Real Madrid's natural habitat is urgency, where it moves like no other team in the world, probably because the others are uncomfortable with a drive that invites disorder, imprecision and a dramatic expenditure of energy. Barça, for example, is by nature at the antipodes of that territory. By style and tradition, his fondness is Cartesian, a state where logic prevails and not outburst. Without control, he gets entangled in problems from which he does not know how to get out. At Old Trafford he lost it in the second half and headed for defeat. Madrid, which had just destroyed Liverpool after all the alarms went off, played the Madrid derby without the slightest urgency and tied at the last minute with a goal from Álvaro Rodríguez, an 18-year-old boy who wants to make a career in football . He makes every minute he has available a matter of life and death. He played 10 minutes, but he was the only one who transmitted outburst.
This Clark Kent version of Madrid is not easy to explain, given the importance of the game. The tie gives Barça a great opportunity, which today has the possibility of increasing its distance in the lead to 10 points. In the fight for the title and at this point in the championship, Madrid has never discounted this advantage to Barça, who have a free court if they do their homework in Almería. There will be no better balm to lick the wounds of Old Trafford and the syndrome that afflicts him in Europe. The worst priest has the Enríquez Negreira case, if he has one. He stains the club's reputation like squid ink.
The Bernabeu derby was dominated by a strange sensation, that of a Madrid resigned to the League, as if it had established its priorities and the championship was not among the first two: winning the European Cup and the Copa del Rey, with Barça as a victim in the semifinals. It seemed that Madrid was finally weighed down by the string of competitions and matches of recent weeks: League, Cup, Spanish Super Cup, Club World Cup and Champions League. And with Barça without giving an inch in the national championship. Against Atlético, the team said enough was enough. It ran poorly, no tension.
He did not even take advantage of Correa's expulsion with a good stretch of the match remaining. The referee's decision was surprising, who interpreted a small manga from the Argentine against Rüdiger, a player who makes histrionics as a profession, as an attack. Atlético ended with 10 players and that didn't surprise anyone. In each of the last three matches he has suffered an expulsion: Hermoso in the first round, Savic in the Cup and yesterday Correa.
Madrid did not change their routine, despite the numerical advantage. He played without fuss, as if he had exhausted his energy deposit and the disadvantage with Barça was kilometric. Without urgency, Madrid is not in his shoes and it shows. He was only agitated by the arrival of Álvaro Rodríguez, a boy from Palamós, a classic center forward, a stem of 1.90 who arrives to stay in the first team. He is powerful, determined, with a header and smart in the area, a lifelong striker, with a long stride, trained for some time in the Girona cadets.
He scored a great goal, setting the times on the jump and heading with a lot of style. Álvaro Rodríguez proved for the umpteenth time that Madrid and Barça are looking abroad, and they usually look badly, for what they already have at home. In this case, a question is added. Why does Madrid catch so many strikers in Catalonia, where Barça should have an advantage? Álvaro Rodríguez is an example. Iker Bravo, now at Castilla, another. Or Mariano, a native of Premià de Mar. Little soccer mysteries.
