After a big week of innovative, signature and straight up
crazy boot releases players across the world stepped out of the tunnel
to give us our first look at how the latest boots looked on pitch.
Reflective boots, space-like boots and boots with a great big lion on
the front, it's been a mad week...
David Villa (Atletico Madrid) adidas f50 adizero
David
Villa was laced up in the adidas Enlightened Pack F50 to score his
third and fourth La Liga goals of the season as Atletico Madrid hammered
Real Betis 5-0 on Sunday. The Enlightened Pack is the first boot
collection of it's kind to feature in football by using reflective
technology.
Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) Nike Mercurial Vapor IX CR7 Galaxy
Nike
and Cristiano Ronaldo picked, what was on paper, the perfect game to
launch his new signature Mercurial. Nike hooked CR up with his brand new
Galaxy Mercurial hoping he'd net the winner in el clasico with the
whole world watching. Barcelona didn't read that script and it was
fellow Nike stars Neymar and Alexis that stole the headlines as Barca
secured bragging rights with a 2-1 win.
Christian Maggio (Napoli) Lotto Solista
The
adidas Enlightened Pack dominated pitches in the Champions League this
week and although the collection is the first boot range to feature the
reflective technology it's not the first singular boot. Earlier this
year Lotto launched the Solista, the world's first totally reflective
football boot and Napoli's Christian Maggio has been sporting a pair
since day one.
Another
boot that sparked a huge reaction this week was the adidas Yamamoto F50
adizero. One of the craziest football boots ever seen with only 2000
pairs launched. David Alaba and Lucas Moura were two of the highest
profile names in the unique boot but it was Melbourne Victory's Archie
Thompson who was the first player to slip into them against Brisbane
Roar on Friday.
Nicolas Anelka (West Brom) Nike HyperVenom
Nicolas
Anelka has chopped and changed his boots almost every game this season
and the latest pair which he turned out in for West Brom on Saturday was
the Nike HyperVenom stealth colourway. Anelka had an unhappy return to
Anfield as his side were beaten 4-1 by his old club Liverpool.
Laurent Koscielny (Arsenal) adidas Predator LZ
The
Champions League was lit up in midweek by the adidas Enlightened Pack
with the majority of adidas' players switching into reflective editions
of the Predator LZ, Nitrocharge, F50 and 11Pro. Arsenal's Laurent
Koscielny was in the Pred as Arsenal slipped to a 2-1 defeat to Dortmund
at the Emirates.
Sidnei
Sciola Moraes of Perth Glory was sporting a rarer PUMA evoSPEED
colourway at the weekend. The silver/green evoSPEED was only worn by
Gael Clichy in the Premier League but is a decent match up for Moraes'
Perth Glory kit.
Lionel Messi (Barcelona) adidas F50 adizero Messi
As
adidas rolled out their Enlightened Pack Leo Messi's signature F50's
were given special treatment to bring them in line with the rest of the
Enlightened players. The black stripes on his adizeros were replaced
with reflective strips to catch the light from the San Siro floodlights.
As per usual Messi notched but Barca had to settle for a 1-1 draw
against AC Milan.
Jose Angel Crespo (Bologna) NikeiD Mercurial Vapor IX
Bologna's
Jose Angel Crespo was wearing a pair of NikeiD Mercurials against
Livorno on Sunday. Crespo obviously has his club's home colours in mind
when designing the boots and they did the business as he bagged the only
goal in the game to give his side their first league win of the season.
Dani Alves (Barcelona) adidas F50 adizero
Dani
Alves made the somewhat bizarre decision to change from the
Nitrocharges he's been wearing all season into the launch colourway of
the previous F50 adizero model. Alves smashed in that wonder goal
against Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey last January wearing this boot
so maybe it's a superstitious decision?
El Classico: FC Barcelona 2-1 Real Madrid Match Review
Recap of Barcelona win over eternal rivals, Real Madrid, in the first El Clasico of the 2013-2014 La Liga season
In a very open game Barcelona were able to
beat Real Madrid as goals by Neymar and Alexis Sanchez were enough for
the Catalans to record their first La Liga El Clasico victory since
December 2011. Jese Rodriguez scored the consolidation goal for the
visitors in added time.
Teams were presented in front of a beautiful mosaic
in support of Tito Vilanova. Tata Martino experimented with the lineup a
little bit, playing all four Lionel Messi, Cesc Fabregas, Xavi and Andres Iniesta at the same time, something we have rarely seen. In defense, Gerard Pique recovered in time to start the game alongside Javier Mascherano.
Barça started strong, with Cesc and Neymar causing
the most problems to the defense playing in white, but the most
dangerous attempt in the early going, a long range effort by Cesc, was
blocked by Neymar.
Real Madrid, of course, also spent their fair share
of time in Barcelona's third, but they struggled to create any solid
chances. In the 7th minute the visitors launched a quick counter that
was stopped by Sergio Busquets with a foul that the referee, Alberto Undiano Mallenco, thought it warranted a yellow card.
The game didn't start with a lot of physicality, but 15 minutes in Sergio Ramos
made sure that that would not be the case anymore. He elbowed Neymar
twice in the head in a span of about 25 seconds, earning a booking for
the second one.
Even though both sides spent quite some time around
the opponents' penalty box the first shot on goal didn't come until the
17th minute when Neymar forced Diego Lopez to make a save. In the next
minute Neymar, with a bit of luck, put Barcelona in the lead. Iniesta
found space through the middle and found Neymar on the left side. From
there the Brazilian fired on goal and beat the Madrid goalkeeper for the
first goal of the game. Neymar's shot was partially blocked by Daniel Carvajal, went through the legs of Raphaël Varane and inside the far post.
In the 20th minute Messi had his first opportunity of
the game, and he should've made it 2-0. Once again Iniesta supplied a
brilliant through ball and Messi had acres of space down the right side
of the penalty box. He aimed for the far post, but with Lopez well
positioned Messi fired wide of the goal.
Shell-shocked a bit by the goal Real Madrid struggled
to connect passes in their attacking third, making in easier for
Barcelona to defend. Because of Barcelona's good positioning Real
Madrid, and Gareth Bale especially, were forced to take shots from the perimeter, but they didn't threaten Victor Valdes.
Real Madrid had the most success attacking down Adriano's side where, Angel Di Maria, Cristiano Ronaldo
and Bale were successful in making his way past the Brazilian. Adriano
even made a clumsy tackle on Ronaldo and earned a yellow card.
But the chance of the half for Real Madrid came in the 45th minute after Ronaldo easily made his way past Dani Alves
and sent a dangerous cross to the six-yard box. There Sami Khedira made
good contact, but somehow Valdes made a left-footed save. The German
international appealed for a penalty for a handball by Adriano, the ball
really did strike Adriano's hand after the save, but the referee didn't
point to the spot.
That was the last chance either team would create in
the first half, though, Bale did have just enough time to receive a
yellow card before the halftime whistle. At halftime Barcelona therefore
led by the smallest of margins courtesy of Neymar's first El Clasico
goal.
Both teams started the second half with the same
lineups they ended the first one. After the restart Real Madrid tried to
surprise Barcelona with early pressure and quickly won a corner kick,
but Valdes confidently claimed the cross. The visitors had another good
scoring opportunity six minutes in after an errant pass by Mascherano.
Khedira probably should've taken the shot from the edge of the box, but
he went too far and was left only with an option to cross the ball. The
long sequence in Barcelona's box finally ended when Pique cleared the
danger with a good header.
Barcelona then went forward and immediately caused
havoc, but a couple good blocks by the Madrid defense, including one on a
thunderous Iniesta drive, resulted in no work for Lopez. But the Madrid
goalkeeper was called into action a minute later when Neymar was played
through brilliantly by Iniesta, but the Brazilian's try was well saved.
Carlo Ancelotti
then made sure that Ramos wouldn't again get sent off in an El Clasico,
replacing him with Asier Illarramendi. The back and forth action
continued with Real getting the next two shots on goal, after Iniesta
turned the ball over. Ronaldo got a good shot on Valdes, but the
Barcelona goalkeeper made an excellent stop to deny Ronaldo the
equalizer. From the ensuing corner kick Di Maria was able to put one on
goal from outside of the box, but Valdes was again perfectly positioned
to make the stop.
Real then made their second substitution of the match, with Bale taking a seat on the visitors' bench and Karim Benzema
taking his place in attack. 20 minutes into the second half a chance
suddenly presented itself to Di Maria, but as if he was surprised the
ball came through, the Argentine couldn't control the ball on the edge
of the penalty area.
With Real Madrid slowly taking over control of the
match, Tata Martino responded with a substitution of his own. Alexis,
who many thought would start the match replaced Cesc in the Barcelona
front three.
About a minute later Ronaldo threw what can nowadays
only be described as one of his trademark fits, after he was brought
down in the penalty box by Mascherano and denied a penalty. Both players
went for the loose ball and Mascherano threw the shoulder into Ronaldo
in a play that is very rarely called a foul, let alone a penalty.
Ronaldo did have half a step on Mascherano at the time of the "shove",
but the referee decided against pointing to the penalty spot.
On the very next play Benzema fired a powerful shot
from 20 yards out that beat Valdes, but rattled the crossbar. It was an
excellent drive by the Frenchman and Barcelona were lucky that one
didn't tie the game.
At the half hour mark of the second half both teams
made a substitution. First Real Madrid replaced Di Maria with a natural
striker, Jese, while Barcelona shored up their defense as Alex Song replaced the hard working Iniesta.
And two minutes later Alexis doubled the lead with a golazo.
Played behind (most of) the defense by Neymar, Alexis only had Varane
to beat. The Chilean decided he won't bother with that, and with Varane
giving him two feet of space, Alexis "simply" lobbed Lopez from the
edge. A truly brilliant goal by the in-form forward.
Understandably Barcelona decided pulled back at bit,
but easily withstood a three minute barrage of crosses with good headers
by both Pique and Song. But with Real bringing everybody forward,
Barcelona had a lot of space on the counter. Even Alves got in on the
action and went for goal, after he beautifully dribbled past Ronaldo,
but Lopez saved his attempt.
In the 84th minute Tata Martino brought in another defensively responsible forward, Pedro, who replaced Neymar.
Five minutes before the final whistle a breakdown on
the right side of the Barcelona defense gifted a one-on-one chance to
Khedira, but once again Valdes was able to deny him a goal. But the
Barcelona goalkeeper wasn't able to end the game with a clean sheet.
Ronaldo played through Jese, who outran Adriano, and fired from outside
the box to beat Valdes. Valdes made tougher saves in the game than this
one would've been, but thankfully that was the only one he would allow
as Barcelona were able to hold on to the one goal lead and celebrate the
victory.
All in all it was a strong performance by Barcelona,
but question marks remain due to the leaky defense that allowed too many
golden chances once again even though it seamed impenetrable just
seconds before. With the three points Barcelona ensured themselves the
league lead after this round of football is completed, regardless of
Atletico Madrid's result. But, perhaps even more importantly, it
increased Barcelona's lead over Real Madrid to six points.
Barcelona continue their frantic pace of games as the
Catalans will again be in action on Tuesday when the league leaders
will face Celta Vigo.
Players Surprise Fans as adidas Present Real Madrid UCL Third Shirt
Real Madrid will wear their new adidas third shirt for
the first time tonight when they travel to Turin to take on Juventus in
the Champions League. To help present the kit adidas called upon Gareth
Bale, Karim Benzema and Marcelo to surprise four lucky Madridistas in a
lift. The four unsuspecting fans arrived at the
presentation event, jumped in the lift and when the the doors opened
they were greeted by the trio of Madrid stars. Bale, Benzema and Marcelo
hopped into the lift with them up to the top floor of the building
overlooking the Bernabeu to take some pics and receive their new shirts.
Lovely stuff.
Real
Madrid will be hoping their new adidas third shirt will help them bag
their fourth victory out of four and guarantee their place in the
Champions League knockout stages. Bright and bold in design, the third
strip completes an impressive line up of Real Madrid kits this season
after already wearing their slick away kit and of course the famous
white strip at home.
Nike 'Side by Side with Neymar Jr.' Video
During Barcelona's tour of South East Asia Neymar Jr.
paid a surprise visit to one of his biggest fans, Syafiq. In this new
video from Nike Football we see the similarities in the Brazilian
star and the young boys upbringing, the sacrifices made by their
families and the footballing talent they posses. "My
dreams growing up were to play professional football, to meet my idol
Robinho and play alongside him. Syafiq's story is similar to mine, he
believes in his dream", said Neymar whose name is inherited from his
father, a former professional footballer.
Just like Neymar, Syafiq's father inspired him to play
football and although sometimes Syafiq has to borrow his friends boots
he is grateful for all he has. "I want to play my best and make my
parents proud. They sacrificed so much for me, I can give them a better
life and pay them back for what they've done for me."
Adding
to the sentiment, Neymar states "Without family it's very difficult to
achieve your dreams. My parents are fundamental to my dreams coming
true, there's a similarity between his life and mine, he has some
difficulties but he loves football."
An Illustrated History of the adidas Predator Daniel Nyari showcases his talents on the Pred collection.
We've been a fan of New York based illustrator Daniel
Nyari for some time now. His unique way of capturing football
in his art is top class and after we discovered his collection of
portraits entitled 'Playmakers' we got hold of Daniel and asked him to
showcase his style on the famous adidas Predator collection.
From the Predator Rapier released in 1995 to the most recent Pred,
the LZ, Daniel has tackled the entire Predator timeline with his unique
spin to create a brilliant collection of footballing art. Enough chat,
judge for yourselves...
