Asier Santana made his debut on the Florida bench. The ‘Portu’ came from two defeats ‘his’ and as many ‘inherited’ from the ‘era Loza’. The draw against Alavés B was ‘read’ by the Idiazabal coach as “a little step forward.” It refers to the game displayed by its players. To the individual and to the collective. The journalist agrees with the Club Portugalete coach.
The pitcher team completed a game of those beautiful to see. There were no goals, true. The Portu did not enjoy scandalous chances to win, true, too. So? When football is about carrying the ball from one goal to the other! When the first touch is with the hand and short.
When the ball passes by sliding on the grass. When footballers associate in a showy and virtuous way. He failed to score the Portu, however. A pending issue for the ‘boys’ who attend the ‘School’ of their ‘second coach’.
Euria. Hotza. Jon Moya is already serving as ‘second’ as one of the consequences of the ‘earthquake’ registered in the Florida offices in the last days of the winter market. Some who leave, others will come, they have already come, Asier Santana already has them at his disposal. Iñaki Alonso, for his part, seeing how pieces were removed from his board, had submitted his resignation during the week. Brave decision.
As for those at home, Eizmendi [que ya se estrenara en Lezama] and Álvaro Arnedo appeared in ‘Sociedad’. A ‘left-handed’ winger who forced Rozas to fall back to the left side. A medium center that came highly recommended. Arnedo, occupying the place of an absent Monterde, assuming the role of leader of the Catalan, set an excellent game. A footballer of those who remind you … “who?” What do I know! Let’s leave it to Arnedo to take one back to those moments before the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.
Spotlights almost at the beginning because of ‘the TV thing’. The first notes of a ‘Portu combinatorio’. The Alavés face up cards: they painted clubs in their ideology! The brutal clash between Ayala and Abkar. Even the Asturian Rodríguez García is scared. It ‘demands’ the input of assists. Accident settled with the withdrawal to the changing rooms of the Murcian who plays for Portu and a bulky bandage as a turban on the head of the central babazorro. Even so. Taking risks because, from then until the end, Abkar, along with Keller, would form one of the ashlars of an impregnable wall.
“I want to play in the opposite field.” Declaration of intentions with which Santana presented himself upon arriving in Florida. Wanted to. Wants. The Portu lives installed on the plot of others. Good Portu. Great Portu. The game is born in its goalkeeper, Mediavilla. Always short. At the foot of the centrals. Let it be Murua. Be Santamaría, fundamentally. Ball inside. Or to the side. He plays and it comes out because he does not lose. Play until you like it.
This is how one lived it from the rostrum. Amazed by such precision. Drawing triangles on a tile. Llacer, left-handed side of the ‘Glorioso’ subsidiary, is suffering from it in his person. In their meats. ‘Costume meat’. Lunge at Thaylor, who was ‘taunting’ you with skill, power, speed. That he saw the red one was a matter of will. Yours. That he lost her. Let his dark side appear. Alavés is left with 10 after half an hour. Deportivo Alavés B will have to live installed on his plot.
With ten you attack less, but you defend yourself better. Two titans occupying the center of the rear. Julio is a colossus heeled to the left. Higher towers have fallen, it will be said. But it is that every footballer babazorro is a wall. Sixty-three meters across. Much virtue must be treasured. The Portu strives. Not a ball in the cold air of Florida. Everything is ‘down’ here, ‘up’.
The ball, from boot to boot. And among all of them, those worn by Álvaro Arnedo’s thinking head. A footballer capable of stealing the heart of a chronicler even if he has it made of stone: Arnedo is football! Let’s stop flattering for not weakening the boy. It is about asserting its numerical advantage. Difficult. The narrowness of Ezequiel Loza’s ‘little Anfield’ has already been mentioned. Of the absence of a high nine that attacks what comes from the bands. Which is a lot and good. To play with two up. To surprise the people who come from behind. That the penalties required in 74 ‘and 84’ were collected.
There will be someone who will dismiss the chronicler as partial for recounting as if Portu had played with himself and not against a rival as fierce as Alavés B. Defense. Everything is defense. Or almost everything. There was, in the first act, a header that was lost after hitting the top of the crossbar of Mediavilla’s goal. There will be a free-kick that the Suances goalkeeper will deflect with the ‘tips’ of his glove until he is forced to crash into the post.
There will be a giant who will travel the field of play with his thousand-league boots. Atypical attacker. Of those that are not styled. Basketball player physique. Gilgamesh, still alive, the bastard. Beyond these details, Alavés was … a fierce bullet at the center of combat! ‘Belly cats’, too.
‘Sentenced’ without executing because the death passes traced by the Portu attackers did not find executioners with expertise when it came to killing. “A little step forward”, confesses Asier Santana. Do you need a little more time to finish fitting all the pieces? He is asked. “Sure,” Santana responds, “with time everything comes better.”
But “we don’t have time.” I wish “we had more time”. But now “we don’t have time for that.” Touch “adapt”. Touch “apply a little more to acquire a good dynamic.” Weather. Time!
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