Super Soccer Sunday coming up

Opinion

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This article was published 22/09/2023 (717 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

IF “two” is a coincidence and “three” a pattern, “four” is a super soccer Sunday, as a quadruple of major derbies will be contested in a quartet of countries on Sunday.

In order of kickoff times, that would be De Klassieker, North London, Madrid and Le Classique; the Netherlands, England, Spain and France. Count ‘em up. Then buckle in.

The first of two encounters between cities that really, really despise one another, Amsterdam’s Ajax and Rotterdam’s Feyenoord will get the day started at Johan Cruyff Arena (7:30 a.m., FuboTV). It’ll be a battle of the Eredivisie’s previous two winners, though neither are among the Champions League places after a month and a bit of the 2023-24 season. Ajax, accustomed to life at or near the top of the table, are 12th going into the match, having won just a single game so far.

Feyenoord, meanwhile, are unbeaten through five rounds and have outscored their national rivals by more than double this term. Mexico striker Santiago Gimenez paces the division with six goals, and new signing Calvin Stengs, who helped Royal Antwerp to a league and cup double last season, leads in assists.

Both will need to extend their impressive starts to the campaign as, despite Feyenoord’s superior record to date, they’ve won only four of their last 38 matches against Ajax in all competitions.

It’s a similar scenario in the English capital, where Tottenham Hotspur lead Arsenal in the standings but seem consistently adept at losing North London Derbies. Incredibly, they went eight years before their first victory over the Gunners this century, and ahead of Sunday’s showdown at Emirates Stadium have won only six derbies since 2015, and none away from home in the Premier League since 2010.

That said, Spurs have so far eased through their schedule, winning four straight after drawing Brentford on the first day. James Maddison, acquired from Leicester during the summer, has been a revelation in the white shirt, scoring and assisting twice in five matches and passing at nearly 85 per cent.

But can they finally win away to Arsenal (8 a.m., FuboTV)?

Last season’s runners-up trounced PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League on Wednesday, and on Friday captain Martin Odegaard signed a new five-year contract. Alongside record signing Declan Rice, he makes up half of what might be the best midfield tandem in the country.

Atletico Madrid’s record in city derbies isn’t quite as dismal as Spurs’, but they’ve still triumphed just twice in La Liga since 2016. They also sit seventh in the Spanish top flight as they prepare to host Real Madrid (2 p.m., TSN), who are a perfect 5-0-0, with a Champions League defeat of Union Berlin to add for good measure.

Union actually put up some impressive resistance at the Bernabeu on Wednesday, but Jude Bellingham secured the points for the hosts with a second-half stoppage-time winner.

It was the 20-year-old’s sixth goal in six matches since joining from Borussia Dortmund in June, and his fourth game-winner. Combine his eye for goal from midfield, his passing rate of 87.7 per cent and his flare for the dramatic and you probably get the world’s form footballer at present. He’s simply box-office, the sort of athlete you make a point to watch even if you care nothing for his team, or his sport.

Atletico, too, were involved in a stoppage-time goal during Champions League play this week, although theirs was a concession that cost them two points away to Lazio. Prior to that, they were drubbed 3-0 at Valencia in La Liga, which followed a 7-0 win at Rayo Vallecano.

Their 10 goals so far have come in two matches, and it’s been impossible to get a feel from this group early on. Of course, it hasn’t helped that manager Diego Simeone’s side has been plagued by injuries. Los Colchoneros will be without Koke, Rodrigo De Paul, Thomas Lemar, Memphis Depay, Vitolo and Caglar Soyuncu for the Madrid Derby.

Sunday’s French derby, also a national one, is the other involving a pair of archrival cities (1:43 p.m., Fubo TV). Of the four, it’s also likely to be the most ferocious. Such are the circumstances when enmities go back centuries, even millennia.

From Marseille’s primacy as a Greek and Roman port city on the Mediterranean and it’s unique language and culture to the ascendancy of Paris-based monarchs and Louis XIV’s construction of Fort Saint-Jean, in which his cannon were aimed not at the sea but at Marseille itself, there’s been little love to be lost down the years between Marseillais and Parisiens.

Inevitably, the mutual dislike is mirrored in Le Classique — upstart Paris Saint-Germain jealously raiding multiple continents for players paid for by big-money owners, and Marseille, infamous for a mid-1990s bribery scandal, despising the French capital and everything it represents.

But it’s Marseille, perhaps surprisingly, who have made the better start to the Ligue 1 programme. Along with leaders Monaco, Nice and Rennes, they’re one of four unbeaten teams remaining, and without a recognized superstar have been required to get contributions from everywhere.

PSG, on the other hand, have a world-class forward in Kylian Mbappe, though they continue to struggle after losing Lionel Messi, Neymar and Marco Verratti during the summer. They lost 3-2 at Nice the last time out, but like Ajax, Arsenal and Real Madrid have tended to dominate their derby opponents head-to-head.

Parc-des-Princes will be a cauldron for the PSG-Marseille clash, a fitting if uncomfortably aggressive illumination in the city of lights. Though the fireworks should appropriately close out a banner derby day in four European capitals.

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