La Liga returns from the international break this weekend with some pretty interesting fixtures. Valencia play their first game after Gary Neville was unceremoniously given the sack. Levante and Sporting Gijon battle to get themselves out of the relegation zone. Celta Vigo and Sevilla attempt to hold on to their Europa League places against Deportivo and Real Sociedad respectively. And oh yeah, the latest installment of El Clasico. The behemoth matchup of Spanish football goes down on Saturday afternoon, but frankly for the first time in a long time, there is really nothing to get excited about.
Barcelona has a 10 point lead over Atletico Madrid at the summit of the Primera Division. They are 11 points on Real entering Saturday afternoon’s El Clasico. Usually at this stage of the season, both teams are jockeying for the title. In fact Barcelona is probably more worried about Madrid’s neighbors Atletico than they are Los Blancos. They have drawn Diego Simeone’s men in the quarterfinals of the Champions League, with the two legs being played over the next two weeks. While the Spanish title is all but wrapped up, a loss in the round of eight to the perceived “lesser Madrid” would be a huge blow to Barca.
It isn’t just the home team facing distractions ahead of one of Europe’s biggest rivalry matches though. Real manager Zinedine Zidane has pretty much conceded the league, with their focus on their own European conquests, as well as the club’s future. While their two Spanish compatriots duke it out, Real follow up El Clasico with a double date with probably the easiest team remaining in the tournament, Wolfsburg. But getting past the Germans is just the first step in a long process to rebuilding the broken image of Real Madrid in the eyes of the world footballing community.
With transfer bans on the back burner for one, and in suspended animation for the other, this summer will be crucial to Barca staying atop the league and Real Madrid positioning themselves to usurp their rivals. However, while the champions are looking to add big names, all the chatter coming out of the Madrid camp is who is leaving. From Cristiano Ronaldo to James Rodriguez to Zidane himself, Madrid’s hierarchy seems to have a potential exodus of their own unintended doing. Instead of El Clasico being a showcase of the two of the top teams in the world, it may be akin to an NBA team giving a player extra minutes as they try to trade him.
However it shakes out, this weekend’s El Clasico is going to feel like just another game on the La Liga fixture list. There will be the cameos and the atmosphere, as there is with any big game at the Camp Nou, but that underlying tension that usually comes with the match will be absent. Ray Hudson will his damnedest to paint a verbal patch of frescoes across the airwaves. But even Rocky’s elaborate alliterations and ear piercing goal shrieks won’t do much to resuscitate this dead affair.
If both meet in the final, or even the semifinals, of the Champions League, it will be much different. Until that happens, if it does at all, we wait. We wait patiently for the soap opera surrounding the two clubs kicks back up again. We sit by idly twiddling our thumbs as two European superpowers plot their next shot cross each other’s bow. Those days aren’t that far off. But as it is with many things in sport, waiting is the hardest part. It is even harder when the meetings in the meantime mean nothing but a waste of time.