Getting One Over - Football's Local Rivalries 4 Quiz

Answer: Madrid

The rivalry between the top two clubs in the Spanish capital, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, originates in the early years of the 20th century. Following its foundation in 1902, the Madrid Football Club (later to be named Real Madrid) undertook a series of mergers with smaller clubs in the city, leading to their being dissolved.

The only club able to withstand merger overtures was Athletic Club, formed in 1903 as a Madrid based section of the Basque club Athletic Bilbao. The funding that the club received from its parent enabled them to hold on to their best players, and saw them grow into a major force in Spanish football. Real Madrid have a number of nicknames, with possibly its most famous being "Los Merengues" ("The Meringues"), which stems from their all white kit. Atletico's nickname, "Los Colchoneros" ("The Mattress Makers"), also comes from the traditional colours of their shirts, with their red and white stripes being the same pattern as the fabric used to cover mattresses.

Answer: Turin

The Derby della Mole between Juventus and Torino, named for one of Turin's major landmarks, the Mole Antonelliana, is the oldest local derby in Italian football, first being played in January 1907 following the foundation of Torino a month previously. As with many local rivalries, the initial differences came through variations in social class, with Juventus the club of the establishment, having been founded by students of the prestigious Liceo Classico Massimo d'Azeglio in 1897, while Torino's foundation came through ex-Juventus board members joining forces with another club, FC Torinese, who identified with heavy industry and the workers of the city.

Juventus's famous nickname, "La Vecchia Signora" ("The Old Lady"), comes as a pun on the club's name, as 'juventus' means 'youth', and that the club's fans tended to refer to it as "the lady" during the 1930s. Torino's nickname, "Il Toro" ("The Bull"), refers to the presence of a bull on Turin's coat of arms, which the club adopted as its own badge on its foundation.

Answer: Rotterdam

While there are three major professional clubs in Rotterdam, the main rivalry is between Feyenoord and Sparta, although this has lessened in more recent times as Feyenoord's bitter relationship with Ajax Amsterdam has increased. Sparta is the oldest professional club in the Netherlands, having been founded in 1888 by a group of students, while Feyenoord's foundation came twenty years later in 1908.

It was, as is often the case, class differences that brought about the initial rivalry between the two, with Sparta seen as a middle and upper class organisation, stemming from football being seen as an upper class activity when the club was founded, while Feyenoord's foundation, in one of the major industrial areas of the city, led to it becoming very much a working class organisation. Since their first meeting in 1921, Feyenoord has always maintained the upper hand, having gone on to become one of the "big three" in Dutch football. Their nickname, "De club aan de Maas" ("The Club on the Meuse") comes from the River Meuse, which enters the North Sea at Rotterdam, while Sparta's "De Kasteelheren" ("The Castle Lords") comes from the so called "Kasteel", a small building with two towers that backs onto the South Stand of the Sparta Stadium.

Answer: London

London has a large number of professional clubs, with one of the most bitter rivalries among them being that between West Ham United and Millwall. This initially stemmed from the fact that the two clubs were originally founded as works teams within three miles of each other in London's Docklands, with the two companies competing with each other in all areas, including for contracts, workers and on the football pitch. This became even more bitter during the General Strike of 1926, when dockyard workers in the Royal Docks area, most of whom were supporters of West Ham, came out on strike, while workers on the Isle of Dogs, who were largely Millwall supporters, supposedly failed to support the strike.

In modern times there has been the potential for significant violence when the two have played each other, leading to games having to be moved to alternative dates and times, and restrictions on the interaction between fans having to be put in place. West Ham's nickname, "The Irons", comes from its previous identity as Thames Ironworks FC, the works team of one of London's major shipbuilders. Millwall's nickname, "The Lions", originated as a result of their victory over Aston Villa in the Third Round of the 1899-1900 FA Cup - at the time, Aston Villa were the Football League leaders, while Millwall were in the Southern League. Millwall's victory led to the press naming them "Lions of the South".

Answer: Guadalajara

While the biggest rivalry in Mexico is considered to be that between Club America from Mexico City and CD Guadalajara, there are many fierce local rivalries as well, with the oldest being that between Guadalajara's two biggest clubs. CD Guadalajara, universally known by their nickname, "Chivas", was formed in 1906 and was initially a club for many nationalities in the city, as evidenced by their original name, the Union Football Club. This was changed in 1908 to Clube Deportivo Guadalajara, as a way inspiring the people of the city to follow them.

In 1916, a group of former students from Ampleforth College decided to set up their own football team, as a result of their experiences playing the game in England, which came to be known as Atlas FC. Almost immediately a rivalry developed, as a result of the middle-class origins of Chivas as compared to the upper-class founders of Atlas, with the first meeting in 1916 ending in a 0-0 draw. Chivas's nickname, which means "goats" in Spanish, initially came about in a 1948 newspaper article following a victory in which the journalist accused the team of playing like "crazy goats". Although initially used by opposing fans as an insult, it was adopted and is now the name by which the club is generally known. Atlas's nickname, "La Academia" ("The Academy") comes from its famous youth system, which has developed a significant number of players who have gone on to play for major clubs in Europe, as well as Mexico's national team.

Answer: Los Angeles

"El Trafico", as the rivalry between LA Galaxy and Los Angeles FC (LAFC) is termed, originated when LAFC joined Major League Soccer (MLS) in 2014, but it wasn't the league's first local derby in the City of Angels. Between 2005 and 2014, another club, Chivas USA, which was owned and operated by the Mexican club CD Guadalajara (and is traditionally known as Chivas), were members of MLS and played what came to be called the SuperClasico (after the traditional fixture between Chivas and Club America in Mexico) against LA Galaxy, one of the founder members of MLS.

After Chivas USA folded in 2014, the league allowed the establishment of a new club in Los Angeles, which came to be called Los Angeles Football Club. LAFC's first game against LA Galaxy took place in their inaugural season in 2018, ending in a 4-3 win for LA Galaxy. Unlike the previous "SuperClasico" moniker, which was applied artificially by the owners of the two clubs, it was the fans of LA Galaxy and LAFC who devised the name "El Trafico", as a pun on the term "clasico", as well as referring to the traffic congestion in and around the city. LA Galaxy's name came about as a reference to Los Angeles being home to the "stars of Hollywood", while LAFC's nickname, "The Black and Gold", is a reference to the colours of its home strip.

Answer: Sao Paulo

Of the many significant local derbies in Brazil, one of the most intense is the "Derby Paulista" between two of the country's most popular clubs, Palmeiras and Corinthians. Corinthians is the senior, having been founded in 1910 by a group of five workers from the Sao Paulo Railway, who were inspired to form their own team having watched the London based club, Corinthian FC, who were on a playing tour of Brazil, after which they named their new enterprise. Corinthians bucked the trend by being a working-class club at a team when football was an elitist activity.

Four years after Corinthians was founded, a new club called Palestra Italia was formed by a group of Italian immigrants in Sao Paulo to represent the Italian community in the city against the elite native Brazilian clubs. Palestra Italia played its first game against Corinthians in May 1917 - at the time, Corinthians had been unbeaten for 25 games stretching back three years, yet went down to a 3-0 defeat. Palestra Italia became Palmeiras in 1942, following a decree by the Brazilian government banning the use of names associated with the Axis powers in the Second World War. Since their first meeting, Corinthians and Palmeiras have been evenly matched, even down to the number of wins each has over the other and the number of trophies each has won. Palmeiras's nickname, "Verdão" ("Big Green") is from their traditional green shirts, which they have worn for most of their history. Corinthians' nickname of "Time do Povo" ("The People's Team") stems from their origins as a working class club during the time of football place as an elite pasttime.

Answer: Rosario

The "Clásico Rosarino", or Rosario Derby, is one of the biggest games in Argentina outside of the capital, Buenos Aires, featuring two of the country's most popular teams. Of the two, Rosario Central are the older, having been formed in 1889 by workers of the Central Argentine Railway, with the new club named as the Central Argentine Railway Athletic Club (CARAC). In 1904, the Central Argentine Railway merged with the Buenos Aires and Rosario Railway, which saw the membership of the football club increase. This led to the suggestion that its membership be opened wider than just staff of the railway, and saw the club renamed from CARAC to Club Atletico Rosario Central.

By contrast, Newell's Old Boys was established in 1903 by Claudio Newell, who brought together a group of students, teachers and alumni of the school run by his father to form a football club, the Colegio Comercial Anglicano Argentino. As a result of the first players to turn out for the team all being graduates of the school, the club came to be called "Newell's Old Boys". The two teams first met in October 1905, which saw Newell's win 1-0. Since then, the two have been evenly matched, with Rosario Central having a slight advantage. The nicknames of both clubs come from a single incident - in the 1920s, Rosario Central were asked to take part in a charity match for a leprosy clinic, which they refused, after which Newell's Old Boys took part instead. As a result, Rosario Central gained the nickname "Los Canallas" ("The Scoundrels") for not taking part, while Newell's became "La Lepra" ("The Lepers").

Answer: Sydney

The rivalry between Sydney FC and Western Sydney Wanderers has been described as being as fierce as any long-lasting local derby in Europe. Sydney FC was one of the founding members of Australia's A-League, with the club formed in 2004. From the start, Sydney was marketed as the "glamour" club in the league, inhabiting Australia's most cosmopolitan city. However, its focus on certain parts left potential fans in Sydney's western areas feeling alienated. In 2012, a place in the league became available and a second club for Sydney was announced. This new club was to be based in Western Sydney, a distinct part of the city from the central, north and east areas, and was given the name Western Sydney Wanderers to reflect its separate identity (the name and club colours were chosen after a number of community forums in western Sydney) .

The first fixture between the two came in October 2012, resulting in a 1-0 win for Sydney, since when the senior club has maintained an advantage in games between the two. Sydney's nickname, "The Sky Blues", comes from sky blue being the state colour of New South Wales, which was adopted as the club's primary colour upon its formation. Western Sydney Wanderers gained their nickname through it being the majority choice among fan forums in the area during the period when the club was being set up. It also pays homage to Wanderers FC (formed in 1880), the first ever Australian club founded to play football, which was based in the Western Sydney area.

Answer: Osaka

The Osaka Derby is one of a number of local rivalries that have built up in Japan, particularly since the advent of the professional J-League in 1992. Of the two major clubs in Osaka, Cerezo's history is longer, and goes back to 1957, when it was founded as Yanmar Diesel FC, the company team of Yanmar, a major manufacturing company in Osaka, which became one of the founder members of the Japan Soccer League in 1965. The club also maintained a reserve team, Yanmar Club, in the JSL Second Division but, in 1979, the reserve team was closed down. Many of the players and staff of Yanmar Club were then recruited by Matsushita Electricals (later renamed Panasonic), who wanted to form a new club to compete in the JSL. Matsuhita SC was originally formed in Nara, before moving to Osaka. In 1993, Matsushita became one of the first ten clubs to take part in the new J-League, which led to the club being renamed as Gamba Osaka.

Yanmar Diesel became part of the new Japan Football League in 1992, which served as the second tier of Japanese football, and in 1993 also changed their name, becoming Cerezo Osaka, and gaining promotion to the J-League in 1995. Although the original teams first met in 1986, the current incarnations met for the first time in 1995, with Gamba winning 3-0. Since then, Gamba has maintain an advantage in terms of wins, although both have spent time outside the top flight since their first fixture. Gamba have adopted the nickname "Nerazzurri" ("Black and Blues"), the same as the Italian club Inter, in reference to their black and blue striped home shirts, while Cerezo's nickname, "Sakura" ("Cherry Blossoms"), again refers to the club's primary colour of pink, and to the cherry tree, which is Osaka's official flower.