Luis García's Mallorca breaks records

Ten years have passed since the last time Luis García Plaza coached a Second Division team. On that occasion, the Madrid coach was in charge of a Levante whose objective, by budget and staff, was to remain in the silver category in the year of its centenary. As well, Luisgar, as he is popularly known in Valencia, did not settle for permanence, but achieved promotion after scoring 45 points in the second round of the championship.

Today, it seems that things have not changed much. After a few years of comings and goings in international football, the coach has returned to Spain, where he keeps Mallorca second in the standings with 25 points after twelve games. But what is really surprising is not the team's place in the table, but its defensive numbers.

And is that, after the first twelve games played, no one had ever managed to receive just 2 goals in the entire history of the competition, not even 3, as he explains Mister Chip. The record at this point was 4 goals conceded (1971-72 Oviedo, 1972-73 Racing, 1992-93 Lleida, 1995-96 Toledo and 2003-04 Levante) and this year it has been pulverized by the team of Luisgar and for Espanyol, who have conceded 3. All these teams went up, with the exception of Toledo.

The figure is more spectacular if we take into account that only two teams in the history of the competition have managed to chain 12 games in a row in the same season (not necessarily the first 12) conceding 2 or fewer goals. Compostela achieved it with two between days 4 and 15 in the 1991-92 season and Mérida with only one between days 25 and 36 of the 1994-95 season. A record still within reach of Luis García Plaza's team, which should remain two more days without conceding a goal.

Currently, no team in the First or Second Division of the major European leagues (Spain, England, Italy, Germany, France, Portugal and the Netherlands) has conceded so few goals. Only Atlético de Madrid manages to equal that figure, although the rojiblancos have 5 less games in the domestic championship. The numbers of the Mallorcan team are better than those of PSG (3), Real Sociedad (4) or Leipzig (4), despite the fact that the vermilion have several more games than the latter.