The most talented player Imanol had on the bench came on and in his only action of the match he gave Real Sociedad the three points. Take Kubo, who disappeared a week ago against Rayo, watched most of the match against Espanyol from the sidelines. Finally, the Real manager brought him on and it only took one spark to decide the match. That’s what star players do.
0
Joan García, Leandro Cabrera, Carlos Romero (Pere Milla, min. 86), Omar El Hilali (Álvaro Tejero, min. 86), Marash Kumbulla, Alex Král, Irvin Cardona (Brian Oliván, min. 67), José Gragera (Antoniu Roca, min. 82), Jofre Carreras (Álvaro Aguado, min. 82), Alejo Véliz and Javi Puado
1
Álex Remiro, Hamari Traoré (Jon Aramburu, min. 82), Aritz Elustondo, Jon Pacheco, Javi López, Sheraldo Becker (Pablo Marín, min. 85), Martín Zubimendi, Beñat Turrientes (Takefusa Kubo, min. 66), Sergio Gómez , Brais Méndez (Jon Olasagasti, min. 65) and Mikel Oyarzabal (Umar Sadiq, min. 66)
Goals
0-1 min. 79: Take Kubo
Referee Mario Melero Lopez
Yellow cards
Beñat Turrientes (min. 50), Alejo Veliz (min. 51), Oyarzabal (min. 56), Marash Kumbulla (min. 96)
In August, football is not entirely natural, it sounds more like pre-season than competition, like the Colombino Trophy than the League. In fact, no one is yet in full swing, neither the referees nor their linesmen, who make flagrant errors, such as the one who signals an offside after a corner after a defender returned it to the kicker. There is a lack of practice, adjustments are needed in all lines, even for the local goalkeeper, Joan García, to tighten up his footwork a bit more and not cause heart attacks in the stands.
There is too much perspiration, with shirts dripping with sweat, humidity in the air and heat, and a lack of inspiration, to avoid insipid games like the one between Espanyol and Real Sociedad, without too many ideas when it comes to creating plays, a lot of disarray in both teams and few chances.
There was a lot of excitement at the RCDE Stadium about the return to the First Division and the home opener, a lot of enthusiasm, but little spark. Espanyol returned to the top flight on their own ground after another brief spell in hell, but in the first half, after the first few minutes of spark, due to the rush of novelty and an initial action in which a counterattack ended in a penalty request that did not seem to happen, the white and blue team began to get tangled up in their own doubts. They had very little control of the ball, so Real had no choice but to take it for themselves. Two shots from Sergio Gómez were the best chances before the break, but, with the points, the match was declared a no-go.
After that, everything seemed to be going along the same lines, as if neither team could get off track without causing a derailment, until Espanyol woke up for a few minutes and gave the impression of something. At least, something more than in the time wasted until then.
At 56 minutes, Puado was ready to grab a ball that Pacheco had passed back badly, he went alone, in the open field, towards Remiro’s area, and when he found him facing him, and sold, he wanted to be generous and let Véliz have the honor of opening the scoring, but the horizontal pass was not too good, and his teammate, the ball went between his feet. Jofre tried to finish desperately, but the shot went weak and Aritz cleared over the line.
Imanol saw that things weren’t looking too good, so he made three changes at once. One of those who came on was Kubo; another was Sadiq, who was stuck on a pass from Becker, in which he didn’t get his foot in a great position. But the Japanese had a bullet in the chamber. Stuck on the right wing, he received the ball from Traoré, faced Oliván, nutmegged him, stood at an angle in front of Joan García and beat him with a cross shot that went into the opposite corner.
Kubo was not seen again, nor was Espanyol despite their efforts in the final minutes, with Real playing with ten and a half players, because Aritz, lame, remained on the field at least to get in the way. The San Sebastian team defended well and spoiled their rival’s party in their first game at home.
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