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International duty, bans, hype, and side notes

International Schedule.

The players have quite a busy schedule ,no? Higuain and Di Maria will face Chile and Venezuela. Meanwhile, Marcelo and the Brazilian National Team will "friendly" against Costa Rica and Mexico. Off in France's U-21, Varane will probably be looking to carry on his excellent performances with Real against Kazakhstan and Romania. Khedira will face teammate Altintop in Istanbul. (The media is claming that "Ozil is making excuses over a knock he picked up in Real Madrid's 4-0 win over Espanyol in La Liga last weekend, in an attempt to avoid playing against his family's native country.") A few days later, Germany will host a match against Belgium.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal will be without "Cocentrao" (hopefully they will have concentration!) and Pepe as they  face important games against Iceland and Denmark. An already qualified Spain will face Czech Republic and four days later host the match again Scotland.  Last but not least, Turkey!! Altintop will face teammates Real Madrid teamates Ozil (well, maybe not) and Khedira, as well as Azerbaijan, in Istanbul.

The Two- Sided Mou

Mou has received a two match ban for his "eye-poking" incident. Barcelona assistant coach Tito Vilanova (no not Pi... nevermind)  was also (thank goodness, the world isn't entirly loop-sided) banned for one match for responding to Mourinho by slapping him during the Super Copa mass brawl. Both gentlemen were fined $829 (600 euros) each. The two clubs were fined 90 euros each for the incident. But chill; the bans will be effective only in the Spanish Super Cup.
O.K. so that's one side of Mou. Here's another. Madrid coach generously offered to help some children whose families have trouble paying the club fee. If you speak Spanish, right this way please. If not, please enjoy my google translate/ Spanish II version. Ahem!

The son of Jose Mourinho plays for Youngsters B, as a goalkeeper for CD Canalis (a  Madrid based club, which celebrates its 50th anniversary, with 700 children and maintains a collaborative relationship with Real Madrid. That's why it passed through its ranks of children as Zidane or Ronaldo.)


It all starts when one day, José Mourinho Jr saw the  mother of a  teamate crying. That mother was crying because her family was going through economic problems and knew she could not pay the club her child to continue playing. This is scene is told to  Mourinho (through Javier Garcia Coll who handles the issues related to the players) who then comes out on his own iniciiative and selflessly pays the fees to 20 teamates of his son . The scholarships that the club gives are sometimes just not enough for everyone. The president of CD Canillas, José Manuel Álvarez, told COPE, “Mou didn’t do it so others could find out, but we wanted everyone to know this side of him.”
The club’s sporting director, Rafa Cano, told of the informality with which Mourinho appears with the club: "Yesterday, he was a ball boy in training game in which his son played."  One of the moms  more involved in the club , Pilar Pastor, said that " (Mou) generates a lot of expectation when he comes; kids go crazy asking for autographs, and some of the parents too."
 In addition, a group of kids have had the opportunity to write a letter to the coach of Real Madrid.  Below is the letter of one of the kids, an 11- year-old from Mali named Mousa:
 “Hi Mourinho. I’m Mousa Touré.  Although I’m a Chelsea fan, I like Real Madrid, but just a little bit and I play in Canillas.  I heard you paid for the kits and tournament fees for this year.  I wish you luck for next season.  And thank you for everything.  I hope you read this, goodbye.  Mousa Touré.” 

Nice story,no? I wonder why it wasn't heavily circulated by the media?

Nuri is back in training! Honestly, I can't wait to see him play. Even Altintop has played. (against Ajax like the last 2 mins or so) Can you imagine, we got Nuri first but he could be the last signing to actually play!Gasp.

Neymar to Madrid? I used to fancy the idea but... I don't know, it's not his time , yet. At the same time however, I would HATE for Barca to get him. That would really hurt us.

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