ACB 2020 Final Phase The opinion of Jos Luis Martnez
EFE
Lface Alberto Herreros in the cows stands of the Fuente de San Luis during the Valencia match perfectly reflected the feeling of frustration and helplessness of the Madrid parish. With the gesture completely out of place, the sports director of Real Madrid did not explain how his team was not going to play the League semifinals.
Neither he nor the most pessimistic of the white fans were able to foresee a blow of this size after watching his team play the last eight ACB finals and win five of them.
To understand the magnitude of its catastrophe, suffice it to point out that 14 years ago, Madrid had not been out of the semifinals in the domestic competition. Then he fell into quarters with Unicaja (2-0), who later ended up conquering the title. But this removal has been much more painful, perhaps because it was inexplicable. The ugliest mole of the Pablo Laso era, who since landing on the Madrid bench in 2011 he had led his team to play in all the league finals.
THE BURGOS BUDGET, THE NMINA DE TAVARES AND LLULL
It’s hard to understand how the reigning champion has fallen off the League train so far from the title station. And the way to do it is incomprehensible: after derailing against two modest teams such as San Pablo Burgos and MoraBanc Andorra. The Burgos’ budget is around 5 million euros, more or less what Tavares and Llull earn in Madrid, whose budget exceeds 30 million euros. And the MoraBanc Andorra barely reaches four million. But fortunately in sports not always one plus one is two. Ambition, concentration and love have many times more weight than a lot of zeros of a good bank account.
AN INCREDIBLE SHOCK
In Spain Madrid can lose a match with teams like Valencia, Unicaja, Baskonia or Barcelona. What nobody explains is how a team with that arsenal of players and that quality can fall before a Burgos who has only been in ACB for three years, or against an Andorra that appeared without two crucial pvots for them: Musli and Diagn.
There were two inconceivable lows, especially the last one. Because before a modest team you can ever lose. If you do not have a good day and the rival has everything, it is possible. The serious thing is that it happens to you a second time when you are playing to stay alive.
Against Burgos, after a good start, Madrid went offline and was never heard from again. And against Andorra it was even worse, a soul in pain, pusilimime, with little intensity, discreet success, no concentration and nonexistent capacity to react. It was as if they wanted to go home now. The players did not cope well with this concentration after being confined to their homes for so long by the pandemic. But neither is Barcelona and is in the semifinal. Neither excuse nor pardon.
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