King’s Cup Final

“When we lost the final of 97 I spent three days without sleeping,” says a Betic in a workers’ bar, where even the Sevilla fans take his side. He is drenched in the deluge that fell yesterday in the citywhich was arriving a shower of Valencianistas.

On the AVE, two tried unsuccessfully to carry out their work. “I asked for the day to telework, but it’s impossible, I can’t concentrate,” pointed out one of them dressed in the T-shirt of the “bronco and cupbearer”.

Manuel Pellegrini does not want to waste the atmosphere that has been generated during a fantastic course. Nor the location twice (antiquity and geographical) offered by the venue for the final. José Bordalás he is looking for a great triumph with which to certify his method and confirm himself as a project coach.

matter of style

Once again, the style debate was put on the table. That of the Chilean, based on his ideology: preparation and possessionwith which he has strengthened his weaknesses, as he states in the book ‘The Pellegrini Method’, by Francis Sagredo. The one from Alicante, based on the competitive gene that his detractors brand as aggressive despite the fact that he claims to be a ‘cruyffista’, as stated ‘La Formula Bordalás’, work by Antón Lueiro.

“A match with interruptions? It’s likely, it’s the way Valencia plays”, assured the Betis coach just a few days ago. A statement to which his counterpart responded at the press conference prior to the final.

“It amuses me that they keep talking about style. Without having started the match, they accuse us of things that are not true. I imagine that with the objective of conditioning. they seem to me irresistible and out of place”, Bordalás unambiguously pointed out. Then, José Luis Gayà He refuted his coach: “If we win it will be because we are an unsportsmanlike team and if they do it because they play well. We’re going to live with it.”

Pellegrini avoided entering the melee, qualifying the statement that started the exchange. “I have not heard what he (Bordalás) has said, everyone has the right to say what he wants. I said that Valencia had a defined style, physical, strong, and there is a referee in charge of seeing it. I did not make a criticism, I reflected a style that is the one he has.

Although some of his players do not see it as clearly as he does. “The same they propose us a different party”. The Betis striker took cover Borja Iglesias, during the previous week in which the two finalists lost. Betis, against Elche, with no intention of minimizing risks and slipping into the final with positive inertia, stalking Champions positions. Valencia, against Villarreal, keeping the furniture and trusting in the warrior awakening of the single game.

Joaquin and Paulista

In the discussion of philosophies, the blackboard draws a 4-2-3-1 by Pellegrini, a mold to which his block has been adapting. “We have never repeated a complete eleven”, he pointed out against those who were looking for answers, such as in goal, where he has been alternating Bravo and Rui Silva, under the direction of Toni Doblas. He has worked with them on penalties. He was able to show them the video of the round that in 2005 allowed Betis to access the final that they won against Osasuna.

His only two casualties, of long duration, are Camarasa y Montoya. In the chamber, Pellegrini will keep profiles like the one of Joaquin, who faces his possible last dance in a tournament that he has won with both shirts. “I’m at a point in my career when playing finals isn’t easy. It’s going to be an important day that’s going to mark a lot of things, I’ll try to enjoy it at all times,” assured the Betis captain, who received as many or more questions as his trainer.

The present marks a Betic favoritism. “Neither were we in 2019 against Barça and we won”, recalled Gayà. Bordalás will try to model that pressure in favor of a team that lost 4-1 in the LaLiga match at Villamarín in what was a verdiblanco hurricane. The only visitor so much was from Gabriel Paulista, treated with cotton until yesterday. “His feelings about him are good and I think he will be in the eleven”, revealed Bordalás. In the last session, he exercised like one of the others, while Maxi Gomez and Lato They trained on the sidelines.

All this, on the paper that the context of an ending blurs until it becomes chaos and excitement to leave only one winner in a game that no one wants to lose, even if lightning strikes them.