This football thing, for those who have never seen a game in their life and don’t know if the grass is blue-green or fuchsia, is about attacking and defending. It’s like watching two snipers facing each other. They protect themselves with their helmet and bulletproof vest and try to do damage with their precision rifle.
This is so, as long as Real Valladolid does not play. Then we attended another type of spectacle: the fair. One of the protagonists has a pellet gun – not even a rifle – and does not need any defense. The other adopts the pose of a doll on top of a toothpick. Neither attacks nor defends. The fight is about seeing how many sticks the shooter breaks to take the doll. That is, the goals he scores to tie the victory against Pucela.
Osasuna was able to score. He took 20 shots, compared to 7 for Real Valladolid. He continued with the reading of the match made by Villarreal and exposed the shortcomings of a Pucela that seemed like a lower division cup rival.
Once again, a midfield that was ineffective in defense or attack dragged down a team that was never together and cohesive, except in the final minutes when it relied more on heroics than on tactics and brains.
The Cömert-Martín-Amallah trio is not that it is falling apart, it is that it is already broken and has infinite extra balls by decision of a coach who was whistled for the first time in the season by Pucelanos fans.
Worse was Ronaldo, who was shouted at three times asking for his resignation. This will probably keep you up at night. Not even if the club was his.
The match began with overwhelming Pamplona dominance, illustrated on the scoreboard with a goal that should not have been valid, more due to form than substance. Amallah lost a ball because he was unable to find a passing lane, although he received two hits that could have been called fouls.
The play continues. The former Blanquivioleta Peña passes to Oroz, who sends an accurate backheel pass to Budimir. The Bosnian shoots but Javi Sánchez blocks the shot. The rejection comes to Bryan Zaragoza, who sends a point-blank shot deflected by a handball-type save from Hein.
Luis Pérez, who had dived to the ground to block Bryan’s shot, collides with Budimir, with no chance of a shot. García Verdura on the field does not see anything, but Pizarro Gómez from the VAR examines two possible illegalities: an offside by Budimir, which was not by just a few centimeters; and the totally involuntary impact of Luis Pérez.
Four minutes after the action and after Verdura was in front of the screen almost all this time without knowing how to decide, he awarded a penalty.
The VAR was to check flagrant actions that are not seen live, not to dissect football and scrutinize it with an electron microscope. With this line of action, in each corner there is at least one penalty.
And that was what Verdura pointed out: the eleven meter point. Budimir tricked Hein and scored.
The goal did not wake up Pucela, as happened in Vitoria, but rather narcotized him even more. The 2-0 could be seen coming. Cruz heads a corner and the ball passes close to the post, Peña sends another header high and Oroz sends a shot close to the crossbar.
Pucela’s offensive contribution in this first half was a weak and distant shot from Amallah into the hands of Herrera.
The second half started the same, but with Osasuna becoming more and more involved without Real Valladolid or Pezzolano reacting. Peña warned with a shot neutralized by the center backs before Budimir shot across the post.
The sound of leather hitting metal woke up Pezzolano, who finally made positive changes. With half an hour to go, Kike, Iván and Meseguer occupied the squares of Cömert, Anuar and Amallah.
Pucela began to discuss the ownership of the ball to Osasuna but the chances continued to be Navarrese. Bryan, Moncayola and Budimir, this one on two occasions, almost scored.
Real Valladolid shot between the posts for the first time in this half through Kike, already weak in the hands of Herrera. And he had the tie in the Toledo boots. The only dangerous shot for the Blanquivioleta, low and crossed, came in the 91st minute. Catena took the ball over the line, with his goalkeeper beaten.
Real Valladolid was able to tie but also take a sack. And it must stop being the team of excuses to assume that it is the team of inabilities and thus try to correct them. They have conceded goals in nine of their twelve games and have not scored in five of those twelve. So it will be a miracle to be saved.
