FC Barcelona hit rock bottom on Sunday, surrendering a 2-0 lead in its last home game of the season in front of a nearly-empty Estadio Camp Nou, to lose, 3-2, to Real Mallorca. Even the usually expressionless coach Frank Rijkaard couldn’t suppress a look of utter helplessness as the Barca supporters threw projectiles onto the field while whistling and waving white flags of surrender. ESPN’s Phil Ball says this is the yin and the yang of La Liga: exultant success and a despairing nadir separated by two short seasons.
Barca will be back, that’s for sure, but many of its players will not be. Ronaldinho, Deco, Rafa Marquez and Samuel Eto’o, the nucleus of Barca’s 2006 La Liga and UEFA Champions League winning team, will likely depart this summer, while Thierry Henry may be forced out after just one season, too.
Meanwhile, we already know that Barca “B” coach Pep Guardiola is replacing Rijkaard at the end of the season. Ball laments that the Dutchman, who won two La Liga titles in five seasons with Barca, wasn’t given a more fitting sending off, because he deserved better from his players. But in a way, motivating his players has been Rijkaard’s problem all season. As Ball says, “in the end you can take some horses to water, but only some of them will drink.” Where will Barca’s men end up? Where will Rijkaard end up? Either way, it’s a pity that one of the club’s most glorious eras closed to the sound of sputtering.