Barcelona looking to maintain perfect record in ‘American Clásicos’
Preseason matches usually don’t mean anything, except when it’s El Clásico. There is never not a highly competitive game going on when Barcelona and Real Madrid meet, even when it’s supposed to a friendly, and on Saturday night at MetLife Stadium the two big rivals will meet once again.
This will be the first taste of the game’s greatest rivalry for Hansi Flick, whose main priority is to continue developing his new side and working on the squad’s fitness. But Hansi also really wants to win his first clash with Los Blancos, and if Barça do win on Saturday they will maintain a perfect record in ‘American Clásicos’.
This is the third year in a row the two big rivals face off in the United States and the fourth overall, and Barça have won all three of their previous meetings. The first happened in 2017 and turned out to be Neymar’s last game in a Barça shirt, and the Blaugrana won 3-2 in a very entertaining clash in Miami when the two sides were coached by Ernesto Valverde and Zinedine Zidane.
Five years later they met again in Las Vegas, with Xavi Hernández and Carlo Ancelotti in charge and Barça winning 1-0 thanks to a brilliant goal by Raphinha in his debut. Last year’s Clásico in Dallas was a coming out party for Fermín López, who announced himself to the world with a spectacular strike that finished off a 3-0 dominant win for the Blaugrana and began a dream season for the young midfielder.
Tonight, with Flick in charge and a lot of youngsters looking to have their own “Fermín Moment”, Barça will look for a fourth straight Clásico win in American soil, which doesn’t really mean much in the grand scheme of things but is certainly better than being winless in the United States against your greatest rival.
