The Spanish league kicked off this past weekend, pitting Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in their first big tests of the year. In reality, Messi already had three games under his belt, but this was the official start of a major competition for the Argentine. Ronaldo had not gotten any official match time up to this point and would try to shake off the rust from a rather mediocre preseason.

How did the two superstars do?

The positive? Neither player's team lost. The negative? The players put on rather questionable performances.

Messi had already gotten three games under his belt and engaged in two previous games in the last week. All three matches were against Athletic Bilbao, and all of them saw Messi play some of his poorest soccer in ages. The superstar scored one goal at Camp Nou last Monday, but, in general, he looked overwhelmed by the lack of space and did little to create any true danger.

His low point had to be Sunday's game, when he had a penalty shot and was actually stopped. Messi is not the best penalty taker in the world, but he is easily in the top three in that department. A miss is a rarity for the superstar, but this one was emblematic of his game overall. He had one moment of magic in which he rushed past numerous defenders with his marvelous dribbling and had a shot at goal. But it came to nothing.

A run down of Messi's stats in the Sunday game is as follows: He had four shots, but only two were on target (the ones described above). He had just one key pass the entire night, connected on under 75 percent of his passes and had 73 touches on the night.

Ronaldo's game against Sporting Gijón was nothing to write home about. He had 10 shots at the net and actually connected on four, but the superstar looked rather frustrated throughout the night, often seeing himself and Gareth Bale cross paths at the wrong time in the attack. It was truly the result of a rather confusing attacking system for Los Blancos, with all four attackers constantly rotating around the pitch, creating havoc and chaos for themselves.

Ronaldo also connected on fewer than 75 percent of his passes, while only getting 53 touches.

However, if there is one thing that was crystal clear from this match, it is that Ronaldo should be pulled from free kick duty. He took a few free kicks on the evening and smashed them into the wall. The reality is that his skills in this department have been on a massive decline over the last few years, as he relies on power over accuracy to be successful.

It might be time for Ronaldo to step aside and let James Rodriguez or Gareth Bale take the set pieces, as they are far more suitable to Madrid's needs at the present moment.

Season Stats

Messi has now scored three goals in four games for Barcelona over three competitions. He has none in La Liga.

Ronaldo has no goals in one match for Madrid in 2015-16.

Calendar Year Stats

Messi has scored 39 goals in 45 games in 2015, while assisting on 22. Meanwhile Ronaldo has 32 goals and 10 assists in 32 games in 2015.

One of Messi's 39 goals came from international duty, while three of Ronaldo's 32 have come in a Portuguese uniform.

Winner: Messi played more games and scored one more goal than Ronaldo, thus giving him the advantage in week 1.

That said, neither player really stood out in their La Liga debuts, and more should be expected from the perennial rivals.

Messi leads the competition 1-0.

This will be a weekly column. If either player is absent from play during a given week then then column will focus on a different topic regarding the two superstars without drawing direct comparisons to specific games of that week.