The run-up to Rivalry Week is always a bit... off. The hype feels more manufactured than usual. Some of the fixtures are only rivalries in the most generous sense of the term. There’s always this feeling that it’s going to be a total bust. But when you’ve got the Hudson River Derby, the Texas Derby, and a Cascadia Derby on the menu, you know it’s not going to be all bad.

Houston 1-1 Dallas

One of the marks of a fierce rivalry is that each team’s respective form and table position doesn’t matter a whit heading into the Derby.