Europe

Embarrassing defeat for Spanish soccer team

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The World’s William Troop reports on a humiliating loss suffered by one of the globe’s biggest soccer clubs.

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This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

KATY CLARK: I’m Katy Clark. This is The World. Our global hit is coming up in a minute. First a quick note about a soccer game that’s got everyone talking in Spain. As The World’s William Troop explains you don’t have to be a soccer fan to get a kick from this story.

WILLIAM TROOP: The game did not go according to plan. On the one hand there was Real Madrid – one of the richest soccer clubs on the planet. It just spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the middle of a global recession to sign several top players. The galacticos they called them in Spain. Among them the reigning world player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo. He was out injured yesterday as Real Madrid played its first game in Spain’s National Cup Competition. The opponent was a lowly third division team – Alcorcon – from a Madrid suburb. That team’s payroll is about 400 times smaller than Real’s. The score? Alcorcon 4 – Real Madrid zero. Nothing. Nada. To put it American terms it’s as if the Yankees lost a playoff game against a Double-A farm team by say 12 runs. It could happen I guess. It just rarely does to the galacticos of Real Madrid. Today even the team’s general manager couldn’t hide his shame.

JORGE VALDANO: [SPEAKING SPANISH]

WILLIAM TROOP: First of all, he said, we have to apologize to our fans. Secondly, he went on, this humiliation could serve as a new starting point.

Somewhere down his list, I bet, is looking for a new coach. For The World I’m William Troop.

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