With the island’s disgust digested, the feeling that remains in Oviedo is one of deep sadness after the defeat in Las Palmas, which removed Cuco’s team from promotion. The trip back to Asturias was a funeral. Silence. Nobody said a word. Feeling of a unique opportunity that slipped away. The match at the Gran Canaria Stadium was a final and Oviedo lost it. There is a glimmer of hope on the last day, but right now the company is looking uphill.
Oviedo was mathematically classified for the play-off for twenty minutes, which Moleiro took to equalize Borja Sánchez’s goal, but fell. He was one goal away from depending on himself against Ibiza and that Oviedo was a party throughout the week. In the offices of the club they try to raise the spirits, of deep general despondency. The downturn is palpable. In the entity it is considered that, despite this latest defeat, the Cuco team has had a good season.
There is nothing to blame, the club, the players or the coaching staff, who achieved a streak of ten games without losing and six wins in a row, mumble. Now, out of the play-off with one game to go, it’s time to finish with a win against Ibiza and hope for help in the form of a victory for Burgos against Girona or Sporting, the eternal rival, against Las Palmas. In Oviedo there are those who try to believe. “We have it difficult, the blow was hard, but this is football and rarer things have been seen,” they warn from the offices. “We have to get up,” they insist. The squad arrived yesterday at the airport from Las Palmas and was received by around twenty fans. There was no reproach, quite the opposite. Cheer up and love for the last day. “You can still do it,” several supporters told the soccer players, who kindly took pictures with them and signed some autographs.
The fall hurts so much because the shore was already visible at the end of the crossing. Because this was (could still be) the year. Because of the united squad, because of the acceleration since March, because of another derby won, because of the defensive security, because of Borja Bastón, because of Borja Sánchez, because of the defensive armor… Because it was palpable in the atmosphere, with excited Oviedismo after a year dancing in the cornice and another circulating through the lane of boredom.
With Generelo, with Hierro and with Anquela, as is happening now, there were possibilities until the end, but the fall in recent months made promotion more a matter of faith than football. In this League that is about to end for Oviedo, the panorama was very different. “We were clear that we would play the play-off, there was no talk of anything else,” explains a member of the blue entity already cold and after assuming what happened in Las Palmas.
In terms of football, the defeat in Gran Canaria made clear the superiority of the yellows, with one of the best Second Division squads. Viera’s team, elevated to the altars, played what they wanted and did not collapse with Borja’s goal, which made it 0-1 and honey on the lips of Oviedismo. It was no problem for Pimienta’s team, vertical, decisive in pressure and practical in attack.
Oviedo had a serious downturn in the second half, unable to knead the ball. Montiel, one of those who were on the bench with the ability to associate, was slow to go out to warm up and only had fifteen minutes with everything uphill.
The team finished with three forwards, Bastón, Matheus and Obeng, and two midfielders, Rama and Montiel himself. The “all charge” did not worry Las Palmas.
This week will be a reset week, with Cuco acting as a psychologist to raise the morale of the troops and the club supporting the squad. In the offices they are already beginning to think about the next season, in which there will be, again, structural changes. Rubén Reyes is preparing his departure for Getafe and there could be more departures. Before dealing with those mishaps, one stop: Ibiza. With one eye on two places: Gijón and Burgos.
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