Soccer is a different sport because of things like what happened in Mestalla. Faith and fear in the same space and time. The faith of Valencia to tie a game that played badly, badly enough. The fear of Mallorca for failing to add a victory that was theirs in the 92nd minute. The thing about Mallorca and the discounts is to make them look at it. It happened against Osasuna and also the Royal Society. But the Mestalla thing was more painful. Luis García’s men reached the discount 0-2 and had held on from minute 54 with ten due to the expulsion of Kang-in Lee. But a goal from Guedes and another from Gayà In the last second of the seven added minutes, he gave Valencia a point, which tasted like glory from the way it looked, but deep down it is to worry about.
Bordalás said that he does not believe in rotations, so his line-up must be taken as a nod to Diakhaby, hence the substitution of Alderete, and a confirmation that Soler is still limping, hence the ownership of Hélder. What is less understood without using the word rotation is that of Racic by Guillamón, but as Luis Enrique said, Bordalás will know why he did it, even if it went wrong. Fatal. So much so that at halftime he changed two of them.
Luis García, for his part, kept his word and played Reina; delegating his attack to Angel and Baba and Galarreta, the core. And among them, Kang-in Lee, who returned to Mestalla at a suitable time for Southeast Asia. He did it between whistles from the stands and ready to mess it up with his talent and momentum. And that’s what the Korean did, bundling it with his exes and his own as well.
The afternoon in general was one of reunions, because beyond Kang-in Lee there were many fans who returned for the first time to Mestalla after the pandemic (29,139 according to the League) The subscribers responded by thousands in the match in which the pass was activated and in the uprooting test it came out more heads than tails for the interests of the club. Mestalla maintains its feeling towards the team and, chants to the property on the sidelines, the public was in body and soul until the vermilions took them out of their boxes. Or rather it was his.
Valencia has been deflated since Benzema silenced Mestalla. The 0-2 with which the break was perhaps excessive as a reward for Mallorca, but not as a punishment for Valencia. The vermilion did not do much to leave with such an advantage, although the black and white did nothing to prevent it. His best chance was a Gayà center that was poisoned – the truth is that Luis García’s defense was fine, narrowing spaces – and in the two vermilion goals the errors of the black and white defense were massive.
Racic made a mistake squared on Angel’s first. The Serb first lost the ball that Baba recovered and then Kang-in Lee made him a period costume before his brilliant assist. Later, in the second, the work of Dani Rodríguez -with the help of Diakhaby’s hand, hence the referee conceded the Frenchman’s own goal-, the defensive freak had many fathers. The 11 goals conceded in the last six games show that Bordalás has not yet found the key to close the door.
Bordalás took out the scalpel and began to operate the evils that he generated with his eleven. During the break, he removed Diakhaby, Racic and Maxi Gómez from the field, giving entry to Alderete, Carlos Soler and Marcos André. Valencia seemed to be taking a step forward with the presence of the ’10’ in the creation zone and that of the Brazilian in the attack zone. The expulsion in the 53rd minute of Kang-in Lee, who saw the second yellow for being late and senseless to a divided ball, seemed the coup de grace that the Che needed to believe they could overcome the 0-2. But his want was not power until the discount. His football never was.
Luis García knew how to entrench his people with a line of four and another of five, separated by just five meters and no more than 30 from Reina’s goal. Every ball that Foulquier, Gayà, Hélder or Guedes crossed, was cleared by Russo, Valjent, Galarreta or Baba. Thus, the minutes passed and there was still no news from Reina. Even fortune was elusive to those of Bordalás, because the only shot that one of their team, Marcos André, could make, walked along the goal line after hitting the post without actually entering.
The party entered the discount without anything foreshadowing what happened. The siege was more by inertia than by game. Even so, Manu Vallejo and Jason, in addition to Marcos André, had given Valencia another spirit. And suddenly Guedes released a shoe and the ghosts of Osasuna and Real Sociedad came to Mallorca. Valencia allied with Mestalla and in the remaining five minutes of extension, anything could happen. In fact, the third of Mallorca could fall in a counterattack by Fer Niño, but what happened was that in the next action the ball reached the head of Marcos André and from there to the leg of Gayà. Goal. Craziness. Tie. Perhaps no one would leave happy, but there is no doubt that that goal prevents us from talking about Bordalás’s first crisis at this time. Although 3 points out of 18 are to worry about.