Giuseppe Meazza, Tuesday, December 12, 2023. 3,000 fans in the stands of the stadium to watch their team finish first in the group in the Champions League. La Real, in a very calm, honest, professional match, reached its goal and passed the group stage with a brilliant performance.
Everyone talks about Real Sociedad as the most pleasant surprise in this early stage of the continent’s most important club tournament. These are days of wine and roses for the group of emanol, But in football, as in life, everything is fleeting, and as quickly as it came, it can be gone. And, suddenly, the lights went out, the magic disappeared and the illusion began to weaken. The Real that campaigned for its honor, disrespectful to the gods of world football Olympus, suddenly became vulgar, banal, simplistic.
Betis, Cadiz, Alaves, Málaga, Athletic passed… and it was no longer the same. emanol He remained associated with a discourse that was based on the team’s long-term invincibility, but which was no longer imbued with sentiments.
lack of freshness
The team is not new; Due to the sheer wealth of talent this team possesses, ideas that once came quickly now get stuck, struggle when it comes to showing themselves, and the team’s play becomes vulgar, obscene, sleazy. .
It is true that there are factors that explain the current situation even partially; Say injuries, absences due to international commitments… and it would be completely unfair to ignore them, because they are part of the story of this team.
Having said that, there is no option but to face the next few weeks of a month of January full of finals, starting with cup qualifiers – I refer to them in the plural because I expect there will be many – and league commitments. Will continue with the results that are already taking shape, from the moment when the probability of your mistake is significantly reduced, in the key to the practice of survival, biding your time.
Sadar: To be or not to be
That’s what’s in the cup, it leaves no room for you to make mistakes, because the punishment is so severe. Circumstances demand that tonight’s match become a big test for Real Sociedad, because, after the defeat in San Mamés, a premature exit in the Cup would open the floodgates, and that would be extremely dangerous.
This Royal has demonstrated enough solvency to stop relying on it, but it is no less true that, for some time now, uncontrolled winds have been blowing, and this is not good for health. who blindly trust people’s ability emanol To manage these situations, they will continue to do so, no matter how fierce the storm. Those who had been waiting for him for a long time with loaded guns have already taken up positions. Whereas those who maintain a certain even distance wait for events to occur before expressing themselves in some sense.
That’s why today’s match, apart from being another step on the itinerary towards the finals, has become a true test of maturity for this group, desperate to re-enact the hallmarks that defined it. We do. since a long time. ,
three times zero is equal to zero
It is surprising to say the least that a team like Real, equipped with effective attackers, especially in the striker position, is getting so little benefit from such a situation. Sadik, Carlos Fernandez and Andre Silva He has shown barely a fraction of his expected potential, which is a significant handicap for this team.
The market is a living organism
This is one of those phrases engraved in marble for posterity that we get from time to time Roberto Olabe, Surely the realistic football director would have wished no one had reminded him of this at the moment, but, apparently, circumstances have conspired to complicate things for him, and the winter football market is turning out to be much livelier than expected.
Do you know…?
-In the “head-to-head” league match between Erasat and Imanol, the balance is overwhelmingly in favor of Oriotara: 9 confrontations with 6 realistic wins and 3 draws.
-There is one cup-winning precedent dating back to the 2019/20 season, including a 3–1 win over Real de Imanol at Anoeta.
-The last Reds win is from the 2011/12 season (1-0 at El Sadar),
Osasuna with Mendilibar on the bench and Montanier on the Txuri Urdín