1 Watch Boca Juniors Play River Plate in Buenos Aires Derby day in Buenos Aires makes the Old Firm game look like a primary school kick-about - and its only a couple of quid to get in Recommended by: Gavin Hamilton The rivalry between Boca and River Plate is the most intense in Argentine football and, perhaps, in the whole of Latin America: the game is a riot of colour, noise and energy. Buenos Aires has the highest concentration of football teams of any city in the world. River and Boca are the two leading clubs. Boca are originally from the dockland area so their support is traditionally more working class. River moved away from the area early on in the leagues history to a more upmarket district, and they have a slightly more affluent fan base, hence their nickname, Los Millionarios. One side of Bocas ground, the Estadio Alberto J Armando, is very strange. It resembles nothing so much as boxes stacked on top of each other and packed very tightly together. Its nickname, La Bonbonera (the chocolate box), is appropriate. On the day of the derby it is packed with hard-core fans. Boca and River tend to produce the big names in Argentine football. Maradona was at Boca and a lot of star names have come from River Plate, such as Hernán Crespo. Even though they lose most of their best players to Europe, there is such passion for this match that it is unsurpassed anywhere in the world. Gavin Hamilton is the editor of World Soccer magazine observer.theguardian/osm/story/0,,1182710,00.html
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 17:23:59 +0000
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