Football fans were offered over 630 minutes of Clasico last year in 7 different clashes, and they still have 120 minutes of Clasico ahead of them before the end of January 2012.
Surely, the feeling ahead of the imminent pair of Clasicos this time is not the same as before. Some seasons ago, a match between Real Madrid and Barcelona was regarded as an extremely special gift.
It was also considered as rare, as the two giants were most at times expected to face each other only in the two halves of La Liga. In other words, each side often had only two chances per season to better its record in the Spanish derby’s history.
Everything has changed now, and El Clasico has surprisingly turned into the most frequently played clash in Spanish football, recently. Between April 2011 and December 2011, Real Madrid and Barcelona met twice in the league, once in the Copa del Rey, twice in the UEFA Champions League and twice in the Spanish Super Cup.
Counting the 2 showdowns that are set to follow in the Copa del Rey quarter-finals this season, it makes it 9 Clasicos lined-up in a 9-month period. This is equal to having a Classic every month. Surprisingly and more or less pleasurably, El Clasico is no longer a “rare” fixture.
How beneficial is this pile of clashes for spectators and the teams’ players themselves? Answers to this question would surely be different. But undoubtedly for some people, the recent strange additions of Clasicos to the calendar has eliminated the exceptional taste that used to be felt at the mention of what is actually on of club football’s most followed matches.
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