“A Barça-Real Madrid is a holiday at Carrusel Deportivo”

When Dani Garrido (San Sebastián, 1978) arrive on saturdays a Carousel (SER) does it with several pages full of notes. By hand, with a fine pen. Of all the things to deal with in each game, the essentials. This Sunday the bunch of folios will be almost a folder. There is a Classic. He has been clear about his particular alignment for days.

-How do you experience a week of Clásico on the radio?

-It’s a different, special feeling. Although it is not the same at a quarter past four, which forces you to put yourself in the starting situation, than at nine. But the day of Barça-Real Madrid is a holiday at Carrusel.

-How long before has it been prepared?

-The routine is more or less the same. On Tuesdays we get active, we start to think things through, we shape. But when you have a rough diamond like a Barça-Madrid, it’s about polishing it and arriving at the game with clear ideas.

-He always says that ‘Carrusel’ is an oiled orchestra.

-Lifetime. We put the talent we have at the listener’s disposal. For a Classic the structure is more numerous, we add more instruments.

-Any special memory of all the Classics in your six years already at the helm of ‘Carrusel’?

-As a director you have to be very aware of the game … but also of the coordination. To give way to the narrator. Of the wireless that has to count the changes. The tactical variant. To insert advertising naturally. From a song, from the heart of the fan … That is to say that, sometimes, I have more memories of the performance than of the matches themselves (smile).

-Your lineup this afternoon?

-We have been introducing two-voice narration in games like this for a while now. It enriches, it gives rhythm, intensity. It is headed by Flaquer (Barça) and Romero (Madrid). Plus the usual wireless: Herráez and Sique Rodríguez. With the number one in the arbitration analysis, Iturralde González. And the entire cast of commentators in the preview and the post. Relaño, Roncero, Mijatovic, Álvaro Benito, Don Luis Suárez Miramontes, Jordi Martí, Laura Martínez and Marcos López. Later our technical team, all the people in Madrid. Production, advertising, technicians. The people who participate directly in a Classic in Cadena SER will be close to 30 people. A powerful framework to tell the game well.

-Full of Christians and ‘Messis’.

-The best are in Carousel. It is true that this Sunday, having many more people than a normal day, it is necessary to spin finer. There does not have to be silences but neither do people have to step on it. It has to sound symphonic without sounding rushed. It has to be very exciting but not tense. They all know each other so well, they are so radio, so Carousel, that Carousel flows in a match of this level.

-And if not, Itu arrives and takes them yellow …

-Yes (laugh)… It’s fundamental. Remaining only that he is the best referee analyst, which he is, number one, would be far from reality. It is a fundamental support for me. With a special sensitivity for sports, one more producer. And a spectacular energizer. He understands the radio very well.

-What great Classics do you remember as a listener?

-I could tell you that 2-3 of Messi at the Bernabéu. Or the 5-0 from Barça to Madrid with Itu as referee. And the 0-1 of Baptista’s goal.

-What does a game like this have for the listener?

-(Laugh) Well, I’m not an objective part of this. I work from it, I live from it, I am privileged. Logically, the best way to follow football is in the stadium. You perceive data that only narrators see, wireless. But radio is magic. You can imagine what the game is like more, knowing the narrator a little, when he raises the pace, and you make a composition in your head. Listening to a game on your favorite radio, with the team of your life, even if you can follow it on TV, has something special. Without detracting, of course, the huge storytellers on TV.

-On days like this is he able to eat?

-Never like before the program. Good breakfast and that’s it.

-Has 12, 13, 15 hours of radio without anything in the stomach every weekend?

-You are right. I don’t eat anything except some coffee. I don’t like the feeling of being on a full stomach doing radio. I know it’s crazy. But I can’t. Then he came home and robbed the refrigerator (laugh). I know that it is not recommended, but the five pieces of fruit and the three meals for me on weekends do not exist.

-What do you expect from the Classic today? Without Messi, without Ramos …

-The Classic is above any player. Be Messi, be Ramos or Cristiano. It looks like this is a decaf Classic and I don’t think so. In the end it is the Classic. Not one player or another. On the grass I see it even. Although Barça is not well, Madrid is not in great shape either. It will be one of the most unpredictable Classics of recent years.

-Can the duel be that of the future: Ansu Fati-Vinicius?

-Could be. We may have time to compare them in the next decade. Ansu is in a process of return, but it is so differential and good that from the first moments it is capable of being decisive. Vini has been waiting for a long time and it seems that it has crystallized, that it has evolved.

-Who is playing more: Koeman or Ancelotti?

-Koeman. Another thing is that, if Madrid lost, someone could raise any doubts about Carlo. The Barça would surpass it in the classification.