page_title: Superclásico
section_title: Origins and background
hierarchical_section_title: Superclásico / Origins and background
caption_attribution_description: English: The famous "palomita" goal scored by Severino Varela playing for Boca Juniors against River Plate.
context_page_description: Superclásico is the football match in Argentina between Buenos Aires rivals Boca Juniors and River Plate. It derives from the Spanish usage of "clásico" to mean derby, with the prefix "super" used as the two clubs are the most popular and successful clubs in Argentine football. In fact, the term 'Clásico' originated in Argentina, particularly with this match up and it was later exported to other countries such as Spain and Mexico. According to some statistics, they commandeer more than 70% of all Argentine football fans between them.
  The Superclásico is known worldwide as one of the fiercest and most important derbies.
context_section_description: The two clubs Boca and River Plate both have origins in La Boca, the working class dockland area of Buenos Aires, with River being founded in 1901 and Boca in 1905. River, however, moved to the affluent district of Núñez in the north of the city in 1925. Since then, Boca Juniors has been known as the club of Argentina's working class or the people's club, with many Boca fans coming from the local Italian immigrant community. Boca fans are actually known as "Xeneizes" ("Genoese"). By contrast, River Plate became known by the nickname, Los Millonarios (The Millionaires), with a supposedly upper-class support base. Both clubs, however, have supporters from all social classes.
  The first official match was played on August 24, 1913, with River winning 2–1.
  The Superclásico is particularly noted for the passion of the fans, with what the BBC describe as "a sea of colourful flowing banners, screams and roars, chanting, dancing and never-ending fireworks". Both sets of supporters sing passionate chants aimed at their rivals, often based on popular Argentine rock band tunes. Each stadium, Boca's La Bombonera and River's El Monumental are known to bounce with the simultaneous jumping of the fans. At times, the matches have been known to end in fights between the violent factions on both sides or with the police.
  Boca fans refer to River supporters as "gallinas" ("chickens") claiming the lack of guts of River players. Despite the fact that their club traces back its roots to La Boca, River fans refer to their Boca rivals as "los chanchitos" ("little pigs") because they claim their stadium, located in the less affluent La Boca area, smells most of the time, as well as "bosteros" ("manure collectors"), a reference to the smell of a polluted river in La Boca. Another infamous slur, coined in the late 1990s over remarks of Boca's forward Diego Latorre, is to brand Boca Juniors as "The Cabaret", due to the alleged aspiration of some players to steal the limelight.
  The rivalry between the two clubs can also affect players, particularly those who are transferred between the two clubs. Cataldo Spitale was the first to make the change, when he left Boca to sign for River in 1933. Oscar Ruggeri, who moved to River from Boca in 1985 said, "It's not easy I can tell you. One side looks on you as a traitor and the other doesn't really trust you. You need time to adapt and a lot of character to win people over." Some players have gone so far as to state that they would not play for the other club such as River's Uruguayan player Enzo Francescoli while Diego Maradona during his time playing for Argentinos Juniors, refused to even consider a move to El Monumental, stating that his dream was to play for Boca.
  Recently, on March 21 in the Clausura 2010 tournament, the two teams started playing in La Bombonera. In the ninth minute of play, the match was suspended because of heavy rainfall in Buenos Aires. The pitch was practically flooded, but in spite of this, referee Héctor Baldassi stated that the match could be played. In the course of the match, the two teams were unable to keep possession because the ball became repeatedly bogged down. The match restarted on Thursday, March 25, 2010, and was played with two halves of 41 minutes. This was the first Superclásico suspended in history.
caption: The palomita goal scored by Severino Varela in 1943 became legendary.
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