Sporting received the first serious warning of the season in Granada. It had been 21 years since the rojiblanco team had not recorded such a forceful result in the Second Division. The last 5-0 happened in Murcia and it was during the hard years of the club in the category. It is a stop to a streak of three games without knowing the defeat that had allowed them to climb to fourth place and made them forget the last pothole. It is also a reality check for the exciting expectations generated around the team, being the one who inflicts it one of the three recently relegated from First. The visit to Los Cármenes also showed that the category greatly punishes the lack of intensity, something unforgivable at Sporting, and strange if Abelardo is on the bench.
“You have to be humble,” José Ángel repeated in the mixed zone, as soon as the match was over. Losing in Los Cármenes was within the possible, but nobody expected such a lofty result and such a poor image of Sporting. The locker room apologized through Christian Rivera and promised to learn from mistakes. The beating continued after the match. The team traveled by road to Malaga, where they spent the night, and yesterday morning they took a direct flight to Asturias.
There was evening training at the red and white facilities. Most of the starters worked in the gym and the rest worked on the grass of Mareo field number 2. The proximity of the next match, this Monday, against Eibar (El Molinón, 9:00 p.m.) gives little room for rest. There’s also no bun oven.
At the end of the game, Abelardo was far from showing the anger that he was seen in Tenerife. There he pointed out the poor performance of some of his soccer players, without saying names, after giving up a tie as a result of a second part to forget. In Granada, with a wide defeat, he avoided drawing blood. The technician adjusted to the reality of the difference in strength in the areas of one team and the other. A soccer maxim. A topic to avoid going into details.
The coach is aware that his sincerity before the microphones is not always well received in some sectors. He looks uncomfortable in some debates, although he has not hesitated to make his hierarchy clear. The same one that he repeated in the preview of the match against Granada to explain that Gragera’s absence from the call was due to a technical decision. He underlined the latter to send a warning: “This is called competition and performance.” That is why he surprises what was seen in Granada. Both during and after the match. Weeks before, from Mexico, after the defeat against Racing, Irarragorri also slipped a warning in his interview with LA NUEVA ESPAÑA: “The latest results are a wake-up call for all of us to increase our intensity.”
If there is a coach with a license to show that hierarchy inside and outside the locker room, it is Abelardo. He returned to the club when no one wanted to take over the bench and helped save the team from historic relegation. Legend as a footballer and rojiblanco coach, his are always big words. In any case, his internal dilemma in applying the sometimes risky carrot and stick theory now seems clear. The situation, with a qualifying start to the season fighting for the play-offs, does not now force Abelardo to be permanently in the spotlight. Nor to tear their clothes for the first serious stumble. In favor of Abelardo’s Sporting are factors such as their improvement in front of goal – the great Achilles’ heel of last season – and a good start for a squad that has been extensively renewed. Football is missing, a lot. In any case, the rojiblancos must bear in mind that Granada’s image is a summary of what led to them suffering so much last season. Also that now more than three points are at stake. On Monday, Eibar will be in Gijón and then they will have to travel to face Alavés and Levante, the other two newcomers from the First Division. A thermometer to measure the effect of Granada and if the difference between the people from Gijon and the favorites is really that big.
