The Special One's Special Strategy for El Clásico - The Wall Street Journal Sports

By GABRIELE MARCOTTI

What's the best way to prepare for a four-game series in three different competitions against your bitter rival when these games will likely determine the outcome of your season? Why, if you're a coach, deflect all attention off your players.

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Associated Press

Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho refused to answer questions at a press conference before his team played Barcelona, its rival.

On Friday, some 150 journalists crowded into the press-conference room at Real Madrid's Valdebebas training complex ahead of the club's clash with Barcelona. Earlier that day, the reporters were told that Jose Mourinho, Real's firebrand coach, had decided not to attend but that his assistant, Aitor Karanka, would field questions instead.
It's not mandatory for coaches to address the media at pre- and post-match press conferences, as in American sports, but it's certainly customary, especially ahead of arguably the world's biggest club game. While Mourinho has sent Karanka to represent him in the past, nobody expected the self-described "Special One" not to attend—not before a match like this. Several senior members of the Madrid press corps warned the club that if Mourinho did not show up, they would simply walk out.
Mourinho did accompany Karanka into the room and took his seat at the microphone. But then, a Real spokesman explained that he would not be fielding any questions. Karanka would do all the talking. More than 100 journalists rose as one and left the room in protest.
Real Madrid's official explanation was that Mourinho felt his words routinely get "distorted" by a headline-hungry press, so it was best for him to remain silent and not ratchet up the pressure. Few observers saw it that way, and some even praised his Machiavellian genius: By turning himself into a human lightning rod for the media, his players could prepare in peace. Others were more critical.
Real and Barcelona drew 1-1, a result that left Madrid eight points back with six games to go. It probably means the Catalans will win the league. But afterward, Mourinho was the main talking point—again.

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Reuters

Real Madrid's Xabi Alonso takes out Barcelona's Lionel Messi in the first of four games between the two rivals, a 1-1 draw.

When a journalist from the Madrid sports newspaper AS, one of the many who walked out Friday, asked the opening question in the post-match press conference, Mourinho coolly said: "I don't have to answer your question. Since you wouldn't speak to my assistant on Friday, then I think it's right that I should only speak to your boss."
The message was simple. This was tit-for-tat. If his assistant wasn't good enough for the press pack, then the press pack wasn't good enough for him. He'd only field questions from fellow bosses, i.e. editors-in-chief. And if that wasn't clear enough, he made it so in fielding the next question from Punto Pelota, an outlet that had not deserted Friday's press conference.
"I will answer you, because Punto Pelota showed respect [for Karanka], and you, sir, are a fine professional who also deserves respect," Mourinho said.
To an outsider, this behavior may appear childish. To long-time Mourinho watchers, it was unprecedented, but not exactly a surprise. The Portuguese boss seeks out an edge wherever he can find it. And when he said he would be ignoring those media representatives who had "disrespected" Karanka, it was indicative that nobody left the room. If the objective of Friday's walkout was to put the manager in his place, it had evidently failed.
Another example: Earlier in the week, Mourinho said that Real Madrid would practice playing with 10 men. Even in his previous spells with Inter and Chelsea, he often had players red-carded against Barcelona. "I have to train with 10 men [to prepare], because I go there with Chelsea, I finish with 10 men, I go there with Inter, I finish with 10, so I have to prepare because it can happen again," he announced. (It's not actually true that Mourinho-coached teams always get a man red-carded against Barcelona, though after this weekend, it has happened on 5-of-12 occasions, which is unusually high.)

It was a quip but also a calculated move, and the message was clear: The referees will punish us, so we'd better be prepared. It even planted the seed of paranoia in the referees' mind, and these kinds of shenanigans have their own logic. If you get into the match official's mind, he'll want to prove he's unbiased. In doing so, he may end up giving you the benefit of the doubt.
Saturday's referee, Cesar Muniz Fernandez, was clearly unmoved. He sent off Real defender Raul Albiol early in the second half for a foul that also resulted in a Barcelona penalty, duly converted by Lionel Messi. The good news for Real fans is that the side actually seemed to play better a man short—maybe Mourinho had practiced with 10 men, after all—and clawed its way back to 1-1, thanks to another penalty, when Marcelo was fouled by Dani Alves and Cristiano Ronaldo slotted it home from the spot.
Mourinho's pre-match public-relations strategy might have backfired. But Real's comeback, while futile in terms of turning around the league, showed there's plenty of fight in this team. And with the Spanish Cup final Wednesday and a two-legged Champions League semifinal coming up in the next two weeks, there's plenty of opportunity for Mourinho to get some vengeance and prove he's still Special.

Year of the Mid-Major Extends to Europe

Because the Europa League is the Champions League's ugly stepsister, you may have missed the fact that the Portuguese league is supplying three of this year's semifinalists: Braga, Porto and Benfica. (The fourth is Spain's Villarreal.) For a league that's a net exporter of talent, in terms of both managers (Mourinho, of course, started here) and players (in the past 12 months, it has lost stars such as Raul Meireles, Angel Di Maria, David Luiz, Ramires and Eduardo), it remains a remarkable achievement. This is tantamount to the Big Sky Conference sending three teams to the Final Four. Well, maybe the NIT's Final Four, but still.
What's more, Porto, Braga and Benfica knocked out some rather pedigreed teams along the way, including Dynamo Kyiv, Liverpool, Seville, Spartak Moscow, Paris St. Germain and PSV Eindhoven. This year's success will likely lead to another exodus of talent away from Portugal in the summer, but that's OK: The league has shown a remarkable talent for renewing itself, year after year.
— Gabriele Marcotti is the world soccer columnist for The Times of London and a regular broadcaster for the BBC.