Real Madrid coach Carlos Queiroz has conceded that the club’s pre-season tour of the far East had hurt preparations for the new season. “The tour of Asia brought consequences that cannot be ignored,” he said in an interview published in Portuguese sports daily A Bola yesterday. “But the team has been improving, as has the yield of individual players like Michel Salgado or Luis Figo,” he said. The nine-time European champions spent three weeks in August in China, Japan and Thailand in an attempt to win over new fans. The squad played four matches in nine days during its crowd-drawing tour, but many Real fans complained this was not the right preparation for the Spanish champions. Their concerns where echoed by Real Madrid’s French playmaker Zinedine Zidane who said in an interview shortly after the tour was over he felt the squad did not work hard enough duri “After each match, we went to bed late, we got up early and headed for the airport. In these conditions, it was impossible to do real pre-season training,” he said. Queiroz faced a barrage of media criticism after Real Madrid suffered a 2-1 Spanish Super Cup first leg loss to Real Mallorca shortly after returning from their Asian tour. But the Portuguese coach, who joined the club in June after spending last season as assistant coach at Manchester United, redeemed himself after Real Madrid steamrolled past Real Mallorca 3-0 in the Spanish Super Cup return to secure the trophy. “This is a game of opinions and passions. What I need to do is make decisions according to my convictions, or do what I think is best for the team” he said.
