There is a big game on Monday in Burgos (8:00 p.m.). The calendar takes UD Las Palmas to play at El Plantío on February 6 and at night, when there will be one degree Celsius in the city according to the weather forecast. The icy weather is an incentive for the leader, historically accustomed to suffering bumps when the weather gets tough on the Peninsula, but it is also good to overcome an opponent whom they have not managed to win in three games, the ones they have played since the Burgos painting rose. Another attraction is to strike back at the second of the three executioners of this course, but the biggest hitch is in the confrontation between two representatives of different styles on the benches: Xavi Garcia Pepper y Julian Calero.
For now the second wins, because Burgos won the two games that both teams have played since the Catalan coach signed for the island club. Both of them, moreover, were at the Estadio de Gran Canaria and ended with the same result: 0-2. Although the first took place on February 13 of last year, in the third match of the Barcelonan against the yellow ship, the second was on November 1, with the team much more driven and a candidate for promotion, although it came from suffer their first defeat of the campaign days before, in Huesca.
On both occasions, Burgos prevailed clearly and hardly suffered, even though they did not have the ball in their possession for most of the time. He didn’t need it: he equipped himself in defense to go out quickly on the counterattack with a lot of people and try to take advantage of the few scoring chances he had. The formula, perfectly valid like any other, centered the dialectical battle, in a very good tone, between the two coaches after the game.
«I am going to explain it to you because people confuse it. I will try to explain it as I would explain it to my son. Playing nice is playing well with the ball: doing a caper, a pipe… But playing good football requires four phases: the attack phase, the defense phase, what to do when you lose the ball and what to do when you steal it. If you do that very well and the whole team does it in each of the four phases, you play football well,” he reflected. Julian Calero in the press room of Gran Canaria.
After only three days, Xavi Garcia Pepperquestioned by the words of his colleague, commented: «Julián’s words seemed very nice and very good, but I think that Las Palmas plays football well. The other day we lost, each one with their own style, and if you look at the numbers they have one point more than us. It is clear that they have done things one point better than us, one, okay, on matchday 14, but I think Las Palmas played very well, played nice and defended very well.
With very good style, the Catalan defended what was his and time has ended up agreeing with him, at least at present, because now the UD has 48 units and leads Burgos by nine. In fact, the Castilian-Leonese team is in seventh place and cannot catch up with eighth this next day, which means that the yellows, if they win on Monday, will have a cushion of 12 points compared to the first team out of the playoffs. One more incentive.
On its way to the First Division Las Palmas, which feels superior to all the teams as long as it matches its rivals in intensity and concentration, it adds small challenges with which to motivate itself and one of them involves winning at El Plantío and showing that it can win against Burgos and that, therefore, his style is also very valid, although in reality he has already given good faith to it throughout the season.
Last weekend the yellow box recovered from its defeat in Huesca with a victory over the group of Ziganda (1-0), another of the five coaches who have ever beaten Garcia Pepper in the Second Division -the others are Juan Ignacio Martinez (Zaragoza), Michel (Girona) and Ruben Albés (Albacete). Somehow, the victory thanks to Curbelo’s goal healed UD’s wound and in four days it intends to do the same.
It is the battle between Xavi García Pimienta and Julián Calero, two soccer educators who appreciate each other even though their ways of trying to achieve success in soccer are different, or at least with the squads they have at the moment. . The first two assaults were for the man from Madrid; The Barcelonan, chopped, looks for the first blow from him. And Las Palmas finally beat Burgos, and people resist the icy cold of the Castilian night.
