The Open Thread/Daily Merengue is a place where you can discuss anything and everything related to football. Feel free to discuss the topics presented here, or start your very own discussions! The Open thread will be posted every day by one of the mods you’d totally watch El Clasico with: Valyrian Steel, Felipejack, YoSnail, Ezek Ix or yours truly. And speaking of yours truly...

You were probably expecting another mod, but...

KONO NERO DA!!

The Eyebrow gets his Camp Nou win!

Yesterday’s win makes it 4 clasico wins in a row for the Royal Whites! Seems incredible doesn’t it. The game showed that both teams have room for improvement, but Real Madrid got a pretty professional victory in the Nou. Carlo Ancelotti ought to have enjoyed his first win in said stadium.

On the other hand (or bench), last night will be one to forget for Ronald Koeman who became the first Barca manager to lose 3 clasicos in a row in over 85 years.

As you may have (correctly) guessed, fans of our archrivals didn’t take their loss too well and... well, caused a scene. Koeman isn’t very popular among Barcelona fans (to say the least), but yesterday’s loss to Los Blancos probably elevated that relationship to another level.

David Alaba proving his worth

In the first half, a typical white lightning attack culminated in the... Centre Back, David Alaba, smashing one past Ter Stegen to give Los Blancos the lead AND open his Real Madrid goal scoring account. What a stage to get your first RMA goal. The Austrian put in a great performance overall.

✨Nero’s Memories: Job Interview ✨

Remember when I included the first Nero’s Memories section in that OT, roughly at the end of summer and asked whether you’d like the section to continue? You do? Good. Because the reaction I got back then was overwhelmingly positive. The Memories section will pop up in Daily Threads here and there, whenever something - say, an event, an article or a comment - randomly triggers those sleeping memories of your beloved Emperor of the Banhammer.

So I had this job interview during the peak of a Covid wave in my country. It goes without saying that getting a job was pretty tough and the people’s mood was overall anything but good. Real Madrid timeline-wise, this event took place during the second full season of the Zizou 2.0 era. As most of you remember, goal scoring was far from being our forte during said period.

I had to sit through a face-to-face interview with the manager. I had an appointment with them, who, after a short wait on my part, invited me to their office. To kick things off (eh?), we had the following exchange:

“Sorry we took this long to arrange this chat, [Nero]. I haven’t been available for a few days, due to Covid and other responsibilities. These are weird times we live in.”

“No worries. I understand. I have to walk around with a piece of underwear on my face (ie covid mask), the city/town center is pretty-much empty and Real Madrid can’t score a goal via royal decree. Weird times indeed.”

Outcome: Got it.

Note: Your mods are in no way responsible if you try something similar and your interview goes about as well as Koeman’s clasicos have.

What time is it?

No, Griezmann, it’s not time to D-D-D-D-D-D-Duel... yet. But it is time to play a game, Madridistas.

Gimme your thoughts about yesterday’s El Clasico in the following poll.

Have a nice week ladies & gents. May the Madridismo be with you.