• Suspensions can help break Madrid derby stasis after spiky first leg
According to the kind of people who run po-faced professional writing courses, there are roughly seven types of film plot. These are called things like Voyage And Return and Tragedy And Rebirth, archetypes intended to reflect pretty much all forms of human endeavour, from trying to carry the vacuum cleaner downstairs to an entire adult life spent in a state of creeping low-pressure disappointment. It is a seductively universal idea, and one that can be applied just as easily to sport. Perhaps when Gareth Bale moved to Real Madrid for a world-record transfer fee two summers ago – pretty much the most dramatic event that can happen to any professional footballer – even Bale himself might have imagined his time in Spain panning out along the lines of Rags To Riches or The Quest or even Overcoming the Monster.
Except, it hasn’t quite worked out like that. Watching from afar this season, and then in person this week at the Vicente Calderón stadium, it has been tempting to conclude Bale-in-Madrid is instead edging closer to a classic Fish Out Of Water comedy. Bale didn’t play that badly in Real Madrid’s 0-0 draw at Atlético. But it was another mannered, half-throttle, oddly constipated performance. Bale passed to a team-mate 16 times over the full 90 minutes. He missed the game’s best chance. An hour after the final whistle he could be seen wandering through the jagged concrete bowels of the Calderón, meeting the usual friendly halloos and howzits of the quote-hungry British press with a look of dazed disinterest.
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from Sport | The Guardian http://ift.tt/1aD5auR

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