Mourinho punished Casillas for making peace with Xavi and Puyol

Following the latest round of ugliness between Real Madrid and Barcelona, Iker Casillas lived up to his saintly reputation and called up Carles Puyol and Xavi in the hopes of making peace before the Spanish national team convenes for their next round of friendlies. According to less than reliable Marca, Jose Mourinho -- fresh off apologizing only to Madridistas for his part -- did not like this and decided to punish the captain for going behind his back and being nice by holding him out of the Santiago Bernabeu Trophy match and starting Adan in his place.

After the 2-1 win over Galatasaray, Mourinho told reporters that "Casillas can talk on the phone with anyone" right before leaving the press room. But, this is a man known for fostering an "us against the world" mentality within his teams and one week removed from launching a sneaky finger attack on a Barcelona assistant's eyeball. So benching his captain for being friendly with The Enemy doesn't seem entirely ridiculous.

Whether it was a punishment or not, one good thing did come from Casillas not playing, though. Vice-captain Sergio Ramos got a chance to redeem hims! elf for dropping the Copa del Rey trophy last season by lifting the massive Bernabeu Trophy without letting it get crushed under a bus...

Well done, Sergio. Well done.

Photos: Getty, AP