El Clasico’s balance of power is shifting.
You can see it in the surging runs of super-athletes, in the strength of space-winners, in the power that dominates an archrival accustomed to keeping the ball and moving it quickly with robotic precision.
Two moments in the recent history of club football’s biggest match lay it bare.
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In the first, Gareth Bale leaves Dani Alves in his tracks as he canters downfield to win the Copa del Rey for Real Madrid. That was last April.
In the second, which occurred in Saturday’s duel at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, Isco blazes between a pair of opponents before picking out Ronaldo, who laid the ball off for James Rodriguez, who springs Karim Benzema, who puts the ball into the back of the net.
The play transpires in a matter of seconds, and all Barcelona can do is dizzily watch a lightning-quick piece of buildup play that is quickly becoming the template of their destruction.
“The defeat makes it clear that they are as good as us, or, as today, better,” a solumn Luis Enrique told Terra Deportes after his first Clasico as Barcelona manager, a 3-1 win for Real Madrid.
They certainly were, and as they showed last spring Los Blancos are the one half of this rivalry in the ascendancy while the other deals with stylistic change, the effects of aging and the consequences of failing to address glaring weaknesses.
The latter was front and centre on Saturday as Gerard Pique’s struggles continued. The 27-year-old gifted Madrid a penalty for handball, and in the 76th minute he had to be bailed out by Javier Mascherano after being pick-pocketed by Karim Benzema.
And Jeremy Mathieu, who was added to the Barcelona defence during the summer, was well beaten by Pepe on the Toni Kroos corner that produced what proved to be the winning goal; Dani Alves, meanwhile, showed once again that his days as an elite right-back are over.
In the past, Barcelona’s one-sided rate of possession might have prevented such mistakes. After all, it’s difficult for your opponents to capitalize on your weaknesses if they don’t have the ball.
But pass-master Xavi is nowhere near the maestro he was even two years ago; ditto the influential Andres Iniesta.
Both were at the peak of their powers when Barcelona dominated El Clasico, winning five straight La Liga showdowns with Real Madrid between 2008 and 2010. Both were also among the finest playmakers of their generation—a generation now committed to the past.
Not that Saturday’s defeat, nor the one in last season’s Copa del Rey final, can in any way detract from what the Catalan outfit accomplished against Madrid, or in general, in recent times. Rather, it is merely Madrid’s turn to be celebrated, for the capital side’s unique characteristics to be given their dues.
Naturally, the place to start is in the person of Cristiano Ronaldo, who now has 14 goals in all competitions against Barcelona.
While Lionel Messi battles fitness issues, struggles to accommodate new teammates and adjusts to a style of play in which he operates from a deeper position, Ronaldo simply gets better and better.
The 29-year-old’s penalty in Saturday’s Clasico was his 21st goal of the season, and coming off a year in which 51 saw him regain the Ballon d’Or it’s hard to imagine the award going to anyone else for 2014.
This Real Madrid team is the Real Madrid of Ronaldo.
Granted, the club’s spending power allows for the acquisitions of players including Gareth Bale and James Rodriguez, but it’s Ronaldo’s traits the squad takes on—such is the weight of his presence, the force of his physical strength.
“We won because we wanted to win,” Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti told AS following his side’s latest victory.
It might as well be Ronaldo’s mantra, and that of the team generally.
Madrid is imposing itself on the Clasico scales, and the balance is tipping decidedly in its favour as a result.
Jerrad Peters is a Winnipeg-based writer. Follow him on Twitter.