Ramon Orosa
Bilbao (EFE)
Due to the relevance of the date for its most illustrious legend but, above all, because he was playing a Cup semifinal.
The Cup final is an event that a club lives like few others for which the so-called KO tournament is a fetish and the one that has elevated it the most during the 125-year history that it celebrates in 2023.
Among innumerable displays of affection, Iribar, when asked for a wish for his birthday, asked Athletic for a good result for El Sadar.
These expressions of affection reached him both at home, from the rojiblanca squad, and outside Lezama, where the drip was incessant to adhere to the initiative that all goalkeepers wear black this weekend.
A true tribute to who, while active, came to be considered one of the best goalkeepers in the world.
It was a humble and almost obligatory request before the captains who brought him a cake with candles on the number 80 so that he could put them out showing that, even about to start his ninth decade, he is still in shape.
What less could you ask for than a score in Pamplona that would make the return in San Mamés more bearable?
Flat match and no game
Well, Athletic did not reciprocate against Osasuna, against whom a flat match came out, stuck and in the line of lack of play, punching and offensive ambition that has been since the return of the break for the World Cup in Qatar.
A phase of the season in which they have barely added 8 points out of a possible 27 and that have dropped them in the league table of Champions League positions to ninth place.
A position in which he sees any European goal far away that is not the still almost unknown Conference League. The Champions League has already gone to 10 points and the Europa League to 8.
Where Athletic has maintained its type is in the Cup, overcoming the qualifiers against Sestao River, Eldense, Espanyol and Valencia with more authority than problems. The latter with the added merit of achieving it in Mestalla.
That power, however, has not been transferred to LaLiga, where Valverde’s new plan to prevent Iker Muniain and Oihan Sancet from meeting on the inside for the sake of a defensive balance has not just given him results.
In fact, of Athletic’s two league victories in the post-World Cup stage, one was with that formula dubbed ‘rock and roll’ with the Navarrese ahead of Mikel Vesga and along with two wingers and a center forward.
It was against Cádiz, a 4-1 victory that reminded us of the wins, some away from home, at the beginning of the course.
A double pivot lacking in creation
In El Sadar, Valverde returned to the double pivot Dani García-Vesga, a plan with very bad numbers in recent years and that neither Gaizka Garitano nor Marcelino García Toral did at the time.
The Asturian came to admit that, even seeing them compatible and as a good double pivot in theory, in practice the statistics with them together were devastating.
Against Osasuna, Athletic did not lose due to this double pivot, although with him the rojiblanca generation of play decreased drastically.
What unbalanced him was the speed, overflow and definition of Abde, who put his team in the lead in the tie with a long run, in which Dani Vivian did not stop him, Oscar de Marcos did not come to help and he beat Julen Agirrezabala.
He beat the goalkeeper with one of those crossed shots that the young man from San Sebastián still hasn’t been able to stop.
Abde’s threat sent De Marcos and Alex Berenguer to the bench at game time, the right wing that had to defend the Moroccan winger and who had been as neat in attack in the first half of yesterday in black.
It was not the day of Sancet and Williams
It was not the day of Sancet, on other occasions brilliant in El Sadar, right next to his house, and yesterday imprecise and stuck as rarely with the ball.
Muniain did not appear much either, leaning to the left, although the captain starred in the best chances, one of them including a save by Sergio Herrera after touching the ball off a rojillo defender.
Athletic paid dearly for the captain not coming into play.
Iñaki Williams also did little in attack, like Muniain very neglected. He scored a goal after a rejection, the biggest in the saga, but, as usually happens, he was caught offside.
The novelty of the lineup was Iñigo Martínez, almost four months after his last game. And the international left-hander was not bad, forming a flank with a Yuri Berchiche who lacked depth due to the band he is used to.
But the plan, for neither party, was not to give rein to joy but to endure, not make mistakes and for San Mamés to decide.
Almost like nothing happened. And the two teams were about to achieve it.
Although Abde appeared as usual lately, he complicated things for Athletic for the return leg and left the rojiblanca squad unable to fulfill the request of their mythical legend.
An Iribar who, however, is confident that things will change when he returns and that his ‘lions’, with whom he still shares his day-to-day life at 80, will respond to his birthday wish.
“A good result”, even if it is a month late than agreed.
A Cup final would be worth it, the match of matches for Athletic and, of course, for ‘El Chopo’, who carved out a good part of his immense legend in clashes like this. EFE
