{"id":59860,"date":"2016-01-01T08:43:58","date_gmt":"2016-01-01T07:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/?p=59860"},"modified":"2018-02-16T15:03:22","modified_gmt":"2018-02-16T14:03:22","slug":"why-el-clasico-is-a-big-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/why-el-clasico-is-a-big-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Why El Clasico is a big deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Politically charged, with a pitch full of the best players around. At the 21st of November Spain (and to some extent the rest of the sport interested world) stands still for two hours.<br \/>\nSo what is it that makes <strong>El Clasico<\/strong> one of the most anticipated and watched games in the world?<br \/>\nHere is the short explanation:<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_17 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-grey\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class=\"ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1\"><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/why-el-clasico-is-a-big-deal\/#Politics\" title=\"Politics\">Politics<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/why-el-clasico-is-a-big-deal\/#The_all_star_factor\" title=\"The all star factor\">The all star factor<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/why-el-clasico-is-a-big-deal\/#The_decisive_battle\" title=\"The decisive battle\">The decisive battle<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Politics\"><\/span>Politics<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The rivalry between the teams are based on distance and independence rather than proximity. While other great rivalries throughout the football world usually are between teams from the same city, loaded with social factors like catholics vs protestants, or working class vs upper class, <strong>El clasico<\/strong> is the football reenactment of the eternal beef between <strong>Catalonia<\/strong> and the central oppressing authority in <strong>Madrid<\/strong>. A victory is always seen as a ritual exorcism of the Madridian influence. While players from <strong>Real Madrid<\/strong> and <strong>Barcelona<\/strong> the last decade have come together and created one of th<br \/>\ne most successful national teams in history, for 90 minutes two times a season, there is no such thing as a unified <strong>Spain.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_all_star_factor\"><\/span>The all star factor<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Real Madrid<\/strong> have always been a star filled team, but in the beginning of this century they started looking more like a drunk football nerd\u00b4s wet dream than an actual football team, cramming players like <strong>Zidane<\/strong>, <strong>Figo<\/strong>, <strong>Ronaldo<\/strong>, <strong>Beckham<\/strong>, etc, into the same formation. They<img class=\" wp-image-59862 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/el-clasico-3-245x300.jpg\" alt=\"el clasico 3\" width=\"198\" height=\"242\" \/> are still doing their \u201cgalacticos\u201d-thing, now with players like<strong> Gareth Bale<\/strong>, and<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=EwRsCbEtE_M\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Cristiano Ronaldo<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Barcelona<\/strong> also have a proud lineage of superstars like <strong>Johan Cruyff<\/strong>, <strong>Ronaldinho<\/strong>, <strong>Laudrup<\/strong> and their current golden generation with players like <strong><span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rvO_pj08Ih4\">Messi<\/span><\/strong>, <strong>Neymar<\/strong>, <strong>Iniesta<\/strong> and <strong>Su<br \/>\narez<\/strong>. The lineups gives the game an aura of allstar game, the best of the best. No game on the planet can touch <strong>El clasico<\/strong> in terms of star quality.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_decisive_battle\"><\/span>The decisive battle<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The two titans dominance over La Liga is unmatched in the bigger leagues in Europe. That means that the six points in total that they are battling for over the two <strong>El Clasicos<\/strong> will most likely have a decisive effect on who is going to b<img class=\"size-medium wp-image-59863 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/el-clasico-2-300x201.jpg\" alt=\"el clasico 2\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" \/>e league winners in the end of the season. Neither of the teams are likely to lose too many points outside of the \u201cClash of the titans\u201d-esque evenings referred to as <strong>El Clasico<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Related article: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/fc-barcelona-champions-league\/\" target=\"_blank\">FC Barcelona: The new sheriff in town<\/a><\/p>\n<div style=\"display: none;\"\n    class=\"kk-star-ratings kksr-valign-bottom kksr-align-left \"\n    data-id=\"59860\"\n    data-slug=\"\">\n    <div class=\"kksr-stars\">\n    <div class=\"kksr-stars-inactive\">\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" data-star=\"1\">\n            <div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 25px; height: 25px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" data-star=\"2\">\n            <div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 25px; height: 25px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" data-star=\"3\">\n            <div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 25px; height: 25px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" data-star=\"4\">\n            <div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 25px; height: 25px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" data-star=\"5\">\n            <div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 25px; height: 25px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    <div class=\"kksr-stars-active\" style=\"width: 0px;\">\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\">\n            <div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 25px; height: 25px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\">\n            <div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 25px; height: 25px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\">\n            <div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 25px; height: 25px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\">\n            <div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 25px; height: 25px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\">\n            <div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 25px; height: 25px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n    <div class=\"kksr-legend\">\n            <span class=\"kksr-muted\">Rate us!<\/span>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Politically charged, with a pitch full of the best players around. At the 21st of November Spain (and to some extent the rest of the sport interested world) stands still for two hours. So what is it that makes El Clasico one of the most anticipated and watched games in the world? Here is the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":59861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4350],"tags":[3210],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59860"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59860"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95019,"href":"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59860\/revisions\/95019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}