For those who already have four decades, fortunate in some struggles, Atotxa is the scene of memories, of deeds, of passion, of pure football experienced in the first person. For those who arrived a few years late to those magical Sunday appointments, Atotxa is that mystical point that is transmitted in the stories of those who felt it in their flesh, that unrepeatable field of videos and old photos. And also, it is a mockup. The board where they discovered that in football, in addition to dribbling, goals and celebrations, there was something called tactics.
Every monday, Michael
Robinson he was approaching a reproduction of the mythical realistic stadium to reel off the tactical details of the day. The players were chips. Robinson, always in good company, did the rest. It was 'The Day After'.
Last Monday, in tribute to the 30 years of the program, a replica of the mythical San Sebastian countryside appeared on the set. “Where would the old Atotxa model have been?” He wondered Charles
Martinez, conductor of the emotional space. A difficult mystery to solve, as recognized by himself Michael
Robinson in an interview with MD from 2013.
“I lost track of him,” he lamented. “I think when we moved from Torre Picasso to Tres Cantos it disappeared. Some souvenir hunter must have reached in because my puppet also disappeared ”.
(+) 'The Day After' turns 30:
The idea that Atotxa was still alive as something tangible, that the fan would remember him every Monday, came from the mind of the long-awaited British commentator. Despite the fact that he couldn't experience it as a player (“when we had to go to San Sebastián, he was always injured”), Robinson he felt the crush when he had to comment on his first game on the field. “I lived it in a very special way.” So much so that when it was time for the demolition, he wanted to pay his particular tribute to it.
Canal + planned that the tactical explanations would be developed on a kind of cybernetic whiteboard. Vanguardism before which Robinson replied with essence. “We have to do it as it is done in the locker room,” he said to Alfred
Relaño, head of sports of the chain. “Leave the technology behind, I want to move the pieces as if they were plates” … And he finished off, like a good 9 ’:“ Like a field, but with the Atotxa stands ”.
Marking the carpenter
A carpenter, who suffered the marking of Robinson and Relaño for three weeks (“we took out the slightest mistake, we didn't stop touching his balls”, admitted the British man), built the model on which innumerable tactical sessions were developed. Wolf
Carrasco taught them with Robinson for three years. “Visiting Atotxa was a challenge due to the size, the type of changing rooms, the mouth …”, he explains Carrasco to MD. “I have a very fond memory. To all of us who were footballers, coaches, he left a mark on us. It was very loving to remember the stadium again with that model that represented it. Both Robin and I really liked moving chips there. The choice was very successful ”.
“We were motivated by everything that happened around the ball, that was the philosophy of the program, but if we went deeper, if we went down to the pitch, Atotxa fitted us very well in what was pure football,” he details. “I felt very comfortable in that little section.”
In a program in which the focus was turned to the stands to show what the eye did not see, what the referee did not see was analyzed and the ins and outs of each match were brilliantly reflected, the trip to that model helped to reel off the tactical keys of a different football than the current one, with natural extremes, references in the area and more recognizable drawings. A football that was explained, with an accent, in Atotxa.