el clasico

it is, as the pundits are fond of saying, the business end of the season. the time of year where titles are won and lost. seven days ago it was manchester united losing to chelsea, roma beat internazionale the weekend before, and this wednesday saw marseilles win the first of 2 games in hand to go 2 points clear at the top of ligue 1. tomorrow night, it's the turn of la liga to sort itself out.

but unlike in england, italy, and france, the winners of el clasico will be virtually guaranteed to triumph after 38 games, despite this only being round 31. this is because although la liga remains the best league in terms of its technical level, it has been chronically uncompetitive this season, which should be a source of acute embarrassment to the spanish football establishment. only it isn't, because, without exception, those with the power to change things have shown a singular lack of desire to do so. that means no collective bargaining agreement- a state of affairs which allows barcelona and real to negotiate their own (bigger) television rights deals- and this at a time when the players union is threatening to strike, after it emerged this week that many segunda division players had not been paid for a year. until a more equitable solution is found, the suspicion is that la liga will continue to be a 2-horse race.

but what horses they are. barcelona have this week yet again shown us that they are head and shoulders above everyone else at the moment, and lionel messi has, even in the eyes of phil thompson (who until recently maintained that "wayne rooney is streets ahead of messi") established himself not just as the best player of his generation, but as one of the all time greats. and before you wheel out the world cup line, ask yourself how many world cups has johan cryuff won? what did maradona do during qualification for mexico 86? and is the champions league not now played at a higher standard than the world cup? the kid is a genius, the like of which emerges only once every 20 or so years. even arsenal fans should agree with that.

predictably, much of the chatter regarding saturday's game is concerned with messi. for the catalan press, it's about how many goals he'll score. for marca, it's how to stop him. the general line is that he can be kicked out of the game, but i'm not so sure- better defenders than sergio ramos have been trying that all season, and messi has made fools of them. a more rewarding path to take would be to play granero, lass and alonso behind rafael van der vaart. alonso and van der vaart have more than enough ability to occupy the barcelona defenders (who, as arsenal showed us, can be undone with the right pass), whilst granero and lass can hassle xavi and iniesta. it's not an original plan, but with the way barcelona are performing, the only way i can see madrid getting a result is through negative football. a win is a win.

of course you will have noticed the lack of width in that potential midfield, and barcelona will as well. the trio of messi and pedro can exchange and alternate positions at will, and much will depend on the defensive discipline of ramos and marcelo, who is fabulous going forward but can be shaky when asked to track back. elsewhere, ronaldo has looked out of sorts in recent weeks, and is looking more like the selfish kid intent on killing someone in row 36 with his haphazard shooting. the more he keeps the ball, the less likely madrid are to score. technical deficiencies apart, madrid should be more worried about the lack of cohesion within the side.

but none of this is new knowledge. madrid have flaws, they know this, barcelona know this. but for all of that, they are more than capable of defending and hitting barcelona on the counter-attack. but, as we all know, barcelona have the players to beat anyone. these are certain, undeniable facts. and it's these facts, along with the knowledge that this game will decide the title, that make el clasico so important.