On the Clásico

I recently read that Bismarck often used to, in his words, spend nights simply "hating". While I don't embrace hatred in the abstract, with the Clásico to kick off in just under six hours, I found myself filled with admiration for the master of Realpolitik. And while the hours of deep meditation on Ronaldo, Mouriño, Pepe, and every other horrible ogre taking the field in white today were quite satisfying, we also need spend some feeling the love:



That was nice. And while we are at it:



Here's a characteristically trenchant analysis of the tactical challenges for each team from Zonal Marking.