The records of some football players They are incomplete photographs. They lack ingredients. Spanish, 188 centimeters and 81 kilos of weight. Position: patient and stubborn defense. That would be the right thing to do. But sometimes the objective hides subjective virtues more relevant than what is expressed by cold data. Some are as irrefutable (the data) as others (the virtues). The example of Sergio González, Leganés center-back, is impeccable.
His appearance as a kid just out of high school (and that he is already 28 years old) deceives the human eye, which perceives in him a certain weakness far from the canon that dictates that a central must be rude, rough, strong and even ugly, as the ancient. Sergio is nothing of the sort and yet he is revealing himself as a magnificent defender, relaunched now with Garitano on the bench.
From exile to patience
Sunday before him Oviedo added his second consecutive start. It was the third game he had played in the last four days. One more game than the few duels he had played in the league since he signed for him Leganes at the beginning of last summer market. Marti I didn't count on him.
He used it at the start of the course, but after falling into Lugo on the second day, he erased him from the map and exiled him to the bench or the stands. I just wielded it in Cup, where Sergio looked at a good level on clay or artificial grass pitches. A goal of his, for example, qualified the Leganes before him Ourense. Frame and he celebrated it with a youthful hubbub, without crossed glances at the bench, or gestures that indicated discomfort. Unlike.
Professional attitude that reached its peak before Seville. In Cup and a big stage, Sergio He was a sober center-back and knew how to stop a forward Champions who needed to resort to extension to knock down a Second division. Despite this, he continued to occupy anonymous space in the stands in the League.
Trust rewarded
It was the month of January and Sergio could have meditated leaving the Leganes. He had options, but he decided to wait for his opportunity and continued working, making his best argument from day to day. In these the bench changed owners and where before there was only darkness, the defender found light.
Before him Tenerife, three days ago, he played again from the beginning with an outstanding performance. 154 days had passed since his last starting game in the league. It really seemed like 154 seconds. As if one clash had been played right after the other. Sergio commanded the rear and liked it so much Garitano, that before him Castellon he repeated and also in front of the Oviedo.
In this last game he did it not as a left-handed center-back (although he is right-handed), but as a libero. The stain of the penalty for involuntary hand that the VAR pointed out to him does not extinguish a performance in which he once again touched a high note, with an 86.4% percentage of successful passes (the highest of his team) and the perception that is capable of commanding the defense of a candidate for promotion. Another of those virtues that do not usually appear on the footballers' files.