Sergio Ramos is SCUM: Champs League Final Recap

Real Madrid defeated  Liverpool 3-1 in  this season's Champions League  Final in Kiev to win  their third straight title in the competition, but Real Madrid supporters should feel ashamed by  their team's display. Typically, soccer fans tend to view Real on  the binary scale, meaning that you either love them or hate them. Historically, they're the most decorated club in Europe and are annually vying for the title of Forbes's 'most valuable sports team in the world.' As such, the decision  to either love or loathe Los Blancos becomes more clear. Basically its boiled down to if you're the type of person who likes to support a team because they have the best players and always win, or if you're the kind of person who wants the best team to lose because they always win and have the best players. Entering  the Champions League Final, I would have told you that I don't care for Real Madrid, but that I appreciate their skill and respect their club and most of their players. But after what I witnessed at NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, I cannot fathom how anyone with an ounce of self-respect can support Real Madrid.

They're captained by Sergio Ramos, who, even before his antics in the Kiev, had been widely regarded as a dirty player, and just as Julius Campbell remarked to Gary Bertier in Remember the  Titans, "Attitude reflects leadership, captain." Ramos revealed his true scummy character and verified every bit of criticism about himself in the 30th minute when he locked his arm with Liverpool superstar Mohamed Salah's before twisting and riding the Egyptian into the ground. Salah landed awkwardly, under the full bodyweight of Ramos, and stayed down after the play. After receiving treatment from the pysios, Salah briefly re-entered the match in a heroic attempt to play through the pain, but ended up succumbing and left the pitch for good minutes later with tears in his eyes. Salah's injury was officially listed as a separated shoulder, an injury soccer players rarely encounter, and his health status for the World Cup remains in limbo. The flagrant foul was allegedly missed by the  referee as what should have been deemed, at the very least, a yellow card, apparently didn't even warrant a free-kick. Referees have long been accused of giving Real Madrid  the benefits of most calls, especially in European competition. Paris Saint-Germain manager Unai Emery remarked on this subject following his squad's defeat to Real in the round of 16 of this year's tournament, and Juventus  legend Gigi Buffon  had a post match anti-referee tirade after his side lost in the quarterfinals to Real on a questionable penalty awarded in stoppage time of the second leg of their quartefinal tie. Ramos's tackle was egregious, illegal, and premeditated. Players don't earn a reputation like Ramos's overnight, they're predicated on years of repeatedly poor decisions  and dirty tackles. Guys like Ramos have mastered dirty play so well that it has almost become a form of art for them. It's not just carrying  out  a dirty play, its about  how  to hide that dirty play from the referee. Ramos knew exactly what he  was doing  when  he linked his arm with Salah's and landed on  his shoulder. It was no coincidence that Ramos took out Liverpool's best, and probably the  hottest player on the planet, with his appalling tackle.

That tackle changed the course of the game. Obviously Liverpool playing without their leading scorer and most dynamic offensive  weapon was a massive blow when  you're playing in the finals of Europe's top cub competition against  the 2-time incumbent champions, but when you look at the flow of the game up to that point and then how it changed after Salah's injury, the difference is staggering. Based on SofaScore's in-game 'AttackMomentum' tracker, which monitors and charts the in-game momentum of a match based on possession and scoring chances on a minute by minute basis, Liverpool held a momentum advantage and generated more chances than Real while Salah was on the field for the first third of the match. After Salah was forced off because of his shoulder injury, the momentum immediately swung in Real's favor and remained with them for the majority of the rest of the game. Analytical measurement aside, it didn't take a soccer genius to recognize that the feel of the game drastically changed following Salah's injury. Any unbiased viewer saw that the match was even, if anything, through the first 30 minutes, with each team controlling the ball and exchanging chances. However, after Salah exited, Liverpool looked lost without their leader. They struggled to adjust without Salah because he is so uniquely dynamic that there are no plug and play subs at his caliber. The Red's showed determination and resoluteness by evening the score at 1 with a tip in by Sadio Mane in the 54th minute, but the task of slaying the Spanish giants became Herculean once Ramos's dirty tackle nullified Liverpool's ace.

While the match undoubtedly changed when Sergio Ramos intentionally injured Mohamed Salah, Liverpool's goalkeeping inconsistencies were front and center in the second half. Red's goalkeeper Loris Karius is probably on suicide watch after his second half gaffes. Karius is solely responsible for two Real goals and its actually become a subject of debate as to which mistake was worse. The first goal, when the match was still tied at zero, took place in the 51st minute when Karius had control of the ball and looked to distribute the it from the edge of his 18-yard box. Inexplicably, Karius looked left and then tried to roll the ball to his right - right into the path of lurking Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema who read Karius's eyes and body and merely stabbed out his right leg. The ball ricocheted off Benzema's boot and into the back of the Liverpool net. It wasn't as if Benzema was hiding , or out of view, or behind a Liverpool player, on the contrary his 6'1 frame, decked out in white from head to toe, was basically standing on Karius's toes. Benzema was the closest person on the field to Karius, and directly in his line of sight, which made his decision to try and throw the ball through the Frenchman that much more puzzling. 

Karius's second major blunder really put the match out of hand for the Reds. In the 83rd minute, Gareth Bale, feeling himself after his 64th minute bicycle kick golazo, decided to tee up a screamer from 30+ yards out. The ball knuckled off of Bale's foot towards the net, but Karius was able to get both hands on it. Except, instead of catching the ball or knocking it over the bar, the ball deflected off Karius's fists and into the back of the net. Bale deserves credit; the Welshman has a canon for a left foot, but at this level of club soccer goalkeepers have to make that save. The ball was well struck, but Karius had a clear line of sight and was not only in great position to keep it out, but managed to get 2 fists on it - there's not much more a keeper can ask for. Bad luck played some part in it, but at the end of the day the blame for Real's third goal falls squarely on the shoulders of Loris Karius. 

Real Madrid may have scored two cheapies en route to their 13th Champions League title, but their second goal will surely be featured in soccer highlight videos for generations to come. Liverpool supporters had to have felt sick from the two weak goals that Karius conceded, but they had to just shrug their shoulders when Gareth Bale buried a breathtaking bicycle kick volley off of a cross from Marcelo to put Real up 2-1 in the 64th minute. Bale was subbed on just 3 minutes before making the decisive strike, and the wonder goal deflated Liverpool as Mane scored the equalizer just 9 minutes before. Bale's strike wasn't Karius's fault, it wasn't really anyone's fault to be honest. Perhaps he could have been marked a little closer, or Marcelo could have been closed down quicker, but there aren't many players on this planet who can finish like that. That goal is one you have to live with, one of the few where you almost have to applaud the effort because goals like that aren't scored every day. Most of Real Madrid's performance infuriated me that day, but Bale's bicycle volley was the lone redeemable moment from their win.

Real Madrid supporters undoubtedly celebrated their team's third consecutive Champions League title by drinking and chanting and partying but I don't know how they can sleep at night after witnessing the egregiously unsportsmanlike antics of their squad. Soccer often gets a (mostly unfair) reputation as a 'soft' sport by people unfamiliar with it. These people almost always defend this opinion by pointing out the acting, whining, diving, and fake injuries that have unfairly come to define soccer. Any informed fan of the sport understands that the aforementioned 'issues' are frowned upon and typically exaggerated. However, it's teams like Real Madrid who perpetuate these types of stereotypes and turn-off potential new fans. Real Madrid shamelessly dove, and whined, and acted their way to victory in Kiev. If anyone wearing a white kit felt any sort of pressure they immediately went to ground. If a call miraculously didn't go Reals's way they demonstratively whined and complained to the officials. FIFA and UEFA have publicly instituted an initiative to curtail the frequency of these types of behavior and match officials are trained to recognize a dive vs. a foul and punish payers for 'simulation,' but its still a big part of the game plan for unethical sides like Real. I mean were we actually supposed to expect Champs League final referee, Milorad Mazic, to accurately make these kinds of calls when he didn't judge Sergio Ramos's mauling of Mo Salah to be worthy of a free kick? Just about every player is guilty of embellishment, but certain players have almost adopted this kind of bullshit into their repertoire of skills. In maybe the least surprising development in Kiev, the primary culprit of this cowardly tactic was none other than Real Madrid's resident scum bag and captain, Sergio Ramos. Even after Ramos's disgusting tackle to end Salah's night, the dirtball couldn't hep himself and indulged in one of the most pathetic displays of diving in recent memory. It's so absurd that I will let the video below speak for itself, but note that Ramos was actually awarded a free kick for his performance. Just as his teammate Gareth Bale's bicycle kick volley strike will adorn countless 'top 10 goal' compilations, Ramos's dive will similarly live on in infamy as a key inclusion in any 'top 10 worst dives' list.