Little can prepare a footballer for his first “gran clasico”. You could compare it, as Toni Kroos might, to Bayern Munich meeting Borussia Dortmund, but even that falls short of the screeching whistles that greet the away team, the suffocating pressure on the hosts. Banfield against Lanus, in Buenos Aires, constitutes a strong local rivalry, one James Rodriguez played in as a very young man, but that Argentine clash is at the tame end of a spectrum that climaxes with Real Madrid versus Barcelona.
The renewal of Spain’s greatest rivalry may be the most-watched club match, globally, of 2014, eclipsed in broadcast terms only by events like the World Cup final, in which Kroos took part a little over three months ago.
The World Cup propelled Kroos, 24, and Rodriguez, 23, towards Real Madrid, to a club which, every four years, watches for the elevated profile that a good month on international football’s greatest stage can bring a player. They signed Brazil’s Ronaldo after he led the scoring at the 2002 edition, recruited the winning skipper, Italy’s Fabio Cannavaro, in 2006, and swooped for Mesut Ozil, darling of Germany’s 2010 campaign.
This time it was Kroos, a champion with Germany, and Colombia’s Rodriguez, the dazzling young player of the tournament. The contrast with Barcelona’s Luis Suarez, another star anticipating his first Spanish super derby is stark: Suarez’s World Cup left him with a four-month ban from competitive football, which expired at midnight Thursday. He will come into the clasico on Saturday uncertain of his form and condition.
Kroos and Rodriguez left Brazil last summer with decorations and plaudits, respectively, and in the last month have gained an impressive momentum for Madrid.
They had tough acts to follow. Kroos signed for Madrid from Bayern, who shortly afterwards took Xabi Alonso in the opposite direction. Xabi had been Madrid’s metronome at the base of midfield, senior architect of the counter-attacks they execute so effectively, with the pace of Cristiano Ronaldo; he had been organiser-in-chief, and frequently a crucial backstop and tackler. Kroos for Xabi is not a like-for-like swap, and he has had to adapt, coming into a team so geared to attack, occupying an anchor role.
Kroos, restless at Bayern, had been talking to Madrid long before he won the World Cup with Germany. Rodriguez seemed a more whimsical addition to the staff. Brilliant in Brazil, where he guided his Colombia to the quarter-finals, he cost Madrid close to €80 million (Dh371.4m) to recruit him from Monaco. Some of that was recouped with the sale of Angel di Maria to Manchester United. Rodriguez wears the 10 shirt at Madrid, once the property of Mesut Ozil, now of Arsenal.
Ozil and Di Maria were appreciated by colleagues: together, they contributed most of Madrid’s assists in La Liga in the past two seasons. Those are the sorts of teammates Ronaldo especially values, but when he receives passes of the quality of Rodriguez’s chip to set up the Portuguese’s goal against Liverpool last Wednesday, he misses his former providers, Di Maria and Ozil, that little bit less. Kroos’s precise and productive passing is showing regularly, too. His cross invited Karim Benzema to score Madrid’s second at Anfield.
Between them, the newcomers to Madrid’s midfield have eight assists, and Rodriguez has four goals. It is a promising start. “They are finding their rhythm now,” says Carlo Ancelotti, the Madrid coach, whose most difficult decision this morning will be whether or not to add some defensive stability, in the form of Sami Khedira or Asier Illarramendi, to his potent combination, and give his clasico debutants the security of a muscular midfield presence.
sports@thenational.ae
