Why I Dug Into That Real Madrid Game Stats
So last Tuesday night, I sat down for my regular football fix, yeah? Real Madrid was playing Real Valladolid, and man, it sounded like it could be spicy. Figured I’d grab some numbers after, see what the stats really said about how the game played out.
First thing, I got myself a big ol’ mug of coffee. Needed fuel. Headed over to a stats site – won’t say which one, it’s messy and full of ads like those pop-up things that jump at you. Took me like ten minutes just to find the match page! Finally spotted it.
Started scribbling stuff down right in a plain text file on my laptop, super basic:
- Who had the ball more? Real Madrid, obviously.
- How many whacks at goal? Gotta count shots.
- Anybody miss a sitter? Check the big chances.
- And those passes… how many actually reached a teammate?
Copied everything messy into a spreadsheet later. Seriously, the columns were everywhere like spaghetti. Took ages lining up stuff like possession percentage and shots on target. Found myself staring at the screen like, “Wait, is Valladolid’s tackle count really that high? Or did I mess up copying?” Double-checked. Yep, they got stuck in. Tough at the back, Valladolid was.
The weird part? Madrid had WAY more shots, like a ton more, but Valladolid blocked loads. Their keeper must’ve had arms like superman. Highlight clips showed a couple of saves that were just unreal – flying through the air, tipping it over. Stats backed that up big time.
Checked the pass accuracy. Madrid played ping-pong with the ball most of the game. So many passes connecting. Valladolid? Not so much. Kinda figured that just from watching, felt like Madrid was just knocking it around.
Wanna know something kinda crazy? The foul count. Valladolid got whistled a bunch more. Makes sense though, chasing shadows and trying to stop the big boys. You could see the frustration when they kept giving the ball away. Stats nailed that feeling, numbers don’t lie.
After wrestling with the spreadsheet and squinting at the numbers, the main takeaway felt pretty obvious: Madrid totally ran the show. Possession? Mostly theirs. Shots? Almost all theirs. Valladolid fought hard, blocked shots, keeper played a blinder, but honestly? They barely got out of their half! Stats showed they had what, like one good chance maybe? Shows how Madrid just squeezed them.
So yeah, ended up spending way longer than planned. Coffee mug long empty. That spreadsheet was a hot mess, but the numbers gave me the real picture of what actually happened. Madrid just bossed it, Valladolid dug in deep but couldn’t get much going. Stats made the highlights make more sense. Kinda cool how numbers tell the story behind the flashy goals, right?