Real Madrid: The metaphysics of Champions League winning and domestic shortcomings
Twelve points below FC Barcelona in the table, there’s little left for Real Madrid to play for, aside from pride, for what it’s worth, and a Champions League spot (though few would lose any sleep over that).
I say ‘for what it’s worth,’ because last season the scenario was similar, with Los Blancos trailing by an embarrassing margin in La Liga.
The season before that, Zidane and company actually won the league – but that’s not saying much, because it was, for all intents and purposes, an anomaly. You can’t help but question the significance attached to ‘pride’ in practice and out on the pitch.
It sounds good in pre-match press conferences, it helps to stay on the good side of the fans, and it doesn’t take much to say it, but phrases like “we’ll die for this shirt” are nice-sounding and little else, when you get down to it.
Real Madrid has won so few league titles over the past decade and lost –often embarrassingly- to Barcelona so often that the club seems to have gotten – as much as it pains me to say this – a little used to it. A 5-1 smacking from Barcelona isn’t the end of the world – it’s just a humiliating defeat in a long line of humiliating defeats. It still stings, but a little less each time.
In La Liga and the Champions League (where it’s been a whole other story), Madrid has been a Janus-faced entity. Take last season, for instance: you don’t know what’s more surprising- winning an unbelievable third UCL title in a row or being so abysmal in La Liga in a season when they’re supposed to be the best in Europe again. The latter is probably a little less surprising, as it’s become almost a habit- which only serves to reinforce my point.
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There’s no denying the charm of the Champions League, where there are few ‘little’ games; it puts La Liga in the shade, where matches, by comparison, often seem like a chore. Maybe it’s the games being played in the afternoon, maybe it’s the comparatively less imposing stature of the opponent, maybe it’s something else, but the feeling I’ve often gotten from the players reminds me of a passage from Caputo’s A Rumor of War:
"“We pick ourselves up, slowly, unwillingly, like convicts in a workgang, and are at it once more.”"
A game against Getafe will seem drab for a player fresh from an intense game against Bayern.
Zinedine Zidane is now back managing and he’s gotten off to a positive start with the team grabbing all three points against Valladolid after four defeats in a row at the Bernabéu. Given the position Real is in, one could say the significance of the result was more symbolic and had more to do with morale than with the result itself. But, it’s a new era we’re now in and getting off on the right foot was important. It doesn’t yet feel like one as the big changes are still a few months away.
Next. Real Madrid striker Mariano Diaz turns down international call up from Catalonia. dark
Much has been made of Zidane’s return and the risk he’s running of spoiling his legacy. He left last year completely out of the blue and he’s come back exactly the same way. His decision to leave was surprising but praised as wise and later even as visionary, while his decision to come back, conversely, has been met with skepticism as to its wisdom.
It’s a given that it is almost impossible to do better than he did last time. But while there’s considerable risk of Zidane not measuring up to his own legend, there’s also a great chance for him to build on it. Clasicos, La Ligas, and even Madrid Derbies- in all these departments Real Madrid can improve. A lot.
Let’s hope Zidane makes sure they do.