfort in the midfielder and led him to an argument with Pellegrini in the middle of the game, demonstrating the annoyance and helplessness of the white club players. In the 53rd minute, Borja Pérez would score his team's fourth goal and his second personal goal in the match, sealing the final 4-0, giving birth to Alcorconzao (play on words with the Maracanazo).
Two weeks later, in the second leg, played at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium, Real Madrid could only win 1-0, with a solitary goal from van der Vaart, so Alcorcon qualified for the next round. That tie would be the first major setback that the Chilean manager would suffer and it would start the snowball that ended in his dismissal at the end of that season. On the other hand, Alcorcon had a turning point in that match since, coincidentally or not, a month later they would launch their project to renovate their stadium and at the end of the season they achieved the long-awaited promotion to the Spanish second tier.
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