La Real rules in the derby

Real Sociedad is in the current era a more distinguished team than Athletic for reasons that no one escapes: It is common to see him in Europe, he has won a Copa del Rey, precisely against his neighbor, and he has players like Brais, Kubo and Silva who play silk football. The txuri-urdin team took out their stripes to win the derby in a vibrant match for an hour, until a fateful play by the rojiblancos ruled them out of the fight for points. A rookie mistake by Nico Williams, someone who does not drag that mark through the fields because he has been in a World Cup and already has a tour in the First Division, served Kubo a ball on a tray in one-on-one with Simón. Yeray managed to catch up with him and in the melee he put his hand on the Japanese’s waist, who, noticing the slightest contact, fell to the ground. Cuadra Fernández appreciated a penalty in that slight touch and sent off the center-back. An excessive punishment. And the VAR would say ‘keep going, keep going’, because you can’t debate a touch that a judge appreciates a few meters away. Oyarzabal, the great friend of the fateful point, scored the maximum penalty and that was over: 3-1. The people from San Sebastian remain in the fight for the Champions League, they maintain this idyllic landscape after the World Cup, and Europe turns its back on them momentarily. A three in one with expulsion, penalty and goal.

It’s a pity that the game that attracted more spectators than ever to Anoeta was defined by such a gray play, so difficult to appreciate if it was white or black, that is, blue and white or red and white. The final half hour was a party for the stands, yes, but they took it from the pitch. In any case, the trees of that debatable interpretation of the referee cannot prevent seeing a thick forest on Valverde’s board, which was wrong from the eleventh start. Putting Vesga and Dani García in blocks in midfield against a legion of ‘gamers’ is going behind a melodic orchestra. When the pulse was still open, he rightly put Berenguer in for Guruzeta, but he was very conservative all night, and then he took out Sancet, the only one who seemed to have some fantasy at an evening in a metallurgical factory for the apparently rojiblancos robots.

La Real paved the way punishing the mistakes of the rojiblancos. A cross to Sorloth in the area caught De Marcos, who had just defended Zubimendi, breaking the offside position. The lanky central defender maneuvered with solvency against the central defenders and Yuri, and scored a wonderful goal. Shortly after, Vesga fell asleep coming from behind and a Silva who was very involved when it came to rolling up his sleeves stole his wallet. He passed it to Kubo, who hit Vivian, too fast in that action instead of turning on the computer and understanding that the Japanese usually look for that joke, and he scored a great goal. He took off his shirt and went to celebrate the goal in the stands, a double sin that luckily for him only earned him a yellow card.

That rhombus that has such good results for Imanol is attacked from the outside. And Athletic did not understand it at any time. Only in a flash at the end of the first half, Nico and Yuri teamed up to cause trouble for Elustondo and Brais. They mounted an incursion so that a clear ball could reach Sancet, who controlled it with his right foot, it went a bit high and that lucky elevation was a quarter goal. The other 75 percent led from a fantastic left-footed shot before which Remiro, who touched the ball, was able to do something else.

The derby was more balanced and open than the 2-0 dictated in the initial stretch. And yes, the three goals from the break seemed to draw an offensive derby, but there was very little traffic in the areas. The two main Basque teams focused their efforts on pressing high to look for steals near the opponent’s goal. Real got the most out of this strategy, stalking Simón over the rojiblancos. They spent a long time chasing opponents, they were out of place, uncomfortable in attack.

Athletic was unable to open the field to make Merino and Brais doubt about helping the wingers. And look, he had the example of Nico with a ball to the far post over Iñaki in the first shot of a certain danger from the visitors. Valverde asked to go inside, but he didn’t have the tools to do it. Vesga and Dani García are not specialists in positional play. Each robbery of the Real put the Bilbao defense in trouble. The Basque pulse had intensity and a lot of continuity, but what Imanol wants was more at stake, because Athletic gave him fuel to be strong in that pressure and robbery. Sancet lived very ‘low’, he seemed like a defensive pawn, an uncomfortable situation for a talent like him.

The second half was born with an accident. Vivian stepped on Sorloth and the Norwegian giant began to hurt. Oyarzabal left, the offensive profile of Imanol’s team completely changed, for everything that conditions Sorloth. It was unknown how Oyarzabal would behave, an emblematic player in Anoeta but who in Almería on his return after the long injury was slow, behind his teammates and saving himself at the end. The staging could not have been better: he scored the goal after the doubtful penalty on Kubo. He scored ten months later.

Nobody knows what would have happened if that expulsion turned into one more play in a fight between a striker and a centre-back. After 3-1, he was about to stick the Brais sword even deeper. There were no more traces of the derby until the end, only the hubbub from the stands. Zubimendi had time to clear himself of cards in discount, with a little foul that will lead him to be punished against Rayo and play against Madrid. La Real did not want to delve into the wound, was not aggressive and avoided doing more damage. His is the government in derbies lately. It is nine points better than Athletic. And few dispute it.