/cdn.vox-cdn.com/photo_images/3826184/122701568.jpg)
Real Zaragoza 0-6 Real Madrid
(Cristiano Ronaldo, Marcelo, Xabi Alonso, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaká, Cristiano Ronaldo)
La Liga BBVA has started! Real Madrid won their first official game of the season in La Romareda, where they were absolutely dominant. Our team had 39 scoring chances and Cristiano Ronaldo showed that he is one of the best goal scorers in the history of the sport. It was almost a perfect game for every one of our men--even Kaká contributed with a goal and played really well in the 15 minutes he was on the field.
Real Madrid started the game really well, possessing the ball through Fabio Coentrão and Mesut Özil, both of whom participated a lot in our offensive game. The Portuguese completed his best game since he joined the team, helping Xabi in both passing and intercepting.
In the 23rd minute, Karim Benzema recovered the ball in the midfield and passed it to Özil. The German player dribbled and waited until he was able to assist Cristiano, who just had to finish. The recovery from Benzema and Özil's pass made this goal really beautiful to watch. Four minutes later, the team combined really well close to the area, Ramos crossed the ball and Marcelo had time to control and finish like a striker. The Brazilian is arguably one of the best fullbacks in the world, and he finally has learned how to defend. Marcelo is absolutely essential to this team.
The team kept total control of the game until half-time. When the second half began, Real looked quite relaxed and Zaragoza was able to move the ball around, but they were never close to scoring. It was a pretty uncomfortable situation, since a Zaragoza goal could have complicated the game for Madrid. Lucky enough for us, Xabi Alonso was able to shoot from pretty far away and net our third goal. The ball was touched and deflected a bit by a Zaragoza defender, so Zaragoza's keeper Roberto couldn't stop the shot. The goal sucked the life out of Zaragoza and made them realize that they had no chance to tie the game, so los maños gave up and started to wait for the end of the match. In the 71st minute Cristiano finished a Di Maria pass to make it 0-4.
José Mourinho introduced Gonzalo Higuaín and Callejón for Benzema and Di Maria. The Frenchman played quite well but could have scored a goal in the first few minutes of the second half when he faced Roberto one on one. It's a pity Benzema didn't score, but he played a very good overall game and contributed a good deal to our offense. Di Maria was a little bit worse; he played well but didn't shine like in other games. He worked hard defensively and helped Ramos out on the wing, but he didn't have many chances to score.
I liked Callejón's time on the pitch. He moved a lot and combined pretty well with Cristiano, Coentrão and Higuaín. I feel he is going to be an important player this season and Mourinho seems to like him a lot. He also had a chance to score in the additional time, but Roberto sent the ball to a corner-kick. Kaká played really well also and scored one beautiful goal, but most importantly he passed the ball well and created chances for his teammates. I know it is Zaragoza, but Kaká demonstrated that he can still be useful. The team (and Mourinho) celebrated his goal very effusively. They all know that Kaká could be an important player if he could just play at this level.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored the sixth goal in the 87th and should take the ball home since he scored a hat-trick. As I've said before, we are lucky to have this player. He is without a doubt one of the best finishers in the history of the sport, and if he stays healthy, I really think he can improve on the 40-goal mark he established last season.
The team looked really prepared for a difficult season. It's important that we start La Liga winning like this. It will give the team confidence, as these kinds of games prevented us from being champions last year. Draws against Mallorca and Levante in the first games of last season were key, so if we can win all these games, I'm confident we can win La Liga.
We are going to need a hundred points to prevail, so we can't let these kinds of games slip through our hands.