Kiko Casilla moved from Espanyol to Real Madrid in the summer but hasn't made a competitive appearance for the capital club. Jordi Masip has made only one senior appearance for Barcelona. Meanwhile, Victor Valdes is an experienced goalkeeper but has barely played since joining Manchester United in January.
He currently appears to be out of favor with manager Louis van Gaal. So who starts? Casilla has the most experience in recent seasons, but Valdes might get the nod based on his name and familiarity with many of Barcelona's players. We'll go with Valdes for those reasons.
Iker Casillas started Spain's recent win over Slovakia in Euro qualifying. But a few days later, David De Gea took over in goal for the victory over Macedonia. Casillas is a legend for both Spain and Real Madrid, his former club. But De Gea is the goalkeeper of the future. After a weird summer that involved a failed transfer saga, he's now playing consistently with Manchester United again.
Edge: Spain. De Gea has the potential to be one of the best goalkeepers in the world, if he's not already there. All four play for Barcelona, so they would bring a solid sense of camaraderie to the Catalan back four.
San Jose is four years younger and can play in both central defense and central midfield, so we'll give him the nod. At right-back, Spain's options include Dani Carvajal and Juanfran. Both played there in recent qualifiers, so it's essentially a tossup that might be decided by club loyalties. We'll go with Carvajal since he played the most recent game at right-back.
This is another tough choice, but Azpilicueta has 10 caps to Bernat's seven, so we'll go with the slightly more experienced international. Edge: Catalonia. As noted above, all four members of the Catalan back line play for Barcelona. FC Barcelona, in holding the utmost respect for its diverse body of members, will continue to support the will of the majority of Catalan people, and will do so in a civil, peaceful and exemplary way.
Crucially, it should be noted the club were supporting the process of independence rather than independence itself - arguing the referendum should be allowed to take place in a legal and authorised manner - and stopped short of saying what they wanted the result to be. But the strongly worded statement made it clear Barcelona would not shy away from a hugely controversial political hot potato. And, when the day arrived, they did not back down.
As the day of the referendum approached, reports started to circulate that Barca's game against Las Palmas was in danger of being postponed because of security concerns, but local police appeared to dismiss those rumours by insisting they were not concerned about their ability to control the crowds.
Nevertheless, those reports intensified again on Sunday morning, shortly after images of police using force to try to block voting started to circulate.
There was no official comment from either club or the league itself, but at about 2. By then, both sets of players were already in their dressing rooms.
The media were being allowed inside the stadium, but spectators were being held outside the locked gates around the perimeter of the Nou Camp, and nobody knew what was going on.
A few minutes later, with fans still locked outside amid new claims the game could be played behind closed doors, the players started to emerge for their warm-up, entering the pitch to the surreal sound of scattered applause from stewards and hospitality staff who had been given an unexpected afternoon off. Preparations continued as normal inside the stadium, and it was only at 3. From inside the stadium, the whistles and jeers of fans outside the ground - waiting fruitlessly to be allowed into their seats - were clearly audible, as were the loudspeaker announcements telling fans to leave which followed a few minutes later.
Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu quickly claimed the decision was made as a protest rather than out of security concerns, and the decision may also have been influenced by a prominent supporters' group promising to stop the match with a pitch invasion in the first minute if it went ahead. Clearly, this issue is not going away, and one man firmly at the centre of the storm is La Liga president Javier Tebas.
A lifelong Real Madrid fan who never makes any attempt to hide his allegiance, Tebas predictably has a long-running dispute with Barcelona, who feel it is inappropriate to have the league run by a man happy to flout his personal preferences so openly.
A year ago, the club publicly called for disciplinary proceedings to be opened against Tebas after he criticised Barca players for their part in an hot-tempered game at Valencia which ended with Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and others being hit by missiles thrown by the home fans.
Although Tebas perhaps attempted to mend some bridges more recently by questioning the financial structure of Paris St-Germain and Manchester City following their summer exploits in the transfer market, the rift between him and Barcelona is now deeper than ever. Never one to shy away from expressing his opinion, Tebas made a bold move in the run-up to Sunday's referendum by changing his Twitter profile picture to an image of a Spanish flag and a Catalan flag combined into a heart shape.
And on Sunday lunchtime, when Barca requested the postponement of their game with Las Palmas in the light of the violent incidents taking place around the region, Tebas was the man who said no, threatening Barca with a six-point penalty if they did not play.
Tebas also gave permission for Las Palmas to play with a badge of the Spanish flag woven into their shirts, a controversial and inflammatory move taken by the Canary Islanders to support the "unity of Spain" as they visited a region where many people are determined to leave that country.
With his actions over the past few days, Tebas has not exactly looked like he possesses the objectivity necessary to run La Liga with the support of all its member clubs, and we have not heard the end of the row between him and Barcelona. And football was at the centre of the story as Barcelona held an emergency board meeting to decide whether to play their La Liga fixture at home to Las Palmas at Camp Nou in the afternoon.
Many of the players were keen to avoid that scenario and Barca therefore took the decision to play behind closed doors. Safety was used as the excuse, but really it was a political gesture by the Catalan club and one which brought criticism from some sectors of the media and also fans waiting outside on the streets around the stadium. Images of Lionel Messi et al in an empty Camp Nou were seen all around the world and on television, with the match broadcast in countries.
That, Barca decided, would give much more exposure to the Catalan cause. But it is nothing new. And he is right.
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