The biggest sports showdown in history was undoubtedly the 1975 CFL (Chicagoland Football League) championship game in which the Newton Nite Hawks* defeated the Niles Saints.
*you will remember their stellar running back, Lightning Mitchell.
I was being ironic, but no I couldn’t confuse Eli with Peyton (who will almost surely be in the HoF).
I would go with Yale vs Princeton for the final football game in 1888.
Especially in College when teams don’t always regularly meet each other. The Notre Dame v Miami “Catholics v Convicts” showdown in the 80s is a great example.
Recently in Philly the Temple-Notre Dame game was a pretty big deal—— Temple wins suddenly they are a top 10 team with a snowballs chance at the Playoff. As it turns out they lost and played the Motor City Bowl.
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No love for the Miracle on Ice? The Vancouver Olympics is a fucking joke in comparison.
Or for that matter, the Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union.
England v Australia. Pakistan v India in cricket.
Germany v Netherlands in soccer. Or Brazil V Argentina.
If we’re including individual sports, Ali-Frazier, Robinson-LaMotta, Hearns-Hagler-Leonard, Sampras-Agassi, Nadal-Federer-Djokovic, Nicklaus-Palmer, Tiger-Phil, Ovett-Coe
Plus individuals within team sports: Messi-Ronaldo, Bird-Magic, Crosby-Ovechkin
Well, there goes that idea…
Any World Cup final is bigger than ANY national championship in any sport in any country. More than a billion people - at least 25 times the population of Argentina - watched the 2018 final. A World Cup final draws ten times the viewers of a Super Bowl. It’s not a close call.
The Miracle on Ice wasn’t even on TV when it was being played. It was a hell of an upset but as a big hyped event, it’s not in the top 10,000 sports events of the 20th century.
Soccer/football (whatever you call it) is the biggest sport in the world so yes, I agree that nothing else is going to come close.
Biggest sports showdown in history? no, it much more important than that 
I can’t tell exactly what is being asked in the OP, but it seems to refer to the greatest rivalries. I’m not sure there have been enough World Cups to have real rivalries between countries. You could point to Brazil-Argentina or Germany-Holland, but they rarely meet in important World Cup games, and never in the World Cup final match. The biggest rivalries are generally within a league for club teams or within a continent for national teams. The OP refers to the Superclassico happening in the finals of the Copa Libertadores. This would be like Real Madrid facing FC Barcelona or Man United playing Liverpool in the final of the Champions League. So if the criterion is to have the most decorated and bitter rivals play for the most prestigious title in their sport, it’s hard to argue with Boca-River in the CL final.
1974 was Holland germany in the WC Final. 14 years later it was the semi Final in the European cup. Both tournaments played in germany
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ITS no it :smack:
On the other hand considering the behavior of the fans lately may be talking in caveman language is not out of place…
Colibri:
Those that remain, true, but before 1958, Yankees-Dodgers and Yankees-Giants were darned big deals, and they met in the World Series quite a few times.
By the way, the Final match was indeed played at the Bernabeu (home of Real Madrid). River Plate (the team that couldn’t play its home game due to fan violence) ended up winning its 4th Copa Libertadores. Interestingly, 4 of the top 5 teams with the most Copa championships are from Argentina, even if Brazil has the top league throughout the history of South American soccer. Independente has the most with 7, followed by Boca Juniors (the 2018 losing team) with 6.
Why would fans sneak flares into a soccer stadium, and why doesn’t such a thing take place in America?
Better funded and more professional security?
It’s happened before.
I know the current owner of Chicago has tried (succeeded?) in preventing it though.