The Awkwardly Earnest Guide, Part 2: DAHR-bees

Historic rivalries with traditions going back for years are a natural outgrowth of any sports league with more than a decade under its belt. Red Sox vs. Yankees, Lakers vs. Celtics, Cowboys vs. Anyone. But with the deep history of the sport, English soccer has rivalries that go back well over a century. And for the geographically-based rivalries (either same city, like Mets/Yankees, or neighboring town, like Timbers/Sounders) the English have a moniker for a match between said rivals: a Derby.

Unintuitively pronounced with an open a (as in father, or darling), the term Derby has murky origins. Wikipedia identifies three different possible origins: 1) the "all in" football game held each year in Ashburton in Derbyshire County (this game is called the Royal Shrovetide Football, and the entry on wikipedia is a fascinating read. The entire town pours out and the northern residents [all of them] play against the southern residents [all of them], and the entire city is the playing field. Shops board up their windows and the ball is filled with cork to keep it floating when it goes into the river!), 2) the horse race of the same name, and 3) early Liverpool/Everton matches, whose stadia were separated by a park owned by the Earl of Derby.

Derbies have special places in the hearts of fans. Many times, dignity can be wrought out of a poor season with the knowledge that you beat your deepest rival (cf. 2006 Timbers, last place finish, but beat the Sounders at home), or you can have a stellar season blemished by getting beat by your crosstown rivals when it counted (Manchester City beating United 4-2 in the 2005/06 season in front of their home fans, this year's Timbers having a stellar season but continually beaten by Seattle). At first blush, it seems like these contests are no different than longstanding rivalries in other sports, but history shows that soccer fans take this to intense extremes.

20-30 years ago, before European soccer globalized and broadened the demographics of their fanbase, it wasn't at all uncommon to have violent clashes between rival fans (of course, labelled as "hooliganism"). Some small groups would even troll neighborhoods before and after games, looking for anyone even wearing the colors of their rival and physically attacking them. It's been said that some places you can cross the wrong street and find yourself in hostile territory if you're wearing the wrong colors.

Supporters of the two top Glascow teams, Celtic and Rangers, have over the years divided themselves along religious lines. Celtic is the club claimed by Catholics, and Rangers by Protestants. this leads to incidents like specific Pope-based taunting of Celtic fans when John Paul II died recently ("Pope-based taunting"? can i patent that?). In How Soccer Explains the World, there's a chapter on hooliganism that explores the sometimes weird ways fans can choose to taunt each other, such as the presence of Hasidic Jews in Tottenham that led to Hotspur fans co-opting the taunt of "Yids" from their Arsenal enemies, making it their nickname.

Here's a bit of background on what i know of the most famous English derbies:

Liverpool and Everton
Called the Merseyside Derby, after the Mersey river that flows through these two towns. Probably the oldest rivalry in English soccer. Everton came first, and when Liverpool formed their team, they wanted to be called Everton as well, but the FA wouldn't allow them, and they chose Liverpool instead.

Manchester City and Manchester United
Barely anyone that lives in Manchester roots for United, I'm told. City's fans are sometimes referred to as the "citizens" because of this, and they claim that United isn't even from Manchester, as Old Trafford lies just outside the city limits.

Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur
These two clubs hail from North London, and hence, their meetings are referred to as the North London Derby. Arsenal bumped Tottenham out of a place in the UEFA Champions League by point accumulation on the final game of the 2005/06 season, which was a particularly bitter pill for Hotspur fans, as the season mostly saw Arsenal foundering in league competition, while Tottenham had one of their better seasons in quite a while. This year, as in many years past, more than a few people say this is Spurs' year to knock Arsenal out of the top four.

Newcastle United and Sunderland
Called the Tyne and Wear Derby, after the Tyne river running through Newcastle, and Weir running through Sunderland. These two clubs are just about as far northeast England as one can get without being Scotland. The people from these parts are called Geordies (Newcastle) and Mackems (Sunderland), and their accents are almost incomprehensible to us. Newcastle have had the lions' share of victories in modern times, as they've been in the Premiership for as long as I've followed them, and Sunderland have been bouncing between the Championship and the Premiership on alternate years.
This rivalry also stems from political and historical grievances between the two towns, beginning with Royal favoritism towards Newcastle's coal industry in the early 1600s which stunted Sunderland's growth. In 1996, clashes between both fans led to banning of one city's fans from the other entirely during derby matches (I have no idea how they pulled this off).
Many Timbers Army members take up the cause of the Black Cats (Sunderland's away jerseys are pitch black, hence Black Cats, versus Newcastle's vertical black and white stripes, which give them the nickname The Magpies) after having had a great experience with Sunderland fans during the Timbers friendly. Sunderland fans are fond of pointing out to their Newcastle enemies that for all their time in the top division, they have precious little to show for it lately.

This year the Tyne and Wear Derby will recommence with Sunderland gaining promotion back into the Premiership, and with Manchester United legend Roy Keane now coaching Sunderland, it definitely shouldn't be the lopsided affair (in Newcastle's favor) that it's been in past seasons.

Fulham and Chelsea
This is a rivalry that had cooled considerably (some might say that Fulham's true rivalry is with Queen's Park Rangers, another London club), but recently has burst open into hot flame. Both clubs occupy a small U-shaped bend of the Thames in southwest London (SW6). I particularly love the view you can get of the neighborhood on Google Maps.

Although the rivalry was kindled early on (Fulham is the oldest club in London, and indirectly led to Chelsea's creation when they turned down a move to Stamford Bridge over a rent dispute. The owner of the land went on to create Chelsea instead), after the 60's Fulham stayed down in the lowly Second and Third Divisions, while Chelsea enjoyed greater and greater success. Chelsea fans considered Fulham beneath their attention, especially as the neighborhood went from working class to one of the most posh areas of London. Since entering the Premiership and solidifying their ability to stay up, though, Fulham have made the derby more and more competitive each year, culminating with a gutsy 1-0 win at home two seasons ago (their first win over Chelsea in 27 years!), and a 2-2 draw last year with the tying goal coming from American Carlos Bocanegra.

Derbies I'm only passingly familiar with, or not at all:

Aston Villa and Birmingham City
Both of these clubs hail from Birmingham, and Aston Villa was recently bought by American Sports Tycoon Randy Lerner, while Birmingham has won promotion back into the Premiership. footballderbies.com rates this as one of the most intense rivalries in English football.

Portsmouth and Southampton
Portsmouth has some of the most passionate fans in all of England. They are LOUD and unrelenting. Southampton was relegated a few years ago, so I haven't seen these two play each other in a while either. However, reading the wikipedia page, I was reminded that Harry Redknapp has coached both teams, fostering deep animosity among Portsmouth fans when he left for Southampton, but then he returned to Portsmouth and has led them to good success last year, and are on many fans' short lists for securing a spot in European competition this year.

Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United
This one isn't a Premiership derby anymore, since Wednesday hasn't been in the top flight for some time, and Sheffield United were sent down last year. I've heard bits and pieces of Wednesday's storied history, but only seen them play once, awkwardly enough, against the USL all-star team last year in Cary, NC. Unfortunately, the game was pretty stilted and the stadium kept getting pelted with sound effects and music snippets to create "atmosphere" (a subject of American soccer i could rant about for days), so I couldn't even finish the first half. I'm not sure when we'll ever get to see this derby played out.

Thanks for joining us once again for The Awkwardly Earnest Guide. Coming up next in Part 3, Yanks, Yanks, and more Yanks!