A middle-class Espanyol

A tribute to Kipchoge. Vicente Moreno commented in the previous one that Athletic is the team that runs the most in LaLiga, and in fact it is the second in Europe. There’s a Kipchoge on the Williams body, for the first time together headlines and leaders of Marcelino’s team, who did not manage to add the third victory in a row as Espanyol did not achieve it on Saturday in Elche. The victories go up every day like the price of light, and the best news for Moreno’s is that they have become a reliable team that adds up, a middle class that works as a day laborer and is able to afford their luxuries, such as beat Real Madrid and who knows Barcelona, in that derby that is so longed for.

Continue all the streaks. But before that day arrives, Espanyol has a stretch left after a remarkable streak that he signed against Athletic. The Blue and Whites have accumulated four games without losing, with two victories and two draws on the edge, the latter of merit due to the rennet of the rival. The rojiblancos continue without winning as a visitor since 1998 and the parakeets were applauded by their people, once again spirited throughout the game, delivered to a team that empties itself and gives everything, which multiplies when it should and ends the games in the rival area if it can, supported by Diego López. More than an octopus it is a barnacle.

The 40, the new youth of the Galician. The goalkeeper commented, in a recent press conference, that many people judged him for his ‘almost’ 40 years. There is no lack of reason for a captain who was a giant against Athletic, one of LaLiga’s goalkeepers with the least thrashed and with the most saves. Praised by Marcelino after the meeting, congratulated by Iñaki Williams. Sport is full of those ‘old youths’ (sportingly speaking, of course) for whom age is not a problem, those Benjamin Buttons to whom the sunset takes a long time to arrive.. Things about his genetics or his dedication, because everyone points to the Galician as one of the most professional athletes they have seen. Alejandro Valverde, Roger Federer, Pau Gasol or Alberto Entrerríos They are an example, or without leaving football, Gianni Buffon. The goalkeeper continues to show that he is still useful and vital in the current Espanyol squad.

The cheek and speed. Age is experience, but experience is not everything. Sometimes it limits cheekiness. That’s why fresh air like that of Nico Melamed or Manu Morlanes help a Espanyol that he found the 1-0 of RdT again in an entertaining first part, with alternations, in which Athletic had its moments and found the spaces, as in the second, when he was able to sentence with well-spun surgeon attacks taking advantage of the speed of the Williams and Muniain.

An RCDE Stadium that lives. Because everything is in speed. Either of the legs or of the mind. Like the one that clouded RdT in the final stretch to commit a disproportionate action that cost him a red in the addition that leaves Espanyol without its star … to see how many days. The player argued, but ended up accepting and withdrew, hitting his head in disapproval with his gesture. The referee, who had spent most of the game asking for diplomacy, distributing peace, drew two reds in the final stretch. A final gray for a vibrant match, another one in an RCDE Stadium that suffers, enjoys or laments, but lives.