the man from Lanzarote Saúl Coco made his debut just over a year ago in the UD Las Palmas first team. Unlike Moleiro and Cardona, its cooking is being slower. Last year he would make his first appearance in the first team under Pepe Mel after the break from Las Palmas-Rayo Vallecano. He had to wait for his second match. The opportunity would come in the last ten minutes of the last league game, against UD Logroñés. Slowly.
This season he started as the fifth Beatle of the centrals. Ahead Ferigra, Navas, Curbelo and Álex Suárez. Before the end of the year he would overtake the latter in the rotation, playing his first eleven minutes against Oviedo at the Tartiere.
From then on, luck eluded him. In his first ownership, Leganés-Las Palmas, a good match was curdling in a bad yellow match. Then it happened, in a corner the ball hits his back and ends up sneaking into the goal. Shortly after, he covered with speed and hit a hole in the defense but his rejection would go to the hand and the referee would award a penalty, very fair. But penalty. 2-0 and in the two goals he came out in the photo.
Two weeks later he would play in the Cup, but he would not play another minute in the league with Pepe Mel, who was dismissed just over a month later. After the dismissal of the coach who made him debut, he would now have his turn with García Pimienta. The Barcelona coach remembered Coco before his first game. “He’s a boy I knew when I was in Barcelona. Playing in an Africa Cup is not easy and the truth is that he’s doing very well. We hope he continues this streak and that when he comes with us he can help us”.
During this time Coco, has come and gone from the Equatorial Guinea team, one of the points from which Saúl has grown. And in those I was when there was the change of coach. He, well, he catches him in Cameroon playing the African Cup, playing every minute in all the games that his team played.
In Zaragoza the first opportunity came with García Pimienta. should replace Curbelo, the yellow firefighter. New ownership and again another game with a bitter taste, Las Palmas was defeated with two goals conceded from set pieces. Saúl seemed to have it complicated, with Curbelo and Navas established as a top couple. On top of that, his contest in the starting eleven, regardless of his particular performance, was not associated with a victory. However, the reading was different, the rabbit had climbed into his role. From fifth central, to first in the line of succession.
The next match in which he would play minutes would be against Girona. If in the first one that he played as a starter it is remembered as the biggest disaster of the yellow season and that of Zaragoza as the day of the lost opportunity in that mistake by Hernani. Against the Catalans the scenario was not going to change much. Magnificent 37 initial minutes, expulsion of Mújica and Las Palmas falls. In the middle of the collective collapse entered Coco but the people of Girona were in drag mode.
But suddenly a bit of luck for Saúl Coco, Raúl Navas is expelled. And for the first time in his career, the man from Lanzarote was going to play two games in a row in the Second Division. That yes, the context was not easy, in the middle of the worst of the storms, Las Palmas marched fourteenth and visited Valladolid, one of the priests of the category.
And finally a smile at the end of ninety minutes. The yellows win 0-1 after a great game. And the air changes. Next game, Leganés at home, again a starter, again a victory, again a smile, 4-2. Next match, Ponferradina was out, again a starter, again a victory, again a smile, 1-2. The wind had changed and Coco was already in photos when he won Las Palmas.
Yes to Curbelo Mel used him as an example as a farmer in his press conferences. García Pimienta has taken Coco as a model when commenting after the game against Ponfe, “Raúl Navas, who was the starter, and Coco played this week. The competition between them is maximum and that means that no one can fall asleep and everyone is ready to play”.
Since Girona, Coco has been gaining in confidence and not only does his body language say so, from a shy giant looking for a clash with one of the figures in the category such as Yuri. He is seen covered and if this was the top of it seemed short. However, his progression is beginning to be important.
Ante la Ponferradina left two good marks. He posted the third-best mark of the season in total recoveries and the second-best mark in defensive third recoveries. This confidence hinting at his non-verbal language can be seen in how he is slowly becoming more involved in passing, having a steady crescendo over the last month. 12, 34, 41 and 64. Even giving 20 passes in the rival field against Ponferradina. Although in this case those of El Bierzo were deeply buried in front of it. Something that would be key to the match and that he knew how to smell Coco.
Because when the game dragged on at the end, Coco he dared with a shot that made life so difficult for Amir that he was barely able to clear and his rejection would be left on a plate for Rober. “I saw that it was one of the last ones, they were far behind, and I said why not, we had to try and luckily it worked out” I would say in the post game in the microphones of UD Radio.
So it is clear that 2022 will be the year that Saul Coco will remember as the one who took a step forward, both with Equatorial Guinea and with the UD Las Palmas. And we’re only in April.