A Coruña is a soccer city and Galicia a historical nursery of legends. You just need to look back and review history. Marcelinoauthor of the goal of the Spanish team in the final against the USSR in the 1964 European Championship is from Ares; Luis Suarez, the only Ballon d’Or in the history of Spain; of A Coruña, as Amancio Amaro, legendary Madrid player who was also part of that champion team. And in recent history they stand out Fran Gonzalez O Donatomembers of the Superdepor, from where they also made it to the national team Manjarín, Nando, Manuel Pablo or Molina.
But now the city is not going through its best football moment. With the team in the First RFEF he missed an elite football match. He lives from the nostalgia of that time, which in A Coruña they now see more as a slab that does not allow their team to get up. The selection was presented as an escape route to enjoy football at the highest level again. They didn’t seem to care that it wasn’t a top-class rival, or that there weren’t any Galicians in the team. Neither Iago Aspas, nor Brais, Méndez, both from Celta, nor Nico González, Barça youth squad, from A Coruña and son of Fran, who was rumored to have options to debut in the absolute.
If it is true that the atmosphere was not that of Barcelona, the context was also different, but the Galician fans, who ended up practically filling Riazor, vibrated with the team from the start. In the stands, many young people who were unable to experience the football boom of the nineties and first decade of this century, and took advantage of the night in Riazor –a renovated, clean, covered stadium, well above the category it houses– as a great opportunity. And they turned to La Roja, applauding Luis Enriquealso –and in a special way– to Pedri already Gavi when they entered the end and ended up doing the wave.
The former internationals who had given so many magical nights to the A Coruña stadium did not fail either. They saw that the city maintains the desire for soccer and the love for the ball. More after living the victory of the selection, which rounded off another festive night. And as they left, some veterans remembered with a smile that the last time they Spain had played in Riazor it was in a qualifying match before the World Cup in 2010. They also won 5-0. They thrashed Belgium and months later, they took the cup in South Africa. Now they dream of the same ending. Illusion… there is, there is.
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