Late Ramos red card is all that clouds Real Madrid's deconstruction of Deportivo

Kings of Europe. Kings of the biggest rivalry on the planet.

Oh, and lest we forgot, kings of La Liga.

Real Madrid barely hit a second gear in dispatching Deportivo de La Coruna 3-0 on Sunday in the champions of everything’s La Liga opener.

In fact, the most interesting development might be a stoppage-time red card to Sergio Ramos, which means the Real Madrid captain will join Cristiano Ronaldo on the sidelines for the next league match.

Ronaldo received two yellows, one for diving and the other for taking off his shirt to celebrate, in a 3-1 win over Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup. He compounded the problem by shoving the referee and receiving a five-match La Liga ban, the first of which was served on Sunday.

Maybe Real Madrid is just trying to make life difficult on itself. These days it doesn’t seem like the rest of Spain can, or Europe for that matter.

Credit Deportivo for starting with fire in front of its home crowd, but Real Madrid gradually took over the game, with Gareth Bale tapping home an errant touch by Karim Benzema off a rebound:

Perhaps Deportivo goalkeeper Ruben should have held on to Luka Modric’s initial shot, but then again, where were the defenders?

Seven minutes later, Real Madrid’s lead increased when Marcelo made one of his usual forays down the deep left flank and played a low, whipping cross to the feet of Casemiro, who had little to do other than tap home.

The lead buoyed to three when Toni Kroos found the upper-left corner in the 62nd minute, sealing the three points.

Deportivo had a shot at pulling one back in the 89th minute after Dani Carvajal brought down Bruno Gama on the outside corner of the box, but Florin Andone’s miserable night concluded with a scoffed penalty attempt:

To compensate for Ronaldo’s absence, manager Zinedine Zidane lined up Bale and Benzema as twin forwards with Isco operating behind them. To compensate for Ramos’ forthcoming absence … oh who are we kidding, it won’t matter.

Zidane has Real Madrid operating so seamlessly and so dominantly there might not be a true league test until the Madrid Derby against Atletico in late November. That will be long after Ronaldo, Ramos and whoever else decides to get red-carded has returned.

Until then, the Spanish and European champions’ antics might be as suspenseful as their fixtures get.

Joey Gulino is the editor of FC Yahoo and moonlights a writer. Follow him on Twitter at @JGulinoYahoo.