The Madrid dressing room is asking for "time": "After four years of Ancelotti's automatic actions, you can't do everything differently in four days."

" What we want to be takes time ." Xabi Alonso has been in charge of Real Madrid for ten days and only three of those have been with all the international players available, and in the last few hours he even lost Kylian Mbappé to a fever. The Toulouse native has time and it's fair that it should be that way, but against Al Hilal the Whites repeated the shortcomings of recent months. "It's only been three training sessions . The demand for a result is there and I know there are still things to improve. Everything takes time ."

Alonso analyzed his team's mistakes on the Miami pitch and admitted, understandably, that " I didn't like the first half too much ." "We didn't have good circulation and we didn't know how to adjust when we lost the ball. We'll have to look at it to react," he said, praising part of the second half: "We were better, with more balance on the ball, and we stifled them a bit more ," he added.

The first-half losses were a burden for the Whites, who struggled to defend transitions. " I wanted us not to accelerate too quickly , because we were going very fast. They have good footwork, and we struggled to recover," Alonso reflected.

' Time ' was the most repeated word in the corridors of the Hard Rock Stadium . The coach insisted, as did Thibaut Courtois , once again the spokesman in the mixed zone on a grey night. "After four years with Ancelotti , with some automatisms that are still there and now we have to try to change, in four days you can't do everything differently, it's not that easy," explained the Belgian, who acknowledged that "we have tried to change things, with a higher and more aggressive line." " We are training a lot, watching videos , talking a lot and trying to do everything he asks of us, but obviously it is not always easy to translate that onto the pitch. I am sure it will come out better and we will learn from this," he continued.

A few meters away, Trent Alexander-Arnold was back in the swing of things. " It'll take me a while to acclimatize to my teammates and the team. That's normal. It's something new for me, but I'm happy; this is a dream," he said, admitting that Xabi had asked them to have "more control of the ball." "Especially in this heat, because otherwise you're chasing shadows."

Football will put Madrid in its place while awaiting Xabi Alonso's ideas, but there are details that do reflect the Basque coach's hand and decisions. In the absence of Mbappé , the former Bayer Leverkusen player dared to give the starting spot to youth player Gonzalo García . No inventions or players out of position. And the forward, who has been the top scorer in the First Division RFEF with Castilla with 25 goals , was outstanding: he scored the first goal and took home the MVP of the match.

"This is a dream come true for me. I've been looking for this opportunity, and I'm happy. It's something that I, along with all the players in the youth team, have been looking for," said the striker, who insisted, like his teammates, that " there are still many details to be ironed out."

Alonso's other decisions had to do with his star players. The coach didn't hesitate to withdraw Rodrygo, Vinicius, and Bellingham , the latter two of whom had been particularly absent during the match. " Vini had some cramps ," said the Basque, who finished the match with a forward line consisting of Brahim, Gonzalo, and youth player Víctor Muñoz .

The last protagonist of the duel was Fede Valverde , who missed Madrid's seventh penalty in the last 18 taken. "We've all missed here, myself the first, as I've had several chances. It doesn't matter, Fede will get the rest of the penalties there are. It was a shame, but we're eager to play the other two games," Gonzalo argued. "Penalties have an element of luck, and today we had to save it. Nothing more ," Bono said in the mixed zone.