It's a lovely love-hate relationship

This entire week I was on a Real Madrid high, I couldn't get enough of our remontada over Sevilla FC this past weekend. Everything was starting to come together. We were creating opportunities, perfect at home, making the most of our players and summer signings, but most importantly we had reclaimed first place in La Liga from our bitter domestic rival FC Barcelona (even if only on goal difference).

And so came today's Champions League matchup with Olympique Lyonnais, who had dominated us at the Gerlande and won the 1st leg 1-0. And so we took our perfect home form and high spirits into the match, and everything seemed to be in it's right place when Ronaldo five-holed Hugo Lloris in the 6th, and the chances kept coming. But we couldnt break the plane again, and Lyon became increasingly aggressive, and essentially ended it with a tap in from Miralem Pjanic. And that was it. Another early exit in European competition.

Now begins my rant. As I said in an earlier post, the team elected Florentino Perez, founder of the failed Galacticos project a few years back. The goddamn socialist Madridistas didnt learn their lesson. Blinded by his billions, they let him buy needless talent like Kaka and Benzema who just do not play Spanish football, and Granero who just kinda sucks. They let him buy a terrible manager in Manuel Pellegrini, who is a strong believer in squad rotation and changing positions, so players cannot adjust to their specific strengths, and Pellegrini is just a flat out terrible tactician, there's no getting around it. The third thing that irks me is how much garbage we retain how much talent we let go for such low prices. I can't believe such useless players like Metzelder and Raul (complete bias) are allowed to stay while Sneijder and Robben have to be sold for completely less than what they are worth.

Real Madrid current starting XI

Casillas

Ramos Albiol Garay Arbeloa

Ronaldo Lass Kaka Guti

Higuain Benzema

optimized Starting XI

Casillas

Albiol Cannavarro Arbeloa

Ronaldo Sneider Lass Van der Vaart Robben

Higauin Van Nistelroy

The efficiency of this lineup is compared to what we have is amazing. Players who know the Spanish system or are good enough to deal with the curve. Seriously.

The dream Champions League Final is done. It's impossible now. It was supposed to be our year, to win in front of our home fans, to embarrass our rivals.

There's only one game left in the season really, and that's April 11. Real Madird CF v. FC Barcelona.