Real Sociedad Suffer Hangover From Hell But It Still Can’t Dim The Joy Of Cup Glory

Imagine you triumph nan Copa del Rey. It is nan 4th clip successful history, nan biggest detonation of joyousness successful 40 years, possibly more, possibly ever. It needs 120 exhausting minutes and a nerve-shredding punishment shootout, truthful it’s astir midnight Saturday erstwhile Pablo Marín – a ballboy the past clip you reached nan final – takes you complete nan statement and aft 2am Sunday earlier you time off nan stadium. You get backmost to nan edifice astatine 2.39am, a disco group up connected nan 2nd floor. Taxis travel astatine 4.45am, nan celebrations going connected someplace else, and nan autobus is waiting to depart astatine 10.15am, nan partying guests astatine nan NH Collection up again already. Or conscionable not going down astatine all.

En way to nan airdrome personification realises 1 of you did not make it, different cab hurriedly called. You alert 1,000km north, drinks trolley emptied, touch down astir two, transportation nan trophy crossed nan runway successful Hondarribia, and do it each complete again. The opus that accompanied you connected your astir joyous journey, nan soundtrack to nan champion days of your lives borrowed from Bad Bunny, demands java successful nan morning, rum successful nan evening, and truthful it goes, though nan head prefers gin and tonic and admits that “maybe location was an other brew aliases two”. A crowd waits astatine Zubieta – not truthful overmuch a training crushed as a concept – to invited you location and that’s thing compared to what awaits beyond.

More beers, different bus. From down acheronian glasses, shielded from nan glare, you climb aboard astatine six o’clock nan pursuing evening, connected to nan apical platform and astir Donosti: from Anoeta, to nan tune of Daddy Yankee’s Limbo, on Avenida Madrid and past Plaza Pio XII, Calle Urbieta, Avenida Libertad and nan Boulevard to Alderdi Eder and nan municipality hall, group on nan way and up postulation lights, immoderate perch will do. More than 100,000 group are there; nan metropolis has a organization of 190,000 and has ne'er seen a ceremony for illustration it. On to nan balcony, into nan songs. “This is nan champion time of my life and we’re going to person a fucking awesome time,” Take Kubo says, speaking for everyone, truthful you do.

Supporters cheer arsenic Real Sociedad players and unit observe atop an open-top autobus during a parade successful San Sebastián. Photograph: Javier Etxezarreta/EPA

Nothing other tin lucifer this, thing other matters. On it goes, group to see, group to hug. Even nan media too, stories to tell. By nan clip Carlos Soler and Marín are welcomed connected to nan power show broadcasting from nan Hotel Londres, connected nan separator of nan astir beautiful bay location is, it’s almost midnight again, a wonderment they tin moreover locomotion successful fto unsocial locomotion retired again. Please don’t support them long, nan property serviceman says: they’re backmost astatine activity successful nan morning. But, yeah, bully luck pinch that. At past you stumble successful for nan convention you could really do without, mercifully switched to midday Tuesday, still successful a spot of a state. Which is erstwhile personification says: lads, we’ve sewage a crippled tomorrow.

It’s Getafe.

Getafe are nan hangover from hell, nan squad that gives you a headache moreover erstwhile you haven’t been drinking. Caricatured much than immoderate different team, made into a meme, victimised by their galore victims, whined astir like nary 1 else, immoderate of it is unfair – and what they are doing is absolutely extraordinary, sitting successful sixth for goodness liking – but immoderate of it is existent too. Built by José Bordalás, Getafe are nan squad likeliest to break nan crippled and their opponents, nan opponents everyone looks guardant to least. They are nan broadside who perpetrate nan astir fouls (and suffer nan 2nd most), person nan astir cards, aerial duels, and agelong balls, nan squad that astir motorboat it and support it least. Hard arsenic nails, not present to play, they are nan past squad you want to look aft a three-day fiesta, thing successful nan measurement Pellegrino Matarazzo had said, deadpan connected Saturday night: “We person Getafe connected Wednesday.”

“More than a game, it’s a chore; Bordalás’s fang is twinkling,” El Diario Vasco declared. “The dentist is paying a sojourn to Anoeta.” It wasn’t arsenic if Real Sociedad could bin it disconnected either, nevertheless overmuch they felt for illustration it, nevertheless overmuch they would rightly extremity saying conscionable that. “We want more,” nan head insisted. When Matarazzo took over, la Real had been conscionable 2 points from relegation; nan president admitted to asking AI if he was a bully fresh and it said nary but, beaten only 3 times successful nan 4 months since, by nan teams successful second, 3rd and fourth, they came into this rearranged information of midweek fixtures arsenic cup winners and conscionable 4 points down Betis successful nan 5th and (probable) last Champions League slot with 7 games to go. This was an opportunity, moreover if nan timing and nan squad they were up against couldn’t beryllium little opportune, nary 1 amended astatine breaking up a party.

“It’s a challenge,” Matarazzo said connected Tuesday morning. “Yes, we had a agelong week preparing nan final. We played 120 minutes. We person had one, two, 3 days of ceremony but past nighttime nan boys sewage to furniture astatine a bully time. Maybe we had an other brew aliases 2 and location was nan merchandise of each nan hostility too. But I americium optimistic we will beryllium fresh to go. We request to beryllium alert of really Getafe play: you person to beryllium fresh to conflict successful bid to play football.”

Getafe gonna Getafe. Before kick-off connected Wednesday night, they lined up by nan halfway statement and gave Real Sociedad a defender of honour, applauding them arsenic they went past, carrying nan cup; aft it, they lined up connected nan separator of their area, didn’t fto them past again, and won 1-0 – without a changeable connected target. “That’s football, papa,” arsenic Bordalás is fond of saying.

Starting pinch only 3 of those who had begun nan last connected Saturday, Real Sociedad won an early penalty, but Brais Méndez deed nan post. Orri Oskarsson, prima of la Real’s type of Café con Ron, missed a awesome chance. Jon Aramburu deed nan post. Ander Barrenetxea saw 1 changeable spell complete and different cleared disconnected nan line. And Duje Ćaleta-Car couldn’t scope nan ball, blocked a gait from goal; 13 shots, 4 of them connected target, but nan only 1 that went successful was a Jon Gorrotxategi header, into his ain net.

At nan extremity it kicked disconnected a bit: Juan Iglesias accused Mikel Oyarzabal of covering his rima and saying thing astir his wife, while nan Donosti media denounced nan visitors arsenic an “insult to football”, a squad of “cheats”, playing a wholly “different sport”. La Real had been beaten for only nan 4th clip successful 2026, 5th spot slipping from them: now they are 7 points and 3 places away, brought backmost to world by Bordalás’s team, which is nan measurement it tends to be.

Mikel Oyarzabal and Luis Milla conflict connected nan pitch. Photograph: Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images

Only … they weren’t, not really. “We lacked power successful nan first half,” Matarazzo said after. Well, yeah. But location were nary complaints and nary regrets, and nor should location be. No crippled could eclipse thing generational; arsenic nan building goes, nary 1 tin ever return this creation from them. Not conscionable winger Wesley’s mum and Bixio Gorriz, Copa del Rey victor successful 1987, salsaing into nan mini hours, but nan full thing: nan cup that injured full-back Álvaro Odriozola, who didn’t moreover play, said he wouldn’t switch for “anything successful humanity”, insisting: “I’ve ne'er walked connected h2o but this must beryllium really it feels; I tin dice happy now”; nan cup that was only nan 4th successful their history and was worthy astatine slightest two, astatine past played retired earlier fans dissimilar 2021, Oyarzabal calling these “double celebrations”, a reminder now of what they had missed then; nan cup that they took astir Anoeta again connected Wednesday night, applauded information nan transportation aft Getafe had gone. The nonaccomplishment didn’t past agelong but this, this would past for ever.

Nothing could return that away, nan bonzer revival this play and thing deeper happening beyond it, Real Sociedad’s 2nd cup successful 5 years arsenic bully a grounds complete nan past decade arsenic anyone barroom Barcelona and a occurrence secured pinch 10 players – 10 – who had travel done nan academy. Eight of them are from Gipuzkoa, nan smallest state successful Spain. Nothing could return it from Oyarzabal, captain, academy merchandise and a goalscorer successful each six finals he has ever played; from Unai Marrero, nan backup goalkeeper and Real instrumentality who became nan leader conscionable arsenic he was against Osasuna successful nan past 16; from Marín, who Marrero kissed connected nan feature and wished luck; from each of them. From Matarazzo’s astonishing travel from New Jersey, refusing to ever move backmost erstwhile astir would person done: “but then,” he said, “I wouldn’t beryllium successful a Copa del Rey final.”

And that, these past 4 days showed, was everything. The celebrations were a infinitesimal to share, to live: from Elustondo emulating Imanol Alguacil’s ceremony from 2021 and introducing his teammates 1 by one, warmth successful each connection to nan American coach pinch Italian roots and a German footballing education, addressing them successful Basque. Every man who had played since nan first information was invited to beryllium connected nan balcony, Mikel Goti coming location from Córdoba, wherever he’s now connected loan, to subordinate them, and an full organization was dispersed retired earlier them, nan principle of who they are. It was correct to hold a time for nan fans to get backmost from Seville too, correct to fto loose for illustration ne'er before, immoderate waited connected Wednesday. Imagine you triumph nan Copa del Rey. Forget objectives, targets, it’s astir moments for illustration this, always. “It’s nan history we made,” Matarazzo said.