Debate: Is Real Madrid's League Season Over?

26th minute at Camp Nou. FC Barcelona have been all over Real Madrid so far, forcing the Madrid giants to claw back into their own den and defend it rigorously.

Then much against the run of play, Royston Drenthe gets the ball on a one-on-one situation. Only goalkeeper Victor Valdes stands between him and the Barca goal.

So what does Drenthe do? Scoop the ball over Valdes and into the net? Dribble past him and coolly slot home the ball? Or maybe blast it first time to sear the back of the Barca net?

But Drenthe takes neither of those options, In fact, he takes no option at all. Instead he decides to take pity on Valdes and tamely kicks the ball straight at him.

Lucky you, Valdes, I don’t score against unarmed (read defender-less) goalkeepers.

In hindsight, that was the turning point of the entire match and by extension the whole championship race. It was a match winning and championship losing miss that hammered the final nail in Real Madrid’s La Liga coffin.

Apparently.

The Gap And The Week

12 points. A massive 12-point. An almost unassailable 12-point. That’s the gap between all-consuming, sixer-hitting, cakewalk romping Barcelona and disaster-strewn, messed up, clueless Real Madrid. That’s the gap between last season’s disaster package turned this season's 'champions elect' and last season’s ‘runaway’ champions turned this season's disaster package.

Not that it was not coming. After all, Real Madrid have had had disaster scribbled all over them since the summer when off pitch circus started to caravan itself onto the pitch. And last week, that disaster blew up all over Madrid.

Bernd Schuster got the sack (deservedly?), Juande Ramos got the job (deservedly?), Predrag Mijatovic got back his smile and the control and Ramon Calderon got the creeps.

Schuster said goodbye via a sms text message, Mijatovic probably didn’t even bother to read it, Ramos didn't get time to look at himself in the mirror before saying 'hola' to the media and Calderon, caught in a weird amalgamation of Hamlet-esque "To be or not to be" and Brutus-esque "Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more", remained confusingly ambiguous.

And then Madrid won in midweek in the UEFA Champions League while Barcelona lost, sparking dim hopes of a contest at Camp Nou on Saturday.

And then Saturday came and went and those hopes were burnt down into ashes. Barca’s nine point lead over Real was stretched to 12 and while the Catalans maintain their pole position, Real are now sixth in the league, one point and one place below their crosstown rivals Atletico Madrid.

Contest? What Contest?

Against Barcelona at Camp Nou on Saturday night, Real Madrid were never really allowed to come out of their cocoon and although they did exhibit tactical awareness in the defensive department, their midfield failed to create anything and their strikers were starved of any service.

Sergio Ramos didn’t really look that confident as a left back (oh yes, a left back!), asking for 'helping legs' from his teammates to scythed Lionel Messi, doing no harm to Madrid’s reputation of being sore losers with a propensity towards employing dirty tactics; Fabio Cannavaro and Christoph Metzelder did look more than decent in central defence but were really not strong enough; Michel Salgado believes that a man retains his potency forever and at 30—something still goes on the rampaging forage upfront to return half an hour late to his defence tongue hanging out in exhaustion and hands outstretched in desperation.

Guti once again had an abysmal game, anchorman Fernando Gago did his best but he is not much of a playmaker, Wesley Sneijder understandably trudged off after just 35 minutes and Drenthe was on Mission Charity.

As for Raul and Gonzalo Higuain, well, the poor folks must have been grateful to see whatever they could of the ball in the 35% of the time that Real Madrid had possession of it.

Dark, Dark Future

Things look depressingly bleak for Calderon and his bandwagon. True, there is always the possibility that Barcelona might still lose a couple of games on the trot and Juande Ramos might inspire his team to a seven-match winning run but the stark, naked truth is that the Blaugranas are just too good- truly too good- to drop any point.

The fixture list has been notorious this season in splashing out a two six-game stretches in which Sevilla, Barcelona, Valencia, Villarreal and Real confront each other. Which implies that this would be the most crucial period that would decide the championship race.

But Barcelona seem to have stormed through this 'fixture congestion’ with ease. They convincingly defeated Sevilla in Seville, brushed aside Valencia at home and then ripped apart the tactically sound looking Madrid defence. As for Madrid, they were humbled 4-3 at home by Sevilla- a defeat that proved to the final straw that broke Schuster's back.

Which implies that while Real have yet to face Valencia and Villarreal, Barcelona have only the Yellow Submarines to take care of.

And then there is of course the Injury Demon with who Real have been dicing for too long. Ruud van Nistelrooy, Ruben de la Red and Mahamadou Diarra all have already been ruled out for the rest of the season, Wesley Sneijder is struggling and so is Pepe. And so is Miguel Torres. And Gabriel Heinze (thankfully!).

Any Silver Lining?

Although this might easily denote clutching at straws, there were a few positives to take from this humiliating defeat. Debutant Miguel Palanca looked confident and reliable, Iker Casillas was again the best goalkeeper in the world, shaking off the blunder demon that has been tormenting him for the past three or so weeks, the defence looked more solid than it did under Schuster and the team didn’t crumble down as it was so naively expected to do.

Real Madrid can't get any worse under Juande Ramos and if anything, they are going to improve. But can their improvement drive them towards the league title? Michel Salgado certain thinks so but at this point of time his bold statement appears to be a ridiculous combination of arrogance and stupidity.

So would it be too unwise to state that Real Madrid have lost their title and that now it is all for Barcelona to lose?

Subhankar Mondal