Here we are, one week away from the most important week of this season, by far. La Liga is a distant (optimists’) dream. Copa Del Rey and Champions League has the same story. A 1-1 draw at home against two fierce opponents. To make matters worse our two lethal strikers from last season look nothing like the vicious dog and agile cat they were famed to be. Our dangerous left back Marcelo is cleary out of shape and our guardian angel in between the posts. Iker, is injured. Can it get any worse? Apparently, yes.

We face Barcelona at Camp Nou on 26th February 2013 for the CDR semi-final, the only domestic trophy we can grasp this season. Then after a ‘long’ break of 3 days we face Barcelona at home on 2nd March, this time in La Liga. Immediately after that we travel to The Theatre of Dreams to face Manchester United on 5th March for the quest of the elusive La Decima. One week. Three matches. Lose the important matches and our season will be over almost 3 months before the scheduled time. Win all (which will be amazingly difficult) and we, the madridistas, have something to look forward to this season. If we take a quick look the CDR and CL match seems the most important, but Barca would love to cause an upset in the Bernabeu, so the La Liga match is important as well, for our pride. Players like Kaka, Modric and Essien should start on that match so that some of the other players in the position get some rest before the Manchester United clash.

All in all, lets all gear up for a very interesting week. The team’s character will be at stake. Hala Madrid!