Jaka & Iztueta vs Larrazabal & Mariezkurrena II: Rematch Highlights

The match had a very high pace. It was played with the accelerator pedal pressed to the floor. Without respite. Everyone shied away from the rally, to the point that of the 39 goals played, only 13 involved exchanges of ten or more balls and in four, 20 or more. The most contested point was 8-11 that Jaka finished with a volley after 28 shots.

There was an exchange of blows in the initial stages in which errors predominated and from 1-3 it went to 7-4. At 7-5 there was a fight, but things didn’t get too serious, when Jaka threw himself to the ground to return a poisoned shot from Larrazabal and his return, which was not going well, hit Mariezkurrena II in the back. Lizartza’s player asked for a return and that angered Berriozar’s defender, who argued vehemently with the forward for a few seconds.

By then, Mariezkurrena had already begun to impose her punch, although Iztueta, without the brilliance of other afternoons but displaying good defense, tried to weather the storm. Up front, Jaka and Larrazabal tried to avoid each other on the serve by crossing their initial shot, so they could barely get any air.

Thus it was reached 10-15, with the blues dominating thanks to the punch of Mariezkurrena and the specific appearances of Larrazabal. Everything seemed under control.

An error by Berriozar’s defender returned the serve to the Gipuzkoa couple and Jaka scored his second serve goal. It was the first of the eight goals scored by Lizartza in the 11-0 run that put them on the verge of victory.

An anthological basement

Those two goals ignited a Beotibar charged with electricity that cheered every shot from Iztueta, every poisoned shot from Jaka. 13-15, 14-15 and 15-15. The match was evenly matched after an iconic Iztueta shot that surpassed Mariezkurrena, who could only follow the ball with his eyes. The Beotibar looked like Belgrade’s Pionir room in the derbies between Partizan and Red Star.

The Gipuzkoans reached the gates of heaven at 21-15, at which point Mariezkurrena hit a hammer blow that Iztueta could not return. The Colorados requested a rest. On the way back, Larrazabal, in the background during the storm, hit a good hook to make it 21-17. Jaka tried to encourage Iztueta by pulling on his veteran stripes. And just in case, the Beotibar was there to carry them away.

The last goal was an exchange of ten balls that ended with a escape from Iztueta that missed the plate by centimeters and that Larrazabal could not lift. The Tolosar defender asked for forgiveness before hugging his teammate, but the damage had already been done. Beotibar, standing, shouted and cheered their players after a victory that compresses the classification to the maximum, if we leave aside Laso and Albisu. What a pleasure it is to go to the ball on afternoons like yesterday.