El Clasico

Human Highlighter Suit Tally: 9

Over lunch today, a Catalan told me that if I wanted to go to any restaurant or movie, or drive through the city with zero traffic, tonight would be the night.  Tonight—as I write this, in fact—FC Barcelona is playing Real Madrid in an unbelievable rivalry known as “El Clásico.”  Everyone in the city is either at the game (99,374) or watching it on TV.  Bars and restaurants charge admission.  Josep—my lunch informant—claimed that everyone would be leaving work early today, even though the game did not start until 9 pm.  It feels like Manhattan the day before July 4^th weekend starts.

This game is bigger than the Super Bowl.  Much bigger.

“El Clásico” is the name given to any game played between these two teams, and they have been playing for 111 years.  Real Madrid has won the most times—85—although Barça won the last time they played. Tonight’s game is at Camp Nou, Barça’s field, and it is raining.  And cold.  Honestly, although one would pay a king’s ransom for a ticket to this game, I am glad not to be out in that weather.  But then I am hardly the world’s biggest futbol fan.  No matter—it is impossible not to get swept up in Barça Fever if you live here for very long.

The media have been hyping the storied rivalry for weeks.  The first issue concerned the scheduling of the game; it was supposed to take place yesterday, the same day as the regional elections.  There was a lot of discussion about whether the game would disrupt the election and, ultimately, the game was moved from yesterday to today.  Then the protests began—how could a game of such magnitude be held on a workday?!?  Sacrilege.

A couple of times a week, Alec buys the local, sports-only newspaper Mundo Deportivo (Sports World)—which is basically a Barça paper because no other sport or team approaches FCB.  As a result of Alec’s studious reading of Mundo Deportivo, I know everything from how many Facebook friends each team claims (FCB: 7,248,184; RM: 6,150,493--(Barca has 3 times as many fans as the NY Yankees, to give you a bit of context)) to what the ref’s day job is (dentist).  My regular daily paper, La Vanguardia, published an article today titled “If soccer was an art,” in which dancers, directors, and architects held forth about the game and the two teams, the premise being that everyone talks so much about the artistry of the game that it was high time to ask the opinion of actual artists.  The director, Sergi Belbel, likened Real Madrid to the superstar productions of Broadway featuring actors like Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz, while Barca, he claimed, resembled more the serious theater of the West End of London, which favors strong team player types like Anthony Hopkins and Vanessa Redgrave.  Belbel writes that he loves to watch the Barca coach, Pep Guardiola, because he has the same movements and relationship with his players as a theater director.

But what gives the Madrid/Barca matchup a dimension that all other sports rivalries lack is the political piece. I have written before about the tension between Catalunya and the rest of Spain, the desire for many Catalans to become a nation.  Madrid is the capital of Spain and so is identified strongly with Spanish nationalism, whereas Barca connects with Catalan nationalism.  Even though several FC Barcelona players started on the triumphant Spanish World Cup team, many Catalonians paid not attention to the tournament and did not take pride in the victory.  One rarely sees anyone in Barcelona wearing a Spain jersey, whereas you can buy a Barca jersey on every street corner.  The political component connects to a class component.  Alec asked a taxi driver his opinion of the rivalry this week, and got this response:  “Well, when I think of Real Madrid, I think of rich people.  And the government.   And by the government, I mean Franco.”

So there are now 10 minutes left in the game, and Barca is up 4 – 0.  My Dad always said that a game isn’t over ‘til it’s over, but I think this one is almost ready for the record books.