The Real Sociedad recovered the third place from which it was vacated for a few hours due to the whims of the calendar and ends a great year well. He played with firmness and determination against a timid Osasuna, far from the best version of him, and who never knew how to come up with a proposal that responded to the San Sebastian approach. The return to competition did not sit equally well with the two teams.
2
Remiro, Elustondo, Diego Rico, Zubeldia, Le Normand, Brais (Illarramendi, min. 80), David Silva (Gorosabel, min. 80), Martin Zubimendi, Take Kubo (Ander Martin, min. 80), Mohamed Ali-Cho ( Robert Navarro, min. 74) and Sörloth (Oyarzabal, min. 86)
0
Aitor, Unai Garcia (Ruben Garcia, min. 65), Ruben Pena, David Garcia, Juan Cruz (Abde, min. 78), Manu Sanchez, Jon Moncayola, Lucas Torro (Brasanac, min. 65), Moi Gomez, Aimar Oroz (Kike Garcia, min. 57) and Chimy Avila (Kike Barja, min. 77)
goals 1-0 min. 22: Brais. 2-0 min. 63: Sorloth.
Referee Valentin Pizarro Gomez
Yellow cards Unai Garcia (min. 56) and Brais (min. 68)
In San Sebastian, the ordinances prohibit street fireworks, which the most sensitive ears and the majority of domestic animals are grateful for on such important dates when it is customary to burn gunpowder by the ball. There are only two zambombazos that sound like heavenly music in Donostia, and they are the ones launched by Juan Iturralde every time he scores a goal for Real Sociedad. He has, of course, all the permits in order to be able to fire those rockets, as did Patxi Alkorta, the forerunner several decades ago in the old Atocha field.
When the first rumble sounds, the passersby prick up their ears. If there is no other in the next ten seconds, bad. That means that Osasuna has scored, or any rival that appears on the Anoeta pitch. Passers-by heard the first one, shortly after four-thirty, and already knew that it was an announcement that someone had dialed, and not a New Year’s celebration. For the ordinances, let’s go. They heard the second and were happy with the realistic goal.
They did not know that, up to that moment, almost nothing had happened and that the two teams circulated from one side of the field to the other aimlessly, as if waiting for better moments. But everything changed when Brais, the great signing of Real this season, picked up the ball along the right wing, made the wall with the World Cup player Kubo, who returned it accordingly, and then left Juan Cruz seated to beat a cross shot to Aitor.
The rockets from Iturralde sounded, La Real woke up and Osasuna continued in the siesta, with a monumental oversight, strange in the rojillo team, which lost all the duels, gave away balls as if they were wise men and went adrift in all the lines. Meanwhile, Imanol’s soldiers, who were greeted by the stands with a gigantic mural characterized as Marlon Brando in The Godfather, broke their chests for the cause, pressing the Osasunista exit and drowning Moncayola or Aimar Oroz when they tried to oxygenate their team. They could only receive from behind and always with a rival whispering the Royal anthem in their ear. That was enough for the San Sebastian team to keep the Pamplonicans at bay, who didn’t say a word with their football.
Seeing that the minutes passed and everything remained the same, Arrasate decided to change the silk for calico. He removed a lost Oroz on the immensity of Anoeta to try a borer like Kike Garcia, but it was Real that made the pyrotechnician on duty work again. A heel from Silva, a ball into space from Brais and a chip from Sorloth. Written like that it seems simple, but Real’s second goal was a mixture of precision and subtlety, something very complicated.
The difference in the score made most of the 35,000 fans who populated the stands happy, but who had not yet received the best news on the last afternoon of the year, the reappearance of their captain, Mikel Oyarzabal after 289 days without playing for his cruciate ligament injury. When he jumped onto the field, the rockets did not sound, but the moment deserved them.
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Source: EL PAIS
