Some centimeters, barely what a newspaper measures, the space between carriages in the subway or your son's little step after saying goodbye at the school door. That tiny distance is what has separated, In just four days, Raúl de Tomás crowned one of the most prodigious weeks of his entire professional career. And Espanyol, to touch the glory (or, at least, the tranquility). The front he scored four goals, between Alavés and Sevilla, and they all came to celebrate. But only one went up to the marker. By centimeters.
The VAR It has been, in this restless week left behind, the real kryptonite of RdT –The thing, it seems, is about acronyms– and, by extension, about the entire parakeet team. Only three minutes had passed for Espanyol-Alavés, on Wednesday, when scored on a pass from Keidi Bare. The RCDE Stadium was raging when from the VOR room they discovered Adrián Embarba's offside at the start of the action. Nothing they couldn't solve at 18 minutes between Manu Morlanes, with a wise pass between the lines, and a prodigious De Tomás with control and definition. Another invalidated celebration, this time due to the advanced position of the Madrilenian.
And the same thing happened on Saturday, at the Sánchez Pizjuán, 25 minutes from Sevilla-Espanyol, in a long ball by Diego López and a vertiginous against RdT that culminated in a balloon over Yassine Bounou. Smiles, hugs, the leap of a pair of parakeet followers in the stands. And the jug of cold water for another offside, which this time not even the VAR image –with an excessively closed plane– showed.
LaLiga Santander
* Data updated as of September 26, 2021
“They pass you many things in mind”Raúl de Tomás acknowledged on Wednesday about the feeling that surrounds a scorer when that luck is annulled. “It is something that remains in the mind”, Added the ram, who at least against Alavés he was able to retaliate by converting the winning penalty. Not so against Sevilla, on a target that was going to mean 1-1 and the start of a new game whose end will never be discovered. By centimeters. Because of the kryptonite.