A Quote by Freddie Ljungberg
When you play against a Spanish team, especially Madrid, it is quite an open game.
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In England, everyone is really physically strong. They can play three games, and then they are ready to play the fourth. If you are a Spanish team, and you give away a corner against an English team, then you have to be ready.
Once you're on the pitch, you play for your team, and you want to win. During the year, you can play against friends - you can play against big friends and close friends - but once you are on the pitch, this friendship goes away, and you just focus on winning the game.
Coming back in that AFC Championship Game against the Steelers, that was a poignant moment for me for a lot of reasons - the magnitude of the game and having not been able to play for quite a while and to be able to get on the field for that game. That one stands out.
When you play in the Premier League, say you're playing against a lower-end team, they set up to defend all the time, they set up to block you off. But when you play in the Champions League, all the other teams are used to winning every week, so it's more of an open game, it's more attacking, end-to-end.
It's tough, it's not the scenario that we wanted for sure. I thought our desperation was there, we worked hard, but it was one game, a lot can happen, they're a good team, and unfortunately we didn't win. We had some bad bounces, and in one game those make a big difference, and unfortunately it didn't go our way. But if we play hard like that, we play desperate like that and control the puck the way we did down low, I like our chances against any team.
I've learned that every game is different. You could play one team and have a terrible game and the next time you play them have the best game of your career.
Real Madrid is like Manchester United or Liverpool or Bayern Munich. There is so much history, and you need to play and win against that history. It's difficult to play against them because you fight against everything - the history, the players - but because of that, the motivation is always so high.
I probably prefer Spanish football to the others. It's very technical, the way they play; they keep the ball well, and whenever Spurs have played against Spanish teams in the past, they've always made it difficult for us.
Dortmund is a fantastic club, critical for my career. But my Spanish grandfather on my mother's side always wished that I play in Spain. And if, then at Real Madrid.
For a kid that just played for Oviedo, to then going to play for a team like Real Madrid, it felt fantastic. But being taken out of my family home and moving away alone, into the residence Madrid have for young players, it was a bit difficult. But as time passed, I got used to it.
I grew up, and my body was not like a Spanish player. I was tall. I had a powerful game; my arms were long, so I'm like, 'No, you can't play like Spanish players.'
If I have to play 5, I'll play 5. That's what we've been doing for years in the Spanish team.
For me it's more difficult to play against the quicker wingers, but for the team it's perhaps more difficult to face players that are good passers, because one through ball can take the whole team out of the game.
I had practiced with the team, and the first scheduled game was with the University of Missouri. They made it quite clear to the Army that they would not play a team with a black player on it. Instead of telling me the truth, the Army gave me leave to go home.
I'm going to play in the first team of Real Madrid.
I bet on the game of baseball and I bet on my team, even the mistakes I made, I have to take a different look at someone betting against their own team... that's throwing the game.
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