Olharan and López decide in the third joko a final in which Goikoetxea and Basque sign the most brilliant but pay their highest number of errors
Holiday for the basket. Gala atmosphere with 1,800 balls at the closing of a Grand Slam that has permeated the public of Gernika, the surrounding area and the tip in general. The final did not disappoint. It offered in-depth work by the four protagonists, Goikoetxea’s finishing variety, alternatives, emotion and a tiebreaker. Jean Olharan and Imanol López, already champions together in 2017, culminated their good performance in the three previous matches with a narrow victory against Iñaki Osa ‘Goikoetxea’ and Thibault Basque.
Olharan and López received the reward for patience. They planned a serious and solid game with the aim of loading the game on Basque and preventing Goikoetxea from getting into action as much as possible. They got it halfway, but it was worth it because they got to the tiebreaker well and found a motela ball that helped them get behind the last three goals.
Paradoxes of the jokos system, Goikoetxea and Basque added a little more, 31, than the winners, who only had 30, one less, to climb to the top of the podium. Adopted to maintain uncertainty on the scoreboard, it is a formula comparable to that of tennis, a sport that can bring about similar situations. This Tuesday the match would have kept the emotion with the classic scoring of the ball, the same if they had played at 30 than at 35.
2
OLHARAN LÓPEZ
1
TOP HOUSE BASQUE
Game time:
90 minutes and 30 seconds.Balls to good:
494.Partials of each joko:
15-14, 10-15 y 5-2.So many facts:
Olharan, 9. López, 5. Goikoetxea, 18. Basque, 5.So many lost:
Olharan, 3. López, 5. Goikoetxea, 7. Basque, 9.Score of the first game:
6-0, 6-1, 7-1, 7-2, 8-2, 8-7, 9-7, 9-8, 10-8, 10-9, 12-9, 12-13, 13-13, 13-14 y 15-14.Second joko marker:
1-0, 1-1, 2-1, 2-3, 3-3, 3-5, 4-5, 4-7, 6-7, 6-9, 7-9, 7-11, 8-11, 8-14, 10-14 y 10-15.Third game score:
2-0, 2-2 y 5-2.Incidences:
Full house at the Jai Alai in Gernika for the San Roke day festival. 1,800 spectators, including the Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu.
Goikoetxea and Basque lost the final in the tiebreaker, but the striker from Zumaia will have a hard time erasing the final stretch of the first set from his memory. After coming back from 6-0 and 8-2, the Blues took the lead 13-14 and had two chances to close the match. Inside box two after a complicated return by López, the entire pediment opened up for Goikoetxea, who went to put it right where the rival defender was, which he resolved with a claw on the rebound. With 14 equals, Goikoetxea caught Olharan’s serve but his side went up. That double missed opportunity weighed on the outcome.
Lopez basket change
López had been forced to change baskets at 8-7 when the rim of the one he used to start broke. Considerable inconvenience. “You had to be mentally strong to respond in that situation, and I have been,” confessed the 38-year-old defender from Zumaia. It was difficult for him to get used to the new tool both in the last section of the first joko and during a good part of the second, in which he was recovering the security that characterizes him. He did not miss any ball from 4-7 until the conclusion.
The two from Zumaia, Goikoetxea and López, carried the weight of the game. The 42-year-old striker confirmed that he is going through a sweet moment. Overshadowed by Erkiaga in recent months, he returns to claim himself as the figure of the last two decades. Always powerful, he alternated cuts with two walls, side stops in the txoko, two txik-txak and right balls to the width like the one that hit the rebound at 8-14 in the second set. As complicated as superb. The best of the day along with four millimeter cuts from Basque, a 26-year-old defender from Bidart.
Imanol López, 38, has adapted the style of play to his current conditions. He reduced the punch, he defends with elegance, puts a lot of ball and manages the efforts. In Olharan, a 33-year-old striker from Pau, he has found the ideal complement.
