The “Es Moleter” field of the CD Cardassar This Monday is the nerve center of a frenzied activity in the hours prior to the historic visit that will take place on Wednesday Atlético de Madrid to the Mallorcan municipality, of about 8,300 inhabitants.
On the morning of this Monday, the staff in charge of raising some extra stands for the 305 spectators who will witness the Copa del Rey match, made an effort to get everything ready.
Agents of the Civil Guard and Civil Protection inspected the facilities accompanied by the president of the Cardassar Jaume Soler.
Everything was reviewed: lighting, public address system, lockers, changing rooms, painting of artificial grass, parking area, press room, doping control room. Nothing was left to chance.
“The objective is to comply with the requirements of the Spanish Football Federation in terms of safety on the field, and also strictly respect the health protocols set by the authorities. The challenge is exciting and very beautiful and the Cardassar will rise to the occasion, “Soler told Efe.
The municipality of Sant Llorenç lives in a special way the tie against a “great” of Spanish football, plagued by world “cracks” led by the Argentine coach Diego Pablo Simeone.
The Cardassar, founded 96 years ago, won a place in the Third Division last season after prolonged anonymity in Regional and Preferential. It is a modest team, made up of players who combine football with studies or jobs of different kinds.
One of them, the defender Pau Soler, a higher-level Sports Technician student, affirms that the visit of the ‘colchonero’ team is “exciting”. “It is historical that we can first play an Atlético de Madrid,” said Soler. “The difference is very big, but we are ambitious,” he summarized.
The team technician “cried”, Michelangelo Thomas, a Physical Education teacher at the Sant Francesc de Manacor school, admits that Atlético de Madrid “is a gift that football has given us.”
“It is the game that we have all dreamed of playing at some time in life. We are with a tremendous illusion. It will be an honor for me to shake Simeone's hand, that he was a great player and that he is one of the best coaches in the world ”, he specified.
THE TRAGEDY OF 2018, VERY PRESENT
Atlético de Madrid will visit a municipality that is very aware of the 13 people who lost their lives in the tragic flood of October 2018.
The magnitude of the catastrophe is measured by statistics and these are devastating, according to the media at the time: 220 liters per square meter in just hours; 320 cars damaged by the waters; 300 houses affected by them, about thirty of them with structural damage; 220 dead animals and 4,200 tons of waste removed in one week.
Sant Llorenç does not forget the tragedy he suffered, but more than two years later he celebrates in style that the Copa del Rey hype has paired his team with the almighty Atlético de Madrid.