WE SHOULD MAKE OUR OWN RANKING my top 5 boca-river real madrid-barcelona inter-milan manU-liverpool fla-flu
Inter - Milan isn't even the bigest derby in Italy. Roma - Lazio is far more elegant and socially important derby with a better hitory of dramatic matches.
wow....Sporting-Benfica is not even on the list. It is the quintessential Derby in Portugal, rife with brawls, killings, player-nappings and riots....Benfica-Porto? Not even close!
Just go to Barnes and Noble or the local newstand. They'll have it. Then, put in for a subscription. It'll come faster than going to the bookstore or newstand.
For some odd reason I was curious as to what other sources felt about the various derbies and how they ranked them. I came by this link that breaks the derbies down to city/local/rivalries. Like the World Soccer segment, it to has some head scratchers as well. For example it listed BOCA/river as the second biggest city derby but didn't rank it at all in the categories of Local or Rivals. Pretty weird to be honest. I guess really their is no way to definitively say what is the fiercest. I did however once take a friend (Scotsman) to BsAs for the BOCA/river match which also happened to be in the Libertadores and his words were that no old firm match he's been to even came close. He's a drunk so I wouldn't put too much stock into what he said. http://www.footballderbies.com/ http://www.soccermanager.com/blog/soccer-news/football-derbies-from-across-the-globe-mark-ii.html (notice in the BOCA/river video just how weak the gallinas sound.)
Matt, don't you think the Celtic-Rangers derby has lost some of it's luster the past couple of years seeing that Celtic appears to be bringing in more foreign players as of late?? Don't get me wrong, it's still a great match to watch either in person or on the television, but it just seems to me that it has lost some of it's edge the past couple of years. I don't know, just my .02.
I'm not a big Mexican LEAGUE Lover (USA!! USA!!) but AMERICA vs PUMAS at AZTECA is CRAZY (100,000k+), BOCA vs RIVER is JUST AS GOOD. INTER vs AC MILAN, Teams that are within miles of each other if not the same stadium. GALAXY vs CHIVAS USA LOL maybe some day. I think that teams need to have similar succes to be an AMAZING DERBY. IF ONE TEAM has dominated the other forever is just not as good.
unless you've actually attended the match in the last couple of years thats a hell of an assumption to make. foreign players are quickly brought up to speed in what is involved and at stake in the Glasgow derby. the build up for a full week before it is enough to make them aware of the importance attached to it. as for the foreign player scenario, we actually had 5 outfield Scottish players playing in the last two derbies this season which is as many as we've had in the past 5 or 6 years. how would Matt know anyway come to think of it? i can ascertain that he has a large and extensive knowledge of football but unless he's attended the matches in person then his viewpoint can only be based on the same tv pictures you yourself see. this is the 2nd last Glasgow derby from last season which we won 2-1. the first seconds of this clip, the Barry Robson challenge on Dailly, took place in the first 15secs of the match - [youtube]eU6oDgBgDF0[/youtube] that set the tone for the game that carried on right until the end, and beyond. there's a better video but i can't find it at the minute. needless to say, as a season ticket holder at Parkhead i can assure you the atmosphere at these matches is still electric. after the final whistle [youtube]U2fOogcJ54U[/youtube]
I was actually annoyed when I read the article. Had they used the term rivalry then I may have accepted it but a derby in the context of the Liverpool teams is only ever Everton vs Liverpool. And Manchester United versus Liverpool is hardly a direct rivalry with any history of great drama. In the 70's and 80's you always finished above them and in the 90's and 00's they always finish above you. You've finished above Manchester United once in the entire Prem league era, the same number of times Everton have finished above Liverpool.
One thing I've often wondered (and I could be in a minority of one here) is that people talk about the intensity of derbies where the two teams are located very close, but what is the most distant derby out there, in that it's still considered a genuine local derby rather than a rivalry? Norwich/Ipswich is something like a 40 mile gap, for example, but is still pretty intense.
Stoke City vs. Port Vale Pure hatred, violent as hell, I used to live in Stoke itself in the days of the Victoria Ground, they boarded up everything within a square mile in preperation......even Woolworths
I use to live in Norfolk and it's a 40 mile gap with fu ck all in it, and remember those teams effectively represent their counties.
Good job we don't play Vale anymore, those matches were horrible. ps. I hope they enjoy Division 4, back where they belong.
I used to live down near the Victoria Ground, would wake up on a Saturday afternoon after a heavy night with Delilah drifting through the windows!! Glad they are back in the top flight, always had a soft spot for them.
I guess I'll be the first one to mention West Ham - Millwall. When they collide, it's basically the battle of the skinheads.