Like the incunabula 'Back to the future' or the recent 'Tenet', by David Nolan, Espanyol returned to Primera in El Sadar, with an audience, curiously their last game before the pandemic 524 days ago, when a 1-0 against Osasuna left him doomed to the Second Division. There were times when the past was mixed with the present and the future. So much jump in time that Vicente Moreno had to add in the press room: “Let's not look back.”
And, in that meeting, the one in the past, the prepandemic, Diego López ended up expelled to finish rounding the afternoon in March. And Abelardo Fernández, who decided not to play with Calleri as second striker, later regretted his strategy. In the present (although yesterday is already past), Vicente Moreno surprised with Wu Lei, which reached a hundred official matches, and Diego López made history. The Galician, solvent, sure, did not receive goals (0-0) in a tribute to one of the best Spanish goalkeepers of the last two decades. Sergio García retired at 38 years old and now Lugo's captain, parakeet, becomes Espanyol's Methuselah: 39 years and 284 days. And what's left to set an almost eternal record.
Beyond the past and the present, the genesis of Espanyol in LaLiga also guesses the future. Espanyol competed face to face against Osasuna, that El Sadar always feared, and could take the victory because unlike two years ago this team is wide-boned, perhaps without brilliance except for the bursts of its attackers, but hard and rough like steel. The blue and white team knew how to correct the suffocating red and white pressure, the centers to the far post in search of Kike García and his deficiencies to get the ball clean. And it was more, improved by the changes, with more punch and spaces in the second half.
The island of RdT and prudence with Gori
Beyond the collective reflections of a Espanyol admired by Arrasate in the press room, also through the behavior of the players, virtues and defects are glimpsed, tendencies to be corrected in the market or during the course. Sergi gomez gave packaging and Cabrera continues to hesitate with the ball, while Pedrosa it was a cannon and the olympian Oscar Gil it remained in the same vein as last year. David Y Merida they contributed that fight that the party required, Melamed was too impetuous and was able to get sent off in the first half and Embarba his gaze was averted. Dimata improved to Wu lei Y RdT it is an abandoned island that hardly ever ships.
Raúl de Tomás.
Angel martinez
Already installed in the future that Moreno wants, there was also the debut of Gregorio Gracia, Gori, who did not wrinkle and showed judgment with the ball at his feet in the few minutes he played. The premiere of a youth squad is always the best news despite the prudence of the coach. He is not without reason. Pol Lozano, Víctor Gómez or Lluís López also generated noise and now, and without traveling in the time machine yet, his future looks far from the RCDE Stadium or the lineups. Nobody guessed it at the beginning, that's why Vicente Moreno, the director of this Espanyol, knows that the seasons give infinite jumps in time.