Real Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo on Course for a Season for the Ages

As far as understatements go, it was a big one. Possibly huge. Maybe even gargantuan. Hell, there might not even be a word for it.

It came a couple of weeks ago from Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti, who, in private moments away from the cameras, must presently be the owner of a smile that can also be described by those previous adjectives. 

The occasion was the Italian's pre-match press conference ahead of his side's second Champions League clash with Liverpool, an outing that had been preceded by 11 straight victories yielding an aggregate score of 46-7 (yes, you read that correctly). 

Questioned on his team's form and various other matters, Ancelotti delivered a comment that forced you to ponder if he's actually in charge of this barnstorming incarnation of Real Madrid, or back running the youth team in hometown Reggiolo in northern Italy. 

"We're playing well," he said ever so plainly. 

Did he think anything more outlandish would have been overplaying it?

Quite frankly, you could have excused him if he'd said something like "I've never seen a team like this one" or "The Rolling Stones ain't got nothing on us" or "we expect to be knighted next week."

But he didn't. That's not Ancelotti's way.

Instead, he delivered an understatement that's unmatched in football this year. You really won't be able to find a bigger one, unless you can track down a line that goes something like "the 2022 World Cup is just a tad controversial" or "Arsenal are a touch short at the back" or "Cristiano Ronaldo only stands on his tip-toes in team photos every now and then."

Indeed, remarking that Real Madrid are merely "playing well" sells it as short as it could possibly be sold. For this is a team that, right now, is on course for a truly historic season.

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Of course, such a statement—one that stands as a polar opposite to that made by Ancelotti—might seem overly pre-emptive at this early stage. It is only November. 

But who cares? So what if it's jumping the gun?

Right now, Real Madrid are gobsmackingly spectacular. The way Los Blancos are playing at present is why we love football and sport in general: We crave to see records broken, to witness previous benchmarks toppled, to have our perceptions challenged and our minds catapulted into distant possibilities. 

Dreaming how far it might go is why we watch all of this in the first place; we wouldn't bother if we knew we'd seen it all before. At the core of our existence is a desire to do and witness what hasn't already been done.

In 2014-15, Real Madrid and the rampant Ronaldo might give us exactly that. 

So go on, revel in it. Let your mind wander. 

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Already on 42 goals from just 11 league games, Real are on pace to find the back of the net (just watch that coffee next to you) a truly absurd 145 times in La Liga this season. 

Just let that sink in. And when you have, take a second to remember how we gushed over the attacking prowess of last season's Real Madrid as they stormed their way to a continent-leading 104 league strikes—a staggering 41 short of what they're on course for in the current campaign. 

But what's the record in Spain? Real's own mark of 121 set after a season-long, Ronaldo-led barrage that resulted in the domestic title in 2011-12.

Think what it would mean if they were to hit 145, breaking an already lofty benchmark by 24 goals. It would be like toppling the world mark for the 100 metres by a full second. 

The dizzying numbers, though, don't stop there. 

At the core of Real Madrid's dominance is Ronaldo, who's currently giving all sorts of fun to statistical outlets like WhoScored, Squawka and Opta. 

With 18 league goals already this season, the Portuguese has personally outscored 14 teams from the Premier League, 15 from La Liga, 16 from the Bundesliga, 15 from Serie A and 16 from Ligue 1. 

That's 76 of the other 97 clubs in Europe's top five leagues that have been outscored by one guy. One! 

Those numbers only become more ridiculous if you take a goals-per-game view, given that Ronaldo's 10 appearances are one less than the 11 made by all clubs in the first four leagues and three less than the 13 completed by those in France. 

Is your mind wandering yet? Just picture where this could go. 

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It was in the mid-1990s when we—"we," in this case, meaning global sport fans, the fanatics among us, the dreamers—couldn't take our eyes off Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. 

It didn't matter who the opponent was or what stage it was on or what the game's connotations were, His Airness and his team-mates gave us the greatest sporting show on earth. 

Every. Single. Night. 

It was mesmerising, with the staggering numbers belonging to the Bulls that decade only trumped by the way Jordan redefined dominance, combining traits from legends in Bill Russell, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Jerry West and others to achieve the impossible and change the way we think about an entire sport. 

Just the thought that Jordan might drop 60 on any given night had us hooked in a way only a few athletes in history have ever managed.

It was the same with Tiger Woods—one of those few—after the turn of the century; the reality that the game was at his mercy, witnessing Woods and his never-before-seen abilities transcend every level of supremacy that had ever been set. 

Never mind Jack Nicklaus and his record, nobody had ever dominated like that.

See where this is going? How it applies to Real Madrid and Ronaldo?

Right now, although it has only been brief, this is what it's like to watch Los Blancos. We're not talking about just a few possible titles; we're talking about much more than that. 

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Last week, I asked whether the merits of Real Madrid's Galactico policy needed to be re-evaluated. The key point in the question was that, after more than a decade since the maligned initiative began, the club's dominance on the field was finally beginning to catch up with its dominance off it. 

But there was a point or a thought in all of it that was glossed over too quickly that feels more pertinent now, one that relates to Real Madrid's possible path to emulating the likes of Woods, Jordan and his Bulls (there are a handful of others on that list, but that's not our focus now) in having an impact that goes beyond the immediacy of their world.

Could the current incarnation of Real Madrid alter your perception of the ingredients underpinning success? Maybe change the way you view positional and systematic balance?

Most importantly, could this team, so astonishingly skewed forward, change the way we view football?

For so long, we've clung to the ideal of an equilibrium between defence and attack. We've held onto the idea that one is nothing without the other, as though balance—not power—is the game's true currency. 

But now, in 2014-15, it feels as though this Real Madrid team might blow apart all of that, emphatically triumphing with six out-and-out attackers in the same XI, a No. 10 as a "holding" midfielder and two fullbacks who could be considered wingers in any other team. 

So staggering is this side's capacity going forward, that they're rendering one half of the game almost irrelevant. Honestly, has that ever truly been achieved? Did even the great Brazilian and Dutch sides of the 1970s create this sort of attacking nirvana? 

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And yeah, this might be way too pre-emptive with six months still to play in the season. Maybe the thought of the far-reaching possibilities and what could be at stake is blurring some of the realities. 

But that's the beauty of football. And of sport. Dreaming of the impossible being made possible is what it's all about.

It's why we watch. 

Just think, how far can this go?

That Real Madrid and Ronaldo can force us to ponder the possibilities at this early stage tells you the magnitude of what has already been achieved. 

If it were to continue, we could be in the midst of a season for the ages.