There are a lot of differences between the First and Second Divisions. Teams and players are made of different dough. Lots of stadiums, too. To all this are added the stoppages of the competition. The one that does not pass a step below, because the league is doing, even if the national teams play their international commitments. But in the elite, with so many footballers chosen by their countries, they have no choice but to press the brake pedal. Girona have found themselves there again. It already happened to him for two seasons, the only ones he had so far competed among the biggest (from 2017 to 2019) and now, in this new adventure, he has experienced it again. Or to suffer Or to enjoy Because each dressing room approaches it in a different way. Barça will curse this stop because a good group of footballers have been injured with their respective selections. The same does not happen in Montilivi. Only Arnau Martínez and Rodrigo Riquelme have spent a few days away, in their case with Spain under21. The rest, all here. A period of time that has been used to practice, to correct mistakes and for the new players, the last to arrive, to become a little more familiar with Míchel Sánchez’s idea of play. Now it will be time to put it on again this Sunday, against Real Sociedad at the stadium. A demanding test to return to the competition, just two weeks after losing at the Betis field (2-1) despite offering a remarkable image for more than an hour of play.
“You can take this scenario any way you want. At the end of the day, it’s something that’s not up to us, the players. I, personally, fit it well enough because I am a person who likes day-to-day life and training». Juan Carlos Martín speaks. One of the important voices in the dressing room. The goalkeeper already has experience in Primera and knows what it’s all about to stop the competition. Yesterday, in a telematic press conference, he explained how these days have gone for Girona. “It is clear that what we all want is to compete, but we must be aware that apart from the League there are also other competitions. I find that we it was good for us to stop for a bit. In the last section of the market, many new players have come and the master has taken advantage of this to work on some concepts that those of us who have been here longer have already assumed. Therefore, it has been good for us and we don’t have to give it too much thought because it doesn’t depend on us.”
After Seville, the team concentrated for five days in the facilities that Royalverd has in Les Preses. Excellent opportunity not only to work, but also to work together and bring the group together. During the summer, up to 13 new faces have landed in the dressing room and it is necessary that everyone adapts as quickly as possible, especially the signings of the last days of August. Oriol Romeu, Toni Villa, Manu Vallejo and goalkeepers Paulo Gazzaniga and Toni Fuidias, for example. “The stoppage has helped us to continue working and improving, we hope that everything will continue as well as until now”.
The Royal Society arrives
Because the mancheque is quite satisfied with what he has seen so far. Everything can be improved and he is the first to say so, but the team is eleventh, already has 7 points and has transmitted good feelings in most of the games it has played so far. “I see us well. It must be taken into account that it is not easy to change category. We keep a base from last year and new people have come. Between us we are getting one good start to the season, taking advantage of last season’s inertia and the good things this team already has.” He reflected on this same idea: “We have had an acceptable start to the course, considering that we have just moved up”. Of course, everything is not flowers and violets and he also recognized that there are outstanding subjects that need to be corrected. One of them, in the defensive aspect. Because Girona has conceded goals every day. “It’s a matter for all of us. Score the goals and also defend. We are a team and we depend on everyone. We have to keep working in the same line that the coach sets for us. Be solid and minimize those mistakes that can condemn us, especially in a category like the First Division. We have a pretty bold proposition and that means we have to take risks. We are able to do it, always being aware of what it can entail.”
The first opportunity to put it to the test, the most immediate, comes this very weekend. Back to face Real Sociedad, one of the teams competing in Europe this season. “It is a very compensated rival, with very high quality players. He’s been doing great work for quite a few years, he’s not a one-day flower. They are regular. We know it will be difficult, because they are brave and bold. They dominate you for some moments. We have to focus on us and minimize its virtues, of which there are many. And also take advantage of the warmth of the people of Montilivi, who are helping us a lot so far.”
Precedents to stoppages
It must be seen how things will go for Girona after spending a weekend without competing. It will not be the first time that the team has experienced such a situation, which has encountered it on other occasions, during the 17/18 and 18/19 seasons, the others that had happened in the First Division. He usually doesn’t get back into the routine with too good of a result. He has only won twice: 3-2 at Celta and 1-3 at Espanyol in 2018. He has managed to save three draws. One with Levant (1-1) and curiously, two with Real Sociedad (1-1 and 0-0), this Sunday’s opponent. The rest, three defeats: 2-0 in Bilbao, 1-2 with Villarreal (both in 2017) and also a 1-2 with Athletic, in 2019, which was the start of a fateful streak that would mean the loss of the category.
Only 4 defeats in 17 games with the Sunday referee
After a weekend without football in the First Division due to the international commitments of national teams, Girona is back in action and will do so at the Montilivi stadium, hosting Real Sociedad next Sunday afternoon. A game that will be refereed by Andalusian Mario Melero López, as announced yesterday morning by the Royal Spanish Football Federation.
The collegiate player, one of the most veterans in the category (he is 43 years old), has managed the white-and-red team on 17 occasions with a total record of 7 wins, 6 draws and only 4 defeats. One of them, the most recent, was the 2-1 at the Alabès field which in 2019 meant the team’s mathematical relegation to the Second Division A. The person in charge of the VAR, for his part, the referee of the Aragonese committee will be Santiago Jaime Latre.
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