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Casillas in La Vanguardia: Playing well, poorly, with luck, or without it, we're winning our matches"

Everything seems to be clicking again in Madrid. How do you feel?
Very well, especially if I look back on all these years that we struggled and didn't bring home a title. Now that we've put in so much dedication and hard work to regain the lead, we're not so willing to relinquish it. We want to do our very best in these last two matches because we have already made the effort to give much more than we really could.

Has the hard part been taken care of?
We've done our best not to lose the enthusiasm we started off with and we're hoping to keep it up in these two remaining games.

Is it easy to forget about the League during these days you are with the national team?
Not really. There is such a close race for the League and everyone was so excited to see a storybook finish. This two week stoppage has been a sour note for everyone.

Yourself included?
We are professionals and I personally don't have a problem changing from one thing to the next. The League championship is at such an exciting stage and the match against Zaragoza is so important, but so are national team matches. Any talk about Madrid, Zaragoza, Barcelona, Espanyol, or Sevilla doesn't help, and that's why they are rarely mentioned here.

Are you suppressing your euphoria?
You have to be cautious at times, but I am sure I'll be one of the happiest people in the world when the time comes. I can control myself if the moment calls for it, but when it's time to celebrate, I am one of the craziest out there.

Is a player with so many matches and low points this year mentally fresh or just as tired as his body?
Both mentally fresh and tired. The excitement that comes with the chance of winnng the League has been a breath of fresh air. I am sure we would be mentally exhausted if we were four of five points off Barça. And physically, let's not even go there. It's exactly what happened to us the last two seasons.
The title is yours to win, but wouldn't it be a huge downer for the team if Barcelona ended up with it?
No. The downer will be for Barcelona if they lose the League because they've won it the last two seasons and they were in control for a large part of this year. We've been in the lead two or three times and, as former motorcycle racer Ángel Nieto said, with a few curves left, we're now in front after being pretty far behind. Honestly, what Madrid is going through right now is a great reward for this deserving squad.

But you've been criticised so much.
A lot has been said about Madrid, much of it negative. Those of us who have been here a long time have suffered more for our fans than ourselves. Surely some of the criticism has been deserved, but I would rather hear it at the end of the season. All we have left to do is listen, see, silence the critics, and continue battling it out on the field of play just as we've done.

And with a little luck, too.
True. Sometime we play well and sometimes poorly; sometimes we've gotten lucky, and sometimes we haven't. I agree with the comment, but we are winning our matches.

Have you grown more with all the success you've enjoyed or with the adversity you've experienced over this three year drought?
During the adversity, of course. It's always great to go from bad to good, but it's also interesting doing the opposite and then recovering again after learning many things. That's perhaps when you learn the most. We have won Leagues, European Cups, InterContinentals, practically everything... And then you go to not winning a thing. Winning the League now would be the culmination of the greatest success. It's odd. Several years ago, only winning the League and European Super Cup was a failure for Madrid. I've learned that football is full of paradoxes and ironies.

Has the thought of finishing the year empty-handed crossed your mind a lot this season?
Absolutely. You think about it when you're knocked out of the King's Cup, the Champions League, and when you're six points away from the top of the table and going through a bad patch. But thanks to a little luck, hard work, team unity, our coach's know-how, and our fans, we have that fire in our bellies to at least battle it out for the League title.

During last year's 0-3 defeat against Barcelona at the Bernabéu, you yelled out “We are Madrid!” Have you had to repeat it a lot this year?
On occasion. There have been moments that the team has been gripped by nervousness and the ghosts of year's passed, which prevented us from steering in the right direction and made us think about going another year with nothing to show for it.



There's a Barça vs. Madrid foosball table in the Spanish national team's camp. Have you ever played as Barcelona?
Of course. There used to be one with Atleti that I also played with. But I don't pay attention to who I am or whether I play as keeper, midfielder, or forward (laughs). I really get along very well with Puyol and the other Barça players.

posted by khalidmrrakchi@hotmail.com @ 1:52 AM